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The Most Terrifying Book Ever Written | Blood Meridian

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Blood Meridian is one of the most terrifying and brutal novels of all time. It follows the adventures of The Kid, the Glanton Gang, and the horrifying Judge Holden.

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00:00 Blood Meridian: A Brief Recap
17:06 The Language of Myth and the Language of Matter
28:17 A Hostile World and Hostile Men
42:26 Values and Violence
57:38 The Kid and the Question of Man
01:07:57 The Cycle of Violence
01:22:07 Why You Should Read Blood Meridian

20 Comments

@unsolicitedadvice9198 Creator 11 months ago Pinned

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@khagaz 11 months ago

"Whatever exists without my knowledge, exists without my consent" is the scariest line from any villain I have seen

@King_Street_Productions_LLC 3 months ago

The Kid: "OH! This is horrible! Your missions are horrible! YOU'RE HORRIBLE! You're an irredeemable monster!" 😱

Judge Holden: "What took you so long, idiot?" 😈

@renwhit100 11 months ago (edited)

the skill it takes to write a villain that's always a step ahead, always the smartest and strongest person in the room, always damn near omnipotent and omnipresent, while still making him a character rather than Original Superpowerful OC Do Not Steal is WILD To me

(also, re: your fears in the end -- your videos got me hooked on camus, but it wasn't until reading his writing myself that I really felt just how much his philosophy resonates with me. you're introducing whole worlds of thought to people who wouldn't have otherwise known to look.)

@DarrenDayo0903 10 months ago

The judge invites the kid to continue dancing with the devil. He declines. He dies.

@TheGreatVisitor 11 months ago

There is no such thing as "reading too much into" Blood Meridian. You're just going to have to carry that fire.

@RaybinPly 11 months ago (edited)

One hour of unsolicited advice? Count me in!

@sidanx7887 10 months ago

This book strongly feel like my time in Afghanistan - it’s a very strange feeling I don’t quite get but the violence feels truly real and written in a way that even true crime does not get across the horror and blandness of it

@ShedHead237 11 months ago (edited)

I feel like it's terrifying for people who don't have an appropriate idea of how terrifying life can.be. The brutality of the book isn't in its descriptions; its in how casual it is when taking about brutality.

@mmartinisgreat 10 months ago

My reading is that the kid is humanity, the priest is tepid kindness, and the judge is evil. The kid had a chance to destroy evil but chose not to.

@bunnytarot 11 months ago (edited)

I read an article about how “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 1974” film had an influence on McCarthy in Blood Meridian. Particularly the ending where the judge is dancing in reference to the ending of Texas Chainsaw Massacre with Leatherface’s iconic mad chainsaw dance. Also the cosmological themes of the sun as featured in TCM’s title card & opening credits as well as throughout the film. Then there is the early American western horror relics featured in TCM’s aesthetics, violence & references.

@Valdagast 11 months ago

Is the Judge a modern-day Heraclitus?

"War is father of all, and king of all. He renders some gods, others men; he makes some slaves, others free."

@babydragon911 11 months ago

I think the biggest plot hole was that nobody reported the Judge to the local bar association, given his frequent judicial overreach. It kind of broke my suspension of disbelief.

@howtfdoesitwork 11 months ago (edited)

well here we go, another wave of judge holden edits being recommended incoming, a really good book though.

@oxfordbambooshootify 10 months ago

As brutal as the story is, that was just the plain reality of life back in the wild west

@ElPinacateMaestro 7 months ago

"They are in the town of Chihuahua"

Pause. I'm reading this without knowing anything more than that and Judge Holden, it's exceptionally rare to see my hometown mentioned, let alone used as setting, for anything in media.

@CarolynEllisQtEllis 8 months ago

I love listening to your voice. It's so clear and you don't mumble. Other podcasters must be so jealous. I can't listen to most of them. Irksome.

@barbusrex 11 months ago

One part of BM that haunts me is the confident assertion from the judge that Man exists alone and singular within the cosmos...which seems somehow connected with the radical responsibility that humans bear as some sort of singular creation...that the judge could be so confidently aware of this and still act as he does chills me...

@kenlangley2460 10 months ago

McCarthy is a truly modern literary genius.

@hunter_lite 10 months ago

Cormac McCarthy is sui generis. In American literature Blood Meridian is to the twentieth century what Moby Dick and Huckleberry Finn were to the nineteenth.