/lit/ - Literature

>>20664543
I know this is bait, but an actual answer is he’s only using the west as a setting to explore the man’s relationship with war. As critic Scott Yarsborough said, it could’ve just as easily taken place during another time in history.

>>19532514
>The kid
You aint nothin.

>>19476345
I think think one of the big themes is that a thirst for violence exists across all human cultures and throughout all time. While the judge tries to paint this desire as divine in his final speech to the man, the man calls him out and says that the judge is no different than the dancing bear. An animal driven by base instincts who can only do the parlor trick of dancing to make himself seem more impressive.
The book rejects violence but doesn't shy away from the reality of it; "The good book does indeed count war an evil... Yet there's many a bloody tale of war inside it."

>>19383761
1) I never considered the prose a chore, but I didn't fully appreciate it on my first read through. Now I consider it one of the most beautiful books ever written and I love every part.
2) There are numerous references in the book from Paradise Lost to The Bible itself. In the first page, for example, the child's parents are referred to as "hewers of wood and drawers of water." This is a reference to the Book of Joshua, Chapter 9, Verse 23; "For this are you accursed; every one of you shall always be a slave [hewers of wood and drawers of water] for the house of my God."
3) I think McCarthy wants us to believe the man was raped and killed by Holden at the end. I believe that's the case but I also wouldn't hold it against someone who had another theory.

The kid

Why the fuck don’t we have an art board? I love Blood Meridian inspired artwork.

I always thought an Oregon Road style game where you play as the kid in that chapter in Blood Meridian where he’s trying to escape the judge as he chases him across the desert would be kino.
>>18134796
Which game?

>>18133956
I images him with blonde hair desu, though I have seen depictions where he is in his early to mid twenties or so which doesn’t make sense so pretty accurate

>>17713620
>followed closely by the desert shootout scene and some parts of the Crossing
To me, nothing will ever compare to the kid escaping the judge in the desert. I knew the ending the first time I read it and it was still one of the most thrilling scenes in literature.