Judge Holden Character Analysis - Blood Meridian
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 7 ноя 2024
- 🚀 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...
📖Explore over 200 of McCarthy’s favorite books in my free guide to his favorite books
Access here: writeconscious....
👕Want to REP some McCarthy streetwear? Go here! writeconscious...
📚Want to WRITE better? Join my free writing school: www.skool.com/...
📕My Best Books of All-Time List: writeconscious....
🔥Want to READ my wife’s fire poetry? Go here: marigoldeclips...
🤔My Favorite Cormac McCarthy Novel: amzn.to/3TVdzCQ
Insta: / writeconscious
Blood Meridian's Judge Holden is a favorite for lit bros to fixate on! However, today, we will transcend "THE JUDGE IS THE DEVIL" idea and do a historical and philosophical analysis of Judge Holden. We first examine Samuel Chamberlain's memoir, which McCarthy STOLE many ideas/stories about Judge Holden from. This will help set up a foundation for a philosophical analysis of Judge Holden!
🚀 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/e20249...
👕Want to REP some McCarthy streetwear? Go here! writeconscious.com
📚Want to WRITE better? Join my free writing school: www.skool.com/writeconscious
📕My Best Books of All-Time List: writeconscious.ck.page/355619...
🔥Want to READ my wife’s fire poetry? Go here: marigoldeclipse.substack.com
🤔My Favorite Cormac McCarthy Novel: amzn.to/3TVdzCQ
Insta: instagram.com/writeconscious
I’ve read a letter that McCarthy had sent to a friend of his wherein he claimed to have read 300 books over a 3-4 year span for research on Blood Meridian
Wild!
@@WriteConscious He also quoted somewhere that he’d rather kill himself than do that amount of research again. Something along those lines.
The ten words every lit bro wants to hear:
“We’re going to go deeper by bringing Nietzsche into this”
The most orgasmic words to lit bros
I kinda don't it fuks with my beta head
@@WriteConscious Don’t get me started on lit bros and Marcus Aurelius 😅
Judge seems like that type of character where his mere presence causes the hidden dark side of people’s nature to ooze out.
Like when he openly accused the preacher in the revival tent of absolutely heinous acts, no one stopped to say ‘wait, where the hell is your proof?!’. Someone in the congregation with a g*n just took that as a signal to go right ahead and k*ll the preacher.
And the guy in the bar who shot and k*lled the bear. Would the bear have been k*lled anyway? Or was Judge’s mere presence in the bar what caused the bear to be k*lled?
Yes! He is the archetypal adversarial force.
FFS stop censoring yourselves
@@WriteConscious aka satan *cough*
6:01 I've had experiences like this in University where I've met people that I found completely and utterly disgusting in their beliefs and yet they're so charismatic I kept help but be drawn to them. It's a baffling experience.
Yesterday I was dreaming of going back to university and finishing my PHD then after 30 minutes of dreaming the thought of dealing with the people shut that daydream down lol
What were they like that you found them disgusting?
@nono9543 Do you think it's "disgusting" to condone religious violence? If you're one of those people, then there's nothing disgusting about such beliefs. You're just soft.
Same with Gavin Newsom. Charisma, slick hair, smooth talker, and a psychopath
@@sam-ht6qvyou're not tough buddy
I've definitely been a nihilist and I've tried to move past it, but what I find most difficult is finding a thing or things that feel worthwhile of investing my time and knowledge into.
You really believe the point of this is nothing? I can't possibly understand that mentality. Everything happens with and without a reason. God doesn't play favorites. He's with us whether we're with him or not. Everything is meant for something and everything is righted in the end.
Enricco I always tell people just pick something and invest in it for a few years. Even if you give it up it will get you moving which is the first step out of nihilism. You can then shift that momentum to something you really want to pursue. I was training BJJ for 6 hours a day for three years trying to be a world champion. It got me out of nihilism. But, then I realized that I could make a bigger impact by talking about books than choking people out and I switched. But, I had to choke people out before I could feel comfortable dedicating my life to something more boring haha.
I used to be extremely nihilistic for more than a decade, growing up like that you really get lost in it. What has helped me grow out of that was a severe change in mindset, telling myself that I create my own meanings and my own version of reality and branching off of that. I’m a lot happier now, and feel more fulfilled, not because I’m ignoring the inevitable end, but because my journey to back to nothing will be on my own terms!
