“The freedom of birds is an insult to me. I'd have them all in zoos.
That would be a hell of a zoo.
The judge smiled. Yes, he said. Even so.”
The Judge is always smiling.
The final chapter is cryptic and haunting; does God finally give The Judge his comeuppance?
Obviously, work through McCarthy, but if you loved BLOOD MERIDIAN this much I also suggest John Williams and Robert Stone; they're stylistically dissimilar (frankly, only Faulkner can be said to be "stylistically similar" to McCarthy) but they explore similar themes; human nobility in the midst of human depravity, death at sunset in the West. BUTCHER'S CROSSING and DOG SOLDIERS are good starting points.
I came back to this essay because one of my readers challenged me to read McCarthy's Blood Meridian, finding parallels in my own series. I dread it - not because it is deep, but because it is blurs the line between reality and fantasy in a terrifying way. McCarthy is the Ghost Pepper of the literary world; we read him, we feel him, but only after we close the book does his full heat hits us, bringing tears and self-doubt...
I hated how much I loved McCarthy's "All the Pretty Horses" - its beauty offset the absolute brutality of the prison scenes, and the juxtaposition of beauty and brutality left a deep impression on my own writing style. I am finishing my own series before I delve into Blood Meridian, because I know it will disturb me for days on end. Good books are good friends, comforting and even inspiring; but some great books are great villains, rocking us to our core and destroying our comfort. I have already met the Judge in my real life, and spent a lifetime rebuilding my comfort -
will the reading of Blood Meridian be worth the possible permanent pain of McCarthy's heat?
The ambient/doom metal band Earth has a tribute to this book called, "Hex: Or Printing in the Infernal Method," and it's amazing. It's 9 instrumental tracks of the most whimsical and menacing southwestern style doom metal you could imagine, especially the song "Railroad (The Felon Wind)."
“The freedom of birds is an insult to me. I'd have them all in zoos.
That would be a hell of a zoo.
The judge smiled. Yes, he said. Even so.”
The Judge is always smiling.
The final chapter is cryptic and haunting; does God finally give The Judge his comeuppance?
Obviously, work through McCarthy, but if you loved BLOOD MERIDIAN this much I also suggest John Williams and Robert Stone; they're stylistically dissimilar (frankly, only Faulkner can be said to be "stylistically similar" to McCarthy) but they explore similar themes; human nobility in the midst of human depravity, death at sunset in the West. BUTCHER'S CROSSING and DOG SOLDIERS are good starting points.
I came back to this essay because one of my readers challenged me to read McCarthy's Blood Meridian, finding parallels in my own series. I dread it - not because it is deep, but because it is blurs the line between reality and fantasy in a terrifying way. McCarthy is the Ghost Pepper of the literary world; we read him, we feel him, but only after we close the book does his full heat hits us, bringing tears and self-doubt...
I hated how much I loved McCarthy's "All the Pretty Horses" - its beauty offset the absolute brutality of the prison scenes, and the juxtaposition of beauty and brutality left a deep impression on my own writing style. I am finishing my own series before I delve into Blood Meridian, because I know it will disturb me for days on end. Good books are good friends, comforting and even inspiring; but some great books are great villains, rocking us to our core and destroying our comfort. I have already met the Judge in my real life, and spent a lifetime rebuilding my comfort -
will the reading of Blood Meridian be worth the possible permanent pain of McCarthy's heat?
The ambient/doom metal band Earth has a tribute to this book called, "Hex: Or Printing in the Infernal Method," and it's amazing. It's 9 instrumental tracks of the most whimsical and menacing southwestern style doom metal you could imagine, especially the song "Railroad (The Felon Wind)."