the judge making gunpowder wasnt supernatural, because brimstone (sulphur) is an ingredient in gunpowder. he just knows the chemistry

I think the real judge is the friendships we made along the way.

@yucatansuckaman5726

3 ай бұрын

😂

@aidanespinoza-smith871

2 ай бұрын

Nah Bro that's just the one piece ending😭😭😭

@superman9772

2 ай бұрын

the actual real events occurred south of yuma, arizona (that's my hometown) the gang was hired by the sonoran, mexico government to kill yaqui and apaches who had not submitted to the mexican government ...the river crossing was at that time part of mexico... the river crossing was run by a man named lincoln (a cousin of the future president) ... lincoln had written back home (kentucky) that he had gotten rich ($50,000 or about 2 million today) from the river ferry... the gang discovered this fact and took over the river crossing ferry and killed the quechuan people, who ran the competing ferry... the quechuan then massacred the gang... BUT the judge supposedly escaped the massacre with "lincoln's gold"... now , i did hunt for that gold from time to time... following hints, clues, and old timer's stories, i went from the swamp and sand of the colorado river to a small park near the bend of santa monica blvd in los angeles, to campo, ca, to valquez rocks (northeast of los angeles) to hi jolly's grave in quartzside and some places in between ... never found the gold but the story and description of judge holden was consistent ... it's my belief that his cruelty and gruesome actions affected the valquez gang that he reportedly rode with until their eventually demise in campo, ca (southeast of san diego)...the glanton massacre at yuma crossing had set off the yuma war which eventually bankrupt the state of california and caused several other massacres. notably the oatman massacre and the crabb expedition massacre...and the massacre of the cocopah people by the quechuan people.. it was a very gruesome time and wasn't "settled" until the ride of king woolsey and his arizona rangers (the infamous red sash gang/ cowboys from the o.k. corral shootout)... to this day, there is still flashes of gruesome acts in that area and thus it's not advisable to travel in some areas... some of the cultural spiritual rituals in that area still have very bloody and gruesome acts (and i've witnessed some of these acts)... there's a saying down there "you haven't cried enough tears for god to listen"... judge holden was a product of that environment and the description of his actions in the novel were consistent with the acts of other persons of that period... he was just one of many...

@Nabo42

2 ай бұрын

@@superman9772 Indeed.

@RandAlThor-ow1lq

Ай бұрын

Obviously man was the real judge

I’m from Nacogdoches, and I can truthfully say we’ve never had a goat rapist. That sounds much more like a Shelby County issue.

@Rewiretube

10 ай бұрын

Brutal

@JacobWoolf-sc9hc

9 ай бұрын

Lmfao. Panola county can verify this statement as fact. Fuck Shelby county.

@rickrose5377

9 ай бұрын

Tucumcari.

@Elwood_McCable

9 ай бұрын

Sounds like something somebody with an immoral fondness for goats might try to maintain.

@rickrose5377

9 ай бұрын

@@Elwood_McCable Immoral?

I hold Blood Meridian may work better as a mini series than a 2-3 hour movie

@jarnodatema

4 ай бұрын

Agreed

@HandsomeLongshanks

2 ай бұрын

​@cursed770 wendigoon has a 5 hour video summarizing and talking about the book. It would probably end up being a 10-12 part series if they kept everything.

@GeorgeRamsey22

2 ай бұрын

​@cursed770I took personal offense to that...

@GeorgeRamsey22

2 ай бұрын

All Gooners unite in defense of our king!

@Trve_Kvlt

2 ай бұрын

​@cursed770I've never seen a more incorrect statement in my entire life

There are two charecters in all off the books I've read that have really struck an deep interest in me. They are Judge Holden from BM and John Coffey from the green mile. I feel like they are representations of polar opposite spiritual forces.

@lionofapollo4636

11 ай бұрын

Lol

@ubt3606

10 ай бұрын

Lol

@theuno9799

10 ай бұрын

Lol

@bobthabuilda1525

10 ай бұрын

@@theuno9799I think this is a brilliant comment, actually. I had never thought about how these two characters were perfect mirror opposites

@palestalemale8831

10 ай бұрын

The showdown would be epic.

One strong argument for The Judge being Satan or Lucifer, not mentioned in Vile Eyes video, is the inscription on his gun, "Et in Arcadia ego": *In the garden I was there also.*

@majestyzx9081

9 ай бұрын

That and in his backstory introduction to the Glanton gang, how they met in a volcano and his description of creating gunpowder is a direct 1-1 reference to "Paradise Lost" Or the story of Satan's deception of humankind and the introduction of the ability to sin and to die upon humanity.

@Smoovesquid

4 ай бұрын

Last scene he says, “there can be only one beast”.

@bgilley8199

3 ай бұрын

I think it's made clear at the end with the dancing reference...dancing with the Devil indeed.

@keithcarpenter2563

28 күн бұрын

He’s introduced in the novel as Satan when he walks in and accuses the reverend

@NiarahHawthorne

18 күн бұрын

I have an alternative idea: he curates the image of being Satan, but is not Satan himself.

The point of the book has always touched upon the warlike nature of humanity. In many ways the book can be surmised in the Judge’s speech on war. Rather than being some embodiment of war or the devil, or a demon, the Judge is the embodiment of humanity’s worst traits; his love of war and violence, rape, and murder and his ability to do horrendous and despicable things (the rape and murder of children, cannibalism, etc). McCarthy is lamenting how those parts of humanity follows him wherever he goes, and doesn’t sleep (it happens all over the world every day) and it will never die out so long as humanity exists.

