My ink on Blood Merdian

Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy, originally pulped in 85.

I read this book twice now, finishing an audio version just recently. I know I will read it again, and I know that ever after that reading, I will still wonder what all I have missed in this complex and compelling read.

A quick google search of the book will let you know what people think and feel about this book about the expanding west and a lawless time. Some will say that it is satirical and holistically symbolic of the violence regarding the western expansion of the young US. Some will say it is a detailed account of men with no inhibitions, that become collectively scarier than any monster ever created in the horror genre, or some will say that it is a deep and symbolic book with Gnostic overtones and other historical accounts on every page, dripping with violence.

But this book, quite simply, is about satan on earth. This is a book about the devil, and it is a detailed account of how he takes a group of men and ravishes the country side. This devil is not a brute or some stereotypical baddie, but personifies science, law, modern philosophy, culture and at times even civil behavior. But this is all without love, faith or god. He exhibits all qualities that society holds dear and strives for, but leaves out what makes us our best.

This is Cormac McCarthy’s way of telling us that no matter how advanced we become, no matter what new technologies we bring, and no matter how ‘just’ we make ourselves out to be, that without love, we are nothing and we are inherently evil.

The amount of violence in this book is appalling, and it is not for the squeamish. But after that qualifier, if you can get past it, this is a marvelous read that is difficult to get out of your mind once you put it down. Others have made this comparison, so this is not original here: but this book reminded me of first time that I read Moby Dick, in that the details of an expedition were given in such real and brutal words, that the violence and conflict don’t seem out of place or they don’t seem to be used simply as a plot device, but as a central and necessary part of the story. The story is violence.

Judge Holden is by far the scariest monster ever put to fictional page, and you are left with a want for justice once this book is done, but McCarthy doesn’t give it to you, like in many of his reads, he won’t let you off easily.

Justice isn’t served, and you are left with your fists clenched and your teeth grinding, but you want to read it again.

Until The Next Read--JT