Blood Meridian - still utterly and completely off topic

Matthew Keeley · 23 Sep 2006, 21:57 · from 2006-September.txt.gz

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From: matthew.keeley.1 at gmail.com (Matthew Keeley)
Date: Sat, 23 Sep 2006 17:57:08 -0400
Subject: (urth) Blood Meridian - still utterly and completely off topic
In-Reply-To: <200609231055.59782.ddjones at riddlemaster.org>
References: <44CEC44B.6020906 at io.com>
	<20060801054705.36394.qmail at web32401.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
	<f5238c30608021719i40fb6c75ydda60ab4fea1d60f at mail.gmail.com>
	<200609231055.59782.ddjones at riddlemaster.org>
Message-ID: <461CD892-ECEF-488F-AAA5-8114E85825EE at gmail.com>

I was in a bookstore last night and actually considered buying Blood  
Meridian or All the Pretty Horses. I read No Country for Old Men  
earlier this year and thought it was great, so I figured I should try  
another one of his books. So bleak, yet so persuasive.

By the way, I understand that McCarthy has a new book, The Road,  
coming out very shortly. It's about a father and son trying to  
survive in a post-apocalyptic world. Advance word on the book seems  
good, though I don't think it's getting the same praise as Blood  
Meridian or the Border Trilogy (All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing,  
and Cities on the Plain).

-Matt

On Sep 23, 2006, at 10:55 AM, Daniel D Jones wrote:

> On Wednesday 02 August 2006 20:19, maru dubshinki wrote:
>> On 8/1/06, don doggett <kingwukong at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> I've just finished reading Blood Meridian by Cormac
>>> McCarthy and I wish to express that it is one of the
>>> finest modern novels I have ever read, neck and neck
>>> w/ BotNS and Tim Obrien's The Things They Carried. It
>>> is also quite possibly the most violent literary book
>>> ever written. Incredible.
>>>
>>> Don
>>
>> I have to ask, why you think it is so marvelous? I read that just  
>> last
>> year, and I remember thinking in incomprehension that the judge was a
>> marvelous character, but that the rest seemed pretty pointless and
>> gratuitious (Harold Bloom's criticism notwithstanding).
>
> Still off topic but these comments intrigued me, and so I purchased  
> the book.
> First, I have to agree that it's an excellent novel.  I thought the  
> kid was
> as interesting as the Judge, albeit in a different manner.  You do  
> realize
> that the book, while fiction, is heavily based on real events?   
> Many of the
> characters, including Glanton and Judge Holden, were real people.   
> If you're
> not already conversant with it, you might find the following  
> interesting:
>
> http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/HNS/Scalpin/heads.html
>
> In case the URL gets distorted by email:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/gweur
>
> It may make the violence less gratuitious to realize that it's  
> reasonably
> historically accurate.
>
> Second, the volume I picked up included Harold Bloom's  
> introduction.  After
> reading it, I'm tempted to smack him upside the head with Stephen  
> King's
> latest novel.  Wouldn't you assume that a literary critic would  
> realize that
> an introduction is read BEFORE you read the book, and that giving  
> away the
> ending of the work in question is probably not a good idea?  If  
> anyone else
> decides to read the book, you might want to read Bloom's intro as an
> afterward.
>
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