@Battleatchivamaugs

10 ай бұрын

Damn that's good! I originally was leaning more towards the judge being the devil, but this makes more sense

@Happyheartmatt

10 ай бұрын

@@Battleatchivamaugswouldn’t the devil as a construct be the same figure of representation in religion of human evil, not a supernatural being.

@janllh24

9 ай бұрын

Beware specious universalism, 'who' appoints themselves the judge of what's constitutive of 'humanity' in all its 'history', adjudicates what belongs strictly to history qua contingency, and to a supposed 'essence' that is the constant subject of the former ? Does something specific, eminently historical, conceal itself behind the mask of the universal?

@Ligierthegreensun

9 ай бұрын

@@janllh24 word salad masturbation might make you feel intellectual but in future could you just do it on your own rather than on a public forum?

@IIISWILIII

9 ай бұрын

​@@Ligierthegreensundoing their best Judge impression... quite well actually! 😂

i don’t think blood meridian would work as a movie, but i’ve always thought the most interesting way to adapt the book would be as a show. maybe 6-10 1 hour episodes, but the catch is every episode has different actors to sort of portray the different ways the characters are viewed by the readers. the one constant, however, would be the judge.

@IsaacV2001

11 ай бұрын

I’ve found myself thinking that I’d like to see certain scenes from the book adapted to a sketch, to see how the aesthetic plays out on screen. The scene that I always think of is “The kid and Shelby.” It has all of the workings of a story contained within, and enough stake and character to leave an impact after watching.

@BetoGames

10 ай бұрын

A comic book would be great

@crazychase98

9 ай бұрын

You do them as a bunch of pennydreadfuls with gothic horror element's and the constant would be judge holden and you call the shorts The judge

@joevanweedler

9 ай бұрын

cool idea with the different actors. i agree it shouldn't be a movie but several long episodes of a very detailed show. nothing cut, nothing softened or altered for TV. the book deserves that and nothing else would do it justice.

@sejredyr166

9 ай бұрын

This is such a good idea!!

One could argue that the Judge is a cosmic horror entity and represent the violence and cruelty of the universe. Like in the Cthulhu Mythos, the character Nyrolothotep who wonders the world in various guises and loves to manipulate mankind to create chaos, violence, and war, because he sees Humanity as his plaything and enjoys the chaos that he brings into the hearts of men.

@BNK2442

10 ай бұрын

I love how McCarthy was able to create the feeling the Judge is other than human without at any moment showing he doing nothing explicit supernatural.

@mattevanswastaken

10 ай бұрын

@BNK2442 Yeah it's almost as if his mastery of all skills and knowledge could only be acquired by man who has lived forever. That is the proof provided that backs up the statement that he never sleeps and never dies.

@brennancarter7721

10 ай бұрын

There is a lot of speculation that the Judge is based predominantly on Gnostic Archons. If you look into it it’s really fascinating.

@VidaBlue317

10 ай бұрын

Being the brightest among The Judge's crowd is like being the smartest kid who rides the short bus. EDIT: I wonder how The Judge would fare among the literate - he'd have to adjust his tactics.

@malvo5190

10 ай бұрын

Reminds me of Lorne Malvo from Fargo

My favorite part of the book is when they ask “What do you want to be when you grow up Holden?” And replies “the catcher in the rye” 😊

@SenkaBandit

2 ай бұрын

Beautiful

I'm convinced Judge Holden survived into the 21st century and reappeared under the alias "Sundowner" in Metal Gear Rising

@Rewiretube

9 ай бұрын

Hideo Kojima almost certainly loves Blood Meridian, right?

@happymaskedguy1943

4 ай бұрын

How to go from high art to tacky trash in one step.

@TheRealMakotoYuki675

3 ай бұрын

@@happymaskedguy1943you saying metal gear sucks?

@pigeonhunter7909

3 ай бұрын

He does have very striking similarties to the Judge, now that I think about it.

@SebastiansSebastian-fc4pj

3 ай бұрын

From war loving.. to a tall guy with no hair thats obviously insane Dealing with kids.. yeah hes the judge

I just finished this novel. Throughout the book, the way Judge is described at various parts - giant, nude, hairless, imposing, dominant etc. - strikes me as being representative rather than any actual individual. Like an infant US, or the spirit of a massive, powerful cherub, unaware and uncaring of its power or even a sense of its evil as the gang (perhaps representing Eminent Domain and expansion) destructively rolls through the West. Judge is the Kid's own tortured conscience, randomly and oddly appearing (as when Kid is in jail awaiting is own hanging). We know he's following the kid, and the kid had opportunity to kill Judge, but didn't. Instead, the Kid was able to temporarily expunge the imagery, guilt, shame, self-loathing during his twenties and thirties, only to later return when Kid is the Man. I'm thinking this is the conscience and revisiting of his (Man's) own evil and horrible doings. The dance is the madness roiling in the Man's thoughts as he revisits his awful sins, culminating in the Man violently ending his horror by killing himself in the outhouse. In fact, maybe The Kid, himself, is representative of the adolescent country, and its revisiting its own horrible past as it becomes the middle aged adult.

@brennancarter7721

10 ай бұрын

Brilliant analysis, you made me think.

@BuenoMcgurski

10 ай бұрын

I like the one

@Happyheartmatt

10 ай бұрын

Great insight

@richardbuckley1232

9 ай бұрын

This is a great reading, but there is a solid hint that the Judge rapes the Man in the outhouse before he murders him. Any thought on this in your reading?

@samhainabyss

9 ай бұрын

definitely the embodiment of “the state”, maybe kind of like mr world in american gods?

