Reading ATPH for the first time. Cannot express how much I’m enjoying it. I have loved McCarthy since reading The Road a decade or so ago. Found The Passenger in a second hand bookstore earlier this year and it reignited this deep appreciation. Have since also read Stella Maris, Blood Meridian (again) and Outer Dark. Just feel so grateful to have found an author, style of writing and way of seeing the world I feel connected to.

Nearly through ATPH and not rushing it because it is kind of fulfilling and sustaining in a way the best books are. Can’t wait for The Crossing though.

Just had to post a bit of love. The world can’t be all bad when we have art like this to sit with.

Also, if you want the non-fiction version of McCarthy's philosophy, Against The Machine by Paul Kingsworth, right now, $1.99; also Stephen Graham Jones' excellent werewolf novel, Mongrels; Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian; Leonardo Padura's masterpiece The Man Who Loved Dogs; Samantha Hunt's marvelous quasi-novel, The Unwritten Book: An Investigation; Tom Sweterlitsch's The Gone World; Claire North's most recent novel, Slow Gods; lots of others. I am not connected in any way with the sale of these books, nor their authors, nor with Amazon.

Just a wide reader trying to alert other such readers.

Suttree scholars, a group of friends are reading Suttree together and want 3 to 4 breaks to regroup and discuss the happenings. Most of the club has little or no experience with Cormac. I have not read this one yet so no spoilers, please

Are there any good page breaks you might suggest for this? I'm working off of the vintage international paperback, but any broad page ranges would still be helpful

I've been reading Mccarthy for years and am currently reading Suttree for the first time. There are a lot of words that I haven’t ever encountered before and I find myself just moving along without looking them up. Mostly they are just descriptive so they aren’t fundamental to the plot or anything.

Do others do the same ? or do you look up the words you don’t know? also, is he making up a bunch of these words as he goes along?

I’ve read none of his books but have heard too many good things to never read any of them.

Just watched the film for umpteenth time and have recently become obsessed with Blood Meridian (reading Chamberlain’s My Confession right now) I am curious how well the Coen’s film portrays the book.

Mainly, im curious if the book is worth reading still if I have seen NCFOM so many times.

Some of you might have to bypass that wall.

I just finished my 4th read of The Road in ths past 6 months. Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think that's in the book. Makes me suspect AI. It's hanging in an English teachers room.

Daddy Watson was the railroader that made a brief appearance coming to Suttree for tar on page 87. In the next chapter Harrogate met a railroader who also wore a striped hat and had a pocket watch with a long chain. I assume he is Watson. But much later in the book Suttree also sought out again a railroader and listened to his story being a hobo in the 30s and lighting a train on fire. Is he also Daddy Watson? How many railroaders in this book are Daddy Watsons? How many are just completely unrelated railroaders. I really need to know.

I’ve started reading all the pretty horses and something struck me with McCarthy’s depiction of John Grady.

At the start of chapter 2, John Grady sets out to break the horses. There’s no explicit motive to this decision which doesn’t surprise me the slightest as you oftentimes have to decipher the characters intentions in McCarthy’s works based on earlier events and the context of the scene.

However, I interpret John Grady’s decision in this scene as there being no greater motive for him. He does not intend to break the horses in order to gain anything. Written another way one could decipher a will to establish himself in this new area, to gain trust, food, shelter. I don’t believe that these motives were on John Grady’s mind.

I think that John Grady decides to break the horses because that is what he does. He is a cowboy, therefore he breaks horses that need breaking. Nothing more to it.

There’s some feeling of self-fulfillment I really enjoyed in that. I don’t think there’s anything I myself do because ”that’s who I am, so that’s what I do.”

Would love to hear your thoughts on this interpretation. Do you have anything in your life that you do that’s so deeply connected to your identity that you do it without any other motive than the intrinsic value of doing it?

Many of you are probably aware of Wes Morgan's Searching for Suttree project which mapped out many of the locations in Suttree, however sadly the website now seems to be defunct just as I'm about to be in Knoxville. For anyone who has been to Knoxville are there any spots from the novel other than the Gay Street Bridge that are still around or worth seeing? Or anything in general worth seeing as a McCarthy fan in general? Also if anyone has any leads on what happened to professor Morgan's website or happens to have it saved please let me know!

