October '10 Reading: Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

[Dark Muse]

Is it just me? Is anyone else feeling drained by the relentless brutality of this book?
I'd almost decided to quit reading, (I really don't want any more) but I will soldier on.
However I must amend my previous statment. While I do think this very good writing, this is Not a good read. (please no more murdered babies)

The scene with the dead babies was quite gruesome, but I have to say I had to appreciate how Dantesque it seemed to me.

I cannot say that I am really drained by the prevalence of the violence of the book, but though the prose and the writing of the book is quite good and at times almost takes on a poetic air, it does seem as if the book lacks any sort of actual plot or story. It has the feeling at times of being "The Road", placed in a Western setting.

Beyond the idea of the de-Romanticization of the Western mythos, or a sanctifying of Western myth, I do not grasp yet exactly what statement McCarthy is intended to make with what seems to be the constant senseless acts of violence which are pervasive throughout the book.

I wonder in what way is it meant to be relevant to modern society and mankind as a whole today?

[Virgil]

Beyond the idea of the de-Romanticization of the Western mythos, or a sanctifying of Western myth, I do not grasp yet exactly what statement McCarthy is intended to make with what seems to be the constant senseless acts of violence which are pervasive throughout the book.

Yeah, I can't say i grasp it too. But I'm pretty sure that's what he's after.

[Dark Muse]

I have not heard of a malpais before, so I looked it up, and here are some images of the terrian in which they are in:

[Virgil]

Looks very harsh. I've spent a bit of time in the southwest desert (on the American side) and it's hard living. I don't know how people did it without air conditioning and running water.

[Dark Muse]

Looks very harsh. I've spent a bit of time in the southwest desert (on the American side) and it's hard living. I don't know how people did it without air conditioning and running water.

Yes, it looks very harsh, and I think the baroness and the unforgiving elements itself in such a location, particularly during a time period in which there are not any modern day convince reflects the violence in the story. Their actions and the way in which they live reflects the landscape in which they live in.

[Rores28]

The scene with the dead babies was quite gruesome, but I have to say I had to appreciate how Dantesque it seemed to me.

I cannot say that I am really drained by the prevalence of the violence of the book, but though the prose and the writing of the book is quite good and at times almost takes on a poetic air, it does seem as if the book lacks any sort of actual plot or story. It has the feeling at times of being "The Road", placed in a Western setting.

Beyond the idea of the de-Romanticization of the Western mythos, or a sanctifying of Western myth, I do not grasp yet exactly what statement McCarthy is intended to make with what seems to be the constant senseless acts of violence which are pervasive throughout the book.

I wonder in what way is it meant to be relevant to modern society and mankind as a whole today?

Maybe I'm just not looking deep enough but I don't understand where the confusion comes in. What statement is he trying to make? People are ****ed up and destructive, and this senseless violence has never and will never cease and its ugly and we all essentially turn a blind eye to it. What relevance today??? its all happening right now all over the world. There are constant examples of horrific violence being perpetrated with very flimsy rationalizations attached to them.

I think it also paints in lurid detail what the foundations of the country are. You are sitting behind a computer screen fed, and warm, and wealthy, because of brutal and immoral violence.

[Rores28]

Is it just me? Is anyone else feeling drained by the relentless brutality of this book?
I'd almost decided to quit reading, (I really don't want any more) but I will soldier on.
However I must amend my previous statment. While I do think this very good writing, this is Not a good read. (please no more murdered babies)

I am not drained but I think that Cormac may want you to feel that way. If just reading about it can make you feel this way, imagine what orders of magnitude more troubling were the actual events. Babies and women were not immune to the native american / "american" wars. Large numbers were killed and brutally so. If you live in America this is the bedrock of your cultural legacy.

[Dark Muse]

Maybe I'm just not looking deep enough but I don't understand where the confusion comes in. What statement is he trying to make? People are ****ed up and destructive, and this senseless violence has never and will never cease and its ugly and we all essentially turn a blind eye to it. What relevance today??? its all happening right now all over the world. There are constant examples of horrific violence being perpetrated with very flimsy rationalizations attached to them.

I think it also paints in lurid detail what the foundations of the country are. You are sitting behind a computer screen fed, and warm, and wealthy, because of brutal and immoral violence.

Yes perhaps so, that just seemed so simplistic that perhaps I was overlooking the obvious, as there really is nothing profound or new in that view. It seems he went through a lot of trouble to write this book just for that.

[Rores28]

Yes perhaps so, that just seemed so simplistic that perhaps I was overlooking the obvious, as there really is nothing profound or new in that view. It seems he went through a lot of trouble to write this book just for that.