Can we just stop and admit that the portrait of Judge Holden in the thumbnail is one of _the_ most terrifying works of fan art in history? Yes yes, there's tons of fan art that make our eyes bleed and venture into the realms of the literally unspeakable, but that particular painting conveys all the nihilism, brutality and lawlessness of the novel. Like every curve, contour, angle, shade and stroke in that portrait echoes the inhumanity of _Blood Meridian._ And that _FACE..._

@Rewiretube

5 ай бұрын

That was the thing that got me to read the book. Someone on Reddit was talking about scary literary villains, and shared that picture. I was like WELL I guess I’m reading this

Obviously, The Old West nurtured a lot of legends. A renegade so-called "judge" would fit right in. Roy Bean was a real guy and whose life was the stuff of folklore. Thanks, Re:wire.

The judge is dancing...and he will never die

In my humble opinion the book just tells you who the judge really is, in the very beginning when he first steps into that tent.

He's like that supervillain mutant from the X-men, Apocalypse. Believed to be the first mutant, who also stood 7 ft tall, he lived throughout different ages of human history, acquiring a vast and superior knowledge on all things, and inciting wars and pestilence where ever he went. In fact, in one of the passages, McCarthy did indeed defined Judge Holden as a "mutant". "In that sleep and in sleeps to follow the judge did visit. Who would come other? A great shambling mutant, silent and serene." Both characters appeared at around the same time. I wonder if the creation of the comic book character was inspired by McCarthy's Blood Meridian character.

@Rewiretube

10 ай бұрын

Funnily enough, Apocalypse debuted in 1986, only a year after Blood Meridian!

@metsrus

10 ай бұрын

@mugetszangetsjushou I really like how eerily similar their lines are too. Judge Holden: Whatever in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent. Apocalypse: There exists no freedom from me. There is only freedom through me.

I think he's just a sociopath with a genius level intelligence, probably has PTSD from being an officer during the Texas revolution. But is so self aware that he knows all this about himself and just decides to revel in the same trauma and violence that created him believing himself to be the better man simply because he's honest about himself and the nature of man

@goodlife1581

8 ай бұрын

Ya I agree

@ThievesInTheTreasureRoom

5 ай бұрын

No

@MrCmon113

17 күн бұрын

Probably quite intelligent, but you can fool people into believing that you're much smarter than you are. Especially if you have no problems with grandiose lies. I've met people like that and they made quite an impression.

Judge holden is one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse:war

I think the war parallel is not only in the fact that he admires it, but in the way he describes it: The ultimate trade (which was always there) waiting for his ultimate practitioner. Directly mirroring the Judge waiting for the outlaws, he was always there, just waiting to join them.

i love the part when judge holden says, "i'm a complicated and otherworldly figure, and also, i am a terrifying advisary"

I remember reading/hearing somewhere that in the 1800’s the term used to describe the Judge meant that he was clean shaven, not completely hairless, but please correct me if I am wrong. I was always always under the assumption that the real Holden just didn’t have facial hair, and that was considered notable for the time

@saintroddy

5 ай бұрын

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judge_Holden#/media/File%3AJudge_Holden_Chamberlain.webp You're right. Samuel Chamberlain provides an illustration of the real Judge Holden and he does have hair on his head. Cormac McCarthy took that description to its logical extreme to enhance the character's unnatural, uncanny appearance.

"It's judging time" has to be his best quote during the Cavalry ambush

Personally, I feel like the Judge is the embodiment of the evil of man. This is evident by his love for war and the atrocities he commits throughout the book. Even the supernatural aspects of his character fit with this.

You could say the judge is in the same category as Gunter O’ Dimm from the Witcher series. Entities beyond our understanding, as Gunter makes deals and collects souls while the judge documents events like a scribe

I enjoyed this video. I agree with your take on the novel. Blood Meridian was a compelling book, but I'm not sure I would ever be comfortable giving the book an unqualified recommendation. The final lines about Holden fiddling and dancing really do stick with you. I wonder if it would seem cheesy to someone who hasn't read the entire novel, but when you've gone through the journey it is a chilling ending.

Great video guys, very interesting.

I like to think that the Judge was a part of each of the Glantin gang. Each carried a piece of the monster. Thus his immortality. He lives on through the evil that men do. He is the “war” waiting for mankind from the beginning.

I think that The Judge represents the spirit of manifest destiny. The end justifies the means, absolving all participating from moral responsibility. It doesn’t matter who dies, as long as we accomplish our goal. The Judge represents the American Spirit, even the American Dream, during the days of American conquest. I should say during the early days of American Conquest. Back when we carried out acts of genocide and other fun things like that.

@joppejohn

10 ай бұрын

I thought the same thing when i read it! I think its certainly a valid Reading of Holden, this seems overlooked alot, the book really kills the entire Idea that the settling of america was benevolent and civilized in the slightest.

@willywonka7812

9 ай бұрын

​@@bobdollaz3391 you sound like a fascist, but i wouldn't be the first to point that out

@willywonka7812

9 ай бұрын

@@mstone-wd7kc I recognise fash, based on their talking points

@willywonka7812

9 ай бұрын

@@mstone-wd7kc bobdollaz is nowhere near as overt as you, however

@sejredyr166

9 ай бұрын

His accumulation and destruction of knowledge also points to this.

