Discuss Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

i dunno, it thought it was the father talking, he was thirty three, the leonids (as i just googled) is a meteor shower of some sort, im not sure what the dipper stove is. So probably the meteor shower was going on while he was born and maybe the father was looking for holes in the heavens especially because the mother died giving birth and he needed to look somewhere... She did die giving birth to him right? or is that just a nother book entirely. As for symbolic reasons, i dunno. When i read it i only vaguely comprehended it, but i have a tendency to just keep reading and forget that i didn't understand a sentence or paragraph with this book because it seems like the writing style pushes me along almost, don't dawdle, there's more ahead type thing.

33 is the year the kid was born. My question mainly is who the was the the first person. I see it now as the father thinking to himself by the fire.

oh, yes that makes more sense, thirty three.

[QUOTE=glamhoth] She did die giving birth to him right?[/QUOTE]

From what I could gather, yes the mother did die during the kid's birth. I also gathered that the father is seeing holes in heaven because he has a bit of a doubt in God at that time. The meteor shower would represent something like the heavens falling apart and not making sense. It also just dawned on me that "The Dipper stove" has to have something to do with the big or little dippers. McCarthy begins talking about the heavens with the Leonids reference so it has to be connected with that. Still not quite sure what "The Dipper stove" means, however.

I also would have to agree with glamhoth about the cadence of the reading egging you on. However, I [b]highly[/b] reccommend slowing down and comprehending all of this. McCarthy uses wonderful similes that greatly enhance the visualization of the novel. One particular sentence sticks out in my mind from ch. 4: [QUOTE]The shadows of the smallest stones lay like pencil lines across the sand and the shapes of the men and their mounts advance elongate before them like strands of the night from which they'd ridden, like tentacles to blind them to the darkness yet to come.[/QUOTE]

I'm really enjoying this read so far. Good pick, whoever!

yea i figured it was little and big dipper related but other than that i don't know specifically what it is.
and yea, i am trying to take it all in, he really has a way with words sometimes.

"stove" is the past participle of the verb "stave" which means to implode or crush inward. to the kid's father, it looked like the big dipper imploded, which was disconcerting (to say the least) as lots of people used constellations, especially the big dipper, for directions, telling time, etc. by the way, the 1833 leonids was a big deal, people thought the world was coming to an end. to call it a meteor shower is to underestimate the phenomenon, really.

A big thank ya' to moe.ron.

goodness gracious

[QUOTE=doubleD645]A big thank ya' to moe.ron.[/QUOTE]
no sweat, DD, and i totally agree with your thoughts on reading slowly and comprehending more...it's worthwhile.

que pasa, screech?

you're very knowledgable is all

from [I]The Nation[/I] "The Border Trilogy by Cormac McCarthy" by Dagoberto Glib

[QUOTE][I]I read McCarthy's Gothic [u]The Orchard Keeper[/u] when it was given to me many years ago by an El Paso bookstore owner who wanted me to know the writer who'd moved to town. I tried, unsuccessfully, to read [u]Outer Dark[/u]. I liked the more playful [u]Suttree[/u]. But [u]Blood Meridian[/u], my God, that was a book to study a couple of pages a day. It felt translated from something, maybe Greek: Homeric in both historical scope and literary convention, it was an aorta slash of prose, finely elegiac and gaudily ornate, sumptuous, its blood-and-viscera subject chapping the soutwestern-desert frontier, riding hard, surviving implausibly from one end of the West to the other. It's a Comanche massacre of a book, oddly inspiring in the beauty and bounty of its gore, impossible not to compare to great tomes. I can't claim to divine an understanding of its bitter meaning, of the metaphorical human truths those characters, the Kid and the Judge, stood for, but, my mouth open in awe as I read, I didn't really care. [/I][/QUOTE]

there's themes here i kind of want to discuss, but i think HD wants us to hold off on "general discussion" still.

[QUOTE=moe.ron]from [I]The Nation[/I] "The Border Trilogy by Cormac McCarthy" by Dagoberto Glib

there's themes here i kind of want to discuss, but i think HD wants us to hold off on "general discussion" still.[/QUOTE]
No no, don't let me ruin your discussion. Discuss away.

i just realized that there's probably still a lot of ppl reading it, no?

Maybe it was just me, but in ch.3, when the kid is being interviewed by the captain:

The kid is asked where he just came from by the captain. The kid replies, "I was comin from Naca, Naca..." To which the captain replies, "Nacadoches?"

-Did that remind anyone else of the part in Office Space where the Bob's are talking about Zahmir and Michael Bolton being laid off and the fatter Bob says, "Zahmir Naga, Naga... Nagonna work here any more." ???

I know that's not exactly the type of conversation expected in the book club, but I can't help but point that out. I chuckled when I read that.

[QUOTE=doubleD645]Maybe it was just me, but in ch.3, when the kid is being interviewed by the captain:

The kid is asked where he just came from by the captain. The kid replies, "I was comin from Naca, Naca..." To which the captain replies, "Nacadoches?"

-Did that remind anyone else of the part in Office Space where the Bob's are talking about Zahmir and Michael Bolton being laid off and the fatter Bob says, "Zahmir Naga, Naga... Nagonna work here any more." ???

I know that's not exactly the type of conversation expected in the book club, but I can't help but point that out. I chuckled when I read that.[/QUOTE]
uh, no...but i chuckled when i read this post if that's any consolation

4 chapters in. still going. hopefully will be done by sunday. I am enjoying this book much more than i thought. Thats what i get for judging a book by its cover. haha

oh, so you ARE still reading? that's good to know, i thought this conversation was just dead.

Yea I'm still reading too... this is my first month in the book club, so I don't really know how things usually go. So, does the conversation pick up at any point???

Usually the book is chosen sooner than this months was and most would've finished reading by the month start and the convo's begin. But since we didn't decide till late what book we are reading everyone is a little behind.

just purchased it on sunday.

every five minutes i find myself checking and re-checking the copyright page. i can't believe this wasn't written in the mid 1850's, let alone 1985.
the prose is very robert browning, sort of like what stephen king's 'the gunslinger' would like to have been.
i need to study for the LEED exam for next week, but i should finish this book soon after... be back then....

Ugh, it seems as though my town sucks. None of the bookstores have it, and I checked 4. Oh well, I guess that means I'll be sitting out completely this month, sadly. Ah well.

Wow, this thread is dead. I'd love to liven it up, but Blood Meridian was checked out of the Chicago Public Library. With absolutely no cash to my name, I'm going to have to take a pass on this one.

Hopefully the September book can fire things back up.

as this book is far from a dead topic..

( [URL=http://weeklywire.com/ww/05-18-98/tw_book1.html]this[/URL] is a fantastic review )

cormac mccarthy is as fresh to me as the wet blood brimming the form of a gash up through the meat of a limb, but the impact has held a thrush hold and i feel weak that i've not yet finished it -- i left it at work and had to go without tonight. ho hum

the prose was chiseled from wood and the depicted landscapes promote images the color of rusted steel, this motherfucker is a badass on the page. makes me feel that i'm meandering thirsty and stupid through a dry desert in uncomfortable boots and experiencing an estranged desire to leer at the white hole directly above

im curious if anyone is up for new discussions; i'll have this finished clean for thursday
thanks
kabol

Count me in!! Although it's been a while since I've read it...

I totally agree about the book transporting you to another place. That's why I have to be decidedly in the mood for a McCarthy book.

hello??

oh...

Read it a couple months ago. I might need to read it again.

Yup, it amazes me how he use these words magically. The first thing that came to my mind is the Big Dipper.