But you pay your bills? Not a nihilist but a hypocrite apparently :)
@@Itsmohole I gotta be real I've always thought that meaning was something created by the individual rather than by the universe itself. It seems rather egotistical to believe that existence "owes" us an inherent purpose. Projecting human qualities onto inhuman phenomena is basically what Moby Dick is about and oh boy that doesn't end well.
I was stunned to learn that most people don't follow this sentiment.
Really great stuff. I like the bit about Holden being a baby representative of our infancy in regards to mental evolution. I Read most of Nietzsche in my late 20s (I’m 40 now) and totally resonate with your take. That’s exactly how I took his work. Loved the video. Keep doing what you’re doing my friend
Thanks Robinson!
It seems like the Judge is an active nihilist because he's exploring his creative freedom to perfect what he calls "the dance". To the Judge, killing is a creative art form that has an inherent beauty. The Judge isn't running away from his own nature; he's embracing and acting out the realities of his own world view. To the Judge, "Moral law is an invention of mankind for the disenfranchisement of the powerful in favor of the weak". There is no need or desire for the Judge to morally examine himself if morals don't exist and if morals are an arbitrary invention that disenfranchises the powerful (himself). The Judge would consider the act of morally examining himself as a conscious act of hypocrisy.
The Judge doesn't revert to Christian morality, he reverts to the philosophy of Thrasymachus (might makes right). Nihilism is still the Judge's philosophical foundation, but because no one can build any logically consistent moral structure on the nihilistic foundation, he falls back on the "might makes right" philosophy while stealing the use of Christian terminology as a means of creatively expressing his own blend of nihilism and cynical realism. These two philosophies (nihilism and cynical realism) have no moral contradictions. Blending Christianity and nihilism, on the other hand, would be logically impossible.
There is no need for the Judge to morally purify himself in the Christian sense because war was the god he chose to worship and he always acted in accordance to his own god. If the Judge's worldview is true, then it would be a mistake to assume that Judge's stance on violence is dumb or illogical. If the Judge's worldview is true, then the Judge's stance on violence is logically and morally consistent with his nihilist worldview.
By the way, thank you for this very good video. I really enjoyed your thoughts on the Judge.
this is definitely one of my favorite channels at the moment.
Haha, crazy to hear that! Spent three years making videos that got 10 views and finally have some momentum! Thanks for the support!
I'm reading Blood Meridian for the first time. I live in San Antonio, Texas and in Chapter Two when The Kid arrives in San Antonio I know exactly where he was. It brought chilling memory. Ghostly...
@writeconscious Dude you’ve been cracking me lately…”Bob Dylan are you fucking kidding me?!??”
“I like to think of myself… not as a psychopath”
“We’re all just one blow job away from being judge Holden”
“Cormac Mccarthy was the biggest nerd of all time”
Haha, I was on a roll in that streak of videos!
The thing i dont understand about BM is Judge Holdens origins, forget about his philosophy and whats driving him, to begin with what the hell is he?? He hasn't aged a day in 25 years at Fort Griffin and appears to be immortal and more than human but then his body is sun burned after the Yuma massacre, this doesn’t sound like a Djinn or an ubermensch or whatever you call it.
Well, I think the Djinn makes sense because first of all he says it, but it has Desert origins and also they can transform their appearance. The sunburning could be an aesthetic he is consciously playing with.
I don't think there's supposed to be a single concrete answer, or at least one in the book. during the kid's ether dream while the doctor operates on him, we get the bomb of "whatever his antecedents he was something wholly other than their sum, nor was there a system to divide him back into his origins" and further "whoever would seek out his history [...] will discover no trace of any ultimate atavistic egg by which to reckon his commencing." he is at once something both human and utterly alien to anything even resembling human, so it would follow that he can at once be both understood to be human (people see and interact with him) and utterly alien and incomprehensible to humanity. he is and isn't. idk. maybe cormac mccarthy accidentally ate a bunch of peyote while scrounging for food while he walked the exact trail of the book in research for it. that part's obviously a joke but really who the fuck knows what went on in that head of his while he did the research and writing for this book. probably something more than a simple one-line answer as to whatever the judge is though
@WriteConscious the sun burn was by design to show everyone has a price...
