It honestly would have been hilarious if the Judge wasn't a child predator. Just a bloodthirsty, heartless murderer with a soft spot for children and puppies lmao
@@jonahc2807That would technically kinda ruin Holden's character,sense he loves WAR,and what is WAR,The ultimate haram'ed sin,as it contains all evils as1 evil in other words WAR,so him not committing something so vilely unforgivable is to humane. . .
Exactly. I think it'll either never make it to theater, never make it to production like the attempted adaptations before it, or that if and when it comes out, it'll be incredibly muted and disappointing. I don't have high hopes, but hey, a man can dream.
I’m totally going to butcher this, but I like Book by Book’s interpretation of Blood Meridian. They seemed to argue that it’s many things, but among them is a conversation about theodicy, the Judge being an agent of that. The kid in the story is our “saint,” who had seen the blood of war, and horror in the round, and did in fact NOT find that it spoke to his inmost heart. He is confronted with the horrors of the world and time period he’s in, and exists in it without judging it. Like the traveller in the story of the harness maker says, he took his fellow man into his heart. You can see moments of compassion from the kid, both during and after his time with the Glanton Gang. His attitude is one more of forgiveness than of disgust and horror as one might expect, given all he goes through in the story. The Judge sees the kid as a disappointment because of this. The kid is a rejection of theodicy. He is textual evidence that we don’t need to be cruel just because the world was made with cruelty in it. If the Judge and the kid really are “the last of the true,” as the Judge says, then of course the Judge would find the agency and forgiveness of the kid to be an insult. The Judge wants to push and prod people into being more violent. He wants the ability to control people through their animalistic impulses, and ingrained sense of morality. The kid’s freedom from this is something the Judge would seek to snuff out. The story ends in a danse macabre, an expression of sorrow in a moment of extreme tragedy. The Judge towers over them all and provides a moment of respite in himself, in a moment where he can be looked upon with fetishized adoration, as he continues to perpetuate the things which need to be expressed through dance.
Some years ago, back at a time when I read and reread “Blood Meridian”, I sometimes came home, half expecting to find the Judge sitting there in my kitchen or living room, waiting for me… McCarthy and this book in particular really changed a lot about how I look at the world and my fellow human beings. Regarding the judge: In a recent study, “Cormac McCarthy: An American Apocalypse”, the author argued that the Judge can be evocative of and essentially fulfill the roles of so many literary and mythological figures and eternal forces (Satan, Dionysus, the Renaissance man, Melville’s Whale, the Enlightenment, war, destiny) is because he functions very much like a principle of desire and violence and signification itself that is at the heart of all of these figures and entities. It sounds weird, but it’s pretty much the most lucid and encompassing analysis of the Judge that I know.
He evokes similair vibes to the hat man, or the smiling man, or the face that thousands of people see when dreaming. Some entity living in the collective memory of humanity. I agree that after finishing the book, I feel like I'm waiting for him to show up in real life somewhere.
I feel McCarthy would say if you see him in your waking, you are already dead and it is not a good thing to be so. The man put the kid-Elrod-down to prevent his suffering which he knew was coming because he had already been through it. Gnosticism? Maybe, partly, but I believe McCarthy in a classical Christian sense repeatedly examines a fallen world full of fallen creatures ruled by evil and fate. He just mostly sees no path to salvation.
Yeah I find blood meridian no country for old men and the road to trilogy of the suffering of life at different points in time. Each Book has its own face of death blood meridian has the judge no country has chigur and the road has the world as the faces of death though there are no direct links to these books other then the suffering and death found where in all paint a similar picture of the unsung cruelty of man and the suffering of life it's self.
@@davidoliver9655 I don't know man, I find there is something of the Gamer's vicarious experience in MaCarthy novels. In Blood Meridian he's writing about a time period that dispersed long before he was born, that has no basis in reality. The times we live it today (2024) are every bit as cruel and suffering filled as any time period in a MaCarthy novel circa 1800s, the only difference is that back then, they didn't have entertainments like _Blood Meridian_ , video games and porn to distract them from the hard realities of life. Entertainment that keep them, from realizing their true and full development as men, keep them in a "bug man" state vicarious adventures believing Judge Holden as the avatar of manifest destiny, "evil" or man's primal nature etc etc whatever.
I just finished Blood Meridian a few days ago, and I'm still kind of sitting with it and processing all the symbolism in it. I really enjoyed this video, I think it's definitely one of the best videos I've seen on the book. I appreciate all the references you provided and the examples of other topics to research. I would love to see videos of other classics, this should totally be a series.
The one line that really made me decide the Judge was supernatural was in the end when he tells the kid that he had left his companion Shelby to the Mexican troops to die after they drew the arrows to kill the man. The entire company had ridden on by then, none of the gang could have known that he did not carry out the order. The Kid never mentions it to anyone, and unless the Judge sees Shelby many years later somehow, which is not mentioned, he would have no idea this transpired and no reason to think The Kid didnt carry out the order unless he was omniscient.
You might be right about this part, but ive always felt the Judge knew about it because of his understanding the Kids character. The Judge chastised the Kid for holding back. During their confrontation near the end of the Glanton gang, the Judge scolds the Kid for not buying in to all of the violence. I can't remember the exact words, though. He basically calls the kid a hypocrite. I think the Judge knew all along that the kid had a bit of mercy in him. That he felt he was better or separate from the gang.
@@johnchristopher3032 Do you do realize every single time the kid sees the judge before he joins the gang the judge looks directly at him and smiles because the judge is some demiurgical/satanic manifestation of mankind's darkness. The judge knew from when he first saw him the mindless violence the kid was capable of but the kid never fully embraced it. Only something of that almost metaphysical nature would know what's in the kids heart.
@@johnchristopher3032the kid never thought he was better than the gang though so that doesn’t make sense, being other from the gang is different, everyone in the gang is an other so that otherness is really some kind of weird affinity that unites them
The Night Does Not End channel, has some excellent insight, and is likely why I was recommended your channel. The Vile Eye, has made videos I’ve liked, but often they are a bit to simple, with how they breakdown characters, especially when they don’t take the writer’s own beliefs into account.
The vile eye video on the judge frustrated me so much because I couldn't properly articulate why it was such a surface level take. No one in the comments seemed to disagree with the creators opinion either. This video has a much better and deeper analysis
I think he also made a pretty bad video about Anton Chigurh where he said that Chigurh 'enjoys killing people', when one of the few things we learn about him is that he kills people because he is so convinced that he doesn't have a choice.
@@runningcommentary2125 he also didn't even read the book to compare and contrast the villian. I hate when people do that. Anton in the book literally is a complete ghost and you don't even get a full description of what he looks like. He even talks a lot more and has some insanely good lines in there.
The quote at 8:24 is actually from Samuel Chamberlain's memoir "My Confessions". The passage describes the real historical Judge Holden that inspired the Blood Meridian Judge Holden. In the book Holden is around 7 feet tall.
The Judge is the Voice most people follow. The Man in this book chooses not to listen, and thereby survives to the end, albeit he shares a kindred spirit with the Judge.
But his existence goes against the Judge’s existence since the Man chose humaneness and to be merciful instead. That’s why he dies at the Judge’s hands, anything good he turns to death, or manipulates to turn evil and become an instrument for his “dance” with the warfare he craves and the violence that proceeds it.
I don't know where you got your sources from, but gnosticism wasn't a unified religion. It is an umbrella term to describe unorthodox practices of Christianity in its early days. There was no cohesive message between gnostics
I have to disagree with the gnostic connection, yes there are a few references to gnostic mythology, perhaps in the same way that a Christian might reference Roman or Greek mythology, but they don't need to go any further than that I think. I find myself disagreeing with everything else. I don't see why the Judge, if he is a demiurge, would be a judge of his own creation? or why he would try to lay claim to his own creation? That doesn't make any sense. Another aspect of his character which I don't see mentioned a lot of the time is the futility in much of his actions, like his claim to everything, he cannot possibly put everything down in his notebook as a single wandering man, in between violently murdering people and raping children. Are we to believe that the demiurge, the all powerful (at least in it's own domain of it's own creation) would waste it's time doing that? Why would it indulge in the material world too? Raping, dancing and drinking, when these material indulgences are components of a prison which *he specifically made* to distract us from achieving gnosis? Rather I think he is the judge of what is real or pretence, it's why he loves war so much, it's direct and requires no thinking or pretence, it's a bit like Fascist anti-politics. One of the main inspirations for the character (apparently, I don't have a source for this, I read it somewhere, but there seems to be very similar themes) was Captain Kurtz from Heart of Darkness, which has very similar themes about pretence, portrayed somewhat in the contrast between the pretentious and constantly mocked civilisation and the brutal, but respected barbarism in that book. The judge refers to this sort of thing frequently, "it becomes a false dance" and all that. Also, if this cycle of violence is some trap the judge puts people in to distract from gnosis or whatever, again, why does he indulge in it himself? But also, why is the book called "Blood Meridian, or, The Evening Redness in the West"? Those two things mean the highest point of the sun, and sunset. This title, along with the classic association of "blood" with "violence" implies that this is the height of violence here, and that it's going to get more peaceful from here, or that the violence is ending, after all we don't have headhunting gangs getting native scalps in Mexico anymore, cartels notwithstanding. I'll conceded that I'm Christian enough to see Gnosticism as a terrible heresy, so I'll admit I have a bit of bias there. That being said though, I don't resent this video at all, despite my disagreeing with much of it's conclusions, it made me think a bit more deeply about my favourite book, so thank you :). I'll also concede I could be entirely wrong about this.
The title of the book and the setting too is extremely contradictory, every time violence as well as the judge is mention there is explicit imagery of an endless night. Everything is off and off-putting, a strange place where the darkest things happen when the sun is high and the night never ends in the daytime of the desert. I don't think it is fair to say that the judge's night has ended in the text - or will end - just because it has in real life.
I agree with you. People see Gnosticism is an exotic kind of Biblical exegesis and so allusions to it in Blood Meridian get drawn up into rudderless theories about the judge and lose everything else. Suddenly the image of the tree struck by lightning in the desert surrounded, worshipped even, by every creature seeking warmth becomes a Gnostic allegory rather than contiguous with McCarthy’s appraisal of fire as the good.
