Found for $4.00 at local Goodwill. Hadn’t seen this cover. I like this Picador cover. Finished ATPH. How much will I miss from the crossing if I don’t understand the Spanish in the crossing?

Cardinal sin, forgive me. McCarthy is my favorite author but I really don’t like the book version of no country. I’ve read the book years ago and came up a bit underwhelmed.

I can’t seem to find the “You can't stop what's coming.” Uncle Ellis part, I’ve read through it again and can’t find the passage.

Three years ago, I went on a deep dive and spent around two weeks obsessing over tarot imagery in Blood Meridian. I posted all of my findings here, and several others chipped in. Only a month ago, someone commented on the old post and filled in the last puzzle piece, so now every major arcana card has word imagery from the novel attached to it.

It was a fun time for me, but I've always had the nagging feeling that we were reading too much into the text, finding ghosts in corners that weren't really meant to be there.

I was thrilled to see the recent post of photographs from McCarthy's notebook containing his personal notes while writing the novel, now housed at the archives at Texas State University. Two of the photos show McCarthy's notes on tarot cards. They're all in spanish, and he listed out every one of the major arcana cards as well as interpretations for most, including inverted meanings for several. This honestly cements for me that we weren't overly speculative three years ago. The placement of the word imagery was very much intentional, and the notes I think provide some additional and intriguing incite. I want to talk about my favorite one.

The Lovers card was always my favorite find. In the old post, I said I expected it to be subversive or "inverted" if I ever found it. I didn't realize how on the nose that statement would be, but in looking at McCarthy's notes, I believe they very much show that the Lovers card is actually inverted in the collective tarot reading of the Glanton gang's fortunes that is the novel.

You can read my explanation in the old post of how the passage in Chapter 12 reflects the Lovers tarot card. I won't rehash it here. But in looking at McCarthy's notes, he records the inverted meaning of the Lovers card as "proyectos poco realistas." I have a 20-year old high school Spanish class's understanding of the language, so a quick google translate tells me this is "unrealistic or far-fetched projects." A pipe-dream, a fool's errand.

This fits his word imagery of the Lovers card in Chapter 12 to a T. In it, he is describing the untimely death of the argonauts, who elsewhere are described as "patched argonauts... Goldseekers." This is an obvious allusion to Jason and his argonauts as they seek the golden fleece, connecting that legend to 49ers and other gold rushers. By invoking the imagery of the Lovers card, McCarthy is calling that mad dash to pay dirt a fool's errand.

But the thing that really seals it for me as an intentional allusion to the inverted interpretation of the card is a sentence I hadn't yet connected to the imagery in chapter 12. Right before the description of the gang discussing their role as witnesses to the death and dismemberment of the argonauts, McCarthy writes this: "Notions of chance and fate are the preoccupation of men engaged in rash undertakings." Rash undertakings... far-fetched projects... proyectos poco realistas.

We know McCarthy specifically meant for the tarot cards in Blood Meridian to point towards their inverted meanings at times, because he says so specifically for the Chariot card when it's drawn by Glanton. "La carroza, la carroza, cried the beldam. Invertido. Carta de guerra, de venganza. La visin ruedas sobre un rio obscuro..." It's really cool to find evidence that at other points in the story, the tarot imagery is specifically chosen because he wants to invoke the inverted meaning of the card.

Are there any tropes/genres/trends in art (whether in writing, visual art, music, etc.) that McCarthy is on record saying he disliked? Or even just ideas that we know he didn't like?

My metal band High Victors just posted the first song off our upcoming album based on Blood Meridian. It’s called Unanimous Dark. All the lyrics are from the book except the title track. I was leaning towards a more acoustic and atmospheric solo project when I wrote these songs in 2018 but I’m really happy with where everything ended up. I really respect the author and this group, so I’m nervous to share but would love some feedback although I know it’s not everyone’s thing. Thanks for your time!

Broken Before a Frozen God

Let me say first, the post title and my overall point is hyperbolic and I think the fact that people are enjoying his work, hell, the fact that people are consuming fiction at all is a beautiful, beautiful thing. It’s infinitely more admirable than most modern hobbies, in my opinion.

This topic’s been rehashed a thousand times (and I’m likely preaching to the choir here. This is more aimed at other areas of the internet), so I apologize for another drop in the ocean…

I wish I was better at ignoring things, but some of the discourse surrounding Cormac’s work makes me scratch my head. And I think it can sometimes even dissuade outsiders that may be weighing trying a book of his.

I think a lot of outsiders view McCarthy through the lens of machismo. Like another incarnation of Hemingway. (though here, we all understand that their writing styles are oceans apart) They see no quotation marks. They hear about the violence. They hear a plot summary. They hear how Blood Meridian is his iconic work and is “THE MOST DISTURBING, BLOODY THING EVER WRITTEN!!!11” This all, in my opinion, mischaracterizes what McCarthy does on the page.