He coerced (think toadvine) him to sell his hat while lost for money that he knew he had no value for. He knew his life was coming to an end and later would be hung after wandering the desert.
Why would the devil be red? Maybe when he's in an environment closer to hell he kind of reverts back to a crimson serpent. Idk. I don't think he's the devil but that was my first thought.
Excellent! I’m remembering “analysis paralysis”: incredible term to describe dumb people futilely attempting to become geniuses : used to be called “contemplating one’s navel”
Lol, also a good term!
Definitely did not expect this video to get motivational at points, but i like what you say about nihilism and how we as a society can deal with those feelings in a positive way
Excellent video man. I loved hearing your thoughts on this iconic character. I could've listened to 4 hours of this.....little disappointed you stopped. lol
More to come!
Thank you for this my friend🧡 He's such a fascinating character. If they do make the movie I really hope they find somebody that could play his part. The way it should be done
Agreed. They need to wait and be ready to pay whatever for the right casting
@WriteConscious Man Marlon Brando. I really think He could have pulled it off at a certain time in his career. Now I'm just trying to figure out this list of actors in my head that could pull this character off.🤔
Tom Hardy if he was 3 foot taller ..
@@Nat.DialogueYeah, another actor I've been Thinking about is John Goodman. Just give it a thought. I'm thinking a younger John Goodman.
@@ryanlust1350 Josh Brolin
Also I was about to ask if you thought the Judge was more similar to the Gnostic Demiurge or Milton's Satan but after you mentioned you were going to do a theological interpretation of him I figured that's where you'll place it.
Yes! That stuff will be dropping soon!
You're killing it!
Just getting warmed up!
Judge Holden is as good an example as I can think of of how literature differs from film or painting. I have never seen a reproduction, an image, of Holden which resembles the Holden which I saw in my head as I read this book. I think this is why Kafka said that his Gregor should never be represented on any book cover, there's just no way that the reproducible image can compete in allusory valence with imagination. Think Les Murray combined with Januarius Jones and with true albinism and alopecia.
Agree!
Thank you! I like your point of view that the judge is like a child, that infantilism is related to nihilism. It does not seem to me obvious
Thanks!
Consider this: Danny McBride as Judge Holden.
I think his arc in This is the End supports his ability to pull this off.
I wish that more channels would normalize their audio. I want to listen to this at work but the difference in the music and speaking makes it impossible..
I could fix it too 😢
You’re a self proclaimed genius!
yawn
My favorite McCarthy story is when he was on the phone with James Franco after Franco bought the film rights to blood meridian and wanted to pick his brain. Franco supposedly went on and on about the metaphysical interpretation of parts of the novel, Franco breathlessly went on and on about what McCarthy’s thoughts were when he wrote it and when Franco was all done and Franco was like “what were you thinking about when you wrote this part?” And McCarthy just replied “I don’t know Frank, somethin’ stupid I guess” 😂😂😂😂😂
Great story! That was for the Child of God movie though. Cormac didn't like that novel as it was a cash grab. He was super broke, and wasn't even finished with Outer Dark yet and he combined a section he cut from Outer Dark with the Lula Lake Murders, whipped out the 35k words and got the advance lol.
@@WriteConsciousah, I did not know that, thank you!
Been watching all your videos and enjoying them! I looked back at recent Cormac interviews- one with David Krakauer listed as 7 months ago and he looks vibrant and energetic. There is another one from 6 months ago from the origins podcast where he looks much thinner and less energetic. Do you know the actual time line of these two interviews? It is difficult to imagine that they were one month apart. Thanks!
Krakauer video takes place in 2017! The Origins one was filmed right before it was released. Thanks for the kind words and support!
Do you know any other interviews/ podcasts with Cormac McCarthy? I've seen the krakauer interview (and Oprah fwiw)- I read that McCarthy didn't like, or want to do interviews in general. So if you know of any others I'd really appreciate you pointing me in that direction! Thanks for the heads up on Origins 🤝
Good pep talk. I kinda squandered my gifts.
Got decades to get back on track brotha. Wasted years on every vice and distraction also lmao.
