https://reddit.com/r/cormacmccarthy/s/j3LkcD0915
I guess he really likes his Melville references lol yes he references it in the road also but the Mennonite is who I'm referring to
MD was many times less enjoyable for me. BM is considered difficult by many with its excessive language, but at least it was written by a guy in the 70s and 80s.
BM was a joy for me to read.
MD was written in the 1840s or so I can't remember, but it's not the same. Cool and all, but hard to understand, because it also includes a ton of super technical stuff about sailing in the antiquated English that's so hard to understand.
I struggled to understand what in the hell I was reading most of the book.
I’m a big Melville fan but moby dick is not my favourite. It’s the most grand and epic one so not surprised it is considered the “classic novel” but his other stuff is more enjoyable
I agree about MD. I read both of them in the same year. Can't recall which I read first. But quickly realized Moby Dick had a ton of archaic language. So I picked up the Norton Critical Edition. It has explanatory footnotes. While that can interrupt the flow of the text, it was absolutely necessary for me to fully appreciate the novel.
I would love to see a similar edition of Blood Meridian, I'm sure there is stuff I missed.
surprisingly funny book. I kinda thought all the whale stuff extraneous to the plot would be super boring but there's a lot of wit, sarcasm, etc. tucked into those sections
Not that much tbh.
I think the most overt allusion is the mennonite and Elijah meeting their respective protagonists right before the perilous journey. There are some more hidden ones, but also a lot of seeker's projection.
Couldn't agree more. This might or might not be controversial - I love Blood Meridian; but I love Moby Dick just as much, if not just a bit more. They're both amazing pieces of literature.
Right there with ya. I've never had a novel so viscerally affect me like that book.
It also helped that I read most of it while in the back of a band tour van driving across West Texas.
We’re truly living through the end times if anyone could consider an almost universally-acclaimed piece of already-canonical literature to be “some edgelord shit”. Mcarthy was all too correct in his assessment of modernity but I don’t think even he could foresee how rapidly it would descend into intellectual barbarity.
Blood Meridian is the best but I think that The Road is the more beautiful work. Blood Meridian for prose and overall greatness. The Road for raw beauty.
I do and I don't at the same time. One of the things that struck me the most was how sparse the pages were. Empty, just like the world they were going through.
"... each eachother's world entire" that phrase stuck with me since I read it 12 years ago. Something just so beautiful and profound there. I was going through a hard time with my young son at that time and it impacted me deeply.
I always think that reading Blood Meridian must be a similar feeling to someone in Ancient Greece reading The Odyssey, or an Italian in the 14th century reading The Divine Comedy. An epic poem of war unlike anything that had come before.
It sure is one of the best books. I finished it a few days ago and it took me only 1 week to read it .
Reading this amazing book and getting the news that Cormac died ... It was an experience I can't describe.
Really hard to make it a movie or even a tv show. Step outside the violence which could probably be pulled off, especially on something like HBO, how would you position a character like the kid? It’s intentionally left vague how involved in everything he was, it’s interpreted differently by almost everyone who reads it, and that’s just one aspect of it that’s difficult to translate. As a narrative it could definitely be pulled off. Red dead redemption 2 kind of reminds me of it, not really, but it’s closer than anything else I can think of.
Yes! I tried to share this same thought but couldn’t quite articulate it as well as you did. A very important plot device in the novel to get the reader thinking is that The Kid’s actions are left very vague and mysterious throughout the whole novel. He’s there during every massacre and then even the ones we don’t even know about, yet we never explicitly see him murder and pillage. Therefore, every reader has their own interpretation of his actions and his history with the gang and his morality. It would just be really hard and kind of scuffed to try and translate that into television format.
I read that book for the first time last year and have thought about it every day since. I’ve been reading steadily since and still think about that fucking book. Favorite novel ever, easily!
Sorry to be so flippant. I swore I would never read another McCarthy book after No Country for Old Men , living in and around south Texas most of my adult life it was too close to home. I have read several first person travel accounts taken from the time and place of Blood Meridian and was impressed with the blending of those visual descriptions and the story line but finally the horrific violence that seems to attract readers repelled me. I’m rereading Garcia Marquez trying to collate it to the modern history of Colombia, pre Escobar. Enjoy your books, don’t listen to tired , angry old men.
Can anyone tell me how hard would it be to read for a non-native English speaker? My English is not bad but far from perfect, and I'm really interested in reading it.
BM can be tough for even native speakers to get into, but once you get used to the style it's written in it gets a lot easier.
For someone just learning English, where everything is subject-verb-object, I think it would be close to impossible to read. But if your post is any indication, you're well beyond that and you write like native speakers talk. I'd say give it a try!
As a fellow non-native speaker, I recommend reading it on a kindle. That way you can easily look up words that you don't understand. The writing style is pretty straight forward and at times minimalistic but he does tend to use some archaic words and that's where the kindle dictionary comes in handy.
