Blood Meridian

[Mark Thibodeau]

Blood Meridian's ending, that scene with the Judge dancing and the
swirling, vertiginous repetition of the prose, is quite possibly the single
most viscerally affecting reading experience of my life so far. I had to
put the book down and calm myself down the first time I read it, and I
remember thinking "THIS is what genius feels like." Kind of like the first
time I watched Dr Strangelove and Slim Pickens' bomb-ride simultaneously
thrilled and terrified me to the point of coming close to putting me in a
medical state of shock.

Pynchon affects me in similar ways, and I think of his writing as some sort
of literary wine that is delicious, but which gets you drunk on a sip,
which makes getting through his novels in one go such a challenge.

I have not read The Orchard Keeper, but I will. Right now, I'm reading
Delillo's Zero K. I'm about a third of the way through, and there's a lot
to think about, that's for sure... I'll post a review to my blog when I'm
done. After that, I'll be reading The Sellout and doing the same.

Jerky

On Mon, Jun 5, 2017 at 11:53 AM, Jade Becker <jbecker13 at georgefox.edu>
wrote:

> When I finished Blood Meridian, I remember thinking that it had to be one
> of the most profound (and profoundly unsettling) books I'd encountered.
> That maybe it held a Moby-Dick-type brilliance. I think it still does,
> probably.
>
> I tried to re-read it about a year ago, and found that the brutality,
> coupled with knowing that McCarthy would, in the last pages, leave us with
> that image of the dancing Judge ("He says that he will never die"), were
> too much for me to relive without some not significant mental health
> repercussions... That last scene is just plain old terrifying.
>
> I'm curious about The Counselor--I very much enjoyed The Sunset Limited,
> which was nuanced and totally real feeling, and so I'd like to read more of
> his plays/screenplays.
>
> Mark, I also found Outer Dark pretty great. Have you (or anyone else) read
> The Orchard Keeper? I've attempted it an embarrassing amount of times and
> haven't gotten through it, despite its brevity.
>
> On Mon, Jun 5, 2017 at 8:27 AM, Mark Thibodeau <jerkyleboeuf at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> I love everything I've read and seen from Cormac McCarthy. His
>> Appalachian Gothic novels (Child of God and Outer Dark) are both easy reads
>> AND rich, complex reading experiences. I thought The Counselor was
>> fantastic and ahead of its time (post True Detective, it wears its darkness
>> well). And of course, The Road... the ultimate fathers and sons
>> heart-stomper.
>>
>> But yeah, I think Blood Meridian is his best in so many ways.
>>
>> Jerky
>>
>> On Mon, Jun 5, 2017 at 10:25 AM, rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> i'm too old for Blood Meridian, now. I went thru a phase. Suttree sticks
>>> with me still
>>>
>>> and yet too young for Pynchon still. my anger breeds ephemeral
>>> rich
>>>
>>> On Mon, Jun 5, 2017 at 10:20 AM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Suttree vs Blood Meridian?  Tastes differ, it seems.
>>>>
>>>> On Mon, Jun 5, 2017 at 9:15 AM, rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I would try Suttree, Joseph--a much better book than Blood Meridian
>>>>> (which I highly respect and would recommend but do not love).
>>>>>
>>>>> rich
>>>>>
>>>>> On Mon, Jun 5, 2017 at 12:15 AM, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> First step to get out of hole, stop digging. First step to cooling
>>>>>> down, stop starting fires.  We want the evolution of the species to require
>>>>>> the sum total of human genius but what does that mean when so much skill
>>>>>> has been developed for burning down the house.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> There is a certain kind of gnosticism that sees this as a hell planet
>>>>>> ruled by deception.  In such a world fiends have a supernatural advantage.
>>>>>> McCarthy seems to waver between something like that and a kind of grim
>>>>>> survivalism. His is a mind I don’t care to visit ever again despite the
>>>>>> visceral prose style.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>
>
> --
>
> Jade Becker
> (530) 518-6859
> George Fox University | Class of 2017
> Writing Consultant, George Fox University Academic Resource Center
> *The Crescent*, Editor-in-Chief
>
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