Welcome to our Blood Meridian reader support group. (Updated)
It’s the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. A good time to start reading our chosen novel, Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy.
When Blood Meridian was first published it sold only 2,500 copies. Since then it has been called the greatest novel by a living American author, and one of the greatest books of the 20th century. McCarthy was a recluse for most of his literary career until his novel The Road was published in 2006 and suddenly he was appearing on Oprah. Her endorsement made The Road the fastest-selling Pulitzer winner ever.
These are not the reasons we are reading Blood Meridian. It’s nice to be agreed with (though it depends on who’s agreeing), but we have our own reasons.
McCarthy’s novels All The Pretty Horses, No Country For All Old Men and The Road have been adapted for film. A film of Blood Meridian was said to be in the works, to be directed by Todd Field (In The Bedroom, Little Children; does excellent adaptations). The project fell through.
Recently actor/perpetual student James Franco said he wanted to direct a film version of Blood Meridian. Jamey, we love you, your brilliance in Pineapple Express was unjustly overlooked, but get the hell away from this book. This is a job for a Martin Scorsese.
Why, of all the books out there, did we pick Blood Meridian? Because it is unlike any other book we’ve ever read. We can assure you that you won’t be reading another book any time soon and saying, “Hey, it’s like Blood Meridian.” Unless that book is Moby Dick by Herman Melville.
We are your guide for this reader support group, although you should feel free to ignore us and go your own way (This is not The Ya-Ya Sisterhood of the Traveling Alchemist). Our only qualification for this gig is that we’ve actually read Blood Meridian.
We have not had an easy relationship with the work of Cormac McCarthy. In the late 90s our publisher gave us copies of All The Pretty Horses, Child of God and Blood Meridian. All the Pretty Horses bored us to bits—most westerns do—and we ended up listening to the book-on-tape by Brad Pitt, who didn’t make it riveting either. Child of God we gave away, Blood Meridian just vanished from our shelves. The Road was the occasion for a good long nap.
Also we found the Coen Brothers’ film of No Country both compelling and cruel. You may have heard us in the theatre yelling, ‘You can’t just show us a corpse, at least let us see how he dies!!!’
Then last year we were reading a very intelligent, highly accomplished novel by a hot young novelist and we found ourselves wondering where the human beings were. Where was the horror and exhilaration, the blood and hair? Why couldn’t we feel anything?
That’s how we came to know Blood Meridian—as a literary antidote to apathy. After years of false starts we got through this book in two days: 2 one-hour sessions, then a 6-hour jag because we knew that if we paused to rest we might not be able to get back on the horse. It was one of the most intense reading experiences we’ve ever had.
That’s why we picked Blood Meridian. That and the fact that we see copies of it in every bookstore we’ve been in lately.
This is how the Reader Support Group works. So you don’t lose track, this is the only post for the Blood Meridian support group. The discussion will appear in Comments.
Before you start reading the novel, post the date and time in Comments and let us know you’re off. That way if we don’t hear from you for 48 hours we can send out a search party.
Whenever you have the time, write us a progress report. Your impressions of the characters, how you felt as you were reading certain passages, people or events real or fictional that came to your mind, things you want to say to the author. We find that it is always helpful when reading a work of fiction to cast the movie version in our heads.
This is not a term paper, you don’t have to sound “literary”. This is a personal experience; we’ll treat all opinions as valid.
If you run into any difficulties, if you are distressed at what you’ve read, if it’s giving you nightmares or making you violent at work, if you want to quit, let us know in Comments. The members who are online might be able to help.
If you picked up the book solely on our recommendation and it bores you, there’s no help for that. Drop us a line in Comments and we will swap your copy for a book you might like better. There must be some copies of Twilight lying around. By the way the complete title of the McCarthy is “Blood Meridian, or The Evening Redness in the West”.
Two or three weeks from now the reader support group will meet for drinks to mark the end of the project.