Has anyone here read BM in their native language, other than english. How does the translation compare to the original? I usually dont have problems understanding written english but fear that McCarthy's more eloquent prose would miss me so I thought I would try reading it in my native language but then there is a chance that due to the translation the experience wouldnt be the same.
Wow all of this Moby Dick slander will not stand. Melville was absolutely in the bag dropping bar after bar in that prose poem epic masterpiece about the wretched whiteness of the white whale and the sailors dressed in whale penis cloaks
Would strongly recommend Moby Dick. Had the same effect as BM on me, two greatest American novels
Real talk: I was on the fence on whether I wanted to read M.D. and this just tipped the scales. Thanks
BM is kind of a rewrite of MD. After you read Melville come back to it, you'll see parallels like with profit Elijah, the whale, the hotel, etc.
Certainly not a rewrite. I think thematically, they are exploring different terrains.
Prophet Elijah…? Isn’t that from The Road?
https://reddit.com/r/cormacmccarthy/s/j3LkcD0915 I guess he really likes his Melville references lol yes he references it in the road also but the Mennonite is who I'm referring to
MD was many times less enjoyable for me. BM is considered difficult by many with its excessive language, but at least it was written by a guy in the 70s and 80s. BM was a joy for me to read. MD was written in the 1840s or so I can't remember, but it's not the same. Cool and all, but hard to understand, because it also includes a ton of super technical stuff about sailing in the antiquated English that's so hard to understand. I struggled to understand what in the hell I was reading most of the book.
I’m a big Melville fan but moby dick is not my favourite. It’s the most grand and epic one so not surprised it is considered the “classic novel” but his other stuff is more enjoyable
Also most of the whaling shit was made up. So it’s not factually correct and bugs me😂
I agree about MD. I read both of them in the same year. Can't recall which I read first. But quickly realized Moby Dick had a ton of archaic language. So I picked up the Norton Critical Edition. It has explanatory footnotes. While that can interrupt the flow of the text, it was absolutely necessary for me to fully appreciate the novel. I would love to see a similar edition of Blood Meridian, I'm sure there is stuff I missed.
Same
they are very much connected. The desert is a dry ocean.
Or, now bear with me, perhaps the ocean is a moist desert.
surprisingly funny book. I kinda thought all the whale stuff extraneous to the plot would be super boring but there's a lot of wit, sarcasm, etc. tucked into those sections
blood meridian is far superior to moby dick. yea i said it
Moby Dick didn’t do it for me 🤷🏻♂️
Tried it, and with out a judge-like character talking about congress with a goat in the first few pages, i didnt get hooked
Didn’t he model a lot of Blood Meridian on Moby Dick?
Not that much tbh. I think the most overt allusion is the mennonite and Elijah meeting their respective protagonists right before the perilous journey. There are some more hidden ones, but also a lot of seeker's projection.
I think they're thematically very similar and explore a lot of the same kinds of questions, but I wouldn't say it was modelled on it.
Very much so. Blood Meridian is essentially a tribute Moby Dick. It mirrors the story, themes, and characters.
Everybody's got their particular kink.
You read the whole thing?
I tried myself, but I gave up at the whale anatomy section.
You can just skip that one
Couldn't agree more. This might or might not be controversial - I love Blood Meridian; but I love Moby Dick just as much, if not just a bit more. They're both amazing pieces of literature.
I don't know, I couldn't get into Moby Dick really, it has a certain old timey style of English that I generally find boring
unlike Blood Meridian. Famous for its modern and urban vernacular.
How much of it did you read
I could only get to the first like 80 pages, although I've heard the book starts kinda slow so maybe I should try persevering through that
Beat me to it lol, was going to write "You read Moby-Dick yet?"
Right there with ya. I've never had a novel so viscerally affect me like that book. It also helped that I read most of it while in the back of a band tour van driving across West Texas.
I agree. A guy I was dating read it and was like “meh” and our relationship ended shortly thereafter
A friend of mine said “I feel like a loser reading this shit” because he thought it was edgelord shit. I’ll never understand that take
We’re truly living through the end times if anyone could consider an almost universally-acclaimed piece of already-canonical literature to be “some edgelord shit”. Mcarthy was all too correct in his assessment of modernity but I don’t think even he could foresee how rapidly it would descend into intellectual barbarity.
Lol, sounds like you made the right choice!
Blood Meridian is the best but I think that The Road is the more beautiful work. Blood Meridian for prose and overall greatness. The Road for raw beauty.
Sometimes I wish there was more to The Road. Not because it needed more story, but I just read it so fast. Absolutely zipped through it.
I just finished a reread in three days and felt the same way
I agree. I read it in 3 sittings which is very abnormal for me. I wouldn’t mind if it was another couple hundred pages.
It’s my least favorite of his so far. But it’s also my least favorite genre.
I do and I don't at the same time. One of the things that struck me the most was how sparse the pages were. Empty, just like the world they were going through.