@@j.johnson2190 Gnosticism has kind of become a slight obsession of mine as of late, and while I agree with you completely it never really occurred to me that most people see it that way, some esoteric extension of the Bible. The Gospel of Judas is probably the best example of that, the idea that *none* of the disciples really understood what Jesus was talking about, except Judas, who Jesus entrusted with this great task. Perhaps the passion was a necessary and essential event for humanity - Paul perhaps implied this a few times (in Romans, which I just read). But then I got myself a copy of the Gospel of Judas and it's... not... that... it's just some silly gnostic text which makes no sense. The mythology sounds so appealing when you first step into it, but it crumbles very quickly, and there's no way you could write any kind of compelling narrative through it, there's no Dante's Divine Comedy or Milton's Paradise lost to be pulled from the various gnostic gospels, and I should think the same applies to Blood Meridian.
i just finished reading blood meridian for the first time tonight and only now do i feel as though I'm coming out of the pitched fever dream within the tail end of a bad peyote trip. it feels like something changed in me, like the way no country for old men made me feel: that bloodlust and violence and all things selfish and destructive are not new and have in fact been around for eons. and maybe they always will be. not that it's news to me or anyone else, it's plain to see. many are lured into nihilism or some other absolutism when they come across works like these, that remind them of the darkest corners of their souls and that evil lies most comfortably within the hearts of normal men and women. but i'm also a sentimental idiot so i grabbed my cat, hugging him and holding him, choosing to repudiate that path. because I want to, or because i can. don't really know why i wrote any of that. but thanks for the video, it is very well researched and thought provoking. it seems everyone takes something different away from blood meridian, and yours is definitely one of the most interesting expositions i've seen on it. in many ways it's as esoteric as cormac mccarthy's own writing at times, so it feels like a very pointed place to put a lid on my thoughts regarding this book for a while. also sorry for basically writing my own book in your comment section. I'm at that stage of the acid trip where you're coming back down to consensus reality and gibbering away about your thoughts on all kinds of things, all of which you'll forget come morning.
Finally, someone with actual knowledge of the existing literature on Blood Meridian doing a video. Too often TH-camrs rush to do things they neither understand nor are qualified to comment on. Love their own voice I guess.
I think it says a lot about how well written Blood Meridian is, and the brilliance of it's openness to interpretation, that people can come to such vastly different conclusions about the content and context of the story. I think these multiple conflicting concepts between Christianity and Gnosticism were intentional, and perhaps McCarthy's way of letting the reader's point of view shape their view of the characters and themes of the story. At the end of the day I think it's pretty clear The Judge is in fact, satan. The amount of references that are both subtle and on the nose to him being the devil are so numerous it's hard for me to see it any other way.
The way all these symbols swirl together is truly incredible. McCarthy wrote something that will affect us all (in different ways) for years, and a diversity in opinion is what makes Literary analysis something I will never tire of. Cheers!
Excellent video. This is a very literate interpretation of McCarthy. Too many people assume they know what he’s talking about with minimal research. Great vid. Look forward to watching more of your channel :)
I disagree that its not a message of of salvation. I think there is a example of salvation in the depiction of The Kid's journey through the brutality of the story, towards the end he shows compassion and mercy for the dying old woman while he"s guarding the caravans (if you know, you know if you haven't read it, read it) only to find she's already dead, then later on he meets the children and tells them stories from his days with Glanton, the one child challenges him and says he's a liar, in this moment the Kid chooses pride and accepts the challenge but the child's friends drag him away, but when The Kid is sleeping the child comes back to shoot him in his sleep but hesitates, The Kid hears the gun cock, wakes up and grabs his own gun shooting the child and after that he encounters the judge after all those years apart. When The Kid shoots the child he chose pride again, instead of the humility that the brutality he saw with the glanton gang taught him, and took a life, maybe in that moment he was supposed to die and thats just it or maybe he was supposed to some humility before but he didn't he went with our more base desires and that's why the judge finds him again after all that time because he failed. I personally believe he was supposed to die at the childs hands but didn't accept his fate and thats why the judge comes for him and thats the message of salvation in blood meridian, that true mercy can be learned in this brutal world and that if don't forget that mercy you can have a peaceful life.
Suttree is the very first novel I read by McCarthy in 1979. I was barely 20, and his prose changed me forever and made me determined to become a writer. It will always be my favorite novel. But Blood Meridian is a giant. I truly hope that whoever adapts this for the screen will not adhere to “diversity” requirements and have completely artistic free hand. Someone like Robert Eggers.
Fuck Black Jackson and the Delawares because this man needs his content white. What a clown shoe comment. So much to say about this juggernaut of a story and u choose to show how small u are. Good show
Fascinating essay - very well presented analysis and hypothesis, Thank you! I'm delighted when I stumble across someone who's getting to the deeper layers of the novel that most reviewers and essayists don't dig down to. Since we are only infrequently given access into the thoughts of the characters in Blood Meridian we are definitely left to our own devices to interpret the horrors and the mutating, multiple motives of the gang. I think this is why certain people really dislike the experience of Blood Meridian - it forces us as readers to the heavy lifting. Perhaps more than any fictional book I've read it coaxes, prods and dares the reader to damn the bloody foundation of the United States. The narrator certainly isn't going to. To me Blood Meridian is whispering something incredibly unsettling: that the horrendous notion of manifest destiny is still very much alive TODAY and that it casts its potent spell in every landgrab, foreign military intervention and institutionally racist decision. This spell continues to transform acts of evil into well-intended misadventures. I see reviewers go 'Wow, the Wild West was so brutal, glad that's all long in the past' when in fact that spirit of the judge who sketches, pontificates, categorizes, imprisons, owns, rapes, desecrates, kills, destroys is evident in contemporary Neoconservatism, hyper-consumerism and fascist movements. To me the judge is not at all the embodiment of the Devil but rather undying white American exceptionalism and insatiable colonial hunger. In his 1963 book, “Why We Can’t Wait,” Martin Luther King Jr wrote: “Our nation was born in genocide when it embraced the doctrine that the original American, the Indian, was an inferior race. Even before there were large numbers of Negroes on our shores, the scar of racial hatred had already disfigured colonial society. From the sixteenth century forward, blood flowed in battles of racial supremacy. We are perhaps the only nation which tried as a matter of national policy to wipe out its Indigenous population. Moreover, we elevated that tragic experience into a noble crusade. Indeed, even today we have not permitted ourselves to reject or feel remorse for this shameful episode. Our literature, our films, our drama, our folklore all exalt it.” Of course since King wrote this there have actually been plenty of popular books, albums and movies that have subverted this mythology and addressed the blood-soaked making of America, but I propose that the core belief in manifest destiny has never been dislodged. Kyle Wang has written a great article about the colonial imagination within Blood Meridian here: www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/4937932BF2B6D6C6F698AE12244C50B7/S2052261422000265a.pdf/cormac_mccarthys_racial_fictions_race_in_blood_meridians_colonial_imagination.pdf The reason why the judge is so disturbing is because he's here haunting the 21st century, still trying to woo us, still dancing, still killing.
Interesting. One could think that to many Judge is the devil since it's a much more universal concept, as compared to the things you mentioned. Obviously the setting is the wild west but I would still argue that the idea of the Judge being able to exist anywhere, at any time, is what gives him this pellucid, nightmarish quality. I do believe that there must be some significance to the fact that all races followed the Judge and heeded his counsel, in turn exploiting all other races. Also also, parts like Glanton and Judge covering for the black Jackson after killing the barkeep in a Mexican town make me think that, while he might be partly tied to those casus belli that you mentioned, those are just tools to him, that serve his ultimate goal, war and conflict that's universal in it's death toll.
So what you got out the book was nothing except all the things you already thought anyway and all the strawmen you hsd constructed confirmed. Damn, what are the odds. It's almost like when you are a hammer...
From what I’ve seen, the same director of The Road will direct the BM film adaptation. He did a pretty decent job of bringing McCarthy’s cryptic and highly metaphorical words to life.
The idea that the Judge is God of this hellish world, is given to him in title with the utmost relevancy. To further this, it is quite possible that this place is the closest rendition of Hell on Earth. Or possibly even, Hell itself -- And we, the reader, are given insight into McCarthy's rendition of watching the Devil traverse through the endless slog that IS Hell. Death and decay fill in the spaces between the interactions of this worlds lifeforms; one's whose high's ultimately lead up to debauchery, often at the expense of another's livelihood, or their overall well-being. While the idea of being "content", can be seen as people(s) having enough to merely survive for the coming days. Glanton's party could maybe even be perceived as the Demon's of hell themselves. Once seen as Heroes, and when that status is attained.. shortly thereafter, comes their fall from grace. Committing acts of heinous deeds to sew in their fate; remarkably akin to the Fallen angels. Especially the ex-priest himself, lending even more tribute towards such a theory. And while the Judge may appear to be well off in this rugged, cruel world, and having an answer for everything.. he is actually tormented and tortured in this land as well. His appearance and placement within this world, could be seen as strongly representative to an ultimate punishment put upon him. His skin is pale, and not made to weather the cruel nature of this Land. He has all the markings of a man who should be somebody that every women could fall head over heels for, every man would want to be. Yet his biological facial features that fill in that physical stature, features which would insight lust & jealousy, are filled in instead to perceive him as a fat, ugly ogre; the precise opposite of beauty, an abomination to the eyes. So much so, it almost doesn't even make sense; a juxtaposition made to be served for his foul existence, which spills onto others around him in temptation to wretched, disgusting, and deplorable acts committed upon others Even more so, he is especially, naturally abnormal to the area where he is seen, yet even so in areas where pale white skinned folk do live. He is still gruesome in appearance. His intellectual & brainpower side, holds the markings of a man accustomed to knowledge, wisdom, fancy, culture, and all the fineries that the world has to offer. Yet, he is surrounded by absolute dogs. Thieves, murderers, rapists, kidnappers, sadists, abusers, cowards, fools, drunks, adulterers -- and when the presence of another being such as his own, one with brains & strategical manner, enters is within his midst. He will almost Immediately gravitate towards them, and hold onto their time for as long as possible. (As if he is deprived of this) The contrast of the Judge's power is shown through the Kid's early ventures. When his first, idiotic commander holds fast in the midst of a war party, where it is shown the common man of this region is rolling the dice with odds heavily stacked against them. Whereas, when placed in the Judge's party.. a similar situation, one seemingly damned at all ends.. is instead, turned around into a stunning victory. Made further in a scene, When those in his party decide to leave the Judges side. They are almost immediately butchered afterwards. As if the Judge KNOWS the power to bend the laws of this land, he still has to fight within it to survive. As the land itself is an ever looming, around the clock source of cruelty towards life itself so much -- it makes life itself seem as if a mockery to the very reality of these lands. There is no room here for knowledgeful minds to the finer delicacies of mankind, as much as there is none for those who seek to lock themselves away in study of culture, the arts, etc... There is no place for that there. As even the ones who do survive this land, are at all times a mere coin flip away from lighting the fuse that is latched toward their demise. And must be on alert seemingly around the clock, while in it's grasp Land whose Features which at any seeming moment, will drive any and ALL who traverse it to the brink of their survival skills, scrounging, and doing nearly anything necessary to just merely survive unto the next morning. By default, not only steering.. but absolutely plunging it's travelers into mindsets of those paralleling early stone-age man. By default, it punishes all who enter it in one way and/or many others. -- And this could be seen as God's Punishment onto Satan for his treachery. Stripped of his otherworldly powers, and his wings to fly within the heavens. The Judge is damned to this hellish landscape on Earth, in a body that is barely human. The Devil however, has not forgotten what he has seen. His vast knowledge, insight, and wisdom still lies within. Yet, as a human being, he is also susceptible to ALL of the very Sins he introduced onto mankind As Even the Judge himself, (confident & daring in this place and is surely just accustomed to the treacheries that lie in wait within this place). The man himself, has to commit to seemingly pull out EVERY & ALL tricks up his sleeves just to get by. Another show of his fall from power. Instead, on Earth, his less then ideal for the region, pale white skin burns gruesomely under the rays of a beaming equatorial Sun.. it's as if the Sun's extra exposure here was by crafted by design to bring suffering onto the Him. As well, the Judge must commit to the meager plight of hunger and sustenance. And further along the aforementioned notion: Rather then bask in the glory of the comfortable, beautiful heavens; rather then pursue glorious wisdoms & intellect of pure divine.. there is instead, in it's place Forced upon him through default -- a lust for blood, savagery, & flesh of mankind; lusts which he must fulfill seemingly endlessly around the clock, in this world tainted by the aid of His treacherous nature. Within it, the Judge may seemingly hold something just short of pure supernatural power, a smack in the face from God; instead of holding the power to smite down his rivals at the Volcanic area, with a force of unparalleled, mystical power.. he must resort back to his Wisdom. And is instead forced to abide by the Law of this world. He is forced to use man-made, war time strategy of achieving the high ground, through to attainment he must first evade his persuers. Then, is further forced to resort to using urine & sulfuric resources to concoct shots of obsidian black ammunition to repel his attackers. His whiff's of an entity once steadfast & strong with powers unheard of, now befell onto the worst place. Where he may hold vast, seemingly endless knowledge, and mysterious wisdoms. Yet he catalogues his findings upon the Earth, because he is simply relying on Wisdom from a time long ago, when he ONCE knew it all.. he is now forced to learn using the senses brandished upon him to which is limited by his human structure.