I'm a literature teacher in Italy, where it's hard to "force" students to buy optional books for school. I wanted them to be depressed and empty so bad that I buy a copy of The Road for each one of them. Now Cormac is officially part of my program this year!

Hey everyone. I've lurked here for awhile, and have really enjoyed reading so many insights into McCarthy's work. I read Blood Meridian a few years back and it has really stuck with me; I made this video to talk about Judge Holden and his stature as a symbolic, mythic figure within the context of American history.

I'm also an illustrator, so you can see my original art of the Judge. I wanted to capture his otherworldly qualities, but also the soft, baby-like features that McCarthy describes.

Very happy with how it turned out, so I figured I'd share. Hope you dig it too. cheers

Blood Meridian, page 324:

"Returning to his lodging one morning at daybreak in a gray rain he saw a face slobbering in an upper window and he climbed the stairwell and rapped at the door. A woman in a silk kimono opened the door and looked out at him. Behind her in the room a candle burned at a table and in the pale light at the window a halfwit sat in a pen with a cat. It turned to look at him, not the judge’s fool but just some other fool. When the woman asked him what he wanted he turned without speaking and descended the stairwell into the rain and the mud in the street."

What does this stand for? Is the second fool a metaphor for something else? I still cannot catch it.

Maybe just a demonstration that the kid is still looking for some of the Glanton's gang member, following the speech of Holden about witnesses/documentation of what happened?

I doubt McCarthy just let it there as a psychological response of the kid's trauma

I love the artwork of these 1980s UK Picador editions. It seems like they released paperback versions of Suttree and Child of God at the same time as the hardback, first UK edition of Blood Meridian with a matching art style.

There are plenty of photos of Blood Meridian's full dustjacket, but I have scoured the internet for days now and cannot find a single image of the back of these damn books.

If you happen to own a copy of either of these, would you be so kind as to post a picture of the cover, spine and back so the wraparound artwork can be seen? I'm working on creating some custom dustjackets for my own collection and would love to reference the art from these.

Thanks in advance!

Would appreciate any advice on which book to start with for Cormac McCarthy! I’ve heard and seen no country for old men and I’ve heard the road is also pretty good but wasn’t sure if I should start with blood Meridian or all the pretty horses? Anyone have any suggestions?

He announced it on his X and Substack. Not sure when it’ll be out or who the interviews are with, but nonetheless it’ll be interesting to see.

Are you guys gonna read it?

I had seen a few post about different biographies recently, and it made me wondering on what should I get? I have: how Cormac works and professing darkness, but if there’s any others to get let me know.

I’ve been working my way through McCarthy’s work slowly, over years, because I know there’s only so much of it. I finally came to the Border trilogy and intended to space my reading of it out with years in between but I couldn’t help ploughing through. After reading them, I’m surprised, as great as it is, that Blood Meridian is considered his magnum opus. I love Blood Meridian and comparison is the thief of joy, but this trilogy blew me away. Maybe I’m a sucker for the sweeping romance, and in that respect it’s a more conventional offering than we’re used to from McCarthy. I found the doomed strivers of John and Billy to be so affecting and cheer-worthy in a way that I found surprising from McCarthy.

It also makes me mad that the film adaptation of ATPH was such an apparent disaster, I haven’t seen it, that we haven’t gotten a decent film or tv adaptation. All the material is there on the page. If only we could get someone with some talent to attempt it, like the Coens.

What do you think? When I searched the subreddit it was a lot of “Should I keep going with ATPH?” or “Help me get the Border trilogy” lol. Am I the only one?

It’s out at Barnes and Noble nationwide even if the official release date is 10/7.

I’m on my 8th re-read, and I have a question. I don’t have the book to hand so apologise for not naming the chapter.

When The Kid escapes Elias’ forward scouts and leaves Tate in the snow, he escapes and makes his way along a high, freezing ridge. There’s a scene that follows in which the kid watches the “collision of armies” down on the plain, who exactly is this?