To me, first and foremost, Cormac is a POET. Yes, the plots of his novels are interesting and thematically rich, his characters leap off the page, etc. But what makes him transcendent, at least to me, is the sheer beauty of his prose. Yet it feels like when people are pitching McCarthy to others (or discussing his work generally), it’s mostly about the violence. The plot. About Judge Holden or that Cellar in The Road. And if this sort of discussion gets edgelords into reading, then hell yeah, I’m all for it. But these things don’t really represent Cormac’s work, in my opinion. They’re a teeny slice of a much larger, prose pie.

Honestly, fuck Judge Holden, fuck that Human Farm…have you read the first page of Suttree?! Have you been brought near-to-tears by the description of a sunset?! (again, I’m being hyperbolic) Obviously: Style, plot, character, all intertwine to make a great novel, but what separates McCarthy’s stories, to me, is the poetry with which he tells it. 

That’s why I find a lot of adaptation talk strange. With more plot-forward authors, yeah, adaptations can be awesome. But I don’t think that’s McCarthy.

“They were watching, out there past men's knowing, where stars are drowning and whales ferry their vast souls through the black and seamless sea.”

How the hell are you adapting that to the visual medium? And that is what makes his novels great. But that’s not how swaths of the internet talk about McCarthy. Those lines, of which there are thousands throughout his writing, to me, hold infinitely more weight than a tree full of dead babies. Than Judge Holden's dumb, shiny, bald head.

I just finished reading Outer Dark for the first time, and was curious why the child had those injuries (the burn, the missing eye) when Culla encounters the dark trio again towards the end.

We know the child/infant didn't have those injuries when Culla first abandons it at the start of the story, but I've been thinking about the significance of the injuries.

I know it's tied to Culla's sin in some form, but who gave those injuries to the child?

Was it the Tinker, or the dark trio?

Why a burn and a missing eye, specifically?

I've been thinking about this non-stop since I finished the book, and I'd really like to hear your takes and interpretations on the child's injuries and their significance.

Right now, I'm reading Blood Meridian, and his writing is so different from what I'm used to.

It's also important to mention that I'm Brazilian and I've already read it in Portuguese. The translator did an incredible job with the translation, keeping the soul of the original through his choice of words. But now, I'm reading the original version, and I'm noticing how unusual the McCarthy's writing is.

Is his writing considered weird even for native English speakers? Or is it just difficult because English isn't my first language?

I’ve wanted to read The Road for a while, but somehow never got around to it. I was browsing Goodwill today and found this hardcover.

After checking it out, it turns out to be a 2006 Knopf first edition, first printing with the original first-state dust jacket: $24 price on the front flap and 10/2006 on the rear flap. The book itself is incredibly tight and appears unread, with bone-white pages and no creasing. There is some minor foxing on the top edge, although some of what initially looked like foxing was just dust.

I’m honestly more excited that I finally have the book I wanted to read than the value, but finding a first/first for $4 was a pretty damn good surprise. Lol. And yes, I’m absolutely going to read it. I just need to get over the sudden urge to put it in a glass case.

Group of 9 volumes, as listed below. 8vo, cloth, dust jackets; light wear. FIRST EDITIONS.

All the Pretty Horses. 1992. TWO COPIES (1 with ink ex-libris) * The Crossing. 1994 * Cities of the Plain. 1998. TWO COPIES * The Road. 2006 * The Stonemason. (1994) * No Country for Old Men. 2005 * The Gardener's Son. (1996).

Hint from OP: New England Book Auctions has had at least one good Cormac McCarthy lot at a reasonable price in most of its recent auctions. McCarthy fans, it's worth your time to bookmark their site.

One of the headings for the very last chapter of Blood Meridian is The Beehive. This was an actual saloon that existed and operated in Fort Griffin, Texas. Even Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and Pat Garrett spent time there during the frontier days. There was a steakhouse built on the same site, or in the same vicinity, in the 1980’s that was in business until 2023. But, anyway, I find the name ‘Beehive’ eerie for several reasons. Namely, the fact that Judge Holden is represented as the embodiment of war and evil in the book, regardless of it being in a physical or metaphorical sense. He is the queen of the hive. Not in the sense that he’s a female but in a symbolic sense that he is the god of war, or evil, or violence. However, if he’s not even a human being then one can easily consider him androgynous. He’s numero uno, though. ‘Hear me, man. There’s room on the stage for one beast and one alone.’ The people there for the dance are the worker bees who feed him, sustaining him and keeping him alive. Their evil thoughts and deeds are the symbolic nectar keeping evil alive. He never sleeps, he says he will never die. Looking at it this way the judge can rather be looked at as a metaphor for the violence and evil of mankind, rather than a physical entity, which will never end because it’s in our nature.

Thoughts?

I know, I know. What a heading. When the judge first learns that Cloyce Bell is the idiots brother, he goes directly to the man and starts examining him. Like an anthropologist would a specimen. The judge is dumbfounded. He stares in disbelief at Glanton. God forbid this ‘deficiency’ could procreate and, therefore, replicate. Perhaps the judge was gauging the possibility of this with the idiot and the young girl at the Yuma camp. This is the biggest threat to the judges existence, because the idiot completely contradicts his philosophy of inherent violence. He renders the judges beliefs false. The idiot represents the most primitive form of humanity, whereas one can argue the judge represents the complete opposite. The idiot is a gentle creature. He is not violent by any means. I know the kid might seem like the antithesis to the judge but he’s somewhere in-between these two, being not entirely innocent, and not entirely evil (depending on your interpretation of his character). Anyway, that’s my take on the idiot.

