I know this is sacrilegious, but I just finished Blood Meridian and I am thoroughly disappointed.
The first ~250 pages contains such dense descriptions of the desert that Cormac literally describes the shape of animals’ shit at one point. Cormac describes things that aren’t – like it looked like rain but didn’t. Sparsely littered in the travelogue is a cyclical story of conquest and travel. This is similar to the Band of The Hawks story in Berserk pre-eclipse.
I’d also note that there’s enough conversations in Spanish to demand some fluency if you want to understand the conversations held. Or you could google what’s being said. I have no idea what you’d do if you were reading this in 1985.
And on the brutality that’s always mentioned: Yes, this book has brutal parts, but if you’re a reader who frequents horror or “R-rated” fiction, you’ve read many books or even seen movies that up the ante in this regard. The brutality here is different. It’s mentioned factually, almost in a historically accurate nature – not to subtract from the nature, but to differentiate it.
There seems to be a fetishism or gatekeeping of these parts of the novel, like…. I Read Blood Meridian and **Survived!** And I completely disagree with this take. I think any instances of brutality play second fiddle to circumstances surrounding the event and the individuals causing the harm.
The last 80ish pages Cormac finally fleshes out his story between the Judge and the boy/man, which concludes in interpretive dance ala The OA – teaching us that… Man is War? Mankind is evil? American expansion was bloody?
The Judge comes across with a tinge of Rust Cohle cringe as he lectures the boy on man and war. The boy wants nothing to do with it and continually tells him, ‘leave me alone bro. You’re weird.’
Blood Meridian reads as Cormac’s “Oscar Grab.” Look how badass I am. Look at my prose. Nobody can fuck with my writing. And…. I mean it’s true. Nobody can touch Cormac in his element, but it comes at the expense of concise storytelling. In this sense, The Judge seems to be a pretty clear trial run for Anton Chigurh, in an equal and opposite way.
If you want to enjoy Cormac but can’t force-feed yourself Blood Meridian, read The Road and No Country. Both are excellent. Both have Cormac’s prose. Neither have the dense gratuitous descriptions of terrain.
by TylertheDouche
12 Comments
You can’t have *Blood Meridian* without the language. Doesn’t mean it’s going to be to everyone’s taste, but the central deconstruction of western liberal myths of progress are strengthened by presenting them in that specific poetic and biblical language. Totally fine if that doesn’t resonate, but it feels disingenuous to say it’s just McCarthy showing off.
couldnt agree more. i actually hated blood meridian but i liked the road and no country. i also agree that the violence in the book is only shocking if you only read YA books and watch disney movies.
I feel like the desert travelogue aspect of the novel is a major reason why people like it, not a drawback.
>Blood Meridian reads as Cormac’s “Oscar Grab.” Look how badass I am. Look at my prose. Nobody can fuck with my writing. And…. I mean it’s true. Nobody can touch Cormac in his element, but it comes at the expense of concise storytelling.
I can’t imagine saying something so disrespectful about the greatest modern English author.
You live up to your username, sir.
>comes at the expense of concise storytelling
Great literature is often not aiming for concise storytelling, or plot. I find Cormacs writing as a whole is more about asking questions than providing answers. May not be as satisfying in the moment as a from A to B plot, but it stays with you.
I agree. But I’m not brave enough to suffer the slings and arrows like you. 😁
“Oscar Grab” haha…
I agree with you. I don’t think BM was a good book at all. I really loved The Road, even without any punctuation. However in BM there were a lot of characters and conversations and without punctuation I got so confused as to what was happening. There didn’t seem to be any story either so I gave up half way through.
I remember a part where a run on sentence went on for almost an entire page. I get that he has his own prose, but you gotta make your book readable.
Also, some of the metaphors and similes just made absolutely 0 sense.
>There seems to be a fetishism or gatekeeping of these parts of the novel, like…. I Read Blood Meridian and **Survived!**
Fucking agreed. I loved the book, even though the prose is ridiculously dense at the beginning. The story is wildly violent, but people vastly overstate its effect. “I had to stop reading, and I had nightmares for weeks!” Really? *Really??* Did ya? If you did then you’re indescribably soft. It’s just a book. Stop exaggerating.
It’s totally fine if it’s not for you. There are authors like McCarthy, or Pynchon or Fosse whose style is challenging yet deeply purposeful. They wouldn’t be classics taught and discussed in universities if they were an accessible and enjoyable easy read. Personally I found Blood Meridian enthralling and is one of my favorite books, and if you are someone who is less plot oriented and love beautiful challenging prose things like descriptions of the environment are extremely engaging.
You described every way that it was amazing and at the end you conclude that it’s boring. I don’t get what point you’re trying to make.