Blood Meridian in my favorite book of all time. I struggled with the book for the first 40 or 50 pages, getting used to McCarthy's weird writing style...and then it just "Clicked" and I couldn't put the goddamn thing down. Read the book in two days....I wish I could somehow capture that flood of emotions and awe and puzzlement I had after just finishing the book. After going online and reading voraciously other peoples review of the book, I then did something I had never done before or since. I turned to page 1 of BM and read the entire book again. Even after reading the book 5 times now, I still am confused about what the hell it all means...I also flip flop on my interpretation of who or what Judge Holden was...From being just a very, very bad man...to being maybe the Devil himself. I've kind of settled with the fact that Holden is a representation of the evil of mankind....a personification of Manifest Destiny.....What it takes to conquer a wild, savage land. I live in the southwest and BM captures my imagination and also it terrifies me that just a few lifetimes ago, this was a very, very dangerous place to live, and If I were alone, the chances of me surviving would probably be pretty slim...and my bones would of joined the countless other souls that died here over the thousands of years humans have lived in this beautiful but dangerous land. Christ, I want to read the damn book again.

Maybe the real Judge Holden were the friends we made along the way

I think Dan's drone shots really add a lot to this one

@Rewiretube

Жыл бұрын

I think Jake's graphics really add a lot to this one.

@headwhop26

Жыл бұрын

Thumbs down 👎

I finished this book about a week back and I felt the main truth of the story was that anything is possible in life which when taking into account all the horrid things that happen in the book is actually quite scary and maybe the judge embodies that feeling.

Another banger of a video guys.

@Rewiretube

Жыл бұрын

Thanks!

I've read the book a few times and my subjective opinion is that The Judge represents fate itself. The Judge himself is not evil. The Judge essentially holds up a mirror (figuratively speaking) to each of the characters to show them their own evil deeds. The Judge knows everything because he knows what's in the heart of each character and knows all of their thoughts and actions as if he is a projection of their own consciousness. By the time the Kid becomes the Man, he had spent his life outrunning the Judge (his own fate) by literally constantly moving and with half-hearted attempts to preach to others and atone for his actions. He had several chances to kill the Judge and never did. Why? You can't kill him because you cannot escape your fate. To kill the Judge in the story would have been symbolic of the Kid/Man literally getting away with all the stuff he did with that gang, which would have defeated the purpose of the story. The Judge himself is no more evil than any of the other characters in the Glanton Gang. He never forced them into doing anything. They all ultimately chose to do evil things and they were all "judged" for it appropriately. Their fates suited their deeds. I never saw Holden as a literal character. I don't necessarily think he was a hallucination, but he was fate manifested as a representation of the collective consciousness of the characters in the book, especially the Glanton Gang and even more especially the Kid/Man. Those are my 2 cents.

@veganmagick7251

9 ай бұрын

Doesn't explain the missing children...he was definitely evil...fate wouldn't be so one sided if that were the case

@stevewilson9778

9 ай бұрын

@veganmagick7251 I need to read the book again. Does it literally say that the Judge was responsible for the missing children or was it an allusion? If it was alluded to then it might not be so cut and dry. Know what I mean? I'd also like to add that from the reader's POV, the missing children indicates the "evil" nature of the Judge only if the reader has a strong moral compass and a general sense of humanity and sense of the difference between good and evil as a basic concept. As in, all readers would feel that way. However, from the Judge's POV, war is necessary. Everything that takes place in the story is necessary, including all atrocious acts. The men themselves do evil things but were duped into doing so under the guise created by the government that what they were doing was for the good of the nation. The fact that the Judge himself is indifferent to all of this does not necessarily suggest that he is evil, but that he may even transcend the human notion of good and evil, much like fate itself. Fate itself cannot be evil because if it was, then why would evil things happen to those missing children? (That's a rhetorical question, btw.) It's also important to note that I use the term "fate," which is a synonym of "destiny." The book itself mentions manifest destiny.

@therealmanguyman

5 ай бұрын

@@stevewilson9778 He isn't neutral or indifferent. In fact, he seems to petty, maybe even really petty. He says that he hates that birds have freedom. If he had control, he would just pluck their wings off and put them in a zoo. He doesn't ever directly kill somebody who is stronger than him or equal to him in every sense, right? I haven't read the actual book I have just seen stuff about it.

@stevewilson9778

5 ай бұрын

@hobby4340 yeah I hear you. I might be thinking too much into it and projecting my own point of view onto the character. I'd like to hear from McCarthy himself in regards to the Holden character. There's too much going on in this story. All the ideas presented basically pre-date language itself. On top of that, he's using language that has gone extinct. I've only read the book twice and it was easier the second time around. However, for a book that's (roughly) 400 pages (can't remember the exact page count), it reads like a book that's over 1000 pages. Regardless of whether Holden is truly evil or not, I still have a hard time seeing him as a literal character. I wonder whether he was there physically or whether he was a figment of the characters' imagination? A manifestation of the collective conscience of the events in the story. I'll eventually read the book again when I'm up to it lol. Anyone else have any thoughts? Just seems like even though McCarthy isn't really being vague in his writing, there's something I'm missing. I watched some recorded University lecture that was posted on KZread that caused me to read it a second time because I had realized I misinterpreted quite a bit of it LOLOL.

@lmenzol

4 ай бұрын

Such a dumb take…

nice work👍

Great video

@Rewiretube

7 ай бұрын

Thanks, Ed!

Cormac really loves creating the most horrific antagonists around doesn’t he? If Judge even got on film it he would stand right beside Cornac’s other nightmare inducing Anton.

I dont want a movie because i feel it wouldnt be done right or theyd change way too much for "modern" audiences. I DO want a graphic novel on blood Merididan that gives us a taste of what some of these iconic people and scenes would look like

A very grim and bleak reading can see Judge Holden as the Id in all of us. As Tobin and the kid began to realize his cold charisma and reason seems to grow over a person the way our best wishes seem to fade with time. His myth almost make him not a man but a of immortality spirit the washes over every man.