The kid was never in the descriptions of the gang's violence of raping and pillaging. He was only present in some of the less important violent scenes. I guess the worst thing he does is shooting that one kid years later, and it was self defence.
I think he never took part in those rapings and pillagings. I was always looking to see what he was up to during those parts but he really didnt show up in those scenes.
He shows mercy at times, thats why its easy to see him as the opposite to the judge as the better side of the cast. Along with being illiterate, he is also quiet and doesnt seem to have a philosophy for life, just choosing in the moment to help or kill.
The opposite is the judge who always talking to the gang and is suoer educated and has a solid if evil philosophy for life.
I just finished it 2 days ago and wondered the same. I mean, how can a guy that doesn't embrace the murder and senseless killing the rest of the gang did, still be able to hang with that gang? You'd think if the gang saw somebody sitting out from having "fun", they'd ask what the hell is his problem and is he not one of them? It doesn't make sense.
Very happy to discover this channel. Great stuff. Can you provide references that demonstrate that McCarthy is a conservative?
2005 Vanity Fair Article Interview
" He likes to complain about Santa Fe (“a theme park”) and the people who have gathered here from the coasts. “If you don’t agree with them politically, you can’t just agree to disagree-they think you’re crazy,” he exclaims. He talks of moving back to Texas, where Jennifer’s parents can help with child raising in a more congenial city."
The people he is speaking of are liberals. These are 2005 liberals which are conservative by our standards.
In his 2017 interview, he reiterates the same point again about wanting to move to Texas to be in a place more aligned with his values. Assume those people are Republicans.
Multiple of his correspondences in the archive are with conservative or libertarian thinkers. There are a few major influences he references in the archives that are leftist, and when they come up it's never tied to political stuff.
Thanks. Separately, I always felt James gandolfini, shaved bare, would’ve made for the best Holden I could think of. Sad that that can never happen.
Fuck. That's a fire choice. Just am finishing a rewatch of The Sopranos. Fire stuff.
Would you go as far as saying Dune is Mcarthy tier literature (not of equal quality but approximating it) as it too succeeded in depicting Nietzsche's idea's?
I would say the Dune series is equal to McCarthy's literature in general. And yes, it has a much more potent avenue of analyzing Nietzche's ideas. Leto 2 makes Judge Holden look like a middle schooler lol
You made me read that deadly book and thanks for that 🙌
Just stumbling upon your channel. Love the Meridian stuff so far! Greatest book of all time.
Thanks! More coming son
“Why is the Judge so into geology? What is the geological significance? Because what geology is just about the control of the land.”
Whoa, slow your roll there! Saying this as someone who just discovered your channel and with much respect and admiration of what you’re putting out on Cormac MacCarthy. On the other hand I’m a geologist, and well….no, just no.
Rather than just criticize this underbaked comment, can I offer a suggestion? Do an episode on MacCarthy - Geology and Geomorphology. Like all of MacCarthy’s writing, as well of the subject of geology itself, there are so many layers. Start here:
[T]he judge took one of the packanimals and emptied out the panniers and went off to explore the works. In the afternoon he sat in the compound breaking ore samples with a hammer, the feldspar rich in red oxide of copper and native nuggets in whose organic lobations he purported to read news of the earth’s origins, holding an extemporary lecture in geology to a small gathering who nodded and spat. A few would quote him scripture to confound his ordering up of eons out of the ancient chaos and other apostate supposings. The judge smiled.
Books lie, he said.
God don’t lie.
No, said the judge. He does not. And these are his words.
He held up a chunk of rock.
He speaks in stones and trees, the bones of things.
Yes, of course some geologists are great people. But, they've also been weaponized by oil/energy companies, businesses looking to exploit land, and other dark things.
The quantification and analysis of the earth by geologists has created a net negative IMO. But, I will make a video and thanks for the great quote!
@@WriteConscious Isn't the judge into geology because it's a primary means of attacking the idea that God has spoken. His interest in geology isn't just academic or capitalist but it serves him in his purpose of attacking revelation. His interest and knowledge of geology possibly reinforces the fact of his hypocrisy ie when the men around him appeal to scripture against his 'deep-time' ramblings the Judge responds "books lie". Yet, where did the Judge get his knowledge of geology if not primarily from books. The Judge has simply rejected divine revelation for human ideas. The question arises : is the Judge presented as the source of those attacks on scripture ie he represents satan or is he simply a victim of those ideas that he's accepted?
