This May, PEL’s Not School Fiction Group read Blood Meridian
Here, the kid sees the Judge enter a city in Mexico:
They saw one day a pack of vicious looking humans mounted on unshod Indian ponies riding half drunk through the streets, bearded, barbarous, clad in the skins of animals stitched up with thews and armed with weapons of every description, revolvers of enormous weight and bowie knives the size of claymores and short two barreled rifles with bores you could stick your thumbs in and the trappings of their horses fashioned out of human skin and their bridles woven up from human hair and decorated with human teeth and the riders wearing scapulars or necklaces of dried and blackened human ears and the horses raw looking and wild in the eye and their teeth bared like feral dogs riding also in the company a number of half naked savages reeling in the saddle, dangerous, filthy, brutal, the whole like a visitation from some heathen land where they and others like them fed on human flesh. Foremost among them, outsized and childlike with his naked face, rode the judge.
The judge’s presence demands attention from the beginning of the novel, with him seven feet tall and three hundred thirty pounds and also completely hairless. Though he is an impressive killer, the Judge is charismatic and a genius with science, law, history, drawing, magic and dancing. Here an ex-priest riding with the Glanton Gang tells the kid about the Judge’s skillful mastery.
That great hairless thing. You wouldn’t think to look at him that he could outdance the devil himself would ye? God the man is a dancer… and fiddle. He’s the greatest fiddler I ever heard and that’s an end on it. The greatest. He can cut a trail, shoot a rifle, ride a horse and track a deer. He’s been all over the world. Him and the governor they sat up till breakfast and it was Paris this and London that in five languages… oh it may be the Lord’s way of showin how little store he sets by the learned.
The Judge’s intellect can cause a man to sweat under his reasoning and turn popular belief inside out with truths and lies. In conversation the judge seems to make serious philosophical claims, which are unbelievable to many in the gang but unrefuted. Here is the judge on war:
Judge: Suppose two men at cards with nothing to wager save their lives. Who has not heard such a tale? A turn of the card. The whole universe for such a player has labored clanking to this moment which will tell if he is to die at that mans hand or that man at his… This enhancement of the game to its ultimate state admits no argument concerning the notion of fate… In such games as have for their stake the annihilation of the defeated the decisions are quite clear. This man holding this particular arrangement of cards in his hand is thereby removed from existence. This is the nature of war, whose stake is at once the game and the authority and the justification. Seen so, war is the truest form of divination. It is the testing of ones will and the will of another within that larger will which because it binds them is therefore forced to select. War is the ultimate game because war is at last a forcing of the unity of existence. War god.
Davy: You’re crazy… at last.
The judge smiles.
What’s the judge saying? Is being a warrior consistent with his philosophy? What does he see in children? These are some of the questions I have but, to avoid spoilers, I’ll just save them for the Not School Fiction Group conversation. Blood Meridian is as beautiful as it is terrifying and the quality of McCarthy’s universe in detail, description and, yes–even though the word only appears once in the novel–feeling, make this book worth reading. Here in this last passage, a desert landscape is witnessed by the gang with the kid and the judge.
That night they rode through a region electric and wild where strange shapes of soft blue fire ran over the metal of the horses’ trappings and the wagon wheels rolled in hoops of fire and little shapes of pale blue light came to perch in the ears of the horses and the beards of the men. All night sheet lightning quaked sourceless to the west beyond the midnight thunderheads, making a bluish day of the distant desert, the mountains on the sudden skyline stark and black and livid like a land of some other order out there whose true geology was not stone but fear. The thunder moved up from the southwest and lightning lit the desert all about them, blue and barren, great clanging reaches ordered out of the absolute night like some demon kingdom summoned up or changeling land that come the day would leave them neither trace nor smoke nor ruin more than any troubling dream.
Extras:
Yale Lecture Video with Professor Hungerford on Blood Meridian:
Two Cormac McCarthy movies are in the works, Child of God is in post-production, and The Counselor is set for November, plus this (fan)-trailer for Blood Meridian!
