I recently watched No Country For Old Men, which sent me down a rabbit hole of reading all of cormac Mccarthys works. Blood Meridian really spoke to me and I have since read it 3-4 times in the past few months and watched just about all the RUclips videos on it I can find to really dissect the novel. I have yet to find somebody who discusses it as thoroughly or as passionately as you do. I am a 21 y/o who recently graduated and went into the trades simply because I felt like I could not handle sitting through more classes, I genuinely wish there were more educators out there like you. Thank you for posting these videos and lectures🤘🏾
Violence is the method in which we prosicute wars. It was violence I feel Holden was referring to as waiting for us, its ultimate practioner, to evolve it into organized, large scale violence: war. Excellent lectures! Thanks for posting. Would love to hear more from you on McCarthy’s other works.
I am relistening to Blood Meridian at about the same pace as your lecture series. This really helps contextualize the complexity of McCarthy’s prose. Like all great art, I find that Blood Meridian is a telescope, microscope, a window, and a mirror all at the same time.
Loving these lectures Aaron! After listening to the young lady, I think the Jungian shadow needs to be required learning in high school... but it sounds like an excellent group you have in there.
Statement of fact: Jane Goodall exhaustively documented the civil war of a tribe of chimpanzees. It was a large group that, for various reasons, split into two. Over the subsequent years the larger group systematically hunted down and exterminated the smaller group (Gombe Chimpanzee War, or Four Year War). Various Insects, such as termites and ants, also engage in war. It is more endemic than was once imagined. I love your lectures. Thank you.
The quote discussing how all trades are involved with war came across my mind one day while driving. I thought heavily about how infrastructure in this country could easily be reconfigured for mass mobilization. One should also consider that the original purpose of creating an interstate highway system was for military mobility on american soil in the event of the cold war going hot. What an interesting book!
War is a tool or a limb (what is a limb other than a fleshy tool?) used by humanity to proceed on toward their goal. It’s an option humanity uses to try and achieve whatever they’re trying to achieve. It’s like using your hand to grab a tomato instead of trying to talk it into your hand, or it’s using a tongue to make someone sell you something at a lower price. It’s just something you use to get what you want. In World War 1 it was National Superiority, in World War 2 it was domination, so on, so on. You can argue that making a gun or a weapon is proceeding on with technology and is thus caused by the war, but that’s no different than making a jacket to survive the winter; it’s adding onto the tools you already have toward the goal you already have. You could try to use hugs and kisses to dominate the world, but it’s much easier to use war, just like it’s easier to cut down your fingernails with nail clippers instead of scissors or your teeth. Judge Holden is a fool, but he’s a great trickster, and that’s what makes him so interesting.
Check out finite and infinite games by James Carse. A good framework to parse these ideas. Could really upgrade your already wonderful lecture. Thanks!
I think the Judge is speaking to a more general definition of the word divination. It’s usually deployed to describe the act of gaining insight into future events, but it’s second meaning describes any desire for or method of intuitive, profound understanding. Holden is fairly plainspoken here about his worldview: he thinks man’s ultimate purpose is to engage in contest against his fellows. “Any child knows play is nobler than work” is the line. He goes on to explain that a game’s worth is defined by it’s agreed upon stakes. God, he suggests, must be present and involved when life and death are at issue. When man plays games involving death (war for ex) he’s engaging - intimately - with God. War is a demand made of God, that he be present, and find favor with one or the other combatant, strike them down, and allow the remaining to go on and fight again. The universe , God’s universe, does the heavy lifting of bringing men to opposition and battle. The combat forces God to choose the participants that will build the future. I think the inference is that while a divine creative force may have conceived of the world and it’s inhabitants, humans gain dominion over that world by forcing God to choose - through organized murder - who gets to stay here.
When the judge tells the traveler story by the fire to the Glanton gang is that related to the young boy "the man" kills before walking into the final bar for his reunion with the judge? I remember one of the boy's friends says after he's been shot something to the effect of, "it's not his fault he's crazy mister, his father was hit over the head by a maniac and buried in the woods." I couldn't help but make that connection considering it ends the penultimate scene, providing some sense of closure before the final confrontation with the judge. Does anybody know if the two were meant to be connected, or just a coincidence?
