Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Crossing the Blood Meridian: Cormac McCarthy and American History

lareviewofbooks.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 46 posts

Re: Crossing the Blood Meridian: Cormac McCarthy and American History

#31

Post by WeylandYutani »

j9461701 wrote: post #4

> McCarthy shares none of these inclinations. His characters ride aimlessly through the desert and kill for what seems like no reason at all. Blood Meridian is a book that reflects a particular moment in history, but his characters have no sense of that history, are otherwise immune to time, and seem oblivious to the forces ordering their world. This is my biggest issue with all McCarthy's works. They feel like point…

Every territory wanted to become a US state as soon as possible. I really don't understand how this idea formed that everyone in the wild west was an anarchist.

In fact I think people back then were just like people today: they wanted to lead orderly peaceful lives under the rule of law. But that would make for incredibly boring books.

Re: Crossing the Blood Meridian: Cormac McCarthy and American History

#32

Post by seanhunter »

BMc2020 wrote: post #2

A book I have never read and never will. (I watched the Wendigoon 5 hour review of it so I know the plot though) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu6STuj4njw edit: Downvotes? I will never watch A Serbian Film either, are you going to downvote me for that too?

I expect the downvotes are because having you glory in the fact that you have decided not to read this book doesn't add anything of value to the conversation.

Re: Crossing the Blood Meridian: Cormac McCarthy and American History

#33

Post by seanhunter »

This is such an amazing book. I found it a profoundly moving and horrifying experience to read. It's amazing to know how accurate it seems from this source to be in many ways.

For those of you who don't know, in a 1999 piece for Salon entitled "Overlooked: Five direly underappreciated U.S. novels > 1960" by David Foster Wallace, there is a memorable review of "Blood Meridian" which reads (in its entirety) "Don't even ask."[1] After his death, DFW's personal copy of "Blood Meridian", complete with all sorts of marginalia and scribbled annotations was sold at auction, and it showed that he had indeed studied it in great depth.

[1] https://www.salon.com/1999/04/12/wallace/

Re: Crossing the Blood Meridian: Cormac McCarthy and American History

#34

Post by robertlagrant »

freddie_mercury wrote: post #30
j9461701 wrote: post #4

> McCarthy shares none of these inclinations. His characters ride aimlessly through the desert and kill for what seems like no reason at all. Blood Meridian is a book that reflects a particular moment in history, but his characters have no sense of that history, are otherwise immune to time, and seem oblivious to the forces ordering their world. This is my biggest issue with all McCarthy's works. They feel like point…

My biggest complaint about Blood Meridian is it throws all this graphic violence in your face and then has typical American squeamishness about sex. It felt like the inability to depict sex undermined whatever point it was trying to make with graphic depictions of violence. Compare, here is the single sex scene in the book which is "fade to black" blink and you missed it: I seen you right away, she said. I always pic…

That doesn't seem squeamish. I think many writers of that era viewed violence as bad, and sex as private. You may disagree with them on that point, of course.

Re: Crossing the Blood Meridian: Cormac McCarthy and American History

#35

Post by thebooktocome »

robertlagrant wrote: post #34
freddie_mercury wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My biggest complaint about Blood Meridian is it throws all this graphic violence in your face and then has typical American squeamishness about sex. It felt like the inability to depict sex undermined whatever point it was trying to make with graphic depictions of violence. Compare, here is the single sex scene in the book which is "fade to black" blink and you missed it: I seen you right away, she said. I always pic…

That doesn't seem squeamish. I think many writers of that era viewed violence as bad, and sex as private. You may disagree with them on that point, of course.

The text is painfully awkward, not McCarthy at his best.

1985 isn't usually considered a locus of Victorian attitudes toward sex, at least in the United States. The Hayes code was abolished in 1968. The Miller test was established in the late seventies, reducing publisher risk for content that would have been considered pornographic a decade or two earlier.

Anxiety about sex—and particularly homosexual sex—didn't significantly rise again until the early 2000s, around the time Lawrence v. Texas was decided. The Puritans have been loudly agitating for blanket censorship ever since.