An adaptation of Blood Meridian would be insane for Tarantino's last film

@aaronl221

8 ай бұрын

Respectfully I do not think Tarantino should be entrusted to make a film adaptation of Blood Meridian

@Trenz0

8 ай бұрын

​@@aaronl221to be fair who would?

@Zionswasd

4 ай бұрын

​@@Trenz0 coen brothers could do it, but not in one movie, it would take a 10 part series or something

@kthxpls

Ай бұрын

@@Zionswasd Something like this would never work or have the original material respected, since every single modern movie and tv show, are basically leftists political agendas full of forced representation of groups of people, I would never watch Blood Meridian if it made today.

I do find it strange that Holden was an extremely well educated man, yet only known by an alias. A very peculiar case and an ink blot in history

So guys, Whatever in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent.

@Rewiretube

3 ай бұрын

Hey, Judge! Big fans.

@JudgeFromBloodMeridian

3 ай бұрын

@@Rewiretube "whoever avoids evil, enters into fear itself" "those who have no inner demons are one themselves" "whoever fears the devil has the fear of their own weakness" "what evil feared is truth"

I think a film adaptation of this novel is impossible. To truly capture what the early days of colonizing the American West were like would be far too violent (physically, sexually, or mentally,) for even an R rating.

@bruderschweigen6889

9 ай бұрын

No its not

@nomdeplume5446

9 ай бұрын

@@bruderschweigen6889 yes it is

@PrinceAliTheGreatest

7 ай бұрын

The violence isn’t the issue… The Boys TV series has an incalculable amount of violence & gore, both sexual & physical. (Probably) even more gore than Blood Meridian. But pretty much what makes it ACTUALLY difficult for an adaption too be made is it’s philosophical elements.

@Aryan-qv5qk

3 ай бұрын

@@PrinceAliTheGreatest also child rape stuff might be hard to adapt

If a proper film is made of this monumental book, it must be a work of art in it's own right, separate from, but relative to, the book. That is the real challenge of adapting this work.

In my opinion he was a dark djinn or a lovecraftian style old god .

idk if Jesse Ventura can actually act but for some reason I think he would make a good Judge in film.

@yucatansuckaman5726

8 ай бұрын

I can hear the voice I agree.

Did McCarthy read Lovecraft? If so I suggest the Judge is an avatar of Nyarlathotep.

@Annihilation_Studios

2 ай бұрын

In my opinion. The book has absolutely no references to Lovecraftian legend or theming. So having Cormac McCarthy suddenly whip out the Lovecraft card on us seems a little... Unlikely

Always felt the Judge was a Djinn/Jinn. He was placed in the way of the Glanton gang to destroy and hold them accountable for their bloodlust. Not an original theory, but the one that makes the one that makes the most sense to me. Thanks for the great video.

@grimtea1715

10 ай бұрын

I think he gets compared to one when the fortune teller is telling the gang their fortunes

@publiusventidiusbassus1232

9 ай бұрын

I fundamentally reject the idea that the Judge's existance is tied to any sort of morality system, or that he's some form of "punishment". Holden is the deepest and most insidious avatar of darkness, and exists and does as he does for his own amusement.

@tokebak4291

9 ай бұрын

@@publiusventidiusbassus1232 You should read to book.

@final_animal

9 ай бұрын

He saved their lives by appearing and both enabled and encouraged them to commit their worst acts of violence. They would have all died before they even got started if the judge hadn't rescued them in the desert.

One might say the Judge’s "faith" is based in war and science. Perhaps it is better to view the Judge more as an embodiment than a supernatural entity, although elements of both certainty do apply. Great content and analysis, by the way

@johndread1724

9 ай бұрын

The judge seems to me to be an embodiment of modern war, obsessed with control and intrinsically intertwined with - and corrupting of - science.

@johndread1724

9 ай бұрын

There's a reason it's set in the old West, smack dab in the midst of the industrial - and a scientific - revolution, and the start of mankind's systematic destruction of nature and themselves.

Not a real-life model but I suspect that Kurtz from Heart of Darkness might be a literary progenitor for Holden. Obviously Kurtz doesn't have Holden's physicality but both are hairless and deathly pale- the whitest of white men. Both are impeccably intelligent, cultured and charismatic while also being astonishingly violent and cruel. Both believe themselves to be something more than human and beyond morality. Holden indeed might not be human but Kurtz (spoiler alert for a 124 year old novel) dies saying 'the horror, the horror' suggesting he might have realised what he had become. I also think both novels share a similar central them- civilization is just a veneer and people can become monsters if the circumstances dictate.

@headwhop26

10 ай бұрын

I used to teach Heart of Darkness! Love this comp

I'm aware a film adaptation is underway. I would have liked to have seen how the late Sam Peckingpaw would have adapted this work to the screen.

I do believe to some degree the real judge holden was some sort of blip in history. A real case of an entity or something else walking the esrth, if only for a time.

@princetchalla2441

10 ай бұрын

The scariest thing to me is that just about every man has the potential to become as well rounded as the judge. People who become polyglots, military training, and learning tricks from others around them seem almost mystical. And yet they walk among us every day. The only difference between Judge Holden and some of these renaissance men is their capacity for violence and refusal to act on those impulses. Not all well educated men are that benevolent though, and that’s why I see Judge Holden almost like a warning. The kid didn’t have it in him to kill the judge even if his own life depended on it, yet he is willing to be a passive observer at best or am implied accomplice to these acts of evil done unto others. We cannot turn a blind eye to the wicked people and their acts, and we must better ourselves to better deal with people as talented and malicious as the judge.