I think you had a too literal interpretation of the judge talking about war. He was talking about conflict, competition, survival of the fittest, that sort of thing. This conflict is the natural state of life essentially and all human endeavors are contained within it, even those arguing against this being true are participating in it because they are in conflict with it. Animals kill animals, plants kill other plants by striving for the light, cells consume other cells etc. War was waiting for man because it is just a human-brand version of this natural conflict, this conflict that divines order in the world. War is the most meta natural order in the world and that's why the judge calls it god.
Nice that you can say "Man Brain" at a University and not lose your job to the mob. One thing I found interesting is that no one mentioned Thomas Hobbes' _Leviathan_ when discussing the "War is God" speech. I am sure the young lady who said she was incapable of violence and couldn't understand why people commit violence on others truly believes what she is saying, but I would argue self preservation (the "Will To Live" as Schopenhauer puts it) is far stronger than any persons moral or ethical values and feelings, and absolutely every living thing (from humans to animals to insects all the way down to amoebas) on this planet is capable of violence to the point of killing their "attacker" when their own life is at stake. That is what McCarthy is getting at with this speech. As Thomas Hobbes posits - violence is our base level, our primal reset mode that we humans return to when we have no society/law/social structure. One of my favourite lines in the book is early on from the hermit the Kid meets out in the desert, who tells him "when God made Man, the Devil was at his elbow" (wonderful imagery). I think that single line sums up the Judge's point of view perfectly, and it occurs right before the Comanche war party attack, which is true hell on earth created by Man.
Its the age old arguement of the oldest weapon of the fist. The hand can be used as a fist or a hand to shake, everone is from different circumstances and the inclination for one or the other is paramount
I recently watched No Country For Old Men, which sent me down a rabbit hole of reading all of cormac Mccarthys works. Blood Meridian really spoke to me and I have since read it 3-4 times in the past few months and watched just about all the RUclips videos on it I can find to really dissect the novel. I have yet to find somebody who discusses it as thoroughly or as passionately as you do. I am a 21 y/o who recently graduated and went into the trades simply because I felt like I could not handle sitting through more classes, I genuinely wish there were more educators out there like you. Thank you for posting these videos and lectures🤘🏾
Violence is the method in which we prosicute wars. It was violence I feel Holden was referring to as waiting for us, its ultimate practioner, to evolve it into organized, large scale violence: war. Excellent lectures! Thanks for posting. Would love to hear more from you on McCarthy’s other works.
Judge Holdens response of "What right man would have it any other way" is so stone cold badass. Almost makes me like him haha
I am relistening to Blood Meridian at about the same pace as your lecture series.
This really helps contextualize the complexity of McCarthy’s prose.
Like all great art, I find that Blood Meridian is a telescope, microscope, a window, and a mirror all at the same time.
TY!
Good stuff, I’m sure John Grady Cole would agree that all horses are in tabernacle together.
Loving these lectures Aaron! After listening to the young lady, I think the Jungian shadow needs to be required learning in high school... but it sounds like an excellent group you have in there.
Statement of fact: Jane Goodall exhaustively documented the civil war of a tribe of chimpanzees. It was a large group that, for various reasons, split into two. Over the subsequent years the larger group systematically hunted down and exterminated the smaller group (Gombe Chimpanzee War, or Four Year War). Various Insects, such as termites and ants, also engage in war. It is more endemic than was once imagined.
I love your lectures. Thank you.
The quote discussing how all trades are involved with war came across my mind one day while driving. I thought heavily about how infrastructure in this country could easily be reconfigured for mass mobilization. One should also consider that the original purpose of creating an interstate highway system was for military mobility on american soil in the event of the cold war going hot. What an interesting book!
Gadzooks how many squirrels you hit to develop a roadkill catchphrase? Monster!
HAHAHAHA!
The judge smiled.