* * * * *
Day 2. Met up with Chus to give him a copy of Blood Meridian, ended up watching Tree of Life again. Noted correspondences between McCarthy’s novel and Malick’s movie, viz. grandeur of language/visuals, majestic landscapes, unknowable vastness of the universe, myriad Old Testament references, invocation of a divinity that remains silent. And the state of Texas. Thankfully the Brad Pitt character does not eat his children. Malick to direct Blood Meridian? Would he make it too beautiful?
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
June 21st, 2011 at 01:32
Date: 21 June 2011 – Tuesday – 1:30 AM – At the office.
I am now reading Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. PDF.
Good luck to me.
June 21st, 2011 at 02:39
I think I have convinced a friend to participate in our reading group; we will be getting our copies on Thursday. If Blood Meridian is as nasty as endorsed, then I suppose what I’m reading now, The World’s Most Evil Psychopaths, should be enough to warm me up. I will have been desensitized enough by the time I take this on, and I have some funny books around if I need to be distracted. Two to three weeks is a good measure. I’m okay with cheap vodka.
I have never been part of a reading group; I’m thoroughly excited!
June 21st, 2011 at 07:19
I read McCarthy’s The Road and it was a great reading experience. I think i’ll take up this challenge. Tomorrow morning I’m gonna buy a copy of this book.
It’s June 21, 2011… 1:18 AM, Florence, Italy.
I hope i’ll make it to the end of the third week!
June 21st, 2011 at 10:34
No Country for All Men ba ang title nun or No Country for Old Men?
June 21st, 2011 at 11:15
Chus: Huwag mo nang pansinin yon, ang isipin mo na lang ay kung paano ibabalik si Roger sa Jing Monis salon sa Greenbelt! We’re not going all the way to Alabang to get a scalp massage!!
Scalp massage – scalps – Blood Meridian. Connected pa rin.
June 21st, 2011 at 18:11
James Franco? Directing or acting? He might be too pretty for the Kid, and definitely can’t touch Holden. Is there a tall-ish, bald, baby faced innocent looking actor with twinkly eyes that can embody the majestic evil of H?
Death match – Holden vs Darth Vader, who would you bet on?
June 21st, 2011 at 20:56
June 21, 2011 8:45 p.m.
Got a copy of Blood Meridian from a friend who freely gave me her copy. As in she was like, “Ayan na, iyo na, wag mo ng ibabalik, kahit kailannnnn!!!”
Oh-kay.
I’m reading this with a glass of warm milk and cookies. I want to be in a safe place in case hehe.
June 21st, 2011 at 21:49
I’m in hibernation but have decided to go out tomorrow just to get a copy of Blood Meridian. So count me in!
June 21st, 2011 at 21:59
We knew we would regret the phrase “all opinions will be treated as valid”. Waiter, make that very dry.
Judge Holden in Blood Meridian is the embodiment of evil. He is and will always be evil. Darth Vader was not completely evil; there was still some good in him, and it got him killed.
June 21st, 2011 at 22:44
21 June, 10:40 PM
I purchased my copy from NBS Trinoma.
Will read it tonight, before going to sleep.
Para lang may context: I’ve been reading Ed McBain for the past week and so I’m really hoping that the violence will uhm, impress me. Hehehe.
P.S.
Si David Mitchell ba si young, accomplished novelist? And are you talking about A Thousand Autumns?
June 21st, 2011 at 23:37
PAY ATTENTION. If you must sound familiar, BE familiar.
Here are some of our posts on David Mitchell and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet.
http://www.jessicarulestheuniverse.com/2010/07/30/the-unquestionable-marvel-of-david-mitchell/
http://www.jessicarulestheuniverse.com/2010/07/22/i-spoke-too-soon-part-217-12/
http://www.jessicarulestheuniverse.com/2010/12/16/2010-tens-books/
We are not in the habit of declaring our love for authors who leave us cold. If you wanted to know what book we were referring to you could’ve just asked. It is The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton.
http://www.jessicarulestheuniverse.com/?s=eleanor+catton+the+rehearsal
June 22nd, 2011 at 07:10
Ouch. OK.