@RecordedMercury

10 ай бұрын

@@princetchalla2441 I agree 100%. Though I do find it strange that the real Holden was just as educated, but there's no records of him. None that have survived anyway. Despite him being "one of the most educated man in Texas" there's no historical information on him. Very creepy indeed.

@joshuabryk4316

3 ай бұрын

It was most likely this guy en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Wilkins_Webber who used the pseudonym “Holden” but we don’t know for sure

Dee Brown published Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee in 1970. In graphic detail, it outlines the atrocities the US Government and States did to the various Native American tribes as a part of westward migration in the mid 1800's, including bounties issued for scalps and the scalp hunting that occured. I've thought for years that McCarthy may have fictionalized details from Browns novel for Blood Meridian. You might check it out. It's an excellent read.

@Rewiretube

9 ай бұрын

Go check out our video on the Sand Creek Massacre. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee was the book that began our research into Sand Creek! If you like Dee Brown’s work, check out Heartbeat of Wounded Knee- it picks up where Bury My Heart leaves off.

@publiusventidiusbassus1232

9 ай бұрын

I don't know, while the atrocities against Natives are a regular theme in the book and McCarthy's work, I don't think McCarthy chose this setting it as some form of literary activism or for socio-political moralist commentary. He's very brutally honest about not only the savagery of "civilized societies" like the expanding US or Mexico, but he completely stripped any sense of romance from the Natives too. The roaming tribe from the first arc of the book is pretty much characterized like a giant plague of locusts, seeding destruction and ruin wherever they go; it makes it very clear that the US and Mexican authorities aren't singling them out of imperialist alarmism, they are a very real, and a very evil force themselves. I think this period perfectly encapsulates Blood Meridian's motif of the perpetual self-sustaining war within mankind. The Comanches feel entitled to commit unspeakable horrors against American and Mexican settlers not only out of the deep resentment from the occupation of their lands, but also out of their own celebration of brutality from their war-like cultural values. In part, this causes the "settled" societies to seek increasingly destructive punitive campaigns, emboldened by their own sense of moral indignation against what they see as inhuman barbarians, and the value they put in their "world-building" endeavors over basic human dignity. The act of scalp-taking is directly adopted from the Natives, for example, and is a regular image throughout the narrative. Its the theme of ciclical cruelty. Holden's speech about societies that build vs societes that don't, in my opinion, drives home the idea that their age is not one to be measured in morality, but simply circumstance, as the period is not, in fact, particularly dark in the long history of humanity's black deeds. The Natives aren't displaced because they're inherently inferior, nor are the settlers able to expand ruthlessly because they're uniquely evil. It is a matter of resources and fate, which is as changing as the wind. Wether it is tribes or empires, the horrors remain the same.

@Rewiretube

9 ай бұрын

Good analysis

The Judge is very obviously Satan. That whole gunpowder scene is a reference to Satan making gunpowder in Paradise Lost. This in addition to The Vile Eye’s arguments makes it undeniable.

8:36, I don’t think the judge was draped in another man’s clothing, he was draped in meat. I’ve read this book over 20 times, it is one of my all time favorites. Thanks for the video!

Blood Meridian is an unbelievable read. Absolutely mindbending.

took me 10 whole mins to realize they were two different dudes

Given the author's name, i can't help but think Holden was partly inspired by irish myth. He's similar to an incarnation of one of the Irish war goddesses. They pop up in random places throughout the mythology. They usually have strange abilities and a strange appearance and they're always starting wars or causing calamity.

The first name which comes to mind when describing a film director, who can create the appearance that Judge Holden is standing there right behind you in the theatre while you are watching the film, is Christopher Nolan. Nolan is the master of producing realistic villains. Nolan might protest, stressing that the Joker is the most realistic villain he has ever created and then asking why repeat it. Christopher Nolan could direct the series. If the decision is made to produce a full feature length movie, then Nolan might have to make a series of films based on the book.

He’s just a fallout character on their 5th play through

@Rewiretube

2 ай бұрын

“I think I’m gonna play an evil character this time. Speech at max”

Highly recommended IMO - I had the opportunity to teach this ten-ish years ago with a very cool Junior AP class (couldn't get away with it nowadays) and that was 100% the most fun class I ever taught. The novel is just so ... horrific, and while it's fiction, it reads true to the realities of the old West. I heard there's a movie in the works, which of course I'll have to see in the theater just to see how badly they botch it - Where's the Coen Bros when you need 'em? :)

@Rewiretube

10 ай бұрын

You got to teach this?! So jealous

@ahsuser

10 ай бұрын

@@Rewiretube I had five kids from my Sem 1honors Eng 11 that signed up for AP, before the local community college made it irrelevant with college 111 & 112. I had to buy the books myself, but it was a worthy investment. The class is still out there somewhere on blogspot (which has since been blocked by our school (??)). I still read BM about once a year, right along with 'Child of God.' I guess I'm a fan of Cormac's darker works, with the exception of 'The Road,' which I read once then a second time just to make sure the Zoloft was still working ...

26:38 This would explain the "tantric conditional immortality" attempted with those "husks", that is, the yeeted "gentile" offspring. IF this is in fact the guy.