Thank you for this video. I’ve watched a few analysis videos on this book and the super easy explanation that he’s the Devil or Death itself never felt right to me
by far the best analysis of blood meridian I've seen on youtube! I have just finished reading it a week ago, and all you said was so insightful, now I think I understand (at least some of it) and now I love this book even more :)
Excellent video man! I really enjoyed your perspective focusing on a gnostic lens. I studied literature in college and McCarthy along with Blood Meridian were a game changer for me. I think you did a great job in your introduction by highlighting the ambivalence of McCarthys prose, perhaps due to McCarthys own reticence, without knowing his specific influences. What I find interesting are the judge’s dialectics on intertextuality. “My book or some other book said the judge. What is to be deviates no jot from the book wherein it's writ. How could it? It would be a false book and a false book is no book at all”. Or this one: “Words are things. The words he is in possession of he cannot be deprived of. Their authority transcends his ignorance of their meaning.” Lines like this make me think the Judge is moving into postmodern territory specifically in his use of contemporary philosophical ideologies regarding language. I believe language is ultimately yet another tool used by the judge to manipulate both the characters and the reader.
Thank you! A postmodern analysis would be incredible to undertake. My experience with Foucault and other similar works is pretty limited, but it is hard to believe that McCarthy wasn't at least aware of Derrida or his contemporaries while writing his earlier fiction. If we want to get really romantic, we could even say that McCarthy's lack of quotation marks is, in and of itself, a deconstruction of the opposition between Speech and Text that Derrida disliked so much, as the quotes of "speech" blend in with the text of the story. when those are laced with parables and stories, Our intertextuality becomes metatextuality...Beautiful, I think. Along those lines, a postmodernist comparison of "Blood Meridian" and "The Road" would probably make an incredible thesis for a post grad. One being in the past and the other in the future, they are only separated by the present...of course, the present in which McCarthy wrote them into being. from history, comes the present and future, perhaps. Foucault would be drooling. Awesome post! Thanks for your mention of intertextuality, it brought interesting ideas!
That’s a great point about the opposition between speech and text. That’s why I love this book so much, it resonates with so many different movements and periods in literature; ancient oral tradition, religious texts, romanticism, naturalism, postmodernism, etc..
Damn your videos are cool The Vile Eye's Judge Holden vid is what got me into Blood Meridian, glad to see it being noticed, even if it is in way of criticism. This is a nice analysis
His video is still great! He obviously spent a lot of time with the text. We should be glad it gives us a good starting point to grapple with the ideas that McCarthy introduces.
I also think it's important to note the original 'My Confession' auto biography that speaks about the Judge, and who he really was. The real person had a lot of similarities at a glance, but Cormac did his own thing and merged the historical figure with many other things. I also think him being totally hairless is a misinterpretation (in the 'My Confession'), as I've always read it as meaning his face was hairless, meaning no beard, no entirely bald. but thats way off topic lol
The gnostic aspect to the judge was a deep thread I followed and I can see why many hold it dear. The burning tree is my favorite passage. The tree of knowledge maybe, which is central to Gnosticism. The spark within, the fire, inside the kid and up for grabs by the judge. Are we witnessing a microcosm of Gnosticism through the judge and kid and is the judge an aeon in that sense. Maybe the judge is not gnostic but the rules of reality and those rules, in cormacs eyes, were best seen in Gnostic works. It’s a fascinating discussion.
I thought he is portrayed as barefoot naked, with small feet. The Judge is not the devil, he is just a man who people believe to be the devil. They give him the power, and through a placebo, he wears the skin of power. But he isnt the devil, he is just a man
I’m only a third through the video so I apologize if you mention this later, but I do believe that description of the Judge you cited as from McCarthy actually comes from Samuel Chamberlain’s “My Confession”, an autobiography which undoubtedly had a huge influence on Blood Meridian.
I'd say in the novel the better interpretation is that Holden is the Devil, he hunts the gang because they did not uphold their bargain with him. His deals are too good to be true. FOr example he offers an inordinate amount of money for the Kid's pistol, and claims he simply wishes to buy it fair and square. The kid and Tobin think it's not good and imply that Holden will simply shoot them with the pistol and take his money. I think that the better interpretation is Holden is the Devil and there is no God, at least not one who can be counted on, or contacted. He has abandoned humanity. The only God left to treat with man is the Devil, Holden. He takes on the role of God but in a twisted way, leading him companions through the desert, not to the Promised Land but to Death. I think gnosticism is a wholly esoteric system that is unconcerned with earthly life and offers nothing to the story. It's not simply that God is the Devil. That idea exists elsewhere. I don't think it adds anything to this story, and much of its main ideas are missing in Blood Meridian. For example, true knowledge would save and spare the travellers but this in not true in the story. It is a desperate and dark one, the light in the world does not exist and cannot be found even through true knowledge, this is totally counter to gnosticism.
This was an amazing analysis on the Judge. However, I still do believe the Judge represents the Devil and if he is not he is a man who believes he is or wants to become God. His ideology on war does not make sense for it to be from a human but only of a jealous supernatural entity who loathes God and his creation. The Kid is give chances time and time again to escape the gang and many occasions that are symbolic or extremely lucky for him as if something is watching over him. I believe God plays a major part in this story especially through the Kid, but the Kid refuses to take up the dance and what other way would he have lived other than death. Or perhaps Judge Holden had him rape the missing girl to bring to him down to his level. This is all a mockery of God and his creation. To Satan the only thing that separates the rule of the universe is power and because God decimated Satan, the universe only works through him. But if Satan could kill God in the dance then what other justification could there be. The Kid was given many chances and he refused to dance. The tradgedy is not the Kids fate but the refusal of the dance that ultimately lets evil prevail. That’s why the Judge says he’ll never sleep and that he’ll never die because no one will dare to try and stop him.
Thank you for making this seriously I couldn't make the connections to gnostic ideology, but i wasnt satisfied with the judge just being the devil, I knew it couldnt be that cut and dry. So glad someone dove deeper and made this. Seriously enlightening stuff im gonna read the book again i feel like its gonna be completely different
He is the personification of war its all over the novel war was waiting for man as was the judge on the rock the characters all knew him before they met him. War judges men at a basic level. War plays a fiddle that nakes men dance
I heard an interesting theory a few years back about the various rape/murders that happen throughout the novel, that it wasn't the Judge committing them at all but rather the kid. The bodies are described to have a large hand print on their necks, but the Judge's hands are always described throughout as being small and childlike, while the kid's are described as large even for his age. It also would explain why the Judge has "seen" the kid and why he seems to be privy to some secret of the kid's when he is speaking to him at the end, and also why the Judge assaults the kid (man) before killing him.
Very well presented and your thesis on the origin of the Judge is superbly defended. I've always been dismissive of concluding the judge to be some type of personification of evil as it seems too obvious and somewhat disjointed from the character McCarthy presents to us. It has been on my "to do list" to study how McCathy's gnostic knowledge may have shaped the novel but, obviously, that is a large undertaking.
I've always agreed about the Judge. He has needs and limitations that seem too human for him to be some supernatural entity of any kind. For instance, throughout the novel he is shown to be a master of languages, but when the gang meets the Apaches outside Tucson and trade for whiskey, the Judge doesn't speak any Apache and instead converses with the man in Spanish. Either he never had the chance to learn Apache, meaning he is not omnipotent, or he simply was not interested in it, which would indicate a European/American bias that is all too human and does not support the idea that he is the Devil or something like that. Also, his pale skin burns easily, he evidently still has needs for food and water and he was even caught off guard in that one Mexican cantina where the shootout happened during the funeral. He just seems like a human with abnormal strength, charisma and intellect as well as sociopathic tendencies but he can still be bested.
@@plaguepandemic5651he still has obvious need of food and water? How so? Not once in this novel does he eat, drink, or sleep. Not even when others do so.
@@jleo8656 well the judge was described by Tobin at one point to be drunk during the urine gunpowder creation a la Paradise Lost, he also drinks at the end scene in Texas. I like the idea that he speaks more than he does, which is like when he lies at the start of the story about having “the goods” on the priest in order to incite a riot. but also it’s a novel with profoundly varying interpretations, and I for one welcome a varied multitude instead of just a singular one
Very Bad Wizard recently did a three-part series on Blood Meridian and they also viewed it as a story based on gnostic cosmology although they were more skeptical of whether the judge was supernatural. Worth checking out.
Really great video. I've been fascinated with this book for the past couple months. However, it's been difficult to get through it as Cormac's writing style is difficult to follow. Doesn't help that english is my second language. I've read The Road but that one mostly dialogue so it's much easier to follow. Do you have any recommendations to maybe build up to Blood Meridian?
Thank you! Blood Meridian is certainly a challenging read at times. It is impressive that you find the dialogue the easiest part though! Many readers find that to be the most difficult to follow. I find "The Orchard Keeper" to be a good introduction to McCarthy. It was his first Novel, and is easier to understand while still having all his style in tact. What do you find difficult specifically with BM? following the sequence of action? the specific vocabulary? locational changes? If it is following the sequence of action or location. My best advice would be to not worry too much about knowing exactly where the group is or where they want to go. simply reading the text and processing the conversations is a perfectly valid and deep way to experience the text. Then when you are done you can look up a short summary to try and put everything together plot wise. This can also be done on a per chapter basis. If it is BM's vocabulary, that is perfectly understandable. Pretty much no native English speaker today would describe the sky as "The Firmament" like MCCarthy does in this book. Much of the vocabulary is archaic and obtuse. It is written that way to be very biblical, and can lead to a lot of strange (but fantastic) descriptions. I find looking up these rare and unused words to be part of the fun of reading such books, and I stop a reading many times to look up the words right as I encounter them. A final strategy I would suggest is listening to a section you are struggling with in an audio format. If the narrator is well versed in McCarthy their intonation will make his style seem almost natural, and the regular cadence of a speaker who knows where the book is going helps me immensely in understanding what is happening when the plot gets complicated or lost. I believe the Sean Rothman has a free audiobook on TH-cam that is excellent (Although I'm not sure how legal it is copyright-wise).
