Episode Details
Back to Episodes
Understanding Blood Meridian with Steven Frye | Judge Holden, the Kid & What It All Means
Description
After 23 chapters, the Blood Meridian read-along is complete—but the questions certainly aren't.
For this special concluding conversation, I'm joined by Steven Frye, author of Understanding Cormac McCarthy, to dig into some of the biggest questions I was left with after finishing Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian.
What exactly is Judge Holden? Why is he so interested in the kid? Does the kid actually change? What does his refusal to completely embrace the Judge's philosophy tell us about him? And what really happens in the jakes at the end of the novel?
We also discuss the Judge's philosophy of war, the possibility of reading him as a Gnostic figure, McCarthy's recurring imagery of fire, the role of nature and the desert, the Judge's mysterious ledger, the historical Glanton Gang, the dancing bear, recurring bird imagery, and whether Blood Meridian is really as nihilistic as it initially appears.
Steven also explains why the kid's resistance may matter even if it ultimately fails—and why Blood Meridian rewards readers who keep returning to it.
If you've followed the chapter-by-chapter read-along, this conversation brings together many of the questions we've been tracking from the beginning.
Topics include:
- What is Judge Holden?
- The Judge's philosophy of war
- Why Holden singles out the kid
- Mercy, resistance and the kid's moral development
- What happens in the jakes
- The mysterious epilogue
- Fire throughout McCarthy's fiction
- Nature and “optical democracy”
- The meaning of the Judge's ledger
- Cycles of violence
- The historical Glanton Gang
- Is Blood Meridian nihilistic?
- Birds and recurring imagery
- The dancing bear
- What to watch for on a second reading
Find Steven: https://www.csub.edu/english/sfrye.shtml
On Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Steven-Frye/author/B001KHDZPE
Support Page Chewing on Patreon
Affiliate Links that support the show:
Audible Standard Free Trial: https://amzn.to/4z1iKns
Audible Standard Monthly Membership: https://amzn.to/3S6vadd
Kindle Unlimited Free Trial: https://amzn.to/4wqkYdD
Amazon Prime Free Trial: https://amzn.to/3UptxI9