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-Nathan Shane
What a great intro to Blood Meridian. Only caveat is I think McCarthy is using the Judge to symbolize the depth of human nature that we all share. We can distance from a whale (Moby Dick), but not from a man who is meant to symbolize our deep nature. Cool painting.
Wayne, do you think McCarthy may have modeled the Judge after an “anti-” Teddy Roosevelt, or maybe a mockery of him?
Similarities
-small hands, small feet (that’s the eery part, TR was known for this)
-loved war, power
-loved being in a gang
-perfect leader
-intense naturalists
-unbelievable memory
-loved the West
What do you think?
*Correction*
I mistated that the word “feel” was used only once in the novel but, thanks to my new Kindle, a search shows “feel” in 12 passages. I meant that Blood Meridian is known for its lack of subjectivity and though many of the usages of “feel” are in a sensory, well, sense rather than an emotional sense- there are a few interesting quotes.
– “They were of another nation… and whatever lands to the east toward which they were bound were dead to him… this [feeling] communicated itself through the company before Glanton had moved entirely clear of them.”
– The judge says, “You of all men are no stranger to that [feeling], the emptiness and the despair. It is that which we take arms against, is it not?
Also, the links didn’t make the article so, here they are for real:
Yale Lecture Video with Professor Hungerford on Blood Meridian:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgyZ4ia25gg
(fan)Trailer:
Not sure what you are implying. Have listened to Amy’s lectures (another one of us) and not sure what you are implying is real or not. The trailer is awesome.
Hear the Judge:
Nice link, Wayne. I know Blood Meridian gets a rap for being stone-cold and matter of fact, so I wanted to highlight the rare moments of emotion in the narrative that reveal something more, something quieter that the novel says even though the judge is what immediately holds our attention.
Nathan,
Good stuff.
I typed a long, thought-out comment that I accidentally erased!
I think this is a monumental undertaking, and The Judge’s character is so infused with meaning and symbolism I’m not sure he can ever be exhaustively interpreted. In fact, somewhere I read that the definition of a “classic” is a work that can legitimately weather endless interpretation and re-interpretation over a long period of time, and from many different cultural perspectives.
I certainly refer anyone in this group to read ch. 12 from Deleuze and Guattari’s “A Thousand Plateaus.” (http://zinelibrary.info/files/nomadology_read.pdf) The Judge’s speech on war is analogous with the concepts in this chapter, and if McCarthy has never read it the similarities would be uncanny to say the least.
I think the overt intention of this novel is to show the ugly truth of American history and Manifest Destiny. In fact, i read in an Amazon comment (which are surprisingly intellingent most of the time) that The Judge is the personification of Manifest Destiny, and I feel that is the best summation of him I’ve ever come across.
This novel has a thread running through it of what was once characterized by the infinite struggle of good vs evil, though McCarthy has placed this concept within a West in which God is dead, which complicates the matter, at least for me, almost beyond my ability to fully grasp the intention here (this applies very much, maybe even moreso, to “No Country”). So in the standard Christian world-view, the evil would be the Godless Heathens (Indians) and the good the Noble Christians (Americans), but McCarthy triumphs in displaying the poverty in that perspective (pay attention to the lecture linked in the comments specificially to the discussion of parallels with Milton, anyone wanting my statement validated should watch the lecture).
However, as the Judge (and Deleuze) point out, there are still forces in play beyound our individual Will, and in fact beyond our basic needs for survival (I have not read Hobbes, but I think there must be some correlation here). In a world without God, are we subject simply to the random “luck of the draw” of cards, or are there greater forces at play, such as War which, if it does in fact “force the unity of existance,” than it is [one of] our God[s].
Dominic:
Nice link to Deleuze: a quote from page 101 on the Nomadic War Machine:
“We have watched the war machine grow stronger and stronger, as in a science fiction story;
we have seen it assign as its objective a peace still more terrifying than fascist death;
we have seen it maintain or instigate the most terrible of local wars as parts of itself;
we have seen it set its sights on a new type of enemy,
no longer another State, or even another regime,
but the “unspecified enemy”; . . .
continually recreate unexpected possibilities for counterattack,
unforeseen initiatives determining revolutionary, popular, minority, mutant machines.