June 22nd, 2011 at 07:12
And thanks for the links.
June 22nd, 2011 at 13:45
June 22, 1:45pm – Purchased the book from NB Megamall. Read the first chapter here at work. I want to keep reading pero tapos na ang break :D
June 22nd, 2011 at 17:20
11:00 PM, June 21
I started last night and I was worried I might not stop reading. This is your recommended book after all so I might get hooked. But that didn’t happen since I was too tired to read a serious novel on a workweek.
And yes, it’s violent! Brutality in common places tend to be more shocking to me (the American Psycho-type settings, etc), and this here takes place in a savage environment. But it’s too early to say!
Btw, spoilers are not allowed, yes? Are there rules on that or do we just keep on blabbing?
June 22nd, 2011 at 22:20
We found American Psycho hilarious! It is a satire on capitalism. Can’t take violence seriously when it is preceded by a long treatise on the career of Phil Collins.
June 23rd, 2011 at 15:14
I got my copy this morning, Bestsellers, Robinson’s Galleria. I will start reading later on, just to get a feel of things. It will be my sleeping pill, I suppose, but I will take a break tomorrow evening. One of the people in this reading group will be celebrating his birthday tomorrow. Ahaha!
June 23rd, 2011 at 15:28
23 juin 2011 vendredi 1516hrs
I’m starting today. I’ve just read the entrance of Judge Holden and what he did was funny and not funny. Funny because credulous hoi polloi trusted what they heard from Holden. Not funny because it resulted in gratuitous violence–clearly Holden is eeevilll.
June 23rd, 2011 at 22:03
JZ’s power of suggestion. Will get my copy of Blood Meridian tomorrow. I think JZ can be a good endorser.
June 23rd, 2011 at 23:14
Date: 22 June 2011 – Wednesday (Yesterday)
Got to stop reading. Ang hirap magbasa sa computer. Good thing I’ve reserved a copy at NBS Superbranch Cubao. Nagkakaubusan na! Will resume ASAP.
June 24th, 2011 at 11:08
got my copy from NBS Cubao. thanks!
June 24th, 2011 at 15:05
I’m in Chapter Three now, and nasanay na ako sa dialogue na walang quotation marks. May pagka-mechanical ang narration niya ano? Minsan di ko maintindihan kung phrase ba ito or sentence. But I’m getting the hang of things, the feel of everything, and I’m bracing myself for even more horrific imagery. Judge Holden looks freaky, wala pa naman siyang ka-bastardahang ginagawa, pero I’m looking forward to more of him.
I kind of liked the Virgin Mary holding a headless child.
This weather is conducive to this kind of reading, I think.
June 26th, 2011 at 21:12
got my copy from NBS Megamall, it was the last one. I finished the first chapter today June 26th.
June 27th, 2011 at 01:08
Those Comanche savages are nasty. He was describing the carnage that was left in their wake, I remember the “baby bush,” and I had to close the book some because I needed a cigarette. I’ve had my share of violence by the time they were by the river where the women washed clothes. I had to take a break. This was a long chapter, and I was meaning to finish it at the end of the day.
I will be reading about the recruitment, and The Judge later on. I’m actually looking forward to it.
June 27th, 2011 at 10:51
Momelia: That’s the spirit. Just keep at it no matter how gory and weird it gets. Don’t try to understand the characters. You’re riding with the Glanton gang now.
Historical context: Many Americans who had “missed out” on the “Indian” campaign signed up for the Philippine campaign. They came here hoping to get their “Injuns”.
June 28th, 2011 at 01:16
Yes, the Glanton Gang! And The Black and White Jacksons, and Bathcat, and Toadvine, and Holden, and the Veteran. That enormous Black Jackson is wearing a necklace of human ears. How odd! How endearing! Ahaha, it’s starting to pick up.