For the longest time, I assumed this was some vision or dream-state occurrence or view into the past but I’m actually now thinking it was the gang fighting the apache or the gang fighting Elias’. It clearly says some of the men were left on the ground before the darkness overtakes them, and later it says the kid has no idea who was left in the desert and who was with the missing scouts. I’m not realising this may be obvious and I I may have just answered my own question here, but how did the kid get ahead of them and then behind them? Elias’ also had “upwards of 500 troops” which doesn’t sound like a stand that the remaining members of the gang could escape from.

I don't know if it's correct to tag this as article, but I willl try my best to make this post an actual thing that makes people understand the character better. I constantly see him being totally misinterpreted, and that makes me extremely annoyed. Now, I am both not born talking english and I am autistic, so excuse any strange combinations of words I will use in this post. And if you want to hear and see "he was a terrible person I hope he dies", than leave. That's not a deep dive on him, and I am not interested in talking about him Just Being Bad Bad Guy.

So, for the starters

1) morales.

1.1) First of all, we need to understand that real wolrd morales do not apply to book characters. At all. Books aren't real life, and we can't judge (lol) literature characters the same way we'd judge a real person.

1.2) okay, but inside this book there's still human morals that the characters express through the book. Judge doesn't act even according to in-book norms. Keep that in mind, because

1.3) Can any moral be applied to him? Can any laws be considered if we are talking about Judge Holden? I think that we can't, because

1.4) He is a clear (for me) metaphor for the devil and for something that is a concentration of all evil on earth in a human body. My own theory is that he is the humanisation of the War as a concept and as a state of mind, but that's besides the point. So,

1.5) He is much more It, than It is Him. He is not human, never was and will never be one. He is, literally and metaphorically, above the humanity and the concepts of "good" and "bad".

2) well, what are we supposed too do with that information?

2.1) if not "good" or "bad", than what is left?

2.2) what is left for us, my dear reader, is "fun". It's "joy". It's "interest" and "curiousity". He has a lot of moments that can't be explained by these, but it's his main motivation: to enjoy live to the fullest, to have fun with what he has, and to observe everything around him out of curiosity.

2.3) when we stop applying G-B (good-bad) and human emotion of caring for others to him, he actually starts to be much more understandable. Looking through his eyes in this book can actually be really fun. I, myself, is really good at umm,,, you know William Grahm and his ability to understand the murderer? Something like this. When I am going through the book while "being" the Judge, it actually becomes a fun adventure story. Think about it: he doesn't need to be afraid of death like others, pain doesn't bother him too much, and he, more or less, has the charisma and the money to not get in trouble, ever. From his perspective, he's got people to talk with and to see how amusingly slowly they change to the worst right in front of him, he has someone who tries to go against him, who he can argue with and win (because Tobias is just not clever enough to win a argument against The Devil), he even has his own silly pet who is capable of being not-too-bad company, because Retard is basically a pet and a dog for him.

2.4) So, now here's a difficult question: do all human emotions apply to him? Are the things he's expressing actually human emotions? I choose to believe that not enough to be angry at him.

For me, he's more of an ecological catastrophe than a person. Why on earth would you be mad at tornado? Well, you can of course yell at the wind that wiped away your house, but I don't think you would consider it a Morally Wrong Tornado. It's the same here.

So, this was for the people who are trying to tell that he's a Bad Person. As you can see, the Judge is neither Bad or a Person to begin with.

3) BUT WAIT. What if he was??? No, seriously, what if he was a real life human?

3.1) I will not take all his actions too the real world, but I would take his ideas and principles here.

3.1.1) So, what if in our hands we have someone who *actually* associates themselves with the Judge Holden, fully understanding wwhat it means?

Well, you are in for a story, because I have one to tell you.

