Picador Paperback Edition from the 90’s (92 onwards) of Blood Meridian

Really cool copy - if there are any more pictures people would like let me know and i’ll add them

If anyone has an idea on value that would be cool too :)

Hope all is well with you all !

Does anyone know of/ recommend other books with a sense of place like Suttree? I’ve yet to find other novels where the contours of a particular place rendered so vibrantly.

After the massacre at the ferry camp, what is happening between the judge and the kid? Help me understand. The judge chases down, stalks, tries to kill the kid, for what? Did he think the kid was in cahoots with the Indians? When the kid is jailed later and the judge visits him what was that all about? And finally in the last pages of the book, when the two meet in the Jakes, does the judge kill the kid? I appreciate any clarity offered. First time reading and couldn’t quite piece things together at the end.

I find a lot of people talk about the "Anything that exists without my knowledge exists without my consent". But I've always found the monologue at the end by Holden to be more interesting.

Also please forgive me, I don't have the book handy and had to type it from audiobook, so I have punctuation and might miss a few words.

This is an orchestration of an event, for a dance in fact. The participants will be apprised of their roles at the proper time. For now it is enough that they have arrived. As the dance is the thing with which we are concerned that contains complete within itself its own arraignment and history and finale. There is no necessity that the dancers contain these things within themselves as well. In any event the history of all is not the history of each, nor indeed the sum of those histories. And none here can finally comprehend the reason for his presence, for he has no way of knowing even in what the event consists. In fact, were he to know, he might well upset himself. And you can see that that cannot be any part of the plan, if plan there may be

An event, a ceremony, the orchestration there of. The overture carries certain marks of decisviness. It includes the slaying of a large bear. The evenings progress will not appear strange or unusual, even to those who question the rightness of events soforth.

To me, it speaks to how Judge Holden can be evil, and be right. It's stuck with me for a while. It almost feels like an expansion to the phrase "All the world's a stage, and all the men and woman merely players"

What other passages or parts do you feel like don't get enough attention?

​Of course, I'm not romanticizing or praising the horrific violence in it at all. I just absolutely fell in love with the atmosphere, the characters, and the narrative perspective McCarthy crafted. ​

Ahh, there is SO much I want to talk about! But first, I’m extremely curious—what are your theories on the book?

Just finished my first reading of Blood Meridian and I LOVED it. Was wondering what are some of yall favourite quotes?

Personally I love, "It aint country you've run out of"

I recently finished this novel and found it very enjoyable and in a similar vein to Blood Meridian and No Country for Old Men. Just wondering if anyone else has read it and what they thought and if anyone has any similar reccomendations.

I'm relatively new to McCarthy, I started with All the Pretty Horses, then Blood Meridian, then The Road. I loved them all for different reasons, but I struggled with The Crossing. I feel like there were passages in that book that were some of the best from McCarthy I've read, the climax with the wolf, the madonna at the creek, Boyd with the doctor, and the story in the church (maybe).

But the story also felt a little disjointed and not very well paced? I feel like the beginning was a LOT of Billy walking around the desert not talking to anyone, and the whole wolf arc, while great, didn't feel as connected to the story to me. What really did it for me though was how many extremely long stories there were that feel like they pulled me out right as I was getting into the main part of the story. I actually attempted TC right after reading AtPH, and stalled out with Billy listening to the story in the church, and then months later came back. I did really enjoy the church story this time, but the first time it was just too much. I felt the same way about the blind man's story, and the airplane at the end.

Curious if I'm alone here. Still excited to read Cities of the Plain.

This is a story called "A Scalp for a Scalp" written by John Whalen and illustrated by Russ Heath. This story was included in an illustrated compilation work titled "The Big Book of the Weird Wild West" and I have used my copy to take these photographs. I hope you enjoy!

I’ve seen people say he’s a metaphor for the devil, for evil, for, but i’m wondering if he can be narrowed down to one.

