“The truth about the world, he said, is that anything is possible. Had you not seen it all from birth and thereby bled it of its strangeness it would appear to you for what it is, a hat trick in a medicine show, a fevered dream, a trance bepopulate with chimeras having neither analogue nor precedent, an itinerant carnival, a migratory tentshow whose ultimate destination after many a pitch in many a muddled field is unspeakable and calamitous beyond reckoning.” (McCarthy 256).
An unapologetically ruthless and disgusting article on the blooming life of scalp marketing in the historical ‘Wild West’ of the 1850s. Possibly containing the most villainous character in all fiction, Judge Holden, Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy is a near perfect and bloody representation of our eerie past.
It was a near perfect read and I highly recommend it for people who can accept the truth, handle thrilling and rather jarring imagery, and are above the age of 16, preferably. However, I have my complaints and commentary.
First of all, the language/diction. The writer has an interesting and descriptive, yet very difficult way of writing. Maybe I’m just not well read, but I had an increasingly hard time deciphering sentences and simultaneously defining sophisticated words. It’s not as though I dislike the writing style. It’s unique, and that gives the book a special purpose. But I was senselessly bumbling through pages near the end because it became so convoluted. Nonetheless, it is very cool to learn all these new words, and I hope to use them in future writing . . . once I can properly study them. I’ll give an example of a very complex sentence in which even context could not resolve my confusion. It scrambled my brain.
“The very clarity of these articles belied their familiarity, for the eye predicates the whole on some feature or part and here was nothing more luminous than another and nothing more enshadowed and in the optical democracy of such landscapes all preference is made whimsical and a man and a rock become endowed with unguessed kinships.” (McCarthy 258-259).
Secondly, the content is very graphic. I’m all for gritty thriller or horror movies, but the way the author describes disaster is blood-curdling and not for the faint of heart. It is extremely violent and sickeningly pictorial—I do not recommend this book for many due to the barbarity that lies within. More on Judge Holden, the main antagonist of the novel who isn’t recognized for much other than his narcissistic personality, as described via the author, constantly stating that he is above man. He is more literate than most, described as being approximately 7 feet tall, 300+ pounds, and always ‘naked’ for some reason, largely because he has no hair. But he’s a terribly perfect fit for an unruly outlaw and I wouldn’t be surprised if no one in the world were equivalent to him. He made this book stressful and unnerving, yet also provided insight to a lot about the world, such as how people think or might have thought about. Still, he’s a horrible genius.
“This is the nature of war, whose stake is at once the game and the authority and the justification. Seen so, war is the truest form of divination. It is the testing of one’s will and the will of another within that larger will which because it binds them is therefore forced to select. War is the ultimate game because war is at last a forcing of the unity of existence. War is god.” (McCarthy 261).
Lastly, the story seems tangible. If that appears to make sense, anyway. It seems so real, like a brilliant and realistic account written right in the middle of the mess. The author is incredibly intelligent, including every name of every town during that time. It’s the most vivid piece of literature I’ve laid my hands and eyes on. Once I began, it was very hard to stop until I reached the grotesque and illegible issues. On the other hand, such questions and accounts blew my mind, and I will never read another book the same without thinking about these explanations. I like most of the characters, and although it was hard to keep track of a lot, besides the main character, they were all written equally, each with their own faults and egos. The Kid, the protagonist, is so young and unfortunate, it makes me feel empathetic that someone back in the past ever had to go through this mess. Gut-wrenching, almost.
Ultimately, it is a tragic story. I admire much of the content, but it would be a bother to read it again. Not because it’s boring or tough, but because it is so dark. I don’t think the author is human. Without further ado, if a reader like you is bored and tired of most literature today, please give this book a read. I’m not joking when I say I don’t want to suffer through this alone.
Ciao, bye bye.