15:38 what about Tobin? He conquered the "judge" Holden's grasp on them through faith in Jesus Christ because only God can Judge.
that doesn't get mentioned by any youtube video convering this amazing classic but still you're my favorite literature related account on this platform and i love the encouragement you're giving to everyone watching to keep reading/writing/learning even if we have a different view on the novel as a whole please don't change after the many more views come in the future with your videos you're not doing this for image board likes or upvotes we can see this is coming from the love of the scribbles on paper.
In the western philosophical tradition, anything that can be named and measured can be controlled. Thats the judge's mindset to me.
I didn't really view the novel's epilogue as being necessarily a negation of what Holden was at least attempting to propagate. While it can be argued that the epilogue represents the end of the Old West in which Holden and so many like him thrived, the philosophy of war being god is something that nevertheless carried on even with the solidification of civilization as the twentieth century dawned. Sure, you don't have the same level of lawlessness as the Old West in America, but the twentieth century saw to two World Wars and a Cold War with several proxy conflicts embedded in there. So even as the U.S. and many other countries achieved a sense of internal harmony, war and chaos would still go on to ravage the planet in ways that people prior to the twentieth century would have found to be unbelievable.
In conclusion, I viewed the epilogue as less of an end to an epoch of violence in which Holden had lived under and more of a transformation into a civilization with a veneer of lawfulness as the violent extremes of freedom being replaced by the more strict and confining rules of a society with tighter police and national forces. And, in turn, the violence that characterized settings such as the 19th century Old West would go on to be channeled into the conflicts of the twentieth century and, to an admittedly lesser extent, the conflicts going on in this century. I imagine that if Holden's claim of him never dying were true, he would probably live on to be some bloodthirsty general in one or all of the conflicts that I just mentioned.
Banger intro
Lets go!
@@WriteConscious what's the name of the song in the intro???
@@WriteConscious i'm still wondering what the name of the song in the intro is
You know where you speak about agency? I’m not sure you’re always correct. I’m sure some of what you’re saying are just throw away comments but…
For example, you mentioned people “checking out of modern society” for better or worse because they’ve lost their agency? I kinda feel like when people make a choice like that they have a lot of agency.
I could be way off on this as I’m in the middle of a work out!
That wasn't a throwaway comment. I don't view agency as societal conditioning and the self--preservation drive. Most people have never made a real decision in their life. Even their choice to rebel or not do anything is a dialectical rejection of choices and a reality they never made. The path up higher consciousness requires hard work and there are objective measures to see if someone has done that work. 99.9% of people have not done that work. We are no different from the people who governments manipulated in the 20th century to create 262 million deaths. Our leaders through big data and now thousands of years of practice have mastered how to pacify us in much more covert ways. Agency is something you earn through the education of your mind, body, and soul. However, as The Judge shows you can attain agency through darkness also which is how most people attain it in 2023.
@@WriteConscious so people checking out of society are making a choice involving a lot of agency, no?
Also where are you getting your figures from? The 99.9% of people thing (joke!)
Nice vid; I actually think the judge isn’t the/a devil. He is nature: unstoppable, violent, indifferent. I don’t think it’s a very optimistic novel
What's the track at the beginning of the video????
did you find it?
@@i2pd No, I just gave up, I tried on reddit and few more places but nobody can't find it and Ian is not eager to respond either
26:22 "Kids are cruel jack"
He's literally me
8:00 Priceless! You should design a t-shirt.
lol
ive Enjoyed Your Videos...
Keep Up^ the Good Work
Glad you like them! PEACE
any respectable scalp hunter woulda shot this judge goof for talking too much
lol
I had a dream about the Judges supernatural powers
One being the ability to morph into the darkness/travel into the shadow realm where he can lurk invisibly, this is why the Judge is seen as a phantom
In my dream I was the Judge and I was running across a grass field, in this field each stride I took was enough to catapult me forward with incredible speed, I imagine this is how the Judge caught up to the guys on horse while on foot
I’ve had more dream of the judge and his escapades but I will leave it with that
Also if you are interested in another nihilist antagonist of evil I suggest checking out Johan from Monster, reminds me a little of the Judge truly a force to be reckoned with…
Awsome video. Just a random thought, I've always imagined the judge as a character played by George Carlin 😅
I’m not surprised he’s a conservative. I feel that political label has a natural affinity with environment. A conservative NOT supported by petro-lobbyists would want to conserve nature.
