No Country plausibility issues (spoilers!)

[Tim Strzechowski]

I've often toyed with the idea of teaching a "Satan in Literature" course, something that would draw from the traditional Western canon (Dante, Marlowe, Milton, Goethe, etc.) but also include readings of characters that have obvious Satanic parallels (Shelley's Creature or Melville's Confidence Man, for example) ... including McCarthy's Judge Holden, who -- for me -- seems to evoke otherworldly qualities that make him more of a supernatural force rather than a mere "monster" image.

Don't have my copy of BM handy at the moment, but when I get to it I'll expand on this.




 -------------- Original message ----------------------

> 
> The Judge is similar, but much more attractive.  There are parts of
> him that are admirable (also true for Chigurh only in his absolutist -
> no compromise - morality).  The Judge also has seductive attraction
> (both sensual and intellectual) besides his horror aspect, and he is
> also more unpredictable (therefore more "human" - one senses that he
> might be defeatable).  "No Country" was too much a morality lament for
> me.  "Blood Meridian" was more of a journey.
> 
> David Morris
> 
> On Nov 20, 2007 12:02 PM, Richard Ryan <richardryannyc at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > Suppose this discussion needs a spoilers alert....
> >
> > So Wells is subject to the karmic laws of hubris and Chigurh is not?  Chigurh 
> sees himself as the living embodiment of fate, and possesses an 
> indestructibility that is completely unbelievable and out of keeping with any 
> psychological or aesthetic realism.
> >
> > The problem with Chigurh as a character (a serious technical flaw that applies 
> to The Judge in Blood Meridian)  is that at a certain point you realize he's not 
> a man - he's a horror movie monster,  a la Jason Vorhees or Freddy Krueger.  No 
> matter what the protagonists do to defeat a horror movie monster you know these 
> creatures always resurrect in the end, because they're plot devices rather than 
> realized characters.