The more I read BM the more I think the judge is some avatar or otherwise representation of war itself. In the two of instances u cite, he is described as basically waiting for the Glanton Gang to show up and later when he talks about war he says before man was, war waited for him. The ultimate practitioner for this ultimate practice. The gang are the literal men war waited for. Far as the movie goes, I think it would make a better limited series. A movie would be too short.

i really enjoy his form as the devil in this book. maybe not literally, but the amount of references is absurd

Harold Bloom said, "I sometimes think the Judge is immortal"

5:50 iirc, he used bat guano too, which containes potassium-nitrate, a vital component of gunpowder.

He is the most evil character I have ever encountered in any story. Great video!! Thank you :)

The judge was written about so we could have knowledge of him. Now he has our consent MindBLOWN

Reminds me of Wolf Larsen from Jack London’s The Sea Wolf

Cormac said himself that making a film adaptation is possible. It just requires “balls”. I imagine if a film adaptation was to manifest, it would resemble something like the adaptation of the novel “Naked Lunch” (1959) by William S. Burroughs. The novel was often said to be impossible to film. However in 1991 David Cronenberg managed to pull of the impossible. The film has many aspects of the book itself, and in it’s own right, is just as bizarre, grotesque and intriguing. However, the original work has basically no structured narrative, and is almost a collection of surreal, perverse, and thought provoking scenes loosely based around a few recurring characters. With some confidence from studio executives, a strange mind for the genre of science fiction and horror, and definitely some “balls”, Cronenberg was able to pull off a masterful re-imagination of the story to which the original author, Burroughs (who was often critical of everything) actually approved of. The film is one of my favorites of all time, and aside from David Cronenburgs 1982 masterwork “Videodrome”, the film may be his Magnum Opus.

@Rewiretube

10 ай бұрын

I love Videodrome

@BuenoMcgurski

9 ай бұрын

@@Rewiretube When Max kills Barry Convex and then jumps on stage and shouts at the audience “Death to Videodrome! Long live the New Flesh!”, as if anyone knows what he is talking about.

As they say he represented the “evil of those days”. I’d say he’s a mix of all these cool filabuster guys you named mixed with evil stuff that inevitably always happens in war and with humanity.

"Pleased to meet you. Hope you guess my name."

I personally think a good Blood Meridian movie is possible, however, the problem is that in order to make said good movie you cannot pull any punches with it. The violence and depravity is a core aspect to the book and considering how things are with the media these days, I just can't see anyone allowing it to be made without a lot of interference being involved and essentially worsening the movie.

I think McCarthy was going for a more Anne Rice Memnoch thing ? trying to paint a visiting lucifer in a more contrarian light ? Have you ever read the Ian Layman savage book? It features jack the ripper himself stowing on a boat and infiltrating a Indian scalping tribe 🤣you gotta read it to believe it, nice vid, great channel (the ripper murders happened in 1888, maybe holden nipped over?)

A book about a book. Notes on Blood Meridian by John Sepich. A true companion to McCarthy’s grizzly novel. Chamberlain apparently rode with him. He is still dancing, I have no doubt.

@Rewiretube

9 ай бұрын

We used some sections of Notes on Blood Meridian (the stuff we could find online) for researching this video!

@kgilliagorilla2761

9 ай бұрын

@@Rewiretube Going into BM knowing it’s historic fiction, and then researching and finding facts in the fiction is chilling. I’ve re read BM several times, translated the Spanish, looked up the fauna, the towns, the trails. Read about the ferry massacre, the indigenous peoples, and what was happening in the country in those times. After all that what really stuck was when Holden said, “ War was always here waiting for us.” Like I said, chilling.

I’m not sure why, but the Judge always read like an extremely nihilistic vision of the Old Testament God to me

Nice Deathchant shirt, cool vid.

@Rewiretube

Ай бұрын

Deathchant rules

I think you misread the passage by chamberlain talking about holden, concerning being "hairless" alot of people seem to misinterpret this. "a dull tallow colored face destitute of hair and all expression." He is talking specifically about facial hair, this sentence is about his face, he isn't saying he is bald or has alopecia or something. You can even see in the picture chamberlain himself drew of Judge holden he is depicted with a full head of hair and no facial hair. So that is not a mark against Webber at all. He was known to go by pseudonyms and "change identities" with some even suggesting he didn't actually die in Nicaragua and continued to publish under pseudonyms after his supposed death. If you are interested in this topic I think you should actually read chamberlains book, it has a bit more on holden than just those 3 paragraphs, including some more stuff Mccarthy used directly in blood meridian such as: "Holden's lecture no doubt was very learned, but hardly true, for one statement he made was “that millions of years had witnessed the operation producing the result around us,” which Glanton with recollections of the Bible teaching his young mind had undergone said 'was a damd lie.'" ( this also is probably a point in favor of it being Webber, as the idea of the earth being more than 6000 years old at the time was not common at all unless quite invested in academics) It's a good read either way End of the day we really never will know barring some crazy new discovery.

I don't know who the Judge was historically, but the character seems to fit the pattern of the blood sorcerer's tradition that goes back for thousands of years in Mesoamerica.

I think it would be a great mini-series released to streaming. Maybe two ten episode seasons.

Saltpeter, charcoal, and sulfur make gunpowder. Brimstone is a fancy word for sulfur and saltpeter is potassium nitrate which you could (possibly) get from pee and charcoal from the oven he made, he just made really crude black powder

I couldn't finish just listening to it. I feel one would have to be a sociopath in order to finish this book without difficulty. The inhumanity of humanity is actually a very human thing to be; God save us. Thank you for this.

The most likely candidate for the judge is actually me

i think a blood meridian inspired screenplay with experimental story telling beats like in pulp fiction would be a mild success. but a full on adaptation would be something not a lot oof people could stomach. maybe one day there will be a blood meridian illustrated movie, or video game, but its too niche and too graphic for a block buster.

