Blood Meridian

[WashYourHands]

Did a search and while there’s a smattering of posts it surely deserves its own inquiry and questioning

?

Is it gnostic genius or “just boring landscapey vistas and murder gore” as an acquaintance once said, is Judge Holden a rogue Nonce Hotelier supreme deity, is the tone and detail comparable to other texts, does it contain an ending of endings, is it better in French or Italian translation, is it better to remain unadapted for screen, does it punch you in the guts

?

 

[luka]

im very anti this man. i read a paragraph of one of these books and it was like young adult fiction for fedora teens. very anti. very opposed.

 

[linebaugh]

I loved this book when I read it, finished it in just a few sittings

 

[linebaugh]

I read about gnosticsim a bit right after finishing it and in hindsight it did seem to work very well as a parable, but of course thats not at all what I was thinking when I was actually reading the novel. I loved the prose and its paced extremely well

 

[luka]

I loved this book when I read it, finished it in just a few sittings

The Normie Cultural Mafia

 

[linebaugh]

you think youve gotten me but in fact many of my closest friends are normies

 

[linebaugh]

I also read cities of the plain in college and liked it a bit too. But one does wonder if hes not just a slightly more litterary pulp author masquerading as high art. He reminds me of Delillo in that way but Delillo seems to get a pass because his books have more 'ideas,' at least in sheer numbers

 

[woops]

just boring landscapey vistas and murder gore”

i read it and i found it to be transfixing murder gore interspersed with beautiful lyrical landscapes so i understand this comment

 

[woops]

just a slightly more litterary pulp author masquerading as high art.

yeah wheres the real high art you c***s

 

[linebaugh]

thats a question for craner and corspey, Im merely surveying the landscape here.

 

[WashYourHands]

Luka is intimidated by Judge Holden, picturing his looming shadowed figure in dreams approaching one day for a poem


“Hello Judge, my my you are fuckin massive, a poem? What would you like it to be about?”

- “Errm, flowers? I met a girl, she’s changed my life, my perspective, predilections for violence, pederasty, being a bit too cunty all the time, pottery notes are more focused, I let personal slights and jokes slide, everything”

“Bit fedora, Judge“

- ”Look, before you were war waited for you, the ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner”

”Add teenage, Judge”

- ”.......war Luka, war.....how we’re bounded by conflict, violence as regeneration, ok, and fate too in pulpy biblical tones”

”Fair enough, call it 50£?”

- §§§=gun(¥)shot=§§§

 

[WashYourHands]

Awaits pithily

 

[woops]

i recently read all the pretty horses and enjoyed it (1) on its own terms and (2) because it was so different from the novel that is the topic of this thread

 

[droid]

The crossing is amazing. The best of the border trilogy.

 

[Corpsey]

one does wonder if hes not just a slightly more litterary pulp author masquerading as high art. He reminds me of Delillo in that way but Delillo seems to get a pass because his books have more 'ideas,' at least in sheer numbers

This interests me - how do you tell the difference? Is it the plots that are pulpy? Or the giant albino pontificating about war?

There's certainly something retrograde in his faux Biblical style.

I loved Blood Meridian when I read it, being a fan (or an addict) of both High Style and ultraviolence. But I've no memories of it now, like every novel I've ever read really.

 

[linebaugh]

This interests me - how do you tell the difference? Is it the plots that are pulpy? Or the giant albino pontificating about war?

There's certainly something retrograde in his faux Biblical style.

I loved Blood Meridian when I read it, being a fan (or an addict) of both High Style and ultraviolence. But I've no memories of it now, like every novel I've ever read really.

I guess with McCarthy theres a suspicion that theres not much below the style and mood? for the record I loved both of the McCarthy's I read, just exploring Luka's side here.

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

Did a search and while there’s a smattering of posts it surely deserves its own inquiry and questioning

?

Is it gnostic genius or “just boring landscapey vistas and murder gore” as an acquaintance once said, is Judge Holden a rogue Nonce Hotelier supreme deity, is the tone and detail comparable to other texts, does it contain an ending of endings, is it better in French or Italian translation, is it better to remain unadapted for screen, does it punch you in the guts

?

both, neither, all

one of very, very, very few books I've ever read where entire passages stick with me and I think will until I die

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

I saw The Lighthouse in a theater and the person I went with gave the following review: "it was boring but also a lot happened"

I loved it, as I have every Robert Eggers film, but I also didn't disagree with that review

Blood Meridian is I think in a similar space

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

btw luka disliking McCarthy is the most boring and predictable take of all time

he is the ne plus ultra of anti-snob snobbery in all things art, except poetry where his tastes are exactly the opposite (high art modernism etc)

 

[Corpsey]

Impossible for me to comment on that because I can't remember Blood Meridian now. It certainly makes grand gestures towards philosophy via the Judge's monologues about war, etc.

I do think he could be accused of pretentiousness, in Blood Meridian, at least, but he writes in that style so brilliantly -- sometimes though giving way to hammy excess. (A comparison with Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" might be drawn here.)

Another charge that could be laid is that of humourlessness and wilful pessimism, which might seem besides the point in a book about genocide, but if the goal of literature is to somehow encapsulate life (a big question) then Blood Meridian - at least as far as I remember it - gives a very narrow perspective on life. "The horror, the horror!" without a sense of what the horror lays waste to.

Fwiw, Harold Bloom, who whether or not you like him is certainly a proponent of "high culture", absolutely loved Blood Meridian. (And you can see why, given the way he wrote himself.)