This is an excellent analysis, and I'm quite happy to hear that I'm not the only one who has always disagreed with the implications of the judge being symbolism for the devil. Although I do understand where one can easily gather this conclusion, I can't help but feel that it's the easy way out. The only thing that I feel could have also been added to your essay (and this is my own personal opinion and analysis) is that judge is purpose written and designed to mislead the audience into a false sense that he is the pinnacle of evil. I'm simplifying my speculations here, but I always have felt that McCarthy understood the rampant deception that is throughout gnostic beliefs, from the demiurge to its outlook on the more widely accepted Abrahamic religions, I feel that he wrote the judge to portray the "trap" you spoke of but also to trap the readers into believing a much simpler and significantly less dreadful conclusion and summary. I am absolutely subscribing.
This is a great point/clarification. I agree completely. A huge underlying theme of the novel that I visualized while writing the script was that if modern audiences were exposed to Adoni, he would absolutely resemble the form of modern conceptions of Satan. I also find this theme throughout Outer Dark as well due to the triune nature of the main antagonist and the implementation of sangro-libation that is present in the novel's climax.
Good video I'd like to make some points I do not believe that the judge is evil but rather that he is completely without morals he is not immoral simply nonmoral and I think his character was closer to the demiurge rather than to Lucifer and he is still dancing he was dancing in Rwanda he's dancing in the Ukraine right now he does not sleep and he will never die❤
What about the futility of the judge's actions if he is the demiurge? Someone mentioned this in another comment and went on to describe the references to gnostic mythology as being like when a Christian writer alludes to Greek or Roman mythology, rather than a basis for the central theme of the novel and the judge's character. Personally I feel like the video does a disservice to his character by trying to contain him within a system even if he is at the top as some kind of deity, it is far more unnerving (and effective writing) to think that the characters of the novel can never know anything about him other than what he wants them to know. This perspective - leaving much of his character in the dark - makes him a far more supernatural figure and changed my reading of him greatly. when I read, I quickly accepted in the dream sequence that somehow, someway, the judge was allowing the Kid to have his dream and possibly understand the judge's purpose. The same commenter described him as the judge of what is 'real or pretence', or maybe rather what is genuine, hence the coins being made in the dream. This explains the fascination with war, it is everywhere, it is seemingly intrinsic to all humans, it is real. However the expressly pitiful state of the forger, the exile from man's fire, the enshadowing of the judge... It seems to me like a punishment, not to mention the separation of those being punished and seemingly the rest of humanity. (I do know that fire is extremely symbolic throughout the novel but I need to read into what it means before I make a judge(pun unintended)ment). The punishment that the Kid witnesses certainly is in line with ideas of the judge as Satan or the setting being Hell, but it doesn't quite fit: Why would all the kids get diddled? What did they do to deserve that? Overall I think McCarthy is an absolute genius because the judge is far scarier for not knowing why he does things, why he punishes people, not knowing in the sense that you know 80% of his reasoning but then he does something, seemingly contradicting himself. As far as I know there is no surefire way of determining why the judge what he does, the only thing we leave knowing as readers is that War is God. The judge worships Chaos. R.I.P Cormac McCarthy
The cold forger is McCarthy himself, writing the novel. As The Judge is the judge of all falsehoods, and the novel itself is false. Covering up the real history of the Glanton's, Judge Holden and the Real Kid, who's name was Samuel Chamberlain. A brilliant nod to the act of novelizing history. Allowing one of your characters to get a peek at you, enslaved to the villain, offering tribute.
I’m not particularly fond of the Gnostic interpretation of McCarthy. In that, I agree with McCarthy scholars and artists like Peter Josyph, who argued that seeing all things in terms of trapped divine sparks, metaphysical forces and archontic heimarmene truly closes one’s eyes to the very real, physical realities of suffering, violence, and death.
A little poorly worded on my part. By "...yet another film adaption is in the works" I mean that while none have been completed, multiple have been "in the works" before.
Absolutely outstanding. Big things will certainly to this channel. The only contingency is that you keep producing content. Please do. Thank you from Australia.
The only criticism I have about Blood Meridian is that the constant metaphors became a bit annoying. At times it seemed like almost every sentence ended with a metaphor, and it became a bit grating once I noticed it. I reckon if you did a word-count for Blood Meridian, the word ‘like’ would be one of the most repeated words in the book. Don’t get me wrong, metaphors can be a great way of conveying a feeling. But I think they should be used in moderation…
You come off as really pretentious by writing off other creator's interpretations of the Judge (they even Say as much during their videos) as silly uninformed sentimentalism.
I think the best interpretation of the Judge, other than in Blood Meridian itself, is within the text of Full Metal Alchemist. The alchemy of that series was based on gnostic theology as well, making the great pale being of Truth, the same being of the Judge, the God of their respective universe.
Sorry the useless static made this too annoying to finish. Your video is often clear and loud enough to hear but with the static you dial your audio down to amplify the static but make me constantly change the volume.
I finished this book around a week ago and my take from it, is that anything is possible in life and when you take into account the horrid things that happen in the novel this is actually scary and maybe the judge embodies this feeling p.s any William Faulkner you would recommend?
I got my start in literary analysis through short stories, so when suggesting readings I always default to short story collections. "Collected Stories of William Faulkner" by vintage books is a great start. I particularly love "That Evening Sun" and "The Tall Men" (which is in another edition). My personal favorite is "The Sound and the Fury" by far, but "Absolom, Absolom," is also incredible.
to me holden was the most christian of them all, showing the world what they crave and what they always bring while trying to figure out the lies they've been told their whole life.
Daron Aronofsky would be my choice as director. He's the only one who has made me feel as disgusting and unclean for being human during a film as I felt while reading Blood Meridian.
Great analysis. I have my own view on The Judge, and I think he is the representation of Capitalism. To him war is the ultimate most profitable goal, and slowly but steadily he absorbs even the religious aspects of society (the ex-priest) and the natural, instinctive parts of it (the kid). He aims to control and label everything in this world to his own profit, and by the end of the book we see how all the many different coins and bills from everywhere finally succumbs to the almighty american dollar bills (the kid's dream, with the judge supervising the forging of a unique coin was actually profetic)
Yeah, he’s essentially the dark side of America. Selfish, deluded, arrogant, hyper masculine, creepily/unnaturally white, violent, hypnotic, inspiring, clever, demanding, evil. And I think the kid represents the fate of the next generation of Americans - how can they avoid their own environment? Eventually they feel they have no choice but to join in. But there is a lingering sense throughout the text that the judge and the gang are not as big as they imagine themselves. Rivers and deserts can kill them. Animals and the weather and native peoples threaten them constantly. The judge proclaims he will live forever, but that just goes to show how ridiculous he truly is. When I read the book, I don’t get a sense of hopelessness. I get the sense that I’m reading a rap sheet and a reckoning is coming.
The judge is not Gnostic, he's expressly in opposition to the burning tree. The book has more themes in common with the lay follower's accidental Zoroastrian style dualism between the devil and god, then anything else, fitting as that is the most common lay outlook on biblical canon in the US.
I like the part where the judge grows flowers to give with a hug to children.
It honestly would have been hilarious if the Judge wasn't a child predator. Just a bloodthirsty, heartless murderer with a soft spot for children and puppies lmao
@@jonahc2807That would technically kinda ruin Holden's character,sense he loves WAR,and what is WAR,The ultimate haram'ed sin,as it contains all evils as1 evil in other words WAR,so him not committing something so vilely unforgivable is to humane. . .
@user-bj3ct5rl8b yeah but it would be funny
“If God meant to interfere in the degeneracy of mankind, would he not have done so by now?” So chilling when you realize he’s talking about himself
I could not possibly imagine a worse time and climate to be making a Blood Meridian film.
Exactly. I think it'll either never make it to theater, never make it to production like the attempted adaptations before it, or that if and when it comes out, it'll be incredibly muted and disappointing. I don't have high hopes, but hey, a man can dream.
That's why it's perfect!!
@@greensimpson3209I hope you are right and they are somehow able to pull no punches.
Fr
It might very well be the worst thing ever put to film because of the climate of the times
Thank you for making this video. I can’t read and I am illiterate. 😢
Why is this the only comment and why is it so goddamn funny to me lol
TH-cam works in mysterious ways
Amazing video, by the way. I just finished Blood Meridian when I found this, and I am in awe of the insight you provided 🙌
Me too. Thanks also.
Lea Michelle?
I’m totally going to butcher this, but I like Book by Book’s interpretation of Blood Meridian. They seemed to argue that it’s many things, but among them is a conversation about theodicy, the Judge being an agent of that. The kid in the story is our “saint,” who had seen the blood of war, and horror in the round, and did in fact NOT find that it spoke to his inmost heart. He is confronted with the horrors of the world and time period he’s in, and exists in it without judging it. Like the traveller in the story of the harness maker says, he took his fellow man into his heart. You can see moments of compassion from the kid, both during and after his time with the Glanton Gang. His attitude is one more of forgiveness than of disgust and horror as one might expect, given all he goes through in the story. The Judge sees the kid as a disappointment because of this. The kid is a rejection of theodicy. He is textual evidence that we don’t need to be cruel just because the world was made with cruelty in it. If the Judge and the kid really are “the last of the true,” as the Judge says, then of course the Judge would find the agency and forgiveness of the kid to be an insult. The Judge wants to push and prod people into being more violent. He wants the ability to control people through their animalistic impulses, and ingrained sense of morality. The kid’s freedom from this is something the Judge would seek to snuff out.
The story ends in a danse macabre, an expression of sorrow in a moment of extreme tragedy. The Judge towers over them all and provides a moment of respite in himself, in a moment where he can be looked upon with fetishized adoration, as he continues to perpetuate the things which need to be expressed through dance.
If you think there is a saint in this story you have not been paying attention
I feel that animation might be a better option than live action for an adaptation.
It absolutely would
100%
What kind of style of animation?
Or a series
@@TheVonhouser I'd imagine something in the style of Ralph Bakshi, or something like Watership Down / The plague Dogs. Something raw and gritty.
This is the most well done video essay on the judge I’ve ever listened to. And the conclusion is indeed far more terrifying
This book is a masterpiece, my favourite part of the book was when the Judge says, "I'll be the judge of that!" and then judges everyone
Huhaha! That's so original! I definitely haven't seen this exact same, stupid comment under every Blood Meridian video on the fn internet.
@@SpicyMcHaggis202tell it to the judge
@@SpicyMcHaggis202 *every video ever
A fellow Wendigoon comment section peruser I see
Stolen comment from another, older video
Some years ago, back at a time when I read and reread “Blood Meridian”, I sometimes came home, half expecting to find the Judge sitting there in my kitchen or living room, waiting for me…
McCarthy and this book in particular really changed a lot about how I look at the world and my fellow human beings.