I agree and I dont think Cormac is hailed for his deep philosophy. When I first started reading his stuff I was a little surprised, because the Road and No Country both seemed to me to have the same sort of philosophical unoriginality / shallowness..... maybe I'm not getting something but in those other two books I also struggled to find deeper or more probing themes than the readily apparent.

I really think Cormac is a poet. The way he has painted this picture to me is beautiful and there are many many passages in that book that, at least to me, are superbly written. I'm not done but I don't think the book is going to blow my mind with any sort of revelation but it is going to be at the height of aesthetics as far as what I've read.

[Dark Muse]

I agree and I dont think Cormac is hailed for his deep philosophy. When I first started reading his stuff I was a little surprised, because the Road and No Country both seemed to me to have the same sort of philosophical unoriginality / shallowness..... maybe I'm not getting something but in those other two books I also struggled to find deeper or more probing themes than the readily apparent.

I really think Cormac is a poet. The way he has painted this picture to me is beautiful and there are many many passages in that book that, at least to me, are superbly written. I'm not done but I don't think the book is going to blow my mind with any sort of revelation but it is going to be at the height of aesthetics as far as what I've read.

Yes you may be right. I do think that when it comes down to it the book will be more about the aesthetic than anything else. This is only my 2nd time reading his work, the first being "The Road" and though the books are much the same in many ways, and while "The Road" did not offer any mind-altering revelations, I somehow felt I got a little more out of "The Road" than I have been able to draw from this book.

[Rores28]

At first I liked the Road better but as I get farther through BM I'm liking it more. The Road had alot of pathos for me... one of the few if possibly only book that got me teary eyed. There are just so many passages in this book that are written so well and the ambiance is so perfect and mythic, that I think the aesthetics of this book trump the pathos of The Road.

[Dark Muse]

At first I liked the Road better but as I get farther through BM I'm liking it more. The Road had alot of pathos for me... one of the few if possibly only book that got me teary eyed. There are just so many passages in this book that are written so well and the ambiance is so perfect and mythic, that I think the aesthetics of this book trump the pathos of The Road.

Though I do appreciate aesthetics since this is a novel and not a poem, I fear for me pure aesthetics is not quite enough so I am going to have to say "The Road" stands as being better between the two, becasue it offers more than just visual imagery and well placed words.

[Dark Muse]

The story which the Judge tells in Chapter 11 about the man who killed the traveler and than after he confessed to his son what he had done, his son became a killer, has really made the novel make more sense to me, or at least gain a better understanding behind the purpose of McCarthy writing the novel.

I had been struggling with the idea of accepting the fact that he went through all the trouble to write this book simply to proclaim that mankind is as base violent and cruel and people kill each other senselessly. And while the analogy offered in the Judges story does not necessarily offer up any new revelations, it puts the whole of the novel in greater perceptive.

Though I haven't read No Country For Old Men, I saw the movie, and the Judges story reminded me a lot of the story told in NCFOM by the older Sheriff to the young deputy about this incident which happened I think in 1800's in which a man went crazy and committed a heinous act of murder and for me it reflects the idea that while people like to talk about how much things have changed, or how crime is worse now than it used to be, and hark back to some mystical golden age, in truth things really haven't changed that much when it comes to basic human nature, people are people and at base they don't really change that much.

[Virgil]

Wow, I fineished the slaughter of the Indian village and that was gruesome. It is hard to read a novel with no moral core, or perhaps that is the moral core.

I don't know why Rores28 and D-M have a problem with the theme of man's inhumanity. That's a fairly common theme. Though I don't think that's the only theme here. This novel is an achievement. I haven't finished, but the only American novel of the 2nd half of the 20th century that rivals this is Ralph Ellison's Invisible man.

[Dark Muse]

Wow, I fineished the slaughter of the Indian village and that was gruesome. It is hard to read a novel with no moral core, or perhaps that is the moral core.

Yes, though this book is chalk full of violence I found those scenes about the slaughter of the village to be particularly gripping and effective, and it was one of the first moments in which the violence of the novel really actually outraged me.

I don't know why Rores28 and D-M have a problem with the theme of man's inhumanity. That's a fairly common theme. Though I don't think that's the only theme here. This novel is an achievement. I haven't finished, but the only American novel of the 2nd half of the 20th century that rivals this is Ralph Ellison's Invisible man.

It is a common theme but perhaps that is part of the problem for me, the fact that this novel does not seem to offer a whole lot more beyond that. And considering the ambitiousness of the prose, I just don't see wasting ones time to point out such a blatant and obvious point without offering the reader anything else. Part of it for me may be a combination of the fact that he is a talented writer, mixed with all the hype about him and this book, I expected something more.