What you are saying about the links between the domination of matter and evil is very interesting. I wonder if that’s why McCarthy said he was ‘mostly’ a materialist. The Judge is omnipotent, lord over all real things. Yet he also embodies nihilism. Almost as if McCarthy is saying that the study of the phenomenology of stuff in the world can reveal vast nothingness.
The human mind can transcend real stuff, so why is any of it important? You can know the names and chemistry of all living things in order to manipulate at will, but what is their above or around is that limits us? Knowledge in that case would be a kind of tyranny, an essential evil. Now I think about it, the more it is a Garden of Eden metaphor for the knowledge of good and evil, sourced from the fruit of a tree. A paradise lost.
Yeah, McCarthy seems to love the biblical references. Find more every time I read them.
10:50 Who's account was this?
John Russell Bartlett
"What to do kids symbolize other than hope and possibility?"
Innocence? Purity? Curiosity?
Villeneuve's Baron sourced from the Judge!?
“If you’re a random citizen you’re not really tied to the actions of the United States government” unless you pay taxes, which most everyone does.
Good commentary but I would like to point out that FN did not say that the Uber man or Superman actually existed in our times and they may never exist. He is a future human. That will be far beyond anything that exists now. And there can be no, so-called Superman In this present epoch of human existence.❤
Yup! 🖤
@WriteConscious Also, if you want to see the effect of studying this sort of stuff by morons just look at the Case of Leopold and loebe. They read FN and misinterpreted everything about the Superman and killed an innocent child in order to prove it. What They really Got was a life in jail.
Well... yes and no, while he did suggest that the ubermensch should be our goal for thefuture, he did, in writing, consider the fact that there have been ubermensches in the past, and he further implied this through his writing, going as far as to say Christian or rather slave morality only serves to suppress these higher beings..
@22:00 you also can unask the question, or question your whole supposition there. We do not live in an unjust world. We live in a very diverse rich world, there is injustice and there is also justice, if you look around. Neither is the injustice perfect injustice, nor is the justice we see perfect. Kind of makes you think a good purpose in life to is improve things, and not choose to be a dopey nihilist.
Lol. Yes. That is the Great Work.
@writeconscious you're the man
You da man!
Judge Holden is Peter Boyle in Young Fronkensteen.
lol
What makes one a "lit bro"? Never heard the term
Guys who act better than others because they're well read. But, most of the time they've just read some core texts (Blood Meridian, Infinite Jest, and some philosophy) and think they're hot shit lol. In comparisons to real readers they're simpletons.
Eeeee boi ngl this channel is fire
"plum cen-tray"
Cool intro, Ian
One bj away from moral relativism 😂 😂
Anemic intellectuals
Thanks Ernesto!
Yes very good about being active with your knowledge. You don’t want to remain locked in the toilet with the Judge…..
Lol, some people would love that!
'Active nihilism' as a sensible lifestyle choice is IMO one thing Thomas Metzinger worries/warns about in the face of the fact that our ordinary sense of self is an illusion. A better alternative lifestyle direction is IMO illustrated by e.g. the Tao Te Ching
Also, IMO Ligotti aptly describes Nietzsche as a 'perverted pessimist'; well worth reading/hearing that section of The Conspiracy Against the Human Race, all you Nietzsche fan-folks out there...
ruclips.net/video/clzt5XgwEkM/видео.htmlfeature=shared
Around 3:46:00: Ligotti on Nietzsche
16:50 why do u assume that minimising suffering is a good thing ? The point of it all is that there’s no point to any of it.
judge holden was a prior incarnation of edgar cayce.😮. yes he was... yes he was.. also... what the hell is a lit bro?.. dont answer that..
The past tense of forgo is forwent, not "forgoed."
lol, thank you!