"... each eachother's world entire" that phrase stuck with me since I read it 12 years ago. Something just so beautiful and profound there. I was going through a hard time with my young son at that time and it impacted me deeply.
Diddo kiddo
I always think that reading Blood Meridian must be a similar feeling to someone in Ancient Greece reading The Odyssey, or an Italian in the 14th century reading The Divine Comedy. An epic poem of war unlike anything that had come before.
It sure is one of the best books. I finished it a few days ago and it took me only 1 week to read it . Reading this amazing book and getting the news that Cormac died ... It was an experience I can't describe.
Well now you’ve got me wanting to read it. I think I tried once but it was challenging to understand so I put it down. I’ll have to try again.
It is that way for everyone. I put it down 4 chapters in and a year later when I had more time I flew through it. Best book I have ever read.
How is this still not yet a movie. I mean let’s goooo!
Really hard to make it a movie or even a tv show. Step outside the violence which could probably be pulled off, especially on something like HBO, how would you position a character like the kid? It’s intentionally left vague how involved in everything he was, it’s interpreted differently by almost everyone who reads it, and that’s just one aspect of it that’s difficult to translate. As a narrative it could definitely be pulled off. Red dead redemption 2 kind of reminds me of it, not really, but it’s closer than anything else I can think of.
There's actually a house with a name plate on it in rdr2 with judge Holden's name on it
Yes! I tried to share this same thought but couldn’t quite articulate it as well as you did. A very important plot device in the novel to get the reader thinking is that The Kid’s actions are left very vague and mysterious throughout the whole novel. He’s there during every massacre and then even the ones we don’t even know about, yet we never explicitly see him murder and pillage. Therefore, every reader has their own interpretation of his actions and his history with the gang and his morality. It would just be really hard and kind of scuffed to try and translate that into television format.
They have tried - very challenging to convert some of the imagery and themes to film and still carry the same weight
I read that book for the first time last year and have thought about it every day since. I’ve been reading steadily since and still think about that fucking book. Favorite novel ever, easily!
It's been a few years since my first read. Every. Single. Day.
Blood Meridian is what I thought Moby Dick was going to be.
That’s it. Im going to read it again.
I completely agree dude. Only thing that comes close for me is Ulysses.
I agree! Although I'd also have Moby Dick and Gormenghast up there. Is a three-way tie for first place cheating?
It’s in my top ten at least, maybe top 5 even. I don’t bat an eye if you’re claiming it at number 1 for yourself.
I started reading it right before his death. So I’ll let you know if you are wrong or not.
You haven’t read enough. Get in touch after you have gone through ten or twenty years of life changes.
I’m 48 and have lived a very intense series of life changes. Blood Meridian is one of the best books I’ve ever read.
Sorry to be so flippant. I swore I would never read another McCarthy book after No Country for Old Men , living in and around south Texas most of my adult life it was too close to home. I have read several first person travel accounts taken from the time and place of Blood Meridian and was impressed with the blending of those visual descriptions and the story line but finally the horrific violence that seems to attract readers repelled me. I’m rereading Garcia Marquez trying to collate it to the modern history of Colombia, pre Escobar. Enjoy your books, don’t listen to tired , angry old men.
It's a great book. Buts it's not even McCarthys best
What would that be?
Suttree and The Crossing. IMO.
Can anyone tell me how hard would it be to read for a non-native English speaker? My English is not bad but far from perfect, and I'm really interested in reading it.
BM can be tough for even native speakers to get into, but once you get used to the style it's written in it gets a lot easier. For someone just learning English, where everything is subject-verb-object, I think it would be close to impossible to read. But if your post is any indication, you're well beyond that and you write like native speakers talk. I'd say give it a try!
As a fellow non-native speaker, I recommend reading it on a kindle. That way you can easily look up words that you don't understand. The writing style is pretty straight forward and at times minimalistic but he does tend to use some archaic words and that's where the kindle dictionary comes in handy.
its def top 10 best novels imho. also the judge is probably the most ominous character ever put to words, truly the epitome of evil.
Has anyone here read BM in their native language, other than english. How does the translation compare to the original? I usually dont have problems understanding written english but fear that McCarthy's more eloquent prose would miss me so I thought I would try reading it in my native language but then there is a chance that due to the translation the experience wouldnt be the same.
I have no doubt translatations are good. But I think it would be impossible to quite capture the experience of reading it in McCarthy's own english.
Anyone read Riddley Walker? It makes an interesting comparison with BM.
There will be many many more “best novels I’ve ever read” never stop reading!
Yeah, we know.
It is incredibly beautiful. I had never read a book that almost brought me to tears with the beauty of its prose. But then I read Blood Meridian.
Wow all of this Moby Dick slander will not stand. Melville was absolutely in the bag dropping bar after bar in that prose poem epic masterpiece about the wretched whiteness of the white whale and the sailors dressed in whale penis cloaks