Regarding the judge: In a recent study, “Cormac McCarthy: An American Apocalypse”, the author argued that the Judge can be evocative of and essentially fulfill the roles of so many literary and mythological figures and eternal forces (Satan, Dionysus, the Renaissance man, Melville’s Whale, the Enlightenment, war, destiny) is because he functions very much like a principle of desire and violence and signification itself that is at the heart of all of these figures and entities. It sounds weird, but it’s pretty much the most lucid and encompassing analysis of the Judge that I know.
He evokes similair vibes to the hat man, or the smiling man, or the face that thousands of people see when dreaming. Some entity living in the collective memory of humanity. I agree that after finishing the book, I feel like I'm waiting for him to show up in real life somewhere.
I feel McCarthy would say if you see him in your waking, you are already dead and it is not a good thing to be so. The man put the kid-Elrod-down to prevent his suffering which he knew was coming because he had already been through it. Gnosticism? Maybe, partly, but I believe McCarthy in a classical Christian sense repeatedly examines a fallen world full of fallen creatures ruled by evil and fate. He just mostly sees no path to salvation.
This novel changed my life in how I look at the world. Brilliant writing
Yeah I find blood meridian no country for old men and the road to trilogy of the suffering of life at different points in time. Each Book has its own face of death blood meridian has the judge no country has chigur and the road has the world as the faces of death though there are no direct links to these books other then the suffering and death found where in all paint a similar picture of the unsung cruelty of man and the suffering of life it's self.
@@davidoliver9655You had to read MaCarthy to realize cruelty and suffering are part of life? What sheltered place have you been hiding?
@ArvidRanta no I said his novels really captured the cruelty and suffering of life
@@ArvidRanta I found my own suffering in life just found his work relatable in that regard.
@@davidoliver9655 I don't know man, I find there is something of the Gamer's vicarious experience in MaCarthy novels. In Blood Meridian he's writing about a time period that dispersed long before he was born, that has no basis in reality. The times we live it today (2024) are every bit as cruel and suffering filled as any time period in a MaCarthy novel circa 1800s, the only difference is that back then, they didn't have entertainments like _Blood Meridian_ , video games and porn to distract them from the hard realities of life. Entertainment that keep them, from realizing their true and full development as men, keep them in a "bug man" state vicarious adventures believing Judge Holden as the avatar of manifest destiny, "evil" or man's primal nature etc etc whatever.
I just finished Blood Meridian a few days ago, and I'm still kind of sitting with it and processing all the symbolism in it. I really enjoyed this video, I think it's definitely one of the best videos I've seen on the book. I appreciate all the references you provided and the examples of other topics to research. I would love to see videos of other classics, this should totally be a series.
2 months later, got any new thoughts?
The one line that really made me decide the Judge was supernatural was in the end when he tells the kid that he had left his companion Shelby to the Mexican troops to die after they drew the arrows to kill the man. The entire company had ridden on by then, none of the gang could have known that he did not carry out the order. The Kid never mentions it to anyone, and unless the Judge sees Shelby many years later somehow, which is not mentioned, he would have no idea this transpired and no reason to think The Kid didnt carry out the order unless he was omniscient.
You might be right about this part, but ive always felt the Judge knew about it because of his understanding the Kids character. The Judge chastised the Kid for holding back. During their confrontation near the end of the Glanton gang, the Judge scolds the Kid for not buying in to all of the violence. I can't remember the exact words, though. He basically calls the kid a hypocrite. I think the Judge knew all along that the kid had a bit of mercy in him. That he felt he was better or separate from the gang.
@@johnchristopher3032 Do you do realize every single time the kid sees the judge before he joins the gang the judge looks directly at him and smiles because the judge is some demiurgical/satanic manifestation of mankind's darkness. The judge knew from when he first saw him the mindless violence the kid was capable of but the kid never fully embraced it. Only something of that almost metaphysical nature would know what's in the kids heart.
@@johnchristopher3032the kid never thought he was better than the gang though so that doesn’t make sense, being other from the gang is different, everyone in the gang is an other so that otherness is really some kind of weird affinity that unites them
holy fuck this just makes Jude Holden even scarier. He's not just evil, he *is* evil.
The Night Does Not End channel, has some excellent insight, and is likely why I was recommended your channel.
The Vile Eye, has made videos I’ve liked, but often they are a bit to simple, with how they breakdown characters, especially when they don’t take the writer’s own beliefs into account.
The issue I've found with the Vile Eye is the monotone of his voice. It sounds like an AI reading a script.
The vile eye video on the judge frustrated me so much because I couldn't properly articulate why it was such a surface level take. No one in the comments seemed to disagree with the creators opinion either. This video has a much better and deeper analysis
I think he also made a pretty bad video about Anton Chigurh where he said that Chigurh 'enjoys killing people', when one of the few things we learn about him is that he kills people because he is so convinced that he doesn't have a choice.
No observation here outside of the Vile Eye sucks - no clue why he thought showing himself sitting on throne would help his videos
@@runningcommentary2125 he also didn't even read the book to compare and contrast the villian. I hate when people do that. Anton in the book literally is a complete ghost and you don't even get a full description of what he looks like. He even talks a lot more and has some insanely good lines in there.
The quote at 8:24 is actually from Samuel Chamberlain's memoir "My Confessions". The passage describes the real historical Judge Holden that inspired the Blood Meridian Judge Holden. In the book Holden is around 7 feet tall.
Correct. The discrepancy is noted in the description.
The Judge is the Voice most people follow. The Man in this book chooses not to listen, and thereby survives to the end, albeit he shares a kindred spirit with the Judge.
But his existence goes against the Judge’s existence since the Man chose humaneness and to be merciful instead. That’s why he dies at the Judge’s hands, anything good he turns to death, or manipulates to turn evil and become an instrument for his “dance” with the warfare he craves and the violence that proceeds it.
I don't know where you got your sources from, but gnosticism wasn't a unified religion. It is an umbrella term to describe unorthodox practices of Christianity in its early days. There was no cohesive message between gnostics
Even "Fated Ones" can fall to depths and depravity
No matter how blessed or ceremonial their entrance to the story.
I have to disagree with the gnostic connection, yes there are a few references to gnostic mythology, perhaps in the same way that a Christian might reference Roman or Greek mythology, but they don't need to go any further than that I think. I find myself disagreeing with everything else. I don't see why the Judge, if he is a demiurge, would be a judge of his own creation? or why he would try to lay claim to his own creation? That doesn't make any sense.
Another aspect of his character which I don't see mentioned a lot of the time is the futility in much of his actions, like his claim to everything, he cannot possibly put everything down in his notebook as a single wandering man, in between violently murdering people and raping children. Are we to believe that the demiurge, the all powerful (at least in it's own domain of it's own creation) would waste it's time doing that? Why would it indulge in the material world too? Raping, dancing and drinking, when these material indulgences are components of a prison which *he specifically made* to distract us from achieving gnosis?
Rather I think he is the judge of what is real or pretence, it's why he loves war so much, it's direct and requires no thinking or pretence, it's a bit like Fascist anti-politics. One of the main inspirations for the character (apparently, I don't have a source for this, I read it somewhere, but there seems to be very similar themes) was Captain Kurtz from Heart of Darkness, which has very similar themes about pretence, portrayed somewhat in the contrast between the pretentious and constantly mocked civilisation and the brutal, but respected barbarism in that book. The judge refers to this sort of thing frequently, "it becomes a false dance" and all that.
Also, if this cycle of violence is some trap the judge puts people in to distract from gnosis or whatever, again, why does he indulge in it himself? But also, why is the book called "Blood Meridian, or, The Evening Redness in the West"? Those two things mean the highest point of the sun, and sunset. This title, along with the classic association of "blood" with "violence" implies that this is the height of violence here, and that it's going to get more peaceful from here, or that the violence is ending, after all we don't have headhunting gangs getting native scalps in Mexico anymore, cartels notwithstanding.
I'll conceded that I'm Christian enough to see Gnosticism as a terrible heresy, so I'll admit I have a bit of bias there. That being said though, I don't resent this video at all, despite my disagreeing with much of it's conclusions, it made me think a bit more deeply about my favourite book, so thank you :). I'll also concede I could be entirely wrong about this.
The title of the book and the setting too is extremely contradictory, every time violence as well as the judge is mention there is explicit imagery of an endless night. Everything is off and off-putting, a strange place where the darkest things happen when the sun is high and the night never ends in the daytime of the desert. I don't think it is fair to say that the judge's night has ended in the text - or will end - just because it has in real life.
For more insight on the gnostic connections, read A Bloody and Barbarous God by Petra Mundik.
I agree with you. People see Gnosticism is an exotic kind of Biblical exegesis and so allusions to it in Blood Meridian get drawn up into rudderless theories about the judge and lose everything else. Suddenly the image of the tree struck by lightning in the desert surrounded, worshipped even, by every creature seeking warmth becomes a Gnostic allegory rather than contiguous with McCarthy’s appraisal of fire as the good.
@@j.johnson2190 Gnosticism has kind of become a slight obsession of mine as of late, and while I agree with you completely it never really occurred to me that most people see it that way, some esoteric extension of the Bible.
The Gospel of Judas is probably the best example of that, the idea that *none* of the disciples really understood what Jesus was talking about, except Judas, who Jesus entrusted with this great task. Perhaps the passion was a necessary and essential event for humanity - Paul perhaps implied this a few times (in Romans, which I just read).
But then I got myself a copy of the Gospel of Judas and it's...
not...
that...
it's just some silly gnostic text which makes no sense.
The mythology sounds so appealing when you first step into it, but it crumbles very quickly, and there's no way you could write any kind of compelling narrative through it, there's no Dante's Divine Comedy or Milton's Paradise lost to be pulled from the various gnostic gospels, and I should think the same applies to Blood Meridian.
Yep. It's a terrible analysis.
i just finished reading blood meridian for the first time tonight and only now do i feel as though I'm coming out of the pitched fever dream within the tail end of a bad peyote trip. it feels like something changed in me, like the way no country for old men made me feel: that bloodlust and violence and all things selfish and destructive are not new and have in fact been around for eons. and maybe they always will be. not that it's news to me or anyone else, it's plain to see. many are lured into nihilism or some other absolutism when they come across works like these, that remind them of the darkest corners of their souls and that evil lies most comfortably within the hearts of normal men and women. but i'm also a sentimental idiot so i grabbed my cat, hugging him and holding him, choosing to repudiate that path. because I want to, or because i can.
don't really know why i wrote any of that. but thanks for the video, it is very well researched and thought provoking. it seems everyone takes something different away from blood meridian, and yours is definitely one of the most interesting expositions i've seen on it. in many ways it's as esoteric as cormac mccarthy's own writing at times, so it feels like a very pointed place to put a lid on my thoughts regarding this book for a while. also sorry for basically writing my own book in your comment section. I'm at that stage of the acid trip where you're coming back down to consensus reality and gibbering away about your thoughts on all kinds of things, all of which you'll forget come morning.
Finally, someone with actual knowledge of the existing literature on Blood Meridian doing a video.
Too often TH-camrs rush to do things they neither understand nor are qualified to comment on. Love their own voice I guess.
What do you mean? Can you say more?
I read about the historical Glanton gang, is there anything else?
