/lit/ - Literature

>>4730032
Don't know exactly, but keeping the obvious Moby Dick influences in mind, he seems to be a combination of Ahab and the whale. Ahab being dark human ambition and drive for blood, the whale being a force of nature, a monstrous beast. He's clearly motivated, violent and ambitious, like Ahab, leading a company of men on a dangerous journey through a wild place, like Ahab. He is also a monstrous, hairless, pale creature, like the whale.

I think the judge being a combination of human drive and natural ferocity is meant to be part of the book's larger theme and what it's saying about morality.

Neat art by the way

>>4617323

Eh, I generally hate photograph covers. And those editions especially are really glossy and over saturated, doesn't fit McCarthy at all.

The green one with the lone rider art is my favirote.

>>4536677

Look up "Yale Blood Meridian" on Youtube if you're really stuck for interpretation, people on /lit/ bitch about it for some strange reason but I think it's an excellent lecture.

The book is very heavy on allusions and commentary on the use of allusions. It's necessary to have read the works McCarthy was referencing to truly understand the book.

It also explores morality. Most people reading it see the kid as a sympathetic character, if only because they're so used to the protagonist filling that role. Some people will argue that the reader entirely projects that sympathetic element onto the kid, citing the fact that the only time he's seen doing anything selfless is to aid a band of murderers. I understand that but disagree with it for a few reasons. I won't go to far into it but it's generally agreed that morality is a major topic in the book.

Overall I think it's excellent contemporary literature and easily one of my personal favorites.

>>4458629

When I first read it, knowing that Moby Dick was one of his major influences, I thought that the Judge was supposed to be a combination of Captain Ahab and the white whale. It seemed very consistent with his character. He is, at the same time, a brute savage force of nature, immense, pale and hairless, like the whale, and a student of culture and language, very much defined by his fierce human ambition to conquer nature.

>"Whatever in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent."

This also made sense within the context of a book with no moral extremes - in Moby Dick, there is the contrast between civilized man and wild nature. In most human stories there is a recognizable good and evil. The Judge is not just a combination of man and nature, he represents both and how they are inseparable. You can't point to one of the Judge's actions and go, oh, that's his human side, and that's his wild side. They're both present in the same form.

I think it's the same way with the book as a whole. Complete moral ambiguity.

That was my interpretation, anyway. The Yale videos on Youtube are very good and go into depth about what McCarthy is alluding to throughout the book. The professor makes some convincing arguments, I think, but whoever else mentioned the videos in this thread seemed to dislike them.

Just search "yale blood meridian" on Youtube and it'll be the first or second result.

Pic related, some cool art someone made for blood meridian