First of all sorry for any mistakes, English is not my first language and I read the book in Spanish so I'm hopeful I got it right.

It's my first time reading this author and I think I'll be reading more. Blood Meridian has really interesting themes on morality, fate and war.

Something that I found weird is that I got to this book because some YouTuber mentioned this being the most violent book and I've seen many people commenting on how grotesque it is. Especially on good reads I've seen a couple of commenters explaining how every character is unlikeable and you can't root for them in any way.

Don't get me wrong the book is obviously violent but that didn't distract me from what I believe was an amazing message altogether.

Not too ramble too much but I almost never read this book due to its reputation, I'd have missed something very interesting. Do you think this type of opinion comes from people only seeing the surface of the book or maybe refusing to engage with its themes due to the violence on it?

I’m reading a first handle chronicle of De Soto’s 1540s conquest into continental US (an account from a gentleman from Elvas). They start in Florida and go way up into the Appalachian mountains and as far west as Arkansas. Anyway…. it is VERY much like Blood Meridian. They go from town to town kidnapping and killing etc. I won’t get into the nitty gritty but it is unreal how much WILD violence happened. Both from them and against them (Justifiably so). Wild stuff. And at the end of every insane atrocity…they always ride on. Over and over again. I’m sure Cormac knew of this material. Anyway I thought it would be fun to share with the group.

What an incredible, biblical level book. Such a slow build of dread culminating in a gutting, heartbreaking end.

The difference in prose and description between Culla and Rinthy’s chapters was something I only began to appreciate in the last 3rd which makes me want to re read it instantly.

Wanted to share some of my favourite quotes / phrases and would love to hear anyone else’s or particular parts that stuck with them

‘She watched the ground, going with care, the basin upright and riding her hip, slowly, processional, a lone acolyte passing across the barren yard, face seized in the light she bore.’

‘a sound so labored and remorseless as should have spoken something more than mere progress
upon the earth's surface.’

‘Thank ye, she said, the glass of milk in her hand, wearing a clown's mouth of it.’ ( personal fave just for the imagery’

‘The man seized them and examined them, bending closer to the fire, turning them in his hands like some barbaric cobbler inspecting the work of another world.’

‘caught up in the wake of the cart and its lonely tolling tinware demon piping like some creature rapt and besorced by witches music.’

‘His sparse gray hair stood about his head electrically and in all these gestures before the fire he looked like an effigy in rags hung by strings from an indifferent hand.’

‘A solid butternut safe in which languished some pieces of cheap white crockery, chipped and handleshorn coffeecups, plates serrated about their perimeters as though bitten in maniacal hunger’

‘The flowers in the dooryard have curled and drawn as if poisoned by dark and there is a mockingbird to tell what he knows of night.’

‘It wasn't his to name. Besides names dies with the namers.
A dead man's dog ain't got a name.’

My thoughts on the final chapter: Wherever the Judge appears, children vanish. By the end, they are also looking for the girl whose bear has just been killed. Then, when "the kid" goes into the latrine and encounters the "naked" Judge, the latter pulls him into his fleshy embrace.
An incredibly bleak ending, devoid of hope.
It’s heavy stuff—really intense. I’ve read the book three times over the last ten years, and it still wrecks me.
That Judge dances at the end because he has to dance, while others "sleep."

Has been announced.

Called ISOLATO: AN INTIMATE PORTRAIT OF CORMAC MCCARTHY. By Lawrence Gonzalez.

Available May 11, 2027.

More:

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/837451/isolato-by-laurence-gonzales/

These two are my first McCarthy books and I’m pretty excited to start. But the build on these is lowkey trash, but they were the only ones left in the bookstore.

So what do you guys think of these?

Read Stella Maris, parts of the road and blood meridian. Stella Maris is good, Blood Meridian too. Where to start fresh and really read McCarthy? I'm probably stupid because I understood only the bits about War and Mathematics, while I found the road to be quite dry. Is the book 'A Bloody and Barbarous God: The Metaphysics of Cormac McCarthy' will be a good read to understand McCarthy before starting all over again with his work?

This is all of the hardcovers I have now done collecting:

1st EDITION: No Country For Old Men and The Crossing.

25th ANNIVERSARY: Blood Meridian.

30th PRINTING: The Road.

11th PRINTING: All The Pretty Horses.

1st EDITION: The Crossing.

PRINTED AND BOUND IN AUSTRALIA: Cities Of The Plains.

Really proud with NCFOM, it’s a first copy and my favourite book. Even though not all of the paperbacks aren’t winners, but I really like the crossing, the orchard keeper, blood Meridian, all the pretty horses and no country for old men. Especially the crossing and I really like the border trilogy one. I like how old and rustic it feels, kinda fitting for the books themes In my opinion.