/lit/ - Literature

>>15823842
I just picked this up from the library. I look forward to discussing it with you fags.

>>15823985
>he doesn’t know

>>15823842
Finished this book yesterday, spoilers ahead.
I saw the judge as evil or the devil itself, his philosophy embraces human's violent nature and primitive instincts and the imposing of will through war. The judge rapes and murders the man bc he sees him as a counterpart of himself: he accuses the kid of never fully commiting to the gang or the violence, keeping mercy in his heart and living kind of a "live and let live" way of living, which clashes with the judge's philosophy, so the Judge imposes his will over him.
Might give it a second thought but those were my first impressions.

>>15824350
is there a meme I'm missing out on? I read The Road and really liked it, so I figured I'd read this.

>>15824497
>I read The Road and really liked it

>>15824546
bro wtf am I missing here. I dont get it

>>15824588

Bahaha

>>15823842
the kid got raped and killed because previously in the book young kids are found dead the night after the judge is seen dancing naked. how do i know he killed them? its confirmed that he killed at least one child(the one he scalped) and there are two other kids who are heavily hinted at being his victims. he is also seen enticing kids with candy which child predators typically do. later on when the yumas attack and he shoots them with a howitzer a girl thats like 10 or 12 is seen naked in his quarters(hmm what could she have been doing there?!) so yeah holden raped the man and killed him and then danced naked to celebrate woohoo

>>15825017
the kid is a man at the end of the book, which doesnt fit with the judge's pedophilia. and rape is not specifically mentioned in that scene at all. this interpretation is harold bloom (or whoever started it) reading their own shit into what is a dark ambiguous ending.

Blood Meridian scholarship is really all over the place. Many of the readings that get floated around on this board are outdated.

>>15825045
Well whats the answer, smart guy?

The Road was specially made with a movie deal in mind. It even includes product placement. It’s unbelievably shit and obviously written to appeal to white woman HR managers aka the largest spenders. It’s a shame it’s so shit compared to his other books. He must have been running out of money.

>>15825017
>>15825045
I think Holden purposefully allowed the Kid to live whilst the rest of the Glanton gang was killed off. Think it's largely McCarthy just leading the reader on until the last pages of the book, expecting that the Kid/Man will live. Holden is the embodiment of evil, he's more or less the Devil so the ending is really a case of "making what you will of it", it wouldn't be so ambiguous otherwise.

>>15825045
there is literally no other way to read it. there's only a couple sentences here to look at. the naked judge hugging the kid and locking the door. the guy peeing outside instead of going in because he wouldn't go in there. and finally the guy who looks in and says bejesus.

the only other addition is that perhaps the girl (the missing owner of the bear) was also in there with him, much like the idiot and the young girl before.

one more clue may lie in the epilogue, the man walking with a cane (is that it?). what's the significance of the epilogue? is it the kid/man? after he got maimed (ass-raped)?

>>15825483
the epilogue is about two parties being dependent on the other. its there to prove the judge's ideology as being wrong, the judge claims that only his ideology can exist, but his ideology is by nature dependent on an enemy. in simpler terms, it can be interpreted as a "good cant exist without evil" thing

>>15824496
>he accuses the kid of never fully commiting to the gang or the violence
Loved the book but I never thought that this was properly displayed. The way the book reads I never suspected the kid was not joining in on all the violence and debauchery too.

>>15827160
True. He totally disappears and is almost never mentioned for a big chunk of the book. It would've been cool to see some moments where he reacted to the violence. It also would've made that stretch feel a little more relatable and forward-moving instead of repetitive/cyclical. I have to think this was intentional on McCarthy's part. The "real" kid Samuel Chamberlain actually did speak up during his time with Glanton.

But there are a couple moments. To my memory, the only times we see any morality from the kid during the gang's rampage is 1) when he offers to get the arrow out of Brown's leg [risking his life according to Tobin--if he would've failed, Brown might've killed the kid] and 2) when the kid and Toadvine discuss on horseback how the people they just killed didn't deserve it. Lemme know if there're any more.

>>15827160
It states early on he has a penchant for violence, so hes def fucking people up.

Hes depicted wading out of the water I think when they slaughtered that village so he was probably feeling around for bodies to scalp and what not like the Delewares.

I disagree on Holden being some big bad Demiurge, I believe he is the peak reflection of humanity at all it's best and worst traits.

>>15827262

It’s definitely intentional. It means he doesn’t play a big enough role for it to be witnessed by the reader/author, but also it allows Glanton to take center stage as an example of how it turns out when fully corrupted by the Judge.

The violence we witness, and how the characters witness it, play a big role. I haven’t quite cracked it, but there’s an importance to not seeing the missing children die or the kid die, while getting a full picture of the terror the gang causes.

>>15827262
sparing Shelby when he's supposed to put him down

I love this book but have absolutely nothing to say about it.