Re: Crossing the Blood Meridian: Cormac McCarthy and American History

#36

Post by robertlagrant »

thebooktocome wrote: post #35
robertlagrant wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't seem squeamish. I think many writers of that era viewed violence as bad, and sex as private. You may disagree with them on that point, of course.

The text is painfully awkward, not McCarthy at his best. 1985 isn't usually considered a locus of Victorian attitudes toward sex, at least in the United States. The Hayes code was abolished in 1968. The Miller test was established in the late seventies, reducing publisher risk for content that would have been considered pornographic a decade or two earlier. Anxiety about sex—and particularly homosexual sex—didn't sig…

I'm not talking about Victorian attitudes in particular. Sex is often considered private, even today. I'm pointing to a resolution of the apparently irony of describing violence but not sex.

Re: Crossing the Blood Meridian: Cormac McCarthy and American History

#37

Post by darkteflon »

BMc2020 wrote: post #2

A book I have never read and never will. (I watched the Wendigoon 5 hour review of it so I know the plot though) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu6STuj4njw edit: Downvotes? I will never watch A Serbian Film either, are you going to downvote me for that too?

I thought the YT you linked was great, thanks. I don’t have the stomach for violence but have been curious about BM for ages so this was a great way to get a sense for what all the fuss was about. No substitute for reading it, I’m sure. But great on its own.

Re: Crossing the Blood Meridian: Cormac McCarthy and American History

#38

Post by nelox »

jandrewrogers wrote: post #21

Through a series of fun misadventures, I accidentally became the owner of a ranch and homestead originally owned by a pivotal figure in the history of the Nevada Territory. This event led me down a series of rabbit holes trying to understand the true history of the West, since my interactions with many locals born close to the 19th century who had first-hand knowledge of my property made me realize that I understood…

I think that is one McCarthy’s points; that violence does not care for nuance. The Blood Meridian in part represents the violent arc of human history connected in place and deed throughout time.

Re: Crossing the Blood Meridian: Cormac McCarthy and American History

#39

Post by HEmanZ »

Rodeoclash wrote: post #5
j9461701 wrote: post #4

> McCarthy shares none of these inclinations. His characters ride aimlessly through the desert and kill for what seems like no reason at all. Blood Meridian is a book that reflects a particular moment in history, but his characters have no sense of that history, are otherwise immune to time, and seem oblivious to the forces ordering their world. This is my biggest issue with all McCarthy's works. They feel like point…

Try the books from the Border Trilogy or Suttree. They're very different to Blood Meridian and No Country for Old Men.

Also now “The Passenger”, it strikes me as a lot like Suttree and is a surreal experience to read.

If you’re crazy, you can also try “Stela Maris”. just be warned it’s not a story, it’s a philosophy book that doesn’t even try to pretend it’s a story. I enjoyed it but wouldn’t recommend it to most people I know.

Re: Crossing the Blood Meridian: Cormac McCarthy and American History

#40

Post by cratermoon »

ajcp wrote: post #16
armitron wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a strong philosophical message in the works of McCarthy, but it's not explicit, you have to synthesize it. If you read his best works being totally oblivious to what he's really saying, then they'll feel like pointless exercises in sadism and cruelty. Blood Meridian is perhaps the easiest of his works to understand in that regard, since he's as far from deliberate occultation as he can possibly be. The philo…

-> If you read his best works being totally oblivious to what he's really saying If you have to be briefed on what an author is "really saying" outside of the story conveying it, what's the point? If you have to explain the joke it's not funny.

> If you have to be briefed on what an author is "really saying" outside of the story conveying it, what's the point?

It's not about having it explained to the reader in a briefing. A sophisticated reader comes to a book with the cultural, literary, and historical understanding in which the themes of the book are in play. Understanding of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet at age 12-14, where it's commonly taught in the US, is pretty superficial. Studying it as an adult sheds light on subtle threads woven through story. What exactly are Friar Laurence's motivations in helping Romeo and Juliet? At the end, after he confesses his role, why does Prince Escalus say, "We have still known thee for a holy man"?

Post reply on HN