@@WriteConscious You're welcome. I'm really enjoying your Cormac McCarthy obsession! ❤️
Lotta great work here, Holden is a mystery for sure
I do take issue w a few of your points however. For one, I don’t think the judge is acting or behaving in any way that suggests he is avoiding his own inadequacy or shortcomings or insecurities at all. This would be a humanizing explanation and one that the text does not imply. It does imply that he was ever and wholly contained at all times. That he was to the greatest meaning of the word, uncanny. Inhuman. And Evil at that. He is not to be understood as a man. He is something else (like the great whale, Moby Dick)
Obviously it is not an unpopular opinion that he is the devil incarnate-the text itself alludes to many moments and intertexts which confirm this assessment. But it is curious because there are just as many which suggest he is a god of some kind-and in the darkest frame of Christian depiction at that. Nothing existing without his permission suggests that he is god as christian understanding would also depict their god. He is the judge too after all, and who is the judge but god? The devil is the accuser, not the judge
Wrestling with who the judge is, and what he means, is more important than the conclusion, but I do think god and the devil here are but one terrifying vision
And it’s partly the reason why I most sharply disagree with the analysis of the Epilogue of the book. The story ends, not with his defeat, but him dancing. To have his end unwritten and the holes in the earth as some implication of progression forward is an imposition of meaning imo, and not in step w the book at large, nor in line w McCarthy’s collection of fiction either
If the story is a meditation on violence and the violence of expansionism, and the judge the personification of violence itself, then the epilogue suggests that hell was being systematically wrought out of the earth. It doesn’t not suggest an end of violence. Only a sophistication of it-a sophistication and a democratizing force. It is no longer the judge’s secret knowledge to make fire, but all of us are capable w the tools to drag fire from the earth. The evening redness can be read as a sunset, but I think it holds more narrative impact to mean that the even-ing is of violence. The west is red w blood. If the violence of the sky was meant to suggest violence was over, then nightfall should be in the title. But the even-ing is about the effects on all of us. Blood is in the sky. We till hell
Great thoughts!
I thought Holden was the manifest Lucifer
Nope. McCarthy is not doing a classic Christian interpretation. All his notes and ideas are rooted in Gnosticism. In Gnostic thought an aspect of God detached from him and is unconscious of the real God existing. That god is the he-god in the bible. But, in gnosticism he is called the demiurge. He created earth as an illusionary place filled with evil because he is evil. The only way to connect to God is through Gnosis according to the Gnostics. So, Holden could be seen as the Demiurge which is actually the He-god. Not lucifer. Lucifer in gnosticism is a lesser evil being to the he-god.
@@WriteConscious the best theory is that Holden is the Gnostic Demiurge. Especially since Gnosticism gives an interesting twist to the Abrahamic religions.
Fantastic analysis.
Your videos feel like watching, nay, partaking in a philosophical and artistic action car chase; one which occurs in slow motion, because I can follow you, even though you are my superior.
Naw brotha, you got a ton of knowledge and courage! You see things and go places I won't so thanks!
@@WriteConscious I believe in hierarchy. It is natural and good. To acknowledge a man younger than myself as one of my sage teachers, and to do so with joy, tells me that I have an aristocratic, adventurous soul devoid of pettiness. I'm not putting myself down. But I still thank you for your brotherly response and your noble humility.
I am a gnostic believer with Christian beliefs this book spoke to me I'm going back to school for psychology to understand my schizophrenia better and to understand why people are evil because of this book
How come nobodh ever talks about the road. Its a fucked up book
He is an anarchist and it doesn’t mean what you think it means in left wing parliance
From the Greek Prefix
*an* - without; the absence of
& the Greek Noun
*archon:* master;ruler
It literally means "without rulers"
He is not an anarchist he wanted to rule the universe
Or at least the earth
I had a dream about the Judges supernatural powers
One being the ability to morph into the darkness/travel into the shadow realm where he can lurk invisibly, this is why the Judge is seen as a phantom
In my dream I was the Judge and I was running across a grass field, in this field each stride I took was enough to catapult me forward with incredible speed, I imagine this is how the Judge caught up to the guys on horse while on foot
I’ve had more dream of the judge and his escapades but I will leave it with that
Also if you are interested in another nihilist antagonist of evil I suggest checking out Johan from Monster, reminds me a little of the Judge truly a force to be reckoned with…