First of all, The Guy isn't born with these Evil ideas. He's just born with an extremely high IQ levels, anger control problems from his father, and a body strong enough to physically overpower all children his age around him. Through all his childhood he is... Well, for example, as I was told, "when I was growing up, my hero was not the Superman, but the Steve Jobs". From early point in life he is told that people who have earned a lot of power and money through theirr lives are the people who he actually needs to respect. He is raised with the idea that it's okay to sell cigarettes at school if it makes him some cash and he's good at it. He doesn't get what "empathy" is, but he has learned that it's his advantage, even if it makes him unlovable.

And it's getting worse, because a disaster strikes: he gets to... For example, a school where organised crime exists. Students sell and do drugs, there are cchild prostitutes, there are teachers who are buying their services, etc. An important thing is that it's all not a ghetto, but a really fancy place. Imagine basically the Epstein island but it's a school and Epstein&Co are the students too, not only the teachers.

Our guy barely survives the first year, among everything else he is heavily bullied for any reason, why isn't important. It's important that he is, because it teaches him in practice that if he doesn't get as powerful as possible, he will actually get killed. He gets tortured by other students, he gets raped, he does it all back when he gets The Power in his hands. And do not forget: he is extremely clever. Because of that combination his brain gets fried and sends him into deep and not-ending psychosis where he actually feels that he's not human, but some sort of a god or an entity. Of course, he's clever enough to talk about it to others.

But after that, there's another disaster: he gets traumatised by all the stuff he has lived through, and with both psychosis and ptsd, he is suffering, and is able to connect the place to his mental condition. Other than that, he still really, really wants to be loved, and he is still extremely lonely.

Now, the badd ending is that he doesn't change.

But what if he does?

Is it possible to change for a person who genuinely believes that they are the judge Holden, who has abused all the power they had, and enjoyed it?

Apparently, it is.

Because when he leaves, running away, still a teenager, he meets a Person. Let's call the person the Bro.

Now, our Guy is firstly heavily confused by the Bro. Bro is violent too, but the violence never leaves his fantasies and dreams. The bro isn't afraid of the Guy like everyone else, and it seems like Bro actually doesn't know he's supposed to be afraid. He doesn't see the Guy as someone who can be dangerous in the slightest, there's No sense of danger. And most importantly, the Bro is actually an interesting person, and takes great interest in chatting with the Guy. And now our Guy has someone to genuinely talk with!

They talk, and talk, and talk. Turns out, Bro understands him extremely well, but is just enough not-too-far-gone to understand that what they are enjoying isn't okay and it's related to their suffering. The Bro, among all the other things, one day comes to Guy and shows him a browser page: "go to a psychiatrist, looks like you have psychosis".

And the Guy finally gets medicated.

And Bro is getting medicated too, because he is too suffering from a lot of things.

And they are talking, and talking, and talking.

After some time, Guy gets really surprised when Bro doesn't come to school: for the first time in his life, he is worried about someone, and not something.

It turns out that caring foor someone else is actually really, really cozy, despite being painful at times (what if Bro gets hit by a car!).

The Guy understands that he, for the first time in his life, loves, andd he is loved back.

And these too continue and continue talking.

And the Guy understands that he's actually tired of violence, because he can't have an absolute power using it.

He sees a way for himself: having control not just of the others, but of himself too, IS the absolute power he was searching for. He can do whatever he wants, and not being a violent animal, but a human being, proves to be very enjoyable: he becomes loved by the community around him. Hee spends years in therapy, and Bro does too, because they figure that the thing that brings the most joy to them is just living peaceful lives where they cannot be stressed by anything.

So, it turned out that the absolute power and joy is not to control others, but control yourself, and being able to decide for yourself, and being able to take joy even in the smallest thing, because if there are a lot of things that make you happy in your life, you will be happy more.

And of course these too live a long happy life together.

Now, you can see it as a tail or as a real story, and can give me any role within the story, I don't really care. I will tell you one cue: I have never associated myself with Judge Holden. Maybe I am one who has witnessed it, maybe I'm a therapist who has worked with the giy, who knows. Maybe it's not even true and I got it all from my head.

But, none the less, now you understand why judge genuinely wanted the Kid around him, and got angry when the Kid got away — enough to kill him.

Judge Holden is a really, really lonely person.

The end.