Or perhaps he’s not a metaphor? A character entirely of his own that draws from many figures.

This book is an absolute tragedy. I can’t begin to describe how utterly bleak and cold I felt while listening to the audiobook, but also mesmerized, almost hypnotized. I feel like I just went through a spiritual journey and came out the other side where now part of my religion has something to do with horses as well as the total indifference of the universe and a recognition of some kind of profound beauty that exists in the struggle to live. This book was so good.

I want to share a quote from *The Passenger*. I’ve read it many times, and it brings tears to my eyes every single time.

“I had tried to tell her. Sort of. But of course she wouldnt listen. God. I pulled up to the house in a rental car and got out and walked around back and she was in the garden. I’d no idea what to wear. I just walked up to the fence and said hello. She couldnt even guess who it was of course. She looked up and she said: Yes? And I said: Mama, it’s William. And she knelt there for a minute in the dirt and then she put her hand over her mouth and these big tears started to roll down her cheeks. She just knelt there. Shaking her head back and forth. As if she’d been told that someone had died. Well, I suppose someone had”

“Ahab is forever Ahab, man. This whole act's immutably decreed. 'Twas rehearsed by thee and me a billion years before this ocean rolled. Fool! I am the Fates' lieutenant; I act under orders. Look thou, underling! that thou obeyest mine. Stand round me, men. Ye see an old man cut down to the stump; leaning on a shivered lance; propped up on a lonely foot. 'Tis Ahab--his body's part; but Ahab's soul's a centipede, that moves upon a hundred legs.”

The Judge. War.

Sat outside in 35 degree celsius scorching heat on holiday back home, rereading blood meridian , each reread takes longer and longer as I grow older.

As I go through Chapter XVII , it fully sinks in that this is possibly its best chapter , and one of the best chapters of anything I have ever read and possibly will ever read.

In a work that has little reprieve from violence and darkness , the chapter feels like a post-crescendo/ebb off that violence and an introspective albeit ominous dive draped by transcendent depictions of the terrain the men traverse.

Aside from the infamous War is God monologue ,

The chapter overall peaks in its descriptions of men enmeshed in the terrain...

You have the segment on Glanton claiming his agency...

Tobin's take on the false moon and God's dismay at the proliferation of lunacy in this world...

Judge Holden's best monologues on the mind , truth of the universe and arc of circling bodies, and the mystery is there is no mystery...

Ending on meeting the Yumas knowing the story is now setting itself for its final gruesome stretch before the kid becomes the man...

man...

I wanted to let everyone know, the publisher just put All the Pretty Horses ebook on sale for $1.99. I’ll put some links below if you’re interested.

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/all-the-pretty-horses-2?sId=13cdb5e7-a7c0-48d4-b9f9-3146d69c4c40&ssId=hP2hiZAirfTqddjCc8Df2&cPos=1

https://www.amazon.com/All-Pretty-Horses-Border-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B001L4Z6YO/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=2CLDE4CKIIN3P&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.6GVyeAn7IdCETQqSEmv8S69tgeLuSEzuENH2QyZ5l3ovIGM8w86_LKNB7a8GF3m4vEJy-eCYHBX3QWs3r5sfqxyoZL9x2HPZwupl1IfPCZ8bb4wbl92XvK6oYRH1gWbczLdSeWCs6AY4HPRS_7h6onr_UJvX48SpQboRnQqQuszsKpu7DqF--W4mmrjKNofOtKPMHF7jRv9ew8YdxLVvrA.sHLuUtd4b4c40yf-x7nju17YX8XJ59FoF88Yln0qlSA&dib_tag=se&keywords=all+the+pretty+horses&qid=1784375823&s=digital-text&sprefix=all+the+pre%2Cdigital-text%2C203&sr=1-1

I've heard that it is Cormac Mccarthy's most difficult and ambitious novel, and I've read "Blood Meridian", so I'm wondering if it shares similar themes and biblical allusions, or if there are other things I should be prepared for.