FGBC: Attacked by Comanches

Here we'll take a look at Blood Meridian chapters 3 and 4. I'll admit, I read ahead, because it's getting harder to keep a slow pace as the story picks up steam. But we'll see how it goes.

The main gist of these chapters is the kid enlisting in with a company of army irregulars aka filibusters for some reason.. The company then goes on an ill-advised march into the desert to fight the Mexicans and is attacked by Indians.

It's good to see the advances in troop recruitment from then to now. From pulling soldiers out of trees to pulling them out of schools. And clearly it sucks to be traveling across the desert by horse, what with the wolves and the dying and all. I especially enjoyed the Capn White interview. The kid is scrappy.

But clearly the awesome is the two page one paragraph zombie Comanche attack. This is just brutal fucking crazy people slaughter. Horses screaming and the army getting run down and scalped by monguls "running about with a peculiar bandylegged trot like creatures driven to alien forms of locomotion" and so on with the sodomy.

This book is starting to remind me of a horribly bloody 'Huckleberry Finn' -- the constant change of scenery, various characters appearing and disappearing in the story. Moving west v. traveling down the Mississippi.

Unanswered Questions:
Road novel?
The kid vs Huckleberry Finn?
Can we go to 2 chapters a week?
Captain White: casual racist, moron or both?
The Mule is OK, right?

FGBC: I might do

In chapter 2, the kid makes his way out into the nowheres of Texas on his trusty mule. I think the mule is my favorite character so far, ugly beast that it be. Carries the kid without complaint -- but given the chance it'll make his way to water. Here's hoping it makes its way to greener pastures someday, but I doubt it.

One thing that struck me in this chapter is the imagery McCarthy uses -- the shadow that stretches out for miles in front the kid as he rides the mule, his crazy hat, etc.

On his journey the kid encounters a creepy hermit and some ranchers. The hermit is an interesting character, an ex-slaver his $200 nigger heart and his staring at the kid while he sleeps. Their conversation is a good one, especially this passage:

No. It's a mystery. A man's at odds to know his mind cause his mind is aught he has to know it with. He can know his heart, but he dont want to. Rightly so. Best not look in there. It aint the heart of a creature that is bound in the way that God has set for it. You can find meanness in the least of creatures, but when God made man the devil was at his elbow. A creature that can do anything. Make a machine. And a machine to make a machine. And evil that can run itself a thousand years, no need to tend it. You believe that?

I think this is a good illustration of McCarthy weaving gnosticism(for lack of a better term) into the story. I think he's saying that while evil exists in all animals and all the world for that matter. But in man that evil manifests itself with more purity, more concentration. "An evil that can run itself a thousand years" is a horrifying prospect, but I think its true. Here I could make comparisons to post-modern institutions destroying those they are designed to serve and those who operate within them, but that's something for another day.

After the kid gets to whatever town he's at now, he tries to barter for a drink. The bartender won't serve him so once again it's fightin' time. The next morning the kid wakes up in some church ruins, and goes off to find his missing mule, which is down by the river (not in a van) watering. I am trying to recall the last sentence, something about a wretched baptism. Seemed appropriate.

Also, even though the Judge doesn't show up in this chapter, I gotta give props to dr.gpiece for comparing him to Charlie Villanueva. Definitely a more apt comparison than Shaq.

Unanswered questions
You think the bartender would have served the kid to avoid a broken bottle in the eye?
Are the Indians going to show up soon?
Why did I just read that spoiler?

FGBC: The fuck is a Toadvine?

Here we are, first chapter of Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. First thing I noticed was the dialogue -- or lack there of. Eventually I realized that just because there are no quotation marks it doesn't mean the characters aren't talking to each other. The more you know.

Night of your birth. Thirty-three. The Leonids they were called. God how the stars did fall. I looked for blackness, holes in the heavens. The Dipper stove.

The chapter starts by introducing us to the main character, the protagonist if you will, known only as the kid. We get a little backstory, typical American tale of woe: Born in Tennessee under a famous meteor shower, Mother died in childbirth, Father never said a word about her. Shot twice on a riverboat, so he sits down. Eventually he makes his way to Nacogdoches, Texas, which is where most of the action takes place in Chapter 1.

In Nacogdoches, the kid slips into a revival tent, which is packed with smelly folks trying to avoid the rain. Here we meet the judge, a giant man who accuses the preacher of being a fraudulent goat-fucker, and the crowd presumably kills him. Later it turns out the judge didn't even know the preacher, and everyone laughs. I like to think of the judge as a white, hairless Shaquille O'Neal.

Later the kid decides to fight some character because they don't want to step in the mud (cause it has been raining for more than 2 weeks). Then he gets knocked out and when he wakes up he helps Toadvine smoke some guy out of his hotel room, burning down the hotel in the process. He then slinks out of town on his trusty mule.

The kid is clearly badass, he kicks a lot of ass in this chapter. Going forward, I'll be interested to see what kind of themes develop. I doubt there will be a classic good v. evil clashes. I got the sense in this chapter that the kid is just kind of flying by the seat of his pants in a chaotic world. There is no good or evil, only men, making their way in an unforgiving and harsh land.

That's pretty much all I got for now. I read this chapter twice just to get some grasp of what was going on, and some parts are still confusing. Reading slowly and several times seems like it could be prudent.

Unanswered Questions:
Did anyone else read the book?
Why doesn't the Judge have any hair?
Gnosticism?
Will violence solve anything?
How many comparisons will I be able to make between this and No Country for Old Men?