The definition of the Unspecified Enemy testifies to this:
“multiform, maneuvering and omnipresent. . . of the moral, political, subversive or economic order, etc.,” the unassignable material Saboteur or human Deserter assuming the most diverse forms.”
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
meh, Deleuze was trying to move us away from mythologizing/reifying the emerging assemblages into abstractions like War or such, but yes when it comes to thinking about individuality the context matters…
“The speculative object and the practical object of philosophy as Naturalism, science and pleasure, coincide on this point: it is always a matter of denouncing the illusion, the false infinite, the infinity of religion and all of the myths in which it is expressed. To the question “what is the use of philosophy” the answer must be: who else would have an interest in holding forth the image of a free man, and in denouncing all of the forces which need myth and troubled souls in order to establish their power?”
– Gilles Deleuze, The Logic of Sense, p. 278-279
dmf:
Don’t see where you got the myth connection with Blood Meridian and Deleuze. Dominic’s point is that the Judge’s declaration of life is War (a parallel with Zarathustra) was exemplified in a Thousand Plateaus.
I think I get the confusion. The quote I included was actually from page 101 of A Thousand Plateaus, but regard Deleuzes’ concept of the nomadic war machine.
Right, remember Deleuze was interested in the “metaphysics of science.” So in ATP he (and G) create a materialist cosmology in which there are forces at play the supercede the individual in all capacities, be they a spiritual or unconscious.
I almost see Blood Meridian as fictionalization of a realized “Of Nomadology” world. Of course D+G go off on rather random-seeming and incomprehensible tangents, however the connections are still there. I mean the Glanton gang ARE the proverbial nomads, running around outside civilization and wreaking havoc wherever they go. Another brilliant inversion McCarthy inlcudes is when the gang descends upon the peaceful encampement and massacres them, which is exactly the fear settled peoples have about nomads.
dmf i dont understand your inclusion of “meh” because I thought your Deleuze quote supported the discussion, however maybe you see the connection but just don’t like Deleuze? or think he isn’t original?
Anyway I believe this is just the minimal scratching of the surface, I haven’t even mentioned The Kid, and there is also a lot to be said about NIetzsche but I”m not sure I’m the one to say it (I”ve only read the Geneology of Morals).
Deleuze sometimes took an admirable stance against our all too human tendencies to project agents/gods where there are none and unfortunately other times waxed more Jungian, there is a very good book on his Jungian influences out on the intertubes by the philosopher Kerslake.
ps his metaphysics included work in science but was not “of” science.
Dominic:
It’s not very clear, but what dmf seems to be saying is in response to your statement: “In a world without God, are we subject simply to the random “luck of the draw” of cards, or are there greater forces at play, such as War which, if it does in fact “force the unity of existence,” then it is [one of] our God[s].”
Dmf quotes Deleuze (in the Logic of Sense”, as denouncing “all of the forces which need myth and troubled souls in order to establish their power,” so I guess he means that Deleuze does not reify War to some mythical status of a God, which I believe is true. War (for Deleuze) is nothing more than the outcome of desire which expresses itself in society, just like capitalism (now that would be a good novel, but too tame for McCarthy)
Where Blood Meridian get interesting is how McCarthy applies Nietzsche’s Zarathustra to human existence. I think McCarthy is actually Nietzsche on steroids and goes far beyond the nihilism of Nietzsche. Nietzsche wanted to destroy false values with all the being of a Zarathustra, and in so doing affirmed human value to the nth degree. McCarthy–well, good luck.
The Cambridge Companion to Cormac McCarthy, Chapter 9, Steven Frye, Blood Meridian and the Poetics of Violence, p. 109:
“In the notes that appear with the first draft manuscript of Blood Meridian, McCarthy includes a quote from the Pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Heraclitus (535-475 BCE): “Was it the father of us all and our king. War discloses who is godlike and who is but a man, who is a slave and who is a free man.”
