To conclude our discussion of Blood Meridian, we talk about the roles of maturation and regression in the novel. Plus, more on Judge Holden's philosophy and how our view of this should be affected by the fact that Holden is a hypocritical child molester, the (small) role of women in the novel, the character of the idiot, "white man's burden," and more. Do you think we Continue Reading …
Ep. 305: Cormac McCarthy’s “Blood Meridian” (Part One)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free. On McCarthy's 1985 anti-Western novel, featuring Wes, Seth, and Dylan. How does violence play a role in the way the world works? The novel tells a historically based story of the 19th century Glanton gang who were hired as scalp hunters by the Mexican government but then went on a rogue massacre. It's told from the Continue Reading …
Ep. 305: Cormac McCarthy’s “Blood Meridian” (Part Two for Supporters)
Continuing from part one on McCarthy's 1985 novel, we discuss whether the plentiful, explicit violence in the book is actually gratuitous or whether it's central for presenting the book's philosophy. What makes the book supposedly unfilmable? We then focus on the details of Judge Holden's philosophy. He posits that war is the purpose (the telos) of man. Man is essentially a Continue Reading …
Ep. 305: Cormac McCarthy’s “Blood Meridian” (Part One for Supporters)
On McCarthy's 1985 anti-Western novel, featuring Wes, Seth, and Dylan. How does violence play a role in the way the world works? The novel tells a historically based story of the 19th century Glanton gang who were hired as scalp hunters by the Mexican government but then went on a rogue massacre. It's told from the point of view of "The Kid," a 15-year-old member of the gang Continue Reading …
Phi Fic #0 “Blood Meridian” by Cormac McCarthy
We talk about the novel Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy with Nathan Hanks, Jordan Payne, and special guest Dylan Casey from the Partially Examined Life Podcast. This origin/zero-episode is taken from an older (2013) recording of the Philosophical Fiction group, before our current group of readers got together. Worth Mentioning: No Country for Old Men/The Crossing/Cities of Continue Reading …
Not School Digest #4: Sartre, Heidegger, Zizek, Marx, and Theater
Excerpts from PEL podcaster & listener discussions on Sartre's Nausea, Heidegger's "The Question Concerning Technology," Slavoj Zizek's Year of Dreaming Dangerously, Marx and Engels's "Communist Manifesto," Peter Schaffer's play Equus, and Cormac McCarthy's The Sunset Limited: A Novel in Dramatic Form. Plus an interview with Hillary Sydlowski, leader of the Not School Continue Reading …
Not School Theater Group: Cormac McCarthy’s “The Sunset Limited”
Billed as a "novel in dramatic form," The Sunset Limited reads like a sort of twisted Socratic dialogue. Featuring Daniel Cole, Philip Cherny, and Carlos Franke. Recorded Feb. 1, 2014. McCarthy gives us two characters, known only as "Black" and "White," who proceed without compromise to make their respective cases for life and death. When the play opens, White has just Continue Reading …
Not School Digest #3: The Future of Work, Blood Meridian, Embodied Mind, and Heidegger
Excerpts of discussions about Frithjof Bergmann's New Work, New Culture, Cormac McCarthy's novel Blood Meridian, Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and its Challenge to Western Thought by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, and Martin Heidegger's "Letter on Humanism." Given rising economic productivity, we should all be working less, but we're not, and the job system is Continue Reading …
Not School Fiction Talks about Blood Meridian
This June I met with Jordan Payne, Fiction-group regular, and Dylan Casey, of PEL-fame, to discuss Cormac McCarthy's novel Blood Meridian. We discussed the Judge, the kid, the landscape, the language, the title and touched on the same author's No Country for Old Men, The Road and The Crossing in just under two great hours. Here's the conversation. We cover a lot of ground Continue Reading …
Not School Fiction Group Reading Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
This May, PEL's Not School Fiction Group read Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, the author of No Country for Old Men (which PEL covered) and The Road. Blood Meridian is a dark masterpiece set in 1849 where a runaway kid joins a gang of scalp-hunters led by the Judge, a philosophizing warmonger. The Judge's views on existence come out in several stories and fire-side Continue Reading …
A Belated Rant Against Literature as Philosophy (Featuring Murakami’s “IQ84”)
There's a long history of philosophers bashing poets, back to Socrates bashing rhetoriticians (poetry being a species of rhetoric, to him) for pursuing felicity of expression over an actual search for the truth. Though in the McCarthy episode, we were very upbeat about the utility of literature for conveying philosophical ideas, today I'm in a grumpy mood about it and feel the Continue Reading …
PREVIEW-Episode 63: Existentialist Heroes in Cormac McCarthy’s “No Country for Old Men”
This is a short preview of the full episode. Buy Now Purchase this episode for $2.99. Or become a PEL Citizen for $5 a month, and get access to this and all other paywalled episodes, including 68 back catalogue episodes; exclusive Part 2's for episodes published after September, 2020; and our after-show Nightcap, where the guys respond to listener email and chat more Continue Reading …
Episode 63: Existentialist Heroes in Cormac McCarthy’s “No Country for Old Men” (Citizens Only)
On philosophical issues in McCarthy's 2005 novel about guys running around with drug money and shooting each other, and about fiction as a form for exploring philosophical ideas. What can morality mean for people who have witnessed the "death of God," i.e. a loss in faith in light of the horrors of war? For both the protagonist and antagonist in "No Country for Old Men," Continue Reading …
Topic for #63: Cormac McCarthy’s Novel “No Country for Old Men”
Following the path of reading novels (which we don't necessarily intend to make a habit of) begun with #62, we have now recorded our discussion of No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy. We had as a guest one of Dylan's teachers from undergrad, Eric Petrie, Professor at James Madison College at Michigan State University, who has been presenting a paper called "Promise Continue Reading …