I think it says a lot about how well written Blood Meridian is, and the brilliance of it's openness to interpretation, that people can come to such vastly different conclusions about the content and context of the story. I think these multiple conflicting concepts between Christianity and Gnosticism were intentional, and perhaps McCarthy's way of letting the reader's point of view shape their view of the characters and themes of the story.
At the end of the day I think it's pretty clear The Judge is in fact, satan. The amount of references that are both subtle and on the nose to him being the devil are so numerous it's hard for me to see it any other way.
The way all these symbols swirl together is truly incredible. McCarthy wrote something that will affect us all (in different ways) for years, and a diversity in opinion is what makes Literary analysis something I will never tire of.
Cheers!
Gnosticism and Christianity are deeply related though ?
well go ahead first and put forth a definition of satan because even that isn't as straightforward as most would like
this is an outstanding essay on Blood Meridian. Its great to see this novel finding a life of appreciation on youtube.
Excellent video. This is a very literate interpretation of McCarthy. Too many people assume they know what he’s talking about with minimal research. Great vid. Look forward to watching more of your channel :)
This is a pretty obvious case of reading into a text what you wish to be there.
Cormac McCarthy studied Gnosticism, it's not a stretch to see it's influence in Blood Meridian
I disagree that its not a message of of salvation. I think there is a example of salvation in the depiction of The Kid's journey through the brutality of the story, towards the end he shows compassion and mercy for the dying old woman while he"s guarding the caravans (if you know, you know if you haven't read it, read it) only to find she's already dead, then later on he meets the children and tells them stories from his days with Glanton, the one child challenges him and says he's a liar, in this moment the Kid chooses pride and accepts the challenge but the child's friends drag him away, but when The Kid is sleeping the child comes back to shoot him in his sleep but hesitates, The Kid hears the gun cock, wakes up and grabs his own gun shooting the child and after that he encounters the judge after all those years apart. When The Kid shoots the child he chose pride again, instead of the humility that the brutality he saw with the glanton gang taught him, and took a life, maybe in that moment he was supposed to die and thats just it or maybe he was supposed to some humility before but he didn't he went with our more base desires and that's why the judge finds him again after all that time because he failed. I personally believe he was supposed to die at the childs hands but didn't accept his fate and thats why the judge comes for him and thats the message of salvation in blood meridian, that true mercy can be learned in this brutal world and that if don't forget that mercy you can have a peaceful life.
It's hard to take an opinion seriously when it's coming from someone with your name.
@@ALotOfCancerscoopity poop
you should pay attention to mcarthy and stop jerking youserlf off
Suttree is the very first novel I read by McCarthy in 1979. I was barely 20, and his prose changed me forever and made me determined to become a writer. It will always be my favorite novel. But Blood Meridian is a giant. I truly hope that whoever adapts this for the screen will not adhere to “diversity” requirements and have completely artistic free hand. Someone like Robert Eggers.
Fuck Black Jackson and the Delawares because this man needs his content white. What a clown shoe comment. So much to say about this juggernaut of a story and u choose to show how small u are. Good show
Fascinating essay - very well presented analysis and hypothesis, Thank you! I'm delighted when I stumble across someone who's getting to the deeper layers of the novel that most reviewers and essayists don't dig down to.
Since we are only infrequently given access into the thoughts of the characters in Blood Meridian we are definitely left to our own devices to interpret the horrors and the mutating, multiple motives of the gang. I think this is why certain people really dislike the experience of Blood Meridian - it forces us as readers to the heavy lifting. Perhaps more than any fictional book I've read it coaxes, prods and dares the reader to damn the bloody foundation of the United States. The narrator certainly isn't going to.
To me Blood Meridian is whispering something incredibly unsettling: that the horrendous notion of manifest destiny is still very much alive TODAY and that it casts its potent spell in every landgrab, foreign military intervention and institutionally racist decision. This spell continues to transform acts of evil into well-intended misadventures. I see reviewers go 'Wow, the Wild West was so brutal, glad that's all long in the past' when in fact that spirit of the judge who sketches, pontificates, categorizes, imprisons, owns, rapes, desecrates, kills, destroys is evident in contemporary Neoconservatism, hyper-consumerism and fascist movements.
To me the judge is not at all the embodiment of the Devil but rather undying white American exceptionalism and insatiable colonial hunger. In his 1963 book, “Why We Can’t Wait,” Martin Luther King Jr wrote:
“Our nation was born in genocide when it embraced the doctrine that the original American, the Indian, was an inferior race. Even before there were large numbers of Negroes on our shores, the scar of racial hatred had already disfigured colonial society. From the sixteenth century forward, blood flowed in battles of racial supremacy. We are perhaps the only nation which tried as a matter of national policy to wipe out its Indigenous population. Moreover, we elevated that tragic experience into a noble crusade. Indeed, even today we have not permitted ourselves to reject or feel remorse for this shameful episode. Our literature, our films, our drama, our folklore all exalt it.”
Of course since King wrote this there have actually been plenty of popular books, albums and movies that have subverted this mythology and addressed the blood-soaked making of America, but I propose that the core belief in manifest destiny has never been dislodged.
Kyle Wang has written a great article about the colonial imagination within Blood Meridian here: www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/4937932BF2B6D6C6F698AE12244C50B7/S2052261422000265a.pdf/cormac_mccarthys_racial_fictions_race_in_blood_meridians_colonial_imagination.pdf
The reason why the judge is so disturbing is because he's here haunting the 21st century, still trying to woo us, still dancing, still killing.
Interesting. One could think that to many Judge is the devil since it's a much more universal concept, as compared to the things you mentioned. Obviously the setting is the wild west but I would still argue that the idea of the Judge being able to exist anywhere, at any time, is what gives him this pellucid, nightmarish quality. I do believe that there must be some significance to the fact that all races followed the Judge and heeded his counsel, in turn exploiting all other races. Also also, parts like Glanton and Judge covering for the black Jackson after killing the barkeep in a Mexican town make me think that, while he might be partly tied to those casus belli that you mentioned, those are just tools to him, that serve his ultimate goal, war and conflict that's universal in it's death toll.
So what you got out the book was nothing except all the things you already thought anyway and all the strawmen you hsd constructed confirmed. Damn, what are the odds. It's almost like when you are a hammer...
This makes absolutely no sense in this book it clearly shows all men are capable of evil so why would it represent white americans.
@@marcogianesello6083The legacy of manifest destiny and white supremacy is one of the major themes in the book
You must have missed the native Americans and Mexicans were as or more violent than the Americans.
I just got done with Blood Meridian and was looking for a great essay on Holden. Thank you!
From what I’ve seen, the same director of The Road will direct the BM film adaptation. He did a pretty decent job of bringing McCarthy’s cryptic and highly metaphorical words to life.
Tip from one literature fan to another:
Bro you gotta stop abbreviating "Blood Meridian" to "BM" 💀
The idea that the Judge is God of this hellish world, is given to him in title with the utmost relevancy.
To further this, it is quite possible that this place is the closest rendition of Hell on Earth. Or possibly even, Hell itself -- And we, the reader, are given insight into McCarthy's rendition of watching the Devil traverse through the endless slog that IS Hell.
Death and decay fill in the spaces between the interactions of this worlds lifeforms; one's whose high's ultimately lead up to debauchery, often at the expense of another's livelihood, or their overall well-being. While the idea of being "content", can be seen as people(s) having enough to merely survive for the coming days.
Glanton's party could maybe even be perceived as the Demon's of hell themselves. Once seen as Heroes, and when that status is attained.. shortly thereafter, comes their fall from grace.
Committing acts of heinous deeds to sew in their fate; remarkably akin to the Fallen angels. Especially the ex-priest himself, lending even more tribute towards such a theory.
And while the Judge may appear to be well off in this rugged, cruel world, and having an answer for everything.. he is actually tormented and tortured in this land as well. His appearance and placement within this world, could be seen as strongly representative to an ultimate punishment put upon him.
His skin is pale, and not made to weather the cruel nature of this Land. He has all the markings of a man who should be somebody that every women could fall head over heels for, every man would want to be. Yet his biological facial features that fill in that physical stature, features which would insight lust & jealousy, are filled in instead to perceive him as a fat, ugly ogre; the precise opposite of beauty, an abomination to the eyes. So much so, it almost doesn't even make sense; a juxtaposition made to be served for his foul existence, which spills onto others around him in temptation to wretched, disgusting, and deplorable acts committed upon others
Even more so, he is especially, naturally abnormal to the area where he is seen, yet even so in areas where pale white skinned folk do live. He is still gruesome in appearance.
His intellectual & brainpower side, holds the markings of a man accustomed to knowledge, wisdom, fancy, culture, and all the fineries that the world has to offer. Yet, he is surrounded by absolute dogs. Thieves, murderers, rapists, kidnappers, sadists, abusers, cowards, fools, drunks, adulterers -- and when the presence of another being such as his own, one with brains & strategical manner, enters is within his midst. He will almost Immediately gravitate towards them, and hold onto their time for as long as possible. (As if he is deprived of this)
The contrast of the Judge's power is shown through the Kid's early ventures. When his first, idiotic commander holds fast in the midst of a war party, where it is shown the common man of this region is rolling the dice with odds heavily stacked against them. Whereas, when placed in the Judge's party.. a similar situation, one seemingly damned at all ends.. is instead, turned around into a stunning victory. Made further in a scene, When those in his party decide to leave the Judges side. They are almost immediately butchered afterwards.
As if the Judge KNOWS the power to bend the laws of this land, he still has to fight within it to survive. As the land itself is an ever looming, around the clock source of cruelty towards life itself so much -- it makes life itself seem as if a mockery to the very reality of these lands.
There is no room here for knowledgeful minds to the finer delicacies of mankind, as much as there is none for those who seek to lock themselves away in study of culture, the arts, etc... There is no place for that there.
As even the ones who do survive this land, are at all times a mere coin flip away from lighting the fuse that is latched toward their demise. And must be on alert seemingly around the clock, while in it's grasp
Land whose Features which at any seeming moment, will drive any and ALL who traverse it to the brink of their survival skills, scrounging, and doing nearly anything necessary to just merely survive unto the next morning. By default, not only steering.. but absolutely plunging it's travelers into mindsets of those paralleling early stone-age man. By default, it punishes all who enter it in one way and/or many others. -- And this could be seen as God's Punishment onto Satan for his treachery.
Stripped of his otherworldly powers, and his wings to fly within the heavens. The Judge is damned to this hellish landscape on Earth, in a body that is barely human. The Devil however, has not forgotten what he has seen. His vast knowledge, insight, and wisdom still lies within. Yet, as a human being, he is also susceptible to ALL of the very Sins he introduced onto mankind
As Even the Judge himself, (confident & daring in this place and is surely just accustomed to the treacheries that lie in wait within this place). The man himself, has to commit to seemingly pull out EVERY & ALL tricks up his sleeves just to get by. Another show of his fall from power.
Instead, on Earth, his less then ideal for the region, pale white skin burns gruesomely under the rays of a beaming equatorial Sun.. it's as if the Sun's extra exposure here was by crafted by design to bring suffering onto the Him.
