Blood Meridian

So who or what was the Judge? It feels to easy to just pass him off as "the devil"

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jstor.org/stable/10.2979/jmodelite.36.2.105?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
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how many times is this thread going to be created? i just bought this book today, actually.

Enjoy, my friend. I just finished it yesterday and honestly it's one of the best books i've ever read

what are some of the others, for reference?

The judge is a metaphor for the law. Read up on some Benjamin, specifically his Theses and Critique of Violence.

In the latter he discusses how in the intermediate stage between uncivilized land and civilized land (in the form of a state), the real law is violence, it's the only thing that can be used to establish the future law. Violence created law. This is why there are three main time periods in the book: the kid's journey with the Glanton gang and the judge; the man revisiting the judge, where there are not established cities in the most people have settled down; and then the epilogue, which I interpret as the construction of a border fenceā€”the final establishment of the State after the violence.

Benjamin's theses have the section that most people just dumb down to 'the winners of battle/war etc write the history.' This is why the judge is seen sketching things in his journal, and then burning the actual artifacts. He even had a statement along the lines of saying he wishes the only knowledge in existence to be that which is within his book.

Oh user my sweet summer child bless your heart.

Anytime. I wrote a paper on it in undergrad that I'm polishing now to send a journal, so I've read it pretty extensively (4-5 times in the past year 1/2), as well as reading a good amount of secondary lit on this book as a whole and McCarthy in general.

Ok, now I have to read Benjamin. Fuck.

You won't regret it. Once you do that I'd recommend a paper by this guy named James Dorson. It was very influential on my own reading of the judge, and it's written well so even if you have some struggles with Benjamin you'll still get the gist of the argument

jstor.org/stable/10.2979/jmodelite.36.2.105?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

Pa. Why are eggs breakfast?

What.

You can put bacon on lunch.

Ye.

But if you put eggs on stuff it becomes breakfast?

The man spat and said the eggs are not for this world or from this world they come from the chicken but the chicken knows it not.

He wiped his chin and spat

Go re-read the passage where we first encounter the judge.

he's the 8th incarnation of the spirit of the corncob

I regret that I have but one (You) to give

an autodidact who looks like a giant baby

A

FUCKING

WHITE

MALE

user i'd like to hear more if you have some

why does the Judge kill the kid and the others? they've outlived their purpose now that the violence is done? and why's he always fucking and killing kids?

the judge is god

god in old times used to be called The Judge

That's such a dull and cop-out interpretation

>"Hurr durr the judge is the devil/god. he said he'd never die lol that's how i know"

McCarthy literally said in an interview the Judge is God.

>and why's he always fucking and killing kids?
Do you really gotta ask that question user?

They aren't kids, they're orphans. Wards. Chattel. Meat to be ground for the state's pleasure. In cormacanon's analysis, I wager they are the victims of unhappy circumstance and examples of the brutal needs of the state. The Kid is the last bit of history to be erased and recorded in a book. Now you've read it.

>just pass him off as "the devil"
the problem is people don't probe deeper into the concept of the devil

judge holden is literally judge holden. Mccarthy aped a historical figure and put him in the novel.
you are an idiot

I'd just like to add everyone in the thread(except me) is a fucking pseud.

I have a very hard time believing that McCarthy would spell out what the Judge is meant to be or represent in an interview

that's not my problem