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Of all the books I’ve ever read, and I don’t say this lightly, the best written is Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian. It’s a challenge to read for its extreme gritty violence, unique biblically written style and bleakness. I’ll start with some background on the author, explore the historical context of the Wild West, give a high-level summary, break down key themes and I’ll finish with my personal takeaways.

Cormac McCarthy

Cormac McCarthy was born in 1933 in Providence, Rhode Island, but spent most of his earlier life in Tennessee. He’s a well accomplished American author and playwright, who specialized in Southern Gothic, Western, and post-apocalyptic genres. He’s widely regarded as one of the greatest writers of the 20th and 21st centuries. He started college at the University of Tennessee but didn’t graduate, reason being he decided to focus his time exclusively on writing. 

With great authors, it’s interesting to learn about their influences and the environment around them. Like grapes undergoing a process of terroir and being able to taste the unique flavor of wine they give, the same goes for authors and their writing. I’ve written a blog of the process of terroir as a metaphor for people that you can read here. If McCarthy’s ideas and talent are grapes, his literature is the wine it produces. The influences around him, authors, and environment act like mint, vegetation, and the elevation that give a rich fusion of flavor to that wine. Let’s unpack those elements now. 

McCarthy was influenced by philosophies from Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. Schopenhauer promoted philosophies regarding a godless universe, predetermination, and pessimism. Nietzschean themes in McCarthy’s writings are moral relativism and will to power. 

After reading Blood Meridian, and No Country for Old Men you can see these themes explicitly. For example, Judge Holden in Blood Meridian or Anton Chigurh the professional hitman and antagonist in “No Country for Old Men” are the “Ubermensch,” which translates to super men. Not the super man that we love and adore, this type of super man is a terrifying and fierce person who is resilient and is willing to transcend cultural and societal norms in order to pursue their own vision. They define the rules of the world they live in without remorse. That being said, you can see these philosophical themes peppered in McCarthy’s writing. 

Literary influences for McCarthy included Southern Gothic writers such as William Faulkner who he once described as one“greatest authors of the last century,” and James Joyce. Traces of Faulkner and Joyce found in McCarthy’s writing are found in the use of long sentences, modern techniques, minimal punctuation, mythic tones, morally ambiguous characters, and themes centered around emotional burdens such as guilt and the trauma from the past. McCarthy’s writing has a lot of shared elements with the King James Bible for its language and rhythm. There’s similar dictation, sentence structure, and build up of mythic and epic characters and moments. Even in the headers of each chapter for Blood Meridian, there’s a summary of events like in the structure of the King James Bible. For example:

Blood Meridian Ch. VI	King James Bible – Matthew Ch. 1
In the streets – Brassteeth – Los hereticos – A veteran of the late war – Mier – Doniphan – The Lipan burial – Goldseekers – The scalphunters – The judge – Free from the prison – Et de ceo se mettent en le pays.	Christ is born of Mary – She conceives by the power of the Holy Ghost – Our Lord is named Jesus

Overlapping themes found in McCarthy’s novels and the King James Bible the apocalypse (different interpretations), violence, redemption, and judgement. Other writers that have been key influences for McCarthy are Herman Melville and Joseph Conrad for their existential questions, human savagery, and dark themes. Melville wrote Moby Dick and characters such as Captain Ahab and Judge Holden are similar, in that they both are antagonists that raise philosophical questions. Joseph Conrad’s most famous novel Heart of Darkness highlights the darkness and capacity for evil that men inflict on one another. 

The last major influence is history and the American Frontier mythology. Specifically The Indian Wars with the Comanches, the Mexican American War, and the violent chaos of frontier life.

McCarthy published his first novel, The Orchard Keeper, in 1965 and would continue to release famous works such as Blood Meridian, All the Pretty Horses, No Country for Old Men, and The Road. He was famous for being reclusive and rarely making appearances for interviews. He lived the majority of his life in El Paso, Texas and in New Mexico. A shocking detail about McCarthy is despite his fame and achievements he spent his early career in poverty.

On June 13, 2023, at age 89 McCarthy passed away leaving behind a rich literary legacy.

Wild West

Cormac McCarthy was heavily inspired by the wild west, its chaos, and dark history. For Blood Meridian, you might say it was the co-author, which is why I’d like to pay it its due. 

The timeline for this book had to have been in the late 1840s early 1850s in the American Southwest and northern Mexico. Understanding the context of this time provides the reader with a lens for how normal the violence, lawlessness and moral ambiguity was during this time and place.

First, this period was at a time of aggressive westward expansion when the United States declared its belief of Manifest Destiny. To paint a picture of the mind of a settler at that time, I’ve pulled a quote from John L. O’Sullivan an American journalist and diplomat to represent the mindset at that time. He said:

“It is our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions.”

With the United States belief that it was destined by God to expand its borders, spread democracy, and “civilize” the continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Conflict after conflict would be viewed as justified.

