Blood Meridian

sxt

Has anyone has the experience of reading this book. A real grisly visceral novel set in the " wild west" of the 1850s, loosely based on real characters that existed around that time, as far as I am aware. It also includes one of the most profound and mysterious characters in a novel that I have ever read, the Judge...."but what is he the Judge of..."

Kaizer Sosa

I read it and while it is probably the most highly regarded of McCarthys novels, it was my least favourite. You can't help but admire the writing and the judge is one of the most memorable villains I've encountered in fiction (alongside Chigurh in No Country....), I found the book a little too visceral and somewhat claustrophobic a read. McCarthy is probably my favourite author and I loved the Border Trilogy and The Road but there was a certain lack of humanity/good naturedness absent from Blood Meridien which unsettled me.

It's a while since I read it but I also remember finding it a little more difficult, less accessible than McCarthy's other novels.

sxt

An accessable book it is not for sure!, sometimes it felt like a bit of struggle to get through the pages but that was probably because the struggles of the characters were so well written and the scenery so barren and desolate that you felt you were living it. It really was a book that you could not predict where it was heading.Some of those tense Hyper violent scenes were jaw dropping and pulse beating. All though some of the paragraphs as told by ,the Judge, character in the later half of the book require reading and re-reading again etc, and I still don't understand it , but it is a book that leaves you thinking about it long after you have read it, which is a sign of a very good book. I think it is one of those novels that you would appreciate more the second time round

metrovelvet

Oh boy. I read this years ago and was taken away by it. I loved the descriptions of the landscapes and men walking on horseback for miles and miles and not saying a word. Amazing work.

sentient_6

I loved The Border Trilogy, The Road, & No Country.........but i utterly hated this & cant believe i actually finished it. Felt no connection with any of the characters & the language & style of the book makes for an extremely difficult read. There doesnt seem to be much context either, i.e why anything in the book is actually happening & the characters motivation for doing anything.

longshanks

yeah i read this too. i really liked it although it was hard going sometimes. but the way drinking and hangovers were described, or the endless trekking, also the fact that it pretty much has everyones savage side on show. not a traditional good guys/bad guys western or revisionist tale, here everyone will kill before being killed.

buck65

Found this a bit of a drudge. Mc Carthy for me is very hit and miss, The Road is quite an easy read as is the Border Trilogy but for large parts of this I got completely lost in the overblown, archaic writing.

Ole Rodrigo

I really liked it, it had a strong affect on my world view. I had to read it twice, the second time with John Sepichs book of notes. The violence is hard going but its not sensationalist. It describes in no uncertain terms what these historically accurate acts were like. The writing is amazing..how he can describe so well what is for the most part monotonous scenery is a testament to his abilities and possibly why its so well regarded. I dont like the conclusions he draws about man and violence. Apparantly Todd Field is adapting it for film ?

2040

Really good book. I like how Peter Murphy described the book when he said that "ome of the sentences feel like they’ve been chiseled out of rock."

The film The Proposition, directed by John Hillcoat (who also directed The Road), was influenced by Blood Meridian and you can see a lot of the same themes and some similar characters in it.

sxt

That was a very well done movie, wow, never knew it was influenced by this book...but I can see why now, it really did capture the sparseness and trials of living out in a desert landcape...I can vividly remember the face of the character played by Guy Pearce becoming more and more cut up and weathered by the cruel sun!

tawfeeredux

I’m reading this at the moment, and have been for a lot longer than it normally takes me to get through a novel.

As sxt says, I think the reason for this is that the characters’ journey & their struggles, and the environment that they’re set in, are so well written, so dense in detail that you’re almost pulled into what is, to say the least, an uncomfortable world. The one thing that I would hold against it so far is that, apart from the judge, none of the characters have much depth to them, so that you end up not really caring what happens to them, other than to appreciate the skill with which McCarthy describes those happenings.

longshanks

tawfeeredux wrote: »

I’m reading this at the moment, and have been for a lot longer than it normally takes me to get through a novel.

As sxt says, I think the reason for this is that the characters’ journey & their struggles, and the environment that they’re set in, are so well written, so dense in detail that you’re almost pulled into what is, to say the least, an uncomfortable world. The one thing that I would hold against it so far is that, apart from the judge, none of the characters have much depth to them, so that you end up not really caring what happens to them, other than to appreciate the skill with which McCarthy describes those happenings.

i kinda liked that about them, i'd disagree with you to an extent though. the kid and some of the others didn't come from much or have much to look forward to, but took to the violence and the lifestyle easily. the judge is an almost messianic figure in it, and was somewhat less believable.
its been a while since i read it, i might dig it out again when i finish with edgar sawtelle

Ole Rodrigo

lecture from Yale on BM

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgyZ4ia25gg&feature=channel]

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZFmf4T5L3o&feature=channel]

2040

rocstar wrote: »

lecture from Yale on BM

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgyZ4ia25gg&feature=channel]

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZFmf4T5L3o&feature=channel]

I watched them before. Very interesting.

Ole Rodrigo

2040 wrote: »

I like how Peter Murphy described the book when he said that "ome of the sentences feel like they’ve been chiseled out of rock."
.

Or Saul Bellow - "his absolutely overpowering use of language, his life-giving and death-dealing sentences".

*Hank Scorpio*

Probably my favourite from McCarthy. The understated menace that pervades many of his books is seen throughout BM, too. I probably prefer his darker novels more than say the Border Trilogy. Novels like Child of God, The Outer Dark etc. The climax of BM is unforgettable.

But, definately not the most accessible of McCarthy's books.

Kai

Read this last year and loved it. The bleakness, the violence, the Judge. Its very dark; in fact i cant remember anything positive or uplifting about it. Regardless i still loved it.

Amazotheamazing

I dunno, I've only read this and the Road by McCarthy, have to say i think his writing style is amazing but his plots, characters etc are weak. I guess that's what people like him for but I'd put him up there with Auster as great writers who I couldn't be bothered reading more of their stuff. I get it, life is an unknown struggle into darkness, who needs a book to tell them that?

Paddy Samurai

I hav'nt read Blood Meridian but i hope to soon.I have recently finished " In the Rogue Blood" which online reviewers are comparing it with.Has anyone here read both,and if so can they tell me which they thought was better?.

Except maybe Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian" there is no other book I can think of that compares with Blake's noir, hardcore, historically-based vision of the 1840s west.

The only book bloodier than Blood Meridian. Early on I thought Blake was actually trying to outdo McCarthy in the body count, and maybe he was. But Blake is very much his own writer, and there's plenty of the "Old, Weird (and super violent) America" to go around.

http://www.amazon.com/Rogue-Blood-J-Blake/dp/0380792419/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_1

ush

Got a hundred or so pages into it and thought it wasn't worth it. It felt too much like he was trying to write the great American novel. Pynchon gives me the same feeling.

calex71

Just finished Blood Meridian and looking for something in the same vein, and perhaps period. Will look into "In the Rogue Blood" as mentioned above.

Found blood meridian pretty violent etc even by my standards but was actually more disturbed by the implied things like in one part later

at the ferry when Glanton comes back to see a pre-teen girl tied to a post and thats all that is said about it.

Edit: How they intend to make this into a movie is beyond me

Pappy o' daniel

A most brutal book, parts of it gave me the same feeling in my stomach as when I saw a pig being butchered...

Loved the discription of the Indian war band, terrifying.
Watching John Wayne westerns you'd think those times were almost pleasant.

Paddy Samurai

Finally finished this the weekend .Found it to be a difficult read due to the way it is written...tough going at times.I loved the characters,the setting and the Judge as has been previously said,deserves special mention.
"In the rogue blood " by James Carlos Blake would be my favourite from this genre.Very similar but more accessable,its a toss up which is more violent.

Damian Duffy

There is no doubt that Blood Meridian is a difficult read, the language used would put most people off and the violence can be hard to take but it's one of my favorite books of all time. McCarthy is my favorite writer and I love how in Blood Meridian he can say in one line what most writers would spend two pages on. The judge has to be one of the best characters ever created. I would say there was a lot of people who bought this book on the back of the huge commercial success of The Road and struggled badly with it. I suspect the same thing will happen when the film is released and it will be all over easons with a pretty new cover and thousands of people will complain nothing happens in it etc etc (No Country For Old Men) but at least there will be a few more people who get to appreciate what a masterpiece this is.

Shoplifters

I've read three of his novels now, and having enjoyed each one it's fair to say that I'm looking forward to Blood Meridian.

It awaits in my drawer.

Ole Rodrigo

I came across this lecture by Steven Pinker on the myth of violence and thought I'd post it here, reason being after reading Blood Meridian my world view or specifically my view of violence and the nature of man was altered - any remaining innocence I had in that regard was gone, which wasn't a bad experience as such, but a powerful one nonetheless. Anyway this lecture sort of 'frames' BM in a way that is a bit more encouraging. And it adds a fresh perspective to McMcCarthys own view quoted below ( source - 1992 NY Times Interview ) :

"There's no such thing as life without bloodshed," McCarthy says philosophically. "I think the notion that the species can be improved in some way, that everyone could live in harmony, is a really dangerous idea. Those who are afflicted with this notion are the first ones to give up their souls, their freedom. Your desire that it be that way will enslave you and make your life vacuous."

And Pinkers TED talk :

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7421959887856210325