As well, the Judge must commit to the meager plight of hunger and sustenance. And further along the aforementioned notion: Rather then bask in the glory of the comfortable, beautiful heavens; rather then pursue glorious wisdoms & intellect of pure divine.. there is instead, in it's place Forced upon him through default -- a lust for blood, savagery, & flesh of mankind; lusts which he must fulfill seemingly endlessly around the clock, in this world tainted by the aid of His treacherous nature.
Within it, the Judge may seemingly hold something just short of pure supernatural power, a smack in the face from God; instead of holding the power to smite down his rivals at the Volcanic area, with a force of unparalleled, mystical power.. he must resort back to his Wisdom. And is instead forced to abide by the Law of this world. He is forced to use man-made, war time strategy of achieving the high ground, through to attainment he must first evade his persuers. Then, is further forced to resort to using urine & sulfuric resources to concoct shots of obsidian black ammunition to repel his attackers.
His whiff's of an entity once steadfast & strong with powers unheard of, now befell onto the worst place. Where he may hold vast, seemingly endless knowledge, and mysterious wisdoms. Yet he catalogues his findings upon the Earth, because he is simply relying on Wisdom from a time long ago, when he ONCE knew it all.. he is now forced to learn using the senses brandished upon him to which is limited by his human structure.
Damn
Underrated comment lmao
Nice essay, I guess. Thanks for sharing your opinion, however be advised going forward that less is more.
He is dancing, dancing. He says that he will never die.
Thank you for this video. I’ve watched a few analysis videos on this book and the super easy explanation that he’s the Devil or Death itself never felt right to me
by far the best analysis of blood meridian I've seen on youtube! I have just finished reading it a week ago, and all you said was so insightful, now I think I understand (at least some of it) and now I love this book even more :)
Thank you! I'm glad you found value in it!
Excellent video man! I really enjoyed your perspective focusing on a gnostic lens. I studied literature in college and McCarthy along with Blood Meridian were a game changer for me. I think you did a great job in your introduction by highlighting the ambivalence of McCarthys prose, perhaps due to McCarthys own reticence, without knowing his specific influences. What I find interesting are the judge’s dialectics on intertextuality. “My book or some other book said the judge. What is to be deviates no jot from the book wherein it's writ. How could it? It would be a false book and a false book is no book at all”. Or this one: “Words are things. The words he is in possession of he cannot be deprived of. Their authority transcends his ignorance of their meaning.” Lines like this make me think the Judge is moving into postmodern territory specifically in his use of contemporary philosophical ideologies regarding language. I believe language is ultimately yet another tool used by the judge to manipulate both the characters and the reader.
Thank you!
A postmodern analysis would be incredible to undertake. My experience with Foucault and other similar works is pretty limited, but it is hard to believe that McCarthy wasn't at least aware of Derrida or his contemporaries while writing his earlier fiction.
If we want to get really romantic, we could even say that McCarthy's lack of quotation marks is, in and of itself, a deconstruction of the opposition between Speech and Text that Derrida disliked so much, as the quotes of "speech" blend in with the text of the story. when those are laced with parables and stories, Our intertextuality becomes metatextuality...Beautiful, I think.
Along those lines, a postmodernist comparison of "Blood Meridian" and "The Road" would probably make an incredible thesis for a post grad. One being in the past and the other in the future, they are only separated by the present...of course, the present in which McCarthy wrote them into being. from history, comes the present and future, perhaps. Foucault would be drooling.
Awesome post! Thanks for your mention of intertextuality, it brought interesting ideas!
That’s a great point about the opposition between speech and text. That’s why I love this book so much, it resonates with so many different movements and periods in literature; ancient oral tradition, religious texts, romanticism, naturalism, postmodernism, etc..
And that is why Mr. Cormac McCarthy is the best writer in the history of American literature.
@@bluegregory6239 hes the most overrated writer in American literature, certainly. Apparently fans of "literature" are really easy to impress
Damn your videos are cool
The Vile Eye's Judge Holden vid is what got me into Blood Meridian, glad to see it being noticed, even if it is in way of criticism. This is a nice analysis
His video is still great! He obviously spent a lot of time with the text. We should be glad it gives us a good starting point to grapple with the ideas that McCarthy introduces.
I also think it's important to note the original 'My Confession' auto biography that speaks about the Judge, and who he really was. The real person had a lot of similarities at a glance, but Cormac did his own thing and merged the historical figure with many other things. I also think him being totally hairless is a misinterpretation (in the 'My Confession'), as I've always read it as meaning his face was hairless, meaning no beard, no entirely bald. but thats way off topic lol
The gnostic aspect to the judge was a deep thread I followed and I can see why many hold it dear. The burning tree is my favorite passage. The tree of knowledge maybe, which is central to Gnosticism. The spark within, the fire, inside the kid and up for grabs by the judge. Are we witnessing a microcosm of Gnosticism through the judge and kid and is the judge an aeon in that sense. Maybe the judge is not gnostic but the rules of reality and those rules, in cormacs eyes, were best seen in Gnostic works. It’s a fascinating discussion.
The Judge is the devil incarnate. This is why he is so huge but wears tiny shoes, because of his cloven hooves.
I thought he is portrayed as barefoot naked, with small feet.
The Judge is not the devil, he is just a man who people believe to be the devil. They give him the power, and through a placebo, he wears the skin of power. But he isnt the devil, he is just a man
I’m only a third through the video so I apologize if you mention this later, but I do believe that description of the Judge you cited as from McCarthy actually comes from Samuel Chamberlain’s “My Confession”, an autobiography which undoubtedly had a huge influence on Blood Meridian.
Yes, you are correct. The discrepancy is noted in the video description.
I'll tell you what he's not....allowed within 100 miles of any elementary school on the planet.
Amazing video too by the way
What does it say about me as a human that I am both scared and excited to see a visual adaptation of this horror?
To me ,what i remember most, is the comanche'legion of horribles'. This was a terrible part ,but i found it fascinating.
I respect the way you handle and place those sacred texts with your beautiful, manly hands.
best judge analysis, truly
I'd say in the novel the better interpretation is that Holden is the Devil, he hunts the gang because they did not uphold their bargain with him. His deals are too good to be true. FOr example he offers an inordinate amount of money for the Kid's pistol, and claims he simply wishes to buy it fair and square. The kid and Tobin think it's not good and imply that Holden will simply shoot them with the pistol and take his money.
I think that the better interpretation is Holden is the Devil and there is no God, at least not one who can be counted on, or contacted. He has abandoned humanity. The only God left to treat with man is the Devil, Holden. He takes on the role of God but in a twisted way, leading him companions through the desert, not to the Promised Land but to Death. I think gnosticism is a wholly esoteric system that is unconcerned with earthly life and offers nothing to the story. It's not simply that God is the Devil. That idea exists elsewhere. I don't think it adds anything to this story, and much of its main ideas are missing in Blood Meridian. For example, true knowledge would save and spare the travellers but this in not true in the story. It is a desperate and dark one, the light in the world does not exist and cannot be found even through true knowledge, this is totally counter to gnosticism.
that is so christian of you, cute
This was an amazing analysis on the Judge. However, I still do believe the Judge represents the Devil and if he is not he is a man who believes he is or wants to become God. His ideology on war does not make sense for it to be from a human but only of a jealous supernatural entity who loathes God and his creation. The Kid is give chances time and time again to escape the gang and many occasions that are symbolic or extremely lucky for him as if something is watching over him. I believe God plays a major part in this story especially through the Kid, but the Kid refuses to take up the dance and what other way would he have lived other than death. Or perhaps Judge Holden had him rape the missing girl to bring to him down to his level. This is all a mockery of God and his creation. To Satan the only thing that separates the rule of the universe is power and because God decimated Satan, the universe only works through him. But if Satan could kill God in the dance then what other justification could there be. The Kid was given many chances and he refused to dance. The tradgedy is not the Kids fate but the refusal of the dance that ultimately lets evil prevail. That’s why the Judge says he’ll never sleep and that he’ll never die because no one will dare to try and stop him.
Thank you for making this seriously I couldn't make the connections to gnostic ideology, but i wasnt satisfied with the judge just being the devil, I knew it couldnt be that cut and dry. So glad someone dove deeper and made this. Seriously enlightening stuff im gonna read the book again i feel like its gonna be completely different
He is the personification of war its all over the novel war was waiting for man as was the judge on the rock the characters all knew him before they met him. War judges men at a basic level. War plays a fiddle that nakes men dance
I heard an interesting theory a few years back about the various rape/murders that happen throughout the novel, that it wasn't the Judge committing them at all but rather the kid. The bodies are described to have a large hand print on their necks, but the Judge's hands are always described throughout as being small and childlike, while the kid's are described as large even for his age. It also would explain why the Judge has "seen" the kid and why he seems to be privy to some secret of the kid's when he is speaking to him at the end, and also why the Judge assaults the kid (man) before killing him.
Yes the judge is the devil on his shoulder and Tobin is the angel on his shoulder.
Very well presented and your thesis on the origin of the Judge is superbly defended. I've always been dismissive of concluding the judge to be some type of personification of evil as it seems too obvious and somewhat disjointed from the character McCarthy presents to us. It has been on my "to do list" to study how McCathy's gnostic knowledge may have shaped the novel but, obviously, that is a large undertaking.
I've always agreed about the Judge. He has needs and limitations that seem too human for him to be some supernatural entity of any kind. For instance, throughout the novel he is shown to be a master of languages, but when the gang meets the Apaches outside Tucson and trade for whiskey, the Judge doesn't speak any Apache and instead converses with the man in Spanish. Either he never had the chance to learn Apache, meaning he is not omnipotent, or he simply was not interested in it, which would indicate a European/American bias that is all too human and does not support the idea that he is the Devil or something like that. Also, his pale skin burns easily, he evidently still has needs for food and water and he was even caught off guard in that one Mexican cantina where the shootout happened during the funeral. He just seems like a human with abnormal strength, charisma and intellect as well as sociopathic tendencies but he can still be bested.
@@plaguepandemic5651he still has obvious need of food and water? How so?
Not once in this novel does he eat, drink, or sleep. Not even when others do so.
@@jleo8656 well the judge was described by Tobin at one point to be drunk during the urine gunpowder creation a la Paradise Lost, he also drinks at the end scene in Texas. I like the idea that he speaks more than he does, which is like when he lies at the start of the story about having “the goods” on the priest in order to incite a riot.
but also it’s a novel with profoundly varying interpretations, and I for one welcome a varied multitude instead of just a singular one
Very Bad Wizard recently did a three-part series on Blood Meridian and they also viewed it as a story based on gnostic cosmology although they were more skeptical of whether the judge was supernatural. Worth checking out.
Really great video. I've been fascinated with this book for the past couple months. However, it's been difficult to get through it as Cormac's writing style is difficult to follow. Doesn't help that english is my second language. I've read The Road but that one mostly dialogue so it's much easier to follow. Do you have any recommendations to maybe build up to Blood Meridian?
Thank you! Blood Meridian is certainly a challenging read at times. It is impressive that you find the dialogue the easiest part though! Many readers find that to be the most difficult to follow. I find "The Orchard Keeper" to be a good introduction to McCarthy. It was his first Novel, and is easier to understand while still having all his style in tact.