He embodies the corporate soul

"It's light on plot" *proceeds to discuss an abridged version of the plot for nearly half an hour * Okey dokey

@headwhop26

10 ай бұрын

I mean, Ulysses is “a book about a guy who takes a walk” and it’s 900 pages

It would make sense that the Judge's real identity would have hair and a beard. He'd shave it all off before going on a tour where he intended on living off the rails, commiting unspeakable acts. Shaving would go hand-in-hand with his alternate name. Having a second identity would make it easier to return to his normal, civil life, guilt-free; it wasn't "me" who did those things, it was the Judge.

Any sort of theatrical adaptation of blood Meridian would have to be done in an animated probably with heavy comic book influence style so you could express the violence without endorsing it or fetishizing it

I thought that the Judge was a personification of the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse. A pale rider on a pale horse (death)with an affinity with chaos and violence(war). He doesn’t need to eat either (famine). The only one that is left is Pestilence. Him being the Devil also makes sense, not gonna lie.

I don't think the Judge is intended to symbolize any one particular thing. The closest single things you could compare him to would be chaos or entropy but you could even argue against that given his fascination with order and control. He is at times one of the horsemen of the apocalypse, at others the devil himself. At others yet he is the negative aspects of the human spirit, those things that create war and strife among people and that seem to endure indefinitely. He is beyond comprehension, beyond being conquered and beyond being bargained with. The Judge is an effective villain because he is a symbol of all kinds of evils of man, not just any given one. Much like Anton in McCarthy's other work No Country for Old Men. Anton and the Judge aren't symbols of some descript and particular evil but rather nonspecific symbols for the evils of man. Anton in the latter book is also an incomprehensible evil with a strange propensity for justice and order and even principle in particular as the man hired to hunt him down says explicitly to Llewellyn when trying to convince him to quit running and to work with him. McCarthy is an expert in formulating villains because his villains are almost biblical or folkloric in nature. They speak to throughlines throughout human history that parallel parables and religions and stories told by shamans around campfires. Evil that can be understood is not nearly as frightening as evil that evades all human comprehension. And there is always evil and destruction that could rear it's head at any time and often times it's evil you have never experienced and could never have prepared for. Blood Meridian seems to me to be an exploration of the idea of evil enduring and being unstoppable, of it changing just as soon as man begins to consider it conquered. No Country for Old Men is an exploration of how to cope with KNOWING that evil endures and is unstoppable and coming to grips with it not being your personal responsibility to stop all of it because some of it cannot be stopped. Of course those are not all encompassing summaries and I'd encourage anyone who can stomach it to read both and maybe also The Road for good measure which is probably the most hopeful of the bunch.

I got audio whiplash from this

I disagree that there is no other character like the Judge. Stephen Kings man in black, Randall Flag seems to be made from the same archetype. But i will give you its a very interesting archetype that i would be interested in seeing in more stories.

All the descriptions of it, such as from your intro, reminds me of the Watchmen. Its written as incredibly violent and racist with digressions in the plot whose meaning is very Elusive. It reads like a hyper violent, realistic (for a comic) version of the superhero comics. Also, everyone warns theyre both not adaptable to film. But they insist on trying because money.

@Rewiretube

10 ай бұрын

That’s a great point. It always seems like adaptions of Alan Moore works are ill-advised because they never maintain the core ideas of them

@cajunguy6502

10 ай бұрын

@@Rewiretube exactly! It would be hard to adapt because in the books there are so many things than need to be inferred personally. It's one of those "holds a mirror up to you soul" kind of stories. Another KZreadr (forget who) used the example that the book never explicitly stated the kids role in the egregious acts, so the onus is on the reader to determine the kids reactions to these incidents. And seeing as the kid is the closest thing to an audience surrogate, it may make for some interesting introspection. I honestly didn't even notice that until the KZreadr said that, it's one of those things where your id fills in the blanks for you. But these things would all be ruined in a visual medium. It would take the interpretation away, or at least heavily bias how you interpret it. I keep hearing talk of trying to adapt house of leaves too. That thought is more disturbing than the book itself 😂

I'd say the judge is at least representing the human shadowself. He doesn't just do bad things, he's wildly and almost admirably talented. Some of the most talented and capable people you meet built there skills for the pursuit of their own means. The judge is a great speaker, but so are most narcissist. He talks grand ideas of knowing everything, but he doesn't sound too different from the kind of guy who sells you the "work hard and be positive" message while doing roids and taking percs behind the scenes. The fiddle playing could be representative of the devil, but that hammers home him being "devilish" and not the literal devil. He will never die because you cant beat these things, but he killed holden the way men who live violently tend to be killed in that life by their refusal to change. The kid could have lived but he didn't accept The Judges truth. He didn't have to succumb to it but just like the dark side of humanity, if you try to fight it and dont acknowledge it, it will eventually get you caught up.

The problem with the phrase hairless is that it doesn’t mean what you seem to attribute it to the phrase hairless simply back, then meant without a beard, and you can tell because in Chamberlain’s account he has a drawing of the judge, lecturing people on geography, and he appears to have a full head of hair just no beard

Blood Meridian was one of the worst books I've ever read but the only book I can't stop thinking about.

Blood Meridian could work as a game far better than as a movie.

They mined guano too no!? In the black powder scene

I think it could be made into a film or miniseries, it would just have to be by a master director. Much of the novel is already extremely cinematic, the sparse dialogue would transfer well, but the biblical nