🚀I would love to help you understand McCarthy’s novels better in my Cormac McCarthy course & book club. On my Substack, you can access the Blood Meridian For Writers Course and McCarthy’s unreleased interview. Click here to join: writeconscious.substack.com 📖Explore over 200 of McCarthy’s favorite books in my free guide to his favorite books Access here: writeconscious.ck.page/e20249fda1 👕Want to REP some McCarthy streetwear? Go here! writeconscious.com Insta: instagram.com/writeconscious 📚Want to WRITE better? Join my free writing school: www.skool.com/writeconscious 📕My Best Books of All-Time List: writeconscious.ck.page/355619345e 🔥Want to READ my wife’s fire poetry? Go here: marigoldeclipse.substack.com 🤔My Favorite Cormac McCarthy Novel: amzn.to/3TVdzCQ
The part where Holden leashes the idiot when he's trying to kill the kid and Tobin is probably one of the starkest and greatest symbolic moments in the book. Or maybe in any book. Man at his most degraded, nothing more than a leashed pet for the wargod. That scene stays with you.
The interest the Judge takes in the fool and in the owner upon learning they're brothers, inspecting the owner's head and asking if he was not born disabled too, I think speaks to why he later keeps the fool as a pet. I take Holden to represent the devil incarnate, tempting man to spite god and soil his cherished creation, so to him, the fool seems like the result of god erring and he takes it as a trophy. Or to further dehumanize god's creation. Idk, curious what others got from it.
This is the same aesthetic symbolism George Miller innovated in cinema with the Mad Max trilogies before McCarthy. Look at figures like Lord Mungous or Master Blaster in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. All War gods and their associates dominating their subordinate thralls in naked displays of power.
I’m reminded of Lenny from Of Mice and Men. He’s an “idiot” archetype that functions as commentary of ableist society. But, with McCarthy, he’s doing more meta commentary with the imbecile because it’s so starkly and symbolically contrasted with Judge Holden. It’s deep. Yes, there are comments about ableism to make but it’s deeper than that I think. Need to think more. Thanks for the video.
For sure deeper. Thanks for the comments! I need to think more about this too. Doing a deep dive into Blood Meridian right now so some things will probably come to light with further analysis.
I like your angle. I take the mentally handicapped to represent innocence who must rely on blind faith to those more able. It works as well here as Lenny did.
I believe the idiot is exactly what he wanted all along, a mindless individual who hasn't any resistance or fight left in him. Holden wanted the kid on a leash and include him into his deck of cards for his game, similar to all decks of cards there's two Jokers who dance. However, they're not used in the game or included to have value. Simply the judge sees them as cards to play when needed. I'm not saying this is the only reason why judge takes the idiot but I'm determined to find a hidden meaning behind Holdens actions and behaviour. This is why I loved the book because it's so cryptic.
Yeah, he probably used William because of all the flashbacks and because he wanted to drive the point home that we are dealing with a transgender character.
Yes, for all his puffing about war being one knife sharpening another, ultimate stakes at the highest levels of play, etc, what the judge seems to prefer is going up against those who stand no chance against him.
I think it was in Suttree where McCarthy said “Even an idiot knows something I don’t.” I’ve always found this disdain and almost… malicious investment at times when it comes to the mentally and physically disabled, and with McCarthy, he points out a sort of strange dichotomy we have where the learned man and his ethical lens is heralded, whereas the idiot and his simple views is lambasted, critiqued, and almost mocked at times. It reminds of Flowers of Algernon in a way, where we would always want to be more intelligent, to be smarter, but then when we do… we’ll, it becomes something miserable, awful at times because we’re aware of the world, it’s faults, and the people in it. It’s another classic thing of someone in dire straits with the tools we have at hand, essentially.
The Idiot is a representation of Jesus. He also establishes firmly who exactly the Judge is. When the Yuma's enter the Judge's room, the scene McCarthy is painting exactly mirrors the Tarot card of the Devil: the Idiot and a girl in front of the Judge, both naked and chained,... the Judge(devil) holding a burning cannon. This devil is actually the same as Yahweh, but it better known as Yaldaboath, the demiurge. The scene of the Idiot in the river mirrors a baptism. The deviation of the OT is that the Judge doesn't allow him to die, unlike Jesus who is crucified by Yahweh. He doesn't allow him to become Christ, aka enlightened. Alternatively the Idiot is Adam, a man made out of clay, in need of a woman Eve (meaning live breath), since the Judge actually kills the above mentioned girl, who could've been a stand-in for eve, he also doesn't allow his Adam to become fully man. His Adam remains clay. The Judge is described as a more succesful evil God as the one that the Gnostics thought created the universe and was opposed by forces of Light. This light is extinguished on every page of Blood Meridian. Until finally, the Kid is devoured too. The one who carries the flame of Mercy.
I always thought that the idiot was like Glanton's dog. Someone loyal and servile, the fact that he goes by his side with a belt, and running by Holden's horse makes the idiot much more uncanny. But Glangton's dog was just a dog, the fact that the idiot is a little much more intelligent make him even a little more capable of evilness (I'm sure he was used to r4p3 that poor 12 yearls old girl in the Yuma Camp and I suspect he was used to attack Toadvine and David Brown). That's why Holden is pleased by him, but not enough to keep him. Who knows what the Judge do to him after getting bored.
my personal read as to "why" the judge kept the idiot as a sort of pet was that he piqued a certain curiosity in him. here's a person, someone less than a person in the eyes of these 19th century people, but still a person with all the anatomical trappings thereof. and the idiot seems to directly contradict the judge's argument at the end of the book, in that there are those who dance and those who don't, but the choice is there for everyone. the idiot has no such choice, no agency as presupposed by this half-riddle he tells the kid (now the man). and i think that's why he keeps him as a pet - he is the sole human that the judge has encountered with no agency, similar to chattel or a beast of burden or a pet. a human pet because it's blood meridian and everything is awful, but a pet nonetheless
Honestly I was getting worried that the idiot was just introduced to have us stare in horror when he gets brutally massacred and he's confused and scared and doesn't know why. So to have a bunch of women come over and just randomly smother him with love and affection... It did actually make me laugh, ngl. And you raise some interesting points in relation to the Judge.
It's pronounced "hodo-rovskee" (pretty sure). I believe it's polish/Jewish if memory serves. I love him too! If you enjoy his stuff I cannot recommend his collaboration with Moebius, "THE INCAL" more highly. They just released a very fine hardcover edition (for the movie adaptation in production) and it is bonkers. His books "Psychomagic" and "The Way of Tarot" are INSANELY illuminating too. Seriously packed with so much wisdom and crazy stories about his life/philosophy.
Also that anime style artwork is beautiful! I always wished they'd just adapt this as an animated movie. Something wild and surreal like Belladonna of Sadness or Angels Egg
I really like this creator's content. I love his passion for Cormac and have watched almost all of his programs. He is quite prolific and honest and speaks from his heart. I would like to support him in some fashion but am not sure how to do this. Suggestions? Also, who is this guy (name), what is the best way to directly contact him?
While I appreciate the framing of super ability and disability, and think there is merit to it, I still see the judge’s fascination with, protection and exploitation of the imbecile as not only a reinforcing of his own will (he decides what exists or doesn’t exist-thus the idiot will not drown) but even something as comparatively diminutive and unknowable as the idiot is, for all James’ frailty, untouchable to anyone else while in proximity to the judge. I would never accuse the judge of being merciful, only tolerant of those lesser things that might bemuse him a spell, but he seems to demonstrate a protracted cruelty at worst and a passive cruelty at best w the idiot while everyone else must suffer the worst of him w finality. There certainly is a juxtaposition here of two unknowable things. Something super human, something by treatment and capability, subhuman. But all are subject to the judge. All are pets whose life has no meaning without him, and whose life is on loan with him. Maybe I ended up making a similar point to the paper, ha, but I just see it as not only another depth to the judge, but an escalation of what he’s been showing us throughout the narrative.
Fascinating video and comments. Associated to the disabled theme, I have been wanting to ask if there are any papers on the blind characters that MacCarthy uses in his books. I am blind/visually impaired and he describes things accurately.
Aether in the Orchard Keeper is going blind and I'm The Crossing features a powerful story with a blind man. There is also a blind man at the end of Outer Dark that symbolizes a huge metaphor.
I think he's left out the biggest clue on what the idiot is in the novel. Or at least what he is to the judge: when Tobin presses the boy to kill the idiot on two separate occasions and then later tries to verify that he did so. Why did Tobin think that so important?
Those are the events. If we take this definition "the design and intention of narrative, what shapes a story and gives it a certain direction or intent of meaning" then those events are a very weak plot.
I think he’s a sex slave so the judge can get some in the desert when there’s no children around. I don’t think the judge rapes just for sexual gratification, but to inflict pain, assert dominance and torture his victims
I think the idiot enhances and colors the primitive landscape and morality or immorality of the time and place, through the treatment he receives. From first meeting him, to the women, to the judge. We first see him as an object of pity, poorly treated by folks who don’t just know what to do with him. To the women demonstrating that no good deed goes unpunished .His escape and near drowning from the women shines a sympathetic light on his previous captivity. While the judge not only treats him fairly well but gives him purpose. Yet another twist and turn to the character of the Judge.
I left a comment this morning about how Glanton's death in the too-small room full of nothing but a stolen brass bed which you point out is like a cage of domesticity. Now I see that scene, particularly the idea of brass bars around this big bed as an inversion of the scene when the idiot's cage burns. This is around when we discover that the judge has collared the idiot, meaning after Glanton has died. Could this signal that the idiot is the judge's replacement for Glanton? This puts a strange mirror up to the relationship between Glanton and the judge. There are points when Glanton feels like a leader, but until he makes that hard left into domesticity he pretty much dances to the judge's tune. That's a role uniquely suited for the idiot.
This is such a weird topic that honestly it doesn't matter imho. I don't like this trope "The Idiot" in most horror fiction they are not important or just due outright. Here is no difference.
🚀I would love to help you understand McCarthy’s novels better in my Cormac McCarthy course & book club. On my Substack, you can access the Blood Meridian For Writers Course and McCarthy’s unreleased interview. Click here to join: writeconscious.substack.com
📖Explore over 200 of McCarthy’s favorite books in my free guide to his favorite books
Access here: writeconscious.ck.page/e20249fda1
👕Want to REP some McCarthy streetwear? Go here! writeconscious.com
Insta: instagram.com/writeconscious
📚Want to WRITE better? Join my free writing school: www.skool.com/writeconscious
📕My Best Books of All-Time List: writeconscious.ck.page/355619345e
🔥Want to READ my wife’s fire poetry? Go here: marigoldeclipse.substack.com
🤔My Favorite Cormac McCarthy Novel: amzn.to/3TVdzCQ
The part where Holden leashes the idiot when he's trying to kill the kid and Tobin is probably one of the starkest and greatest symbolic moments in the book. Or maybe in any book. Man at his most degraded, nothing more than a leashed pet for the wargod. That scene stays with you.
THE FALCON HAS LANDED! It does stay with you. This topic is always very awkward to deal with lol.
What chapter was this?
The interest the Judge takes in the fool and in the owner upon learning they're brothers, inspecting the owner's head and asking if he was not born disabled too, I think speaks to why he later keeps the fool as a pet. I take Holden to represent the devil incarnate, tempting man to spite god and soil his cherished creation, so to him, the fool seems like the result of god erring and he takes it as a trophy. Or to further dehumanize god's creation. Idk, curious what others got from it.
This is the same aesthetic symbolism George Miller innovated in cinema with the Mad Max trilogies before McCarthy. Look at figures like Lord Mungous or Master Blaster in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. All War gods and their associates dominating their subordinate thralls in naked displays of power.
@@homealone5087chapters 21-22
The Idiot represents me reading it for the first time and trying to decode the symbolism
Tru
I’m reminded of Lenny from Of Mice and Men. He’s an “idiot” archetype that functions as commentary of ableist society. But, with McCarthy, he’s doing more meta commentary with the imbecile because it’s so starkly and symbolically contrasted with Judge Holden. It’s deep. Yes, there are comments about ableism to make but it’s deeper than that I think. Need to think more. Thanks for the video.
For sure deeper. Thanks for the comments! I need to think more about this too. Doing a deep dive into Blood Meridian right now so some things will probably come to light with further analysis.
I like your angle. I take the mentally handicapped to represent innocence who must rely on blind faith to those more able. It works as well here as Lenny did.
Only a sick, sick person would do a character analysis of this. And I love it.
Lmao. LETS GO! This is just the start too lol. I've thought of so many wild ideas about this just since publishing it 😂
“ you let women see that thing ?” - John Joel glanton
That artwork in the beginning is beautiful. Judge’s attire contrasts himself and it fits him well.
Yes!
I believe the idiot is exactly what he wanted all along, a mindless individual who hasn't any resistance or fight left in him. Holden wanted the kid on a leash and include him into his deck of cards for his game, similar to all decks of cards there's two Jokers who dance. However, they're not used in the game or included to have value. Simply the judge sees them as cards to play when needed. I'm not saying this is the only reason why judge takes the idiot but I'm determined to find a hidden meaning behind Holdens actions and behaviour. This is why I loved the book because it's so cryptic.
Yeah, he probably used William because of all the flashbacks and because he wanted to drive the point home that we are dealing with a transgender character.
Yes, for all his puffing about war being one knife sharpening another, ultimate stakes at the highest levels of play, etc, what the judge seems to prefer is going up against those who stand no chance against him.
I think it was in Suttree where McCarthy said “Even an idiot knows something I don’t.” I’ve always found this disdain and almost… malicious investment at times when it comes to the mentally and physically disabled, and with McCarthy, he points out a sort of strange dichotomy we have where the learned man and his ethical lens is heralded, whereas the idiot and his simple views is lambasted, critiqued, and almost mocked at times. It reminds of Flowers of Algernon in a way, where we would always want to be more intelligent, to be smarter, but then when we do… we’ll, it becomes something miserable, awful at times because we’re aware of the world, it’s faults, and the people in it. It’s another classic thing of someone in dire straits with the tools we have at hand, essentially.
Yeah, its a huge problem in the lit bro community. You get more intelligent and that creates more disconnection. Most people never escape that!
The Idiot is a representation of Jesus.
He also establishes firmly who exactly the Judge is. When the Yuma's enter the Judge's room, the scene McCarthy is painting exactly mirrors the Tarot card of the Devil: the Idiot and a girl in front of the Judge, both naked and chained,... the Judge(devil) holding a burning cannon. This devil is actually the same as Yahweh, but it better known as Yaldaboath, the demiurge.
The scene of the Idiot in the river mirrors a baptism. The deviation of the OT is that the Judge doesn't allow him to die, unlike Jesus who is crucified by Yahweh. He doesn't allow him to become Christ, aka enlightened.
Alternatively the Idiot is Adam, a man made out of clay, in need of a woman Eve (meaning live breath), since the Judge actually kills the above mentioned girl, who could've been a stand-in for eve, he also doesn't allow his Adam to become fully man. His Adam remains clay.
The Judge is described as a more succesful evil God as the one that the Gnostics thought created the universe and was opposed by forces of Light. This light is extinguished on every page of Blood Meridian. Until finally, the Kid is devoured too. The one who carries the flame of Mercy.
Beautiful theory!
Christ not dying also means humanity is never forgiven
my mind is blown
I always thought that the idiot was like Glanton's dog. Someone loyal and servile, the fact that he goes by his side with a belt, and running by Holden's horse makes the idiot much more uncanny.
But Glangton's dog was just a dog, the fact that the idiot is a little much more intelligent make him even a little more capable of evilness (I'm sure he was used to r4p3 that poor 12 yearls old girl in the Yuma Camp and I suspect he was used to attack Toadvine and David Brown). That's why Holden is pleased by him, but not enough to keep him. Who knows what the Judge do to him after getting bored.
my personal read as to "why" the judge kept the idiot as a sort of pet was that he piqued a certain curiosity in him. here's a person, someone less than a person in the eyes of these 19th century people, but still a person with all the anatomical trappings thereof. and the idiot seems to directly contradict the judge's argument at the end of the book, in that there are those who dance and those who don't, but the choice is there for everyone. the idiot has no such choice, no agency as presupposed by this half-riddle he tells the kid (now the man). and i think that's why he keeps him as a pet - he is the sole human that the judge has encountered with no agency, similar to chattel or a beast of burden or a pet. a human pet because it's blood meridian and everything is awful, but a pet nonetheless
Honestly I was getting worried that the idiot was just introduced to have us stare in horror when he gets brutally massacred and he's confused and scared and doesn't know why. So to have a bunch of women come over and just randomly smother him with love and affection...
It did actually make me laugh, ngl. And you raise some interesting points in relation to the Judge.
Thanks!
It's pronounced "hodo-rovskee" (pretty sure). I believe it's polish/Jewish if memory serves.
I love him too! If you enjoy his stuff I cannot recommend his collaboration with Moebius, "THE INCAL" more highly. They just released a very fine hardcover edition (for the movie adaptation in production) and it is bonkers.
His books "Psychomagic" and "The Way of Tarot" are INSANELY illuminating too. Seriously packed with so much wisdom and crazy stories about his life/philosophy.
Yeah, love his books also!
1:08 i agree, reality through absurdity.
Also that anime style artwork is beautiful! I always wished they'd just adapt this as an animated movie. Something wild and surreal like Belladonna of Sadness or Angels Egg
Thats the correct move
I really like this creator's content. I love his passion for Cormac and have watched almost all of his programs. He is quite prolific and honest and speaks from his heart. I would like to support him in some fashion but am not sure how to do this. Suggestions? Also, who is this guy (name), what is the best way to directly contact him?
Only an idiot would follow the Judge.. "by the way, have you seen my dog?"
lol
While I appreciate the framing of super ability and disability, and think there is merit to it, I still see the judge’s fascination with, protection and exploitation of the imbecile as not only a reinforcing of his own will (he decides what exists or doesn’t exist-thus the idiot will not drown) but even something as comparatively diminutive and unknowable as the idiot is, for all James’ frailty, untouchable to anyone else while in proximity to the judge. I would never accuse the judge of being merciful, only tolerant of those lesser things that might bemuse him a spell, but he seems to demonstrate a protracted cruelty at worst and a passive cruelty at best w the idiot while everyone else must suffer the worst of him w finality. There certainly is a juxtaposition here of two unknowable things. Something super human, something by treatment and capability, subhuman. But all are subject to the judge. All are pets whose life has no meaning without him, and whose life is on loan with him. Maybe I ended up making a similar point to the paper, ha, but I just see it as not only another depth to the judge, but an escalation of what he’s been showing us throughout the narrative.
Good addition!
Fascinating video and comments. Associated to the disabled theme, I have been wanting to ask if there are any papers on the blind characters that MacCarthy uses in his books. I am blind/visually impaired and he describes things accurately.
Aether in the Orchard Keeper is going blind and I'm The Crossing features a powerful story with a blind man. There is also a blind man at the end of Outer Dark that symbolizes a huge metaphor.
Oh, Jodorowsky's great. Fernando Arrabal is another very similiar director.
Yes!
I think he's left out the biggest clue on what the idiot is in the novel. Or at least what he is to the judge: when Tobin presses the boy to kill the idiot on two separate occasions and then later tries to verify that he did so. Why did Tobin think that so important?
The plot of Blood Meridian = Kid meets the Judge, Kid meets the gang and goes on harrowing journey, and the Judge is there waiting for him at the end.
Those are the events. If we take this definition "the design and intention of narrative, what shapes a story and gives it a certain direction or intent of meaning" then those events are a very weak plot.
Do you think the judge loves the idiot because of his weakness, or because of comradery?
He loves his emptiness
I think he’s a sex slave so the judge can get some in the desert when there’s no children around. I don’t think the judge rapes just for sexual gratification, but to inflict pain, assert dominance and torture his victims
I think the idiot enhances and colors the primitive landscape and morality or immorality of the time and place, through the treatment he receives. From first meeting him, to the women, to the judge. We first see him as an object of pity, poorly treated by folks who don’t just know what to do with him. To the women demonstrating that no good deed goes unpunished .His escape and near drowning from the women shines a sympathetic light on his previous captivity. While the judge not only treats him fairly well but gives him purpose. Yet another twist and turn to the character of the Judge.
Was McCarthy a fan of El Topo? I am reading Blood Meridian now and have seen a lot of possible nods to El Topo, and Jodo in general.
No idea! But, if we got Jordo to film BM it would be wild
same lol
Some parallels, in terms of disabled folks in the wild west, exist in the character of Jewel in HBO's Deadwood, though Jewel is far more endearing.
Thanks for bringing this up! Forgot about that
All groups of people have "the idiot". Novels that deal with a bunch of characters should always include the dim.
lol, rule number of writing a novel. "Include an idiot" 🤣
to emphasize the judge in a dark light
Yes! Contrast
Glad we can help you learn to read dawg
thanks dawg
I think it's more life like then it is comfortable killing is the Job for everything walk of life the judge is at every cross roads😢😢😢
:(
You absolutely scalped the pronunciation of Jodorowsky but nice analysis 😊
lol, that's what I'm known for!
I left a comment this morning about how Glanton's death in the too-small room full of nothing but a stolen brass bed which you point out is like a cage of domesticity. Now I see that scene, particularly the idea of brass bars around this big bed as an inversion of the scene when the idiot's cage burns.
This is around when we discover that the judge has collared the idiot, meaning after Glanton has died.
Could this signal that the idiot is the judge's replacement for Glanton? This puts a strange mirror up to the relationship between Glanton and the judge. There are points when Glanton feels like a leader, but until he makes that hard left into domesticity he pretty much dances to the judge's tune. That's a role uniquely suited for the idiot.
You can do a second take when you mispronounce something. Otherwise good video.
Thanks!
Weird thing that no one ever mentions- Jodorowsky never read Dune and the story for the film he wanted to make wasn't based on the novel.
This is such a weird topic that honestly it doesn't matter imho. I don't like this trope "The Idiot" in most horror fiction they are not important or just due outright. Here is no difference.