McCarthy then writes: “Let the judge quote this in part and without crediting source.” In the final novel, these words become, “was is the truest form of divination. It is the testing of one’s will and the will of another within that larger will . . . War is the ultimate game because war is at last a forcing of the unity of existence. War is god.”
very Teddy Roosevelt, you may want to check out the book American Nietzsche.
dmf:
You are referring to McCarthy as very Teddy Roosevelt? I’m guessing you haven’t read Blood Meridian? Don’t see any Cormack McCarthy in American Nietzsche, so I guess he was overlooked.
was just responding to the quote…
Hericlitus! Of course!
🙂
Nathan Shaine, Jordan Payne, Dylan Casey:
Thanks for a very entertaining conversation about the meaning of Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy, the current classic master of American Fiction. First there was Mark Twain, then William Faulkner, now Cormac McCarthy.
I especially appreciated your raising the fundamental questions of the novel while appreciating the journey, use of words, landscape, etc.
My take on your examination of the title “Blood Meridian” is that the objective north-south meridian which marks objective time, marches inevitably from man’s (individual and collective) subjective east to west march into the sunset of war, bloodshed, violence, genocide, and Death, as embodied by the Judge. (There is a quote from Byron’s, Stanzas to the Po, “blood is all meridian,” but I suspect that may be coincidental, but not unlikely for McCarthy).
You addressed the questions, Who is the Judge, and what does that mean for the human condition? You observed the lack of interiority , focus on action throughout. Who is the Kid and what is his moral postion. Why did the Judge follow the Kid and why did the Kid not kill the Judge.
The novel comes to an end with the judge seated on the closet in the jakes, naked and smiling like a demon, gathering the kid against his “immense and terrible flesh” as the barlatch slams the door shut behind him (p. 333).
We are left to imagine what happens to the kid behind that door and whatever it is must be truly horrible. Afterwards, the judge returns to the bar “huge and pale and hairless” to dance naked in “light and shadow” while whispering to anyone that will listen, that he “will never die” (p. 335)
This novel reminds me of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (retold as Apocalypse Now) where Marlow hears Kurtz (Marlon Brando) on his death bed weakly whisper: “The horror! The horror!” But McCormack is heart of darkness with a twist–not only is there horror in our being, but perhaps it is good because it is nature.
I appreciate the info from Yale Lecture Video with Professor Amy Hungerford on Blood Meridian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgyZ4ia25gg. However, her compartive literature studies just do not include Conrad, Byron nor Nietzsche for some reason.
I just do not see Milton, et. al., relevant compared to Nietzsche’s explanatory power of Thus Spake Zarathustra, and his entire philosophy. I was astounded (and intrigued by the questioning) that the entire interaction, and surrounding literature was mute regarding: 1) existentialism, 2) Nihilism–just a couple of comments 3) Nietzsche, especially when his philosophy is an answer all the major questions.
Who is Judge Holden? Not just the overlord, but the Ubermensch–the ultimate man who has come at the zenith of his will to power, the only literate and fully cognizant character in the novel who stands for the ultimate will to power, violence at any cost, since the ultimate value of life is life, and all who would be freem must be men, must acknowledge and embrace Death and Life, Violence and perhaps Altruism, but never the position of the slave, when the master has a choice.
Who is the Kid? What a nice guy (carrying around a Bible he cannot read)–except under necessity when he will unenthusiastically engage in murder out of necessity, not out of life energy, not embracing the war, not rising to the top of the slaves above the the well of bodies drowning beneath in blood. The Kid is the mass of humanity who have not embraced the true nature of humanity, and of nature and try to get by naively and with sincerity.
What is the meaning of this universe, of life? The will to power by which the strong will live by passion and drag the rest of us along, while the will to weakness of the slaves will live in resentment against the strong with traditional morality keeping them enslaved. The will to power is actually the will to value, and is the only morality–beyond good and evil.
If this sounds familiar to Judge Holden’s position in Blood Meridian, then dance with Zarathustra.
Here is a quote from Nietzsche’s Twilight of the Idols (9/33), which may help elucidate Nietzsche/Cormack’s view of eternal recurrence, of the passing on of heritage:
‘After all, the single one, the “individual,” as understood by the masses and the philosopher up to now, is in error The individual is nothing in himself, not an atom, not a “link in the chain,” no mere bequest from former times–the individual is the entire single human lineage leading up to him.’ Viva Judge Holden.