War is a tool or a limb (what is a limb other than a fleshy tool?) used by humanity to proceed on toward their goal. It’s an option humanity uses to try and achieve whatever they’re trying to achieve. It’s like using your hand to grab a tomato instead of trying to talk it into your hand, or it’s using a tongue to make someone sell you something at a lower price. It’s just something you use to get what you want. In World War 1 it was National Superiority, in World War 2 it was domination, so on, so on. You can argue that making a gun or a weapon is proceeding on with technology and is thus caused by the war, but that’s no different than making a jacket to survive the winter; it’s adding onto the tools you already have toward the goal you already have. You could try to use hugs and kisses to dominate the world, but it’s much easier to use war, just like it’s easier to cut down your fingernails with nail clippers instead of scissors or your teeth. Judge Holden is a fool, but he’s a great trickster, and that’s what makes him so interesting.
Wrong buddy
Check out finite and infinite games by James Carse. A good framework to parse these ideas. Could really upgrade your already wonderful lecture. Thanks!
I think the Judge is speaking to a more general definition of the word divination. It’s usually deployed to describe the act of gaining insight into future events, but it’s second meaning describes any desire for or method of intuitive, profound understanding. Holden is fairly plainspoken here about his worldview: he thinks man’s ultimate purpose is to engage in contest against his fellows. “Any child knows play is nobler than work” is the line. He goes on to explain that a game’s worth is defined by it’s agreed upon stakes. God, he suggests, must be present and involved when life and death are at issue. When man plays games involving death (war for ex) he’s engaging - intimately - with God. War is a demand made of God, that he be present, and find favor with one or the other combatant, strike them down, and allow the remaining to go on and fight again. The universe , God’s universe, does the heavy lifting of bringing men to opposition and battle. The combat forces God to choose the participants that will build the future. I think the inference is that while a divine creative force may have conceived of the world and it’s inhabitants, humans gain dominion over that world by forcing God to choose - through organized murder - who gets to stay here.
Really enjoying hearing others perspective 👌.
We've all got the capability for violence
When the judge tells the traveler story by the fire to the Glanton gang is that related to the young boy "the man" kills before walking into the final bar for his reunion with the judge? I remember one of the boy's friends says after he's been shot something to the effect of, "it's not his fault he's crazy mister, his father was hit over the head by a maniac and buried in the woods." I couldn't help but make that connection considering it ends the penultimate scene, providing some sense of closure before the final confrontation with the judge. Does anybody know if the two were meant to be connected, or just a coincidence?
Just a coincidence jack
I think you had a too literal interpretation of the judge talking about war. He was talking about conflict, competition, survival of the fittest, that sort of thing. This conflict is the natural state of life essentially and all human endeavors are contained within it, even those arguing against this being true are participating in it because they are in conflict with it. Animals kill animals, plants kill other plants by striving for the light, cells consume other cells etc. War was waiting for man because it is just a human-brand version of this natural conflict, this conflict that divines order in the world. War is the most meta natural order in the world and that's why the judge calls it god.
The spread of Christianity is interesting
Nice that you can say "Man Brain" at a University and not lose your job to the mob.
One thing I found interesting is that no one mentioned Thomas Hobbes' _Leviathan_ when discussing the "War is God" speech. I am sure the young lady who said she was incapable of violence and couldn't understand why people commit violence on others truly believes what she is saying, but I would argue self preservation (the "Will To Live" as Schopenhauer puts it) is far stronger than any persons moral or ethical values and feelings, and absolutely every living thing (from humans to animals to insects all the way down to amoebas) on this planet is capable of violence to the point of killing their "attacker" when their own life is at stake. That is what McCarthy is getting at with this speech. As Thomas Hobbes posits - violence is our base level, our primal reset mode that we humans return to when we have no society/law/social structure.
One of my favourite lines in the book is early on from the hermit the Kid meets out in the desert, who tells him "when God made Man, the Devil was at his elbow" (wonderful imagery). I think that single line sums up the Judge's point of view perfectly, and it occurs right before the Comanche war party attack, which is true hell on earth created by Man.
If Cormac wasn’t directly influenced by Ernst Junger I would be surprised.
Judge holden
Its the age old arguement of the oldest weapon of the fist. The hand can be used as a fist or a hand to shake, everone is from different circumstances and the inclination for one or the other is paramount
🐐
if something exists in every culture, it isn't cultural. even the swiss have an army
Is the film APOCALYPSE NOW,,,, based on this book BLOOD MERIIDAN ,,,,,, comments much appreciated 😂
Men have always been bred for games look at ancient man. All they did was follow The animal of choice, hunted and gathered that’s totally a game