From 1846 – 1848, there was the Mexican-American war, and a lot of the violence from Blood Meridian comes from the aftermath of that conflict. In 1848 Mexico ceded territory which covers modern day California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. Even after the Treaty of Hidalgo, violence and terror would be used to seize control over these territories. Mercenary groups were hired, and a shocking discovery I made was that the Glanton Gang was inspired by a real mercenary group of scalp hunters led by John Joel Glanton in the U.S.–Mexico borderlands. They were veterans of the Mexican–American War, contracted by Chihuahua to hunt Apache warriors. The book depicted what happened in real life: the government paid for Apache scalps, but Glanton’s crew indiscriminately began murdering peaceful Mexicans and other Native peoples, because how can you ascertain who the scalp belonged to?

Due to the lack of formal legal systems in the region after the war, chaos and extreme vigilantism boiled in the borderlands. Violence was a show of power, and as we’ll unpack here in a moment, Blood Meridian paints a landscape with blurred lines of right and wrong, violence is everywhere, human life is cheap, and every character acts on their own questionable morals. 

Context matters to understand how terrifyingly accurate McCarthy’s story is of the American west during this era. He deconstructs any romanticisms and myths that people may have about Manifest Destiny.

Summary

Now for the summary of Blood Meridian. The story is about a runaway teenager from Tennessee named the Kid, who joins a gang of drifters and former veterans from the Mexican American War. This group is the Glanton Gang, a group who collects scalps for state sanctioned bounty in the South West United States. What starts as targeting Apache, quickly morphs into massacres of anyone that crosses their path. The novel is filled with philosophical themes, which at the center is the hairless, intelligent, and terrifying Judge Holden. He appears as someone who is supernatural, ageless and omnipresent. 

As the novel escalates and collapses, it’s because the gang’s notoriety catches up with them and they become targets for Mexican and American forces, bounty hunters, and groups they’ve double crossed. Like a Shakespearian play, few remain as one by one they’re killed off. 

At the end, the Kid becomes “the Man” and he finds the Judge in a final confrontation.

Key Themes

Let’s discuss the key themes from Blood Meridian. Starting with the most explicit, and that is violence as the fundamental human condition. McCarthy’s use of violence, isn’t an aberration, it’s a natural law. This hands down is the most violent book I’ve ever read. You’ll find similar comments as well on Reddit or Goodreads. There are massacres, executions, and scalpings There’s no moral framing. All the main characters participate, but Judge Holden stands out above the rest. We’ll discuss him in more detail, but as a preview, Judge Holden is the personification of the idea that war and violence are the natural “order” of the world.

We discussed this theme earlier so we’ll keep it short and sweet, but Manifest Destiny and imperialism. Glanton Gang’s involvement as a tool for westward expansion is driven by greed and bloodlust. Wherever they go, they leave behind victims of state-sanctioned campaigns.

Next theme is represented through the notorious and blood thirsty ubermensch Judge Holden who is a symbol of evil, chaos and war itself. He’s a creepy character, and there’s something supernatural about him. He records all the things he sees as if it’s his divine responsibility to keep an accounting of all things. At one point he says, “Whatever in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent.” His philosophical dialogue suggests that war is the ultimate form of human expression and the only true authority. He says, “It makes no difference what men think of war…war endures. As well, ask men what they think of stone. War was always here. Before man was, war waited for him. The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner. That is the way it was and will be. That way and not some other way.”

Fate and free will. Judge Holden mentions that all events are pre-written, and human beings are just acting it out. Blood Meridian’s protagonist, the Kid, has opportunities to show mercy or resist violence, but rarely takes the time to act decisively. He lets the violent natural law take hold and goes with the natural flow of the turbulent and violent world he’s in. This leads us to our next key theme.

Moral ambiguity and the absence of redemption. There are no “good” characters. Everyone is guilty of atrocities. There is no moral closure, it’s survival of the most violent in the wild west of Blood Meridian. There is no good vs. evil, the book shows a cosmic struggle in an indifferent universe.

And finally, the harsh indifference of nature. Blood Meridian is written almost in a mythical biblical style. The settings are described as ancient and grandiose, indifferent to the events and people inhibiting the landscape.

Takeaways

Now for my takeaways. I’ll give another big disclaimer, this is the most violent book I’ve ever read. I don’t think this will become a movie, it makes Game of Thrones look cute. Despite the violence, this is a masterpiece. It’s difficult to read for a lot of reasons, which is why I recommend reading it slowly, and enjoying it. I’d like to emphasize again by resharing the metaphor above that this book is a glass of wine. It’s not meant to hydrate you, it’s meant to be enjoyed slowly so you can appreciate it. If you take your time, you’ll notice the incredible writing and mastery of language that McCarthy incorporates. If you take time to think about what’s going on, you’ll find yourself pondering a lot of profound and abstract ideas. This is a thought provoking book. Again, a difficult read because of its writing style and violence, but it is worth reading for its sophistication and substance. To conclude, here’s a quote to digest after this episode that sums up the gritty, violent, and thought provoking themes and ideas from Blood Meridian. 

In the end, the desert keeps no tally.

The blood fades, the bones sink,

but the question remains—

Was it all written in the dust before we began to walk?
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