What do you find difficult specifically with BM? following the sequence of action? the specific vocabulary? locational changes?
If it is following the sequence of action or location. My best advice would be to not worry too much about knowing exactly where the group is or where they want to go. simply reading the text and processing the conversations is a perfectly valid and deep way to experience the text. Then when you are done you can look up a short summary to try and put everything together plot wise. This can also be done on a per chapter basis.
If it is BM's vocabulary, that is perfectly understandable. Pretty much no native English speaker today would describe the sky as "The Firmament" like MCCarthy does in this book. Much of the vocabulary is archaic and obtuse. It is written that way to be very biblical, and can lead to a lot of strange (but fantastic) descriptions. I find looking up these rare and unused words to be part of the fun of reading such books, and I stop a reading many times to look up the words right as I encounter them.
A final strategy I would suggest is listening to a section you are struggling with in an audio format. If the narrator is well versed in McCarthy their intonation will make his style seem almost natural, and the regular cadence of a speaker who knows where the book is going helps me immensely in understanding what is happening when the plot gets complicated or lost. I believe the Sean Rothman has a free audiobook on TH-cam that is excellent (Although I'm not sure how legal it is copyright-wise).
Truth is, Jesus Christ is God . Believing and trusting in him is our only way to be saved from hell
Very impressive essay here, i hope you get all the attention you deserve.
Once we start trotting out references to Gnosticism I do believe we've lost the plot.
This is an excellent analysis, and I'm quite happy to hear that I'm not the only one who has always disagreed with the implications of the judge being symbolism for the devil. Although I do understand where one can easily gather this conclusion, I can't help but feel that it's the easy way out. The only thing that I feel could have also been added to your essay (and this is my own personal opinion and analysis) is that judge is purpose written and designed to mislead the audience into a false sense that he is the pinnacle of evil. I'm simplifying my speculations here, but I always have felt that McCarthy understood the rampant deception that is throughout gnostic beliefs, from the demiurge to its outlook on the more widely accepted Abrahamic religions, I feel that he wrote the judge to portray the "trap" you spoke of but also to trap the readers into believing a much simpler and significantly less dreadful conclusion and summary. I am absolutely subscribing.
This is a great point/clarification. I agree completely. A huge underlying theme of the novel that I visualized while writing the script was that if modern audiences were exposed to Adoni, he would absolutely resemble the form of modern conceptions of Satan.
I also find this theme throughout Outer Dark as well due to the triune nature of the main antagonist and the implementation of sangro-libation that is present in the novel's climax.
Good video I'd like to make some points I do not believe that the judge is evil but rather that he is completely without morals he is not immoral simply nonmoral and I think his character was closer to the demiurge rather than to Lucifer and he is still dancing he was dancing in Rwanda he's dancing in the Ukraine right now he does not sleep and he will never die❤
Yes. If someone has no morals or does not believe in societal values, they are amoral- morally deficient
What about the futility of the judge's actions if he is the demiurge? Someone mentioned this in another comment and went on to describe the references to gnostic mythology as being like when a Christian writer alludes to Greek or Roman mythology, rather than a basis for the central theme of the novel and the judge's character. Personally I feel like the video does a disservice to his character by trying to contain him within a system even if he is at the top as some kind of deity, it is far more unnerving (and effective writing) to think that the characters of the novel can never know anything about him other than what he wants them to know. This perspective - leaving much of his character in the dark - makes him a far more supernatural figure and changed my reading of him greatly. when I read, I quickly accepted in the dream sequence that somehow, someway, the judge was allowing the Kid to have his dream and possibly understand the judge's purpose.
The same commenter described him as the judge of what is 'real or pretence', or maybe rather what is genuine, hence the coins being made in the dream. This explains the fascination with war, it is everywhere, it is seemingly intrinsic to all humans, it is real. However the expressly pitiful state of the forger, the exile from man's fire, the enshadowing of the judge... It seems to me like a punishment, not to mention the separation of those being punished and seemingly the rest of humanity. (I do know that fire is extremely symbolic throughout the novel but I need to read into what it means before I make a judge(pun unintended)ment).
The punishment that the Kid witnesses certainly is in line with ideas of the judge as Satan or the setting being Hell, but it doesn't quite fit: Why would all the kids get diddled? What did they do to deserve that? Overall I think McCarthy is an absolute genius because the judge is far scarier for not knowing why he does things, why he punishes people, not knowing in the sense that you know 80% of his reasoning but then he does something, seemingly contradicting himself. As far as I know there is no surefire way of determining why the judge what he does, the only thing we leave knowing as readers is that War is God. The judge worships Chaos.
R.I.P Cormac McCarthy
The cold forger is McCarthy himself, writing the novel. As The Judge is the judge of all falsehoods, and the novel itself is false. Covering up the real history of the Glanton's, Judge Holden and the Real Kid, who's name was Samuel Chamberlain. A brilliant nod to the act of novelizing history. Allowing one of your characters to get a peek at you, enslaved to the villain, offering tribute.
I am The Judge and I approve this message.
My own theory is that the Judge is Ares, the very idea of violence and war.
Yes, that was my conclusion too.
I’m not particularly fond of the Gnostic interpretation of McCarthy. In that, I agree with McCarthy scholars and artists like Peter Josyph, who argued that seeing all things in terms of trapped divine sparks, metaphysical forces and archontic heimarmene truly closes one’s eyes to the very real, physical realities of suffering, violence, and death.
Wendigoon has sent me
@@pagetears7280 you made a wonderful video, just finished. I love your perspective!
Hope he sees this bro🤗
Another film adaptation? You mean, someone made a movie out of this story? I thought nobody had done that yet.
A little poorly worded on my part. By "...yet another film adaption is in the works" I mean that while none have been completed, multiple have been "in the works" before.
@@pagetears7280 They need to give it to Denni Villeneuve; he’d get it done 🎥 🌅
Fantastic video. Though I have to ask, what was the image you used for the thumbnail? It's stunning.
8:22 That’s actually from Samuel Chamberlain’s My Confession.
Correct, the discrepancy is noted in the description!
@@pagetears7280Oh Yeah, I missed that part.
I think Wendigoon reignited interest in this book tbh!
Absolutely outstanding. Big things will certainly to this channel. The only contingency is that you keep producing content. Please do. Thank you from Australia.
The only criticism I have about Blood Meridian is that the constant metaphors became a bit annoying. At times it seemed like almost every sentence ended with a metaphor, and it became a bit grating once I noticed it. I reckon if you did a word-count for Blood Meridian, the word ‘like’ would be one of the most repeated words in the book. Don’t get me wrong, metaphors can be a great way of conveying a feeling. But I think they should be used in moderation…
A metaphor that begins with "like" is called a simile, or at least that's what I was taught in 4th grade.
You deserve far more subscribers my friend, excellent video!
All in good time! Thank you for the support!
You come off as really pretentious by writing off other creator's interpretations of the Judge (they even Say as much during their videos) as silly uninformed sentimentalism.
The dismissal of free will is the total denial of the value of pain
OK so I guess I'm re reading this book one more time
I do hope that they will actually finish the movie
Probably could do without calling out other people’s videos or I guess they would be your peers and fellow TH-camrs.
If you are posting an analysis, you must be open to criticism. Otherwise, what is the point?
@@walrusmaximus what
@@walrusmaximus the fruit that ate itself
When he sacrifices that mare...its rough stuff
Great video. There are many an analysis of The Judge ob YT but this one is by far the best. Cheers.
Need to dust that table. Great video and very helpful, thank you.
You are very right! I'll get that done before the next video!
Top Tier Blood Meridian video. Deserves many more views. Subscribed!
I think the best interpretation of the Judge, other than in Blood Meridian itself, is within the text of Full Metal Alchemist. The alchemy of that series was based on gnostic theology as well, making the great pale being of Truth, the same being of the Judge, the God of their respective universe.
Sorry the useless static made this too annoying to finish. Your video is often clear and loud enough to hear but with the static you dial your audio down to amplify the static but make me constantly change the volume.
I came to a very close conclusion also, that the Judge is in fact, Anderson, the Son of Man, or the Spirit of Mankind. Good work!
Good book for a mash up of genres. I preferred My Confession. It felt real.
Glanton is far more intetesting than the judge. I havent seen much discussion about him.
I finished this book around a week ago and my take from it, is that anything is possible in life and when you take into account the horrid things that happen in the novel this is actually scary and maybe the judge embodies this feeling p.s any William Faulkner you would recommend?
I got my start in literary analysis through short stories, so when suggesting readings I always default to short story collections. "Collected Stories of William Faulkner" by vintage books is a great start. I particularly love "That Evening Sun" and "The Tall Men" (which is in another edition).
My personal favorite is "The Sound and the Fury" by far, but "Absolom, Absolom," is also incredible.
Faulkner is regarded as the greatest writer by many, but I think Mr. McCarthy surpassed him, especially with 'Blood Meridian' and 'Suttree'.
Where can I get that hard copy of the book you have?
That is the Folio Society edition! You can find it (and all the other books and editions I use) in the description.
to me holden was the most christian of them all, showing the world what they crave and what they always bring while trying to figure out the lies they've been told their whole life.
Daron Aronofsky would be my choice as director. He's the only one who has made me feel as disgusting and unclean for being human during a film as I felt while reading Blood Meridian.
what a great video!! thanks for that
This is a truly incredible video and a brilliant understanding of the text. Thank you.
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
I'm 4 minutes on and gets just telling me howr dumb other people are
Great analysis. I have my own view on The Judge, and I think he is the representation of Capitalism. To him war is the ultimate most profitable goal, and slowly but steadily he absorbs even the religious aspects of society (the ex-priest) and the natural, instinctive parts of it (the kid). He aims to control and label everything in this world to his own profit, and by the end of the book we see how all the many different coins and bills from everywhere finally succumbs to the almighty american dollar bills (the kid's dream, with the judge supervising the forging of a unique coin was actually profetic)
lel
Yeah, he’s essentially the dark side of America. Selfish, deluded, arrogant, hyper masculine, creepily/unnaturally white, violent, hypnotic, inspiring, clever, demanding, evil.
And I think the kid represents the fate of the next generation of Americans - how can they avoid their own environment? Eventually they feel they have no choice but to join in.
But there is a lingering sense throughout the text that the judge and the gang are not as big as they imagine themselves. Rivers and deserts can kill them. Animals and the weather and native peoples threaten them constantly. The judge proclaims he will live forever, but that just goes to show how ridiculous he truly is.
When I read the book, I don’t get a sense of hopelessness. I get the sense that I’m reading a rap sheet and a reckoning is coming.
LOL.
The judge is not Gnostic, he's expressly in opposition to the burning tree. The book has more themes in common with the lay follower's accidental Zoroastrian style dualism between the devil and god, then anything else, fitting as that is the most common lay outlook on biblical canon in the US.
Really great take, not a big fan of most essays on Judge Holden but this one was fantastic
Jesus Christ this hit me in my soul
I'm rooting for John Hillcoat. He's a great director.
great work here.
Its a tall order to adapt this book.
I think every book can be adapted into either a film or a series of films so long as you stick as close to the source material as possible
This was beautiful. Thanks
10:43. How do you even correctly spell "Annaretta?"