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GAF Book Club (Oct 2011) - "Blood Meridian" by Cormac McCarthy

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C

Cyan

Banned
wRAub.jpg


There will be blood.


Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West, by Cormac McCarthy

An epic novel of the violence and depravity that attended America's westward expansion, Blood Meridian brilliantly subverts the conventions of the Western novel and the mythology of the "wild west." Based on historical events that took place on the Texas-Mexico border in the 1850s, it traces the fortunes of the Kid, a fourteen-year-old Tennesseean who stumbles into the nightmarish world where Indians are being murdered and the market for their scalps is thriving.

"Imagine the imagery of Sam Peckinpah and Heironymus Bosch as written by William Faulkner, and you'll have just an inkling of this novel's power."

Amazon paperback
Kindle edition

Let's read!


Guidelines:
-If you read ahead, use spoiler tags! [spoiler]text goes here[/spoiler]
-When using spoiler tags, please mark them--put a page or chapter number, or otherwise indicate just how far ahead you are.
-Unspoilered discussion of anything through the latest milestone is allowed and encouraged. If you’re not caught up, read the thread at your own risk!
-Suggestions for the next book club selection are welcome at any time. We'll vote on the next book once we're finished with this one.


Reading Milestones:
Sun, Oct 2 - Ch I - II
Tue, Oct 4 - Ch III - IV
Thu, Oct 6 - Ch V - VI
Sat, Oct 8 - Ch VII - VIII
Mon, Oct 10 - Ch IX - X
Wed, Oct 12 - Ch XI - XII
Fri, Oct 14 - Ch XIII - XIV
Sun, Oct 16 - Ch XV - XVI
Tue, Oct 18 - Ch XVII - XVIII
Thu, Oct 20 - Ch XIX - XX
Sat, Oct 22 - Ch XXI - XXII
Mon, Oct 24 - Ch XXIII, Epilogue


Future Book Club Possibilities:
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Devil In the White City by Erik Larson
If on a winter's night, a traveler by Italo Calvino
Dubliners by James Joyce
[your recommendation here!]


Previous Book Club Threads:
The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov (Sep 2011)
The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas (Aug 2011)
Master and Commander, by Patrick O'Brian (July 2011)
The Happiness Project, by Gretchen Rubin (June 2011)
A Visit from the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan (May 2011)
The Afghan Campaign, by Steven Pressfield (Apr 2011)
Stranger in a Strange Land, by Robert A. Heinlein (Mar 2011)
Flashman, by George MacDonald Fraser (Feb 2011)
 
C

Cyan

Banned
As a side note: I won't be doing a November thread. If someone else wants to run things for that month, that's fine, otherwise the book club will return in December.

Zeth said:
JUST read Blood Meridian this summer. Should be fun discussion.
Click to expand...
Cool, well feel free to jump in if you like. :)
 
B

Brobzoid

how do I slip unnoticed out of a gloryhole booth?
Been meaning to read this. this thread is a good a reason as any I guess. Will pick it up next time I'm at a store.
 
H

hermit7

Member
Well I ordered it. Will probably take me the entire month, because I have so much school work, but I am in.

The premise seems extremely interesting to me.

If you guys are down for a suggestion for November I would wholeheartedly recommend Devil In the White City by Erik Larson. I read it this summer and found it very engrossing. Though the time period is one of my personal favorites.
 
bengraven

bengraven

Member
SolKane said:
Might want to include a companion book in the OP, either one would work:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0292718217/?tag=neogaf0e-20

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0978834917/?tag=neogaf0e-20

People new to McCarthy's writing style will really benefit from reading annotations, not only for greater historical context, but especially for obscure vocabulary.
Click to expand...

That's pretty awesome, thanks.

I might read them AFTER I read the book unless one of them is just an annotated version of the book itself. I always wait to read "companions" until after I read the main book.
 
C

Cyan

Banned
SolKane said:
Might want to include a companion book in the OP, either one would work:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0292718217/?tag=neogaf0e-20

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0978834917/?tag=neogaf0e-20

People new to McCarthy's writing style will really benefit from reading annotations, not only for greater historical context, but especially for obscure vocabulary.
Click to expand...
Hmm. Looks like the second one may be OOP.

As bengraven says, I'm not sure about reading companion books alongside the main book. Did you do that? If so, how was your experience?
 
L

LocoMrPollock

Banned
survivor said:
Is this book a difficult read? Or how different is the writing style from the Road?
Click to expand...



Not nearly as abstract as The Road, but it is written in the same style.

Anyway, great book and it's a quick read.


SolKane said:
Might want to include a companion book in the OP, either one would work:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0292718217/?tag=neogaf0e-20

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0978834917/?tag=neogaf0e-20

People new to McCarthy's writing style will really benefit from reading annotations, not only for greater historical context, but especially for obscure vocabulary.
Click to expand...



I think it would ruin the experience. Might be cool to check out afterwards, though.
 
D

Dresden

Member
Sweet, two of my suggestions in a row.

It's one of my favorite books. Lovely, and exceedingly, gloriously violent.
 