The way he describes the desert can be a drag sometimes, though.
June 28th, 2011 at 17:28
I’m enjoying very much the dialogue of the Mexicans such as this: ‘When the lambs is lost in the mountain, he said. They is cry. Sometime come the mother. Sometime the wolf.’ I’m very entertained with dialogue bastardization, and he does it so well.
Sometimes I can’t follow the things in the… places. There are too many unfamiliar stuff being described in the plaza or some such place. Book is a little tough. That said, like Momelia, looking forward to more gore. I’m imagining the kid to be like Damien of Omen but all grown-up and nastier. Scary sya.
June 29th, 2011 at 00:04
Every chapter starts with keywords on what to expect. Having said that, this is indeed a difficult book to read.
June 29th, 2011 at 03:32
I’m used to figuring the story out, or at least the details and the possibilities, as I go along. It’s more Having said that, I’m not a fan of the keywords, and I only repair to them after I’m done with the chapter. Personally, I think they’re helpful only if the reader is doing it backwards.
I’m becoming a fan of Holden’s communication skills and sudden changes in disposition. I don’t mind this Holden. The other one’s a different story.
June 29th, 2011 at 12:40
Lots of highfalutin words
Lots of Spanish lines (Thanks google translate)
June 29th, 2011 at 16:50
That would depend on your vocabulary.
July 3rd, 2011 at 19:45
I finished the book last Wednesday. What I am about to write is personal, something I hesitate to disclose entirely (maybe I can give more details when the group meets after the project): I don’t want my entry to be all-about-me of course.
The Saturday after I’d begun it, I actually had a nightmare, dunno if that was coincidence or if something in the novel triggered something in my subconscious. There was nothing violent in the dream–but I guess some misery and isolation from the book’s themes translated into my head and made me face the one thing my dreams have not presented to me before, which is the death of my parents. Prior to this, I always dreamed of my parents as alive, but my nightmare finally showed me that they were gone and I woke up feeling so awful and alone (and so hungry I had to go downstairs and eat some leftovers in the fridge, a thing I don’t normally do in the wee hours of the morning).
Anyway, I suppose my point is, yes, McCarthy deftly makes you feel the isolation of the purlieu in language that is brilliant, beautiful (McCarthy just added about 30 words to my vocabulary, in English and Spanish–I never knew what the jakes were until now–why are water closets/latrines called after people [the john, jakes]) and it is this that makes the whole thing surreally paradoxical: the brilliance and beauty embrace and enhance the isolation and the hostility. It is Mysterium Tremendum et Fascinosum; the scenes McCarthy paints for us are both awesome and appalling. Just like a dream. Or nightmare. Consider his metaphors on the riders’ shadows and his reflections on fire.
After Outer Dark, I shared the same sentiments as Ms JZ—never to read anything by McCarthy again. But what the heck, there’s a support group for Blood Meridian anyway so I jumped right in. And I’m glad I did. Now, I don’t want to read him again. Ha ha.
P.S. Ms Jessica, we walked right past each other yesterday in Greenbelt, I was too shy to approach and say, “Hi, I’m balqis, one of your readers,” and risk being mistaken for a stalker. Hah. Looking forward to the group’s meeting.
July 4th, 2011 at 11:56
balqis: Aha! you’ve had the full Blood Meridian experience. Beauty and ugliness, joy and misery—how can you truly understand one without the other? We have a lot to discuss. As soon as everyone in the project has finished reading (which should be this week, or you can consider the book abandoned) we can schedule the meet. Thanks. The idea for this reader support group actually came from you—we read your comment about Outer Dark.
July 8th, 2011 at 12:44
Chapter 16, onti na lang.
July 12th, 2011 at 00:46
Chapter XIV… I’m getting there…
Scalping those Indians reminded me those scenes in Inglourious Basterds, when Brad Pitt was scalping those Nazis—at least a hundred scalps was his quota, I guess.
Nasty.