D

devenger

Member
I read it a few months ago, and loved it.

The introduction of
the judge at the revival tent
was very well done, and it just got better from there.

I don't know how book club works, spoilers?

edit: sorry, I got excited and skimmed the OP.
 
L

Lafiel

と呼ぶがよい
I've been meaning to read this for a while so i put a hold on it at my local library, that said i might not get it until half-way through the month since it has 5 holds on it for some reason.;_;
 
N

nakedsushi

Member
At first, I was going to sit this book out (hate hate hate westerns in book and movie format -- just makes me feel like I need to shower), but the high average rating (4.2!!) on Goodreads swayed me.
 
E

ElectricBlue187

Member
nakedsushi said:
At first, I was going to sit this book out (hate hate hate westerns in book and movie format -- just makes me feel like I need to shower), but the high average rating (4.2!!) on Goodreads swayed me.
Click to expand...
This is definitely NOT a western in the typical sense. It's more like a horror novel than a western
 
A

Attackthebase

Member
Fuuuuuuuuuck, I have always meant to read through this novel. I really want to join in for this month, but I don't know how my schedule for school will hold up. I'll see if I can handle everything.

T'is the month for a McCarthy reading though.
 
M

Mumei

Member
Future Book Club Possibilities:
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
[your recommendation here!]

My recommendation there:

If on a winter's night, a traveler by Italo Calvino

second person narration! no fourth wall!

It's great stuff.
 
C

Clegg

Member
Future Book Club Possibilities:

The Dubliners by James Joyce

Joyce is most famous for Ulysses but in my opinion Dubliners is his best book.
 
bengraven

bengraven

Member
Cyan said:
Time for readings!
Click to expand...

At 91% on Lonesome Dove, but I'll jump right in afterwards. It's a surprisingly beautiful, cool sunny fall day here in Florida, so I'll be outside reading the rest of the afternoon. :)


Btw, I can't recommend LD enough. I saw bits of the miniseries when I was a kid, but hated Westerns and so never had any interest in it.

But the book is truly a masterpiece and I would love to see a big screen adaptation...
 
D

Dresden

Member
Lonesome Dove is indeed great!

I have my copy of BM ready. I'm going to stick with the milestones this time.
 
C

Cyan

Banned
Damn, two chapters in and already there's a bodycount. Interesting the choice made here, to have the character basically not care a whit what happens to anybody but himself, so that he doesn't feel a thing when he kills a man. Not sorrow, not joy, barely even anger. It's not even that he doesn't care so much as it doesn't even occur to him that he ought to.

The Judge--hairless, seven feet tall, has a man nearly killed just to stir shit up. Crazy bugger. I'm assuming we'll be seeing him again.

McCarthy's prose... well, maybe we'll talk about that later. Stark is the word, I think.
 
G

Goody

Member
I don't do book clubs, so I won't be joining you in this, but it's certainly a great book.

McCarthy is America's greatest author. All of his novels had to be written.

It is harrowing and difficult and brutal. I'm a little concerned about some of the reactions to the violence I've already seen and I'm interested in seeing what the reactions of the first time readers will be. This is not an easy book.

For those interested in pursuing McCarthy further after this, there's not a place you can go wrong. Suttree, especially, is a work just as important as Blood Meridian or The Road.
 
H

hermit7

Member
Well starting to talk about the first two chapters. The book is interesting to say the least. The prose is something that is moderately difficult I feel. More because there is a lack of structure than something that you would see usually.

The images that he instills are very striking however. I am anxious to read more.
 
M

magicstop

Member
I probably won't drop spoilers until it appears more people have made this initial milestone, but so far, I'm enjoying it. The prose is different than Child of God . . . more reserved and matter of fact, although some of McCarthy's trademark similes and metaphors are there. The story is pretty fun to follow thus far, and I'm kind of curious where we will go with this.
There was . . . something . . . that left me confused, but I'll have to go back and find it. I'll post it up later once I've had a chance to dig through again.
 
N

nakedsushi

Member
I think I'm on chapter III or IV, but so far, so good.

The prose in the beginning seems very different than the prose I'm reading now. Maybe I just got used to it, but the first couple of pages was difficult to understand.

Ugh, everything feels so dirty and filthy. Even the dip in the river didn't feel like a proper bath.

Even though there seems to be a ton of violence in the book, it's not as hard to read as I thought. Maybe too many violent video games for me. I feel more uncomfortable about the mule! I hope the mule doesn't die a horrible, painful death like they have to eat him or something.
 
C

Cyan

Banned
Oh my god, said the sergeant.

So, yeah. There's one sentence in here towards the end, a single, lengthy sentence, describing a large group of Indians, which is occasionally cited in discussions of extremely long sentences as a robust and remarkable example.

And yes, it is a remarkable piece of writing. I read through it more than once to get the feel and flavor of it, and there's an incredible density, an intensity of image and rhythm that evoke what the experience of the kid might have been like. But damn it. I have no idea what actually happened there.

Compare with, say Jorge Luis Borges' incredible sentence from The Aleph, which captures a similar magnitude of imagery and emotion while still being fundamentally understandable.

Of course, maybe confusion was the entire point.
 
N

nakedsushi

Member
When does the plot kick in? I'm past the milestone for today, but it still seems like a bunch of wandering around, joining some band of people, disbanding, killing, drinking crappy booze, and did I mention killing?

I think I'm having trouble with this book because there aren't any likable characters. Maybe that's the point of it?

Also, that lizard licking up the foamy spit? GROSS. This is why I hate westerns. I don't even feel clean when I'm reading this in a bubble bath.
 
A

Ashes

Banned
nakedsushi said:
When does the plot kick in? I'm past the milestone for today, but it still seems like a bunch of wandering around, joining some band of people, disbanding, killing, drinking crappy booze, and did I mention killing?

I think I'm having trouble with this book because there aren't any likable characters. Maybe that's the point of it?

Also, that lizard licking up the foamy spit? GROSS. This is why I hate westerns. I don't even feel clean when I'm reading this in a bubble bath.
Click to expand...

I heard it be argued that this book is satire on the western genre.
 
Monocle

Monocle

Member
Great choice for the book club. Blood Meridian is brilliant. Judge Holden is as iconic an antagonist as any you'll find in the canon of English literature.

For a thoughtful discussion of Blood Meridian in the same vein as this one, check out this SomethingAwful thread. (SPOILERS IN TEXT—mostly under spoiler tags though.)

Here's Harold Bloom discussing Blood Meridian's literary significance as "the ultimate Western" (sorry for the poor audio). (SPOILERS IN VIDEO)

Yale has posted video recordings of a complete course called The American Novel Since 1945 (ENGL 291), in which Blood Meridian is the topic of parts 17 and 18. (SPOILERS IN VIDEO)

This Master's thesis entitled "Judge Holden's War Dance: Manifest Destiny and Evil in Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian" offers a well-considered analysis of Blood Meridian's most striking and enigmatic character. (SPOILERS IN TEXT)

Blood Meridian's unabridged audiobook (narrated by Richard Poe, I think) is one of the best audiobooks I've ever heard. Here's a spoiler-free sample featuring the Judge's philosophy of war.
 
C

Cyan

Banned
I feel like I may be approaching this book wrong, by trying to understand everything perfectly on first pass, by expecting it all to make sense, by looking for plot and character arcs and purpose.

Chapter VI I tried to read slightly differently, more letting the rhythm of the prose carry me along, letting the meaning wash over and through, and OH SHIT THE JUDGE!

Seriously though, this book doesn't lend itself to my usual mode of reading. This is work.
 
O

Onion_Relish

Member
I may or may not join this book club, I haven't decided yet, but I do have a few recommendations

As for your italo calvino, go for it, the man is a god send. For those who dont know, he was an italian chemist who was thrown into a concentration camp during ww2. He managed to survive and wrote extensively in both fiction as well as rumminations of the camp experience. He actually committed suicide by simply throwing himself down a flight of stairs one day, completely unprovoked. Obviously his demons caught up to him.

For general books though, I would recommend

Midnights Children - Salman Rushdie (winner of the most booker prizes ever)
Blood Letting and Miraculous Cures by Dr Vincent Lam (Canadian Giller Prize Winner 2006)
Light Lifting - Alexander Macleod (Canadian book, not sure if it's mostly yanks in here but a really kinetic and engaging book, couldnt put it down)

Those are all fiction, but anything by dawkins i would recommend for non fiction.

Anyways i'll think about it....
 
C

Cyan

Banned
Well, we're progressing into something a bit more plot-like. Don't imagine it'll last, though. Any significance to the cards the juggler pulled?

Also, back on the prose: though I stumble over it a lot, there are also parts where it's just lovely. The paragraph in VII that begins, "they rode up through cholla and nopal, a forest of spined things" really caught me. It varies between that on one end, and a sort of frustrated uncomprehension on the other.
 
B

bsb

Neo Member
survivor said:
Is this book a difficult read? Or how different is the writing style from the Road?
Click to expand...

I found it very hard to read and I'm no stranger to challenging reads. I'd say ultimately it's worth it... but, man, it wasn't easy going. Sometimes I just didn't understand what was happening, because the language can be so dense and abstract. There are very striking passages and language that make it worthwhile, but you gotta be in the mood for a real challenge.
 
N

nakedsushi

Member
bsb said:
I found it very hard to read and I'm no stranger to challenging reads. I'd say ultimately it's worth it... but, man, it wasn't easy going. Sometimes I just didn't understand what was happening, because the language can be so dense and abstract. There are very striking passages and language that make it worthwhile, but you gotta be in the mood for a real challenge.
Click to expand...

I second that sentiment. I found that if I read it at my usual pace (fast) I don't find the book interesting at all. But when I slow down, I enjoy it more and get a chuckle or two out of the passages.

So far I really like the Judge. He's so badass. I wonder if he's supposed to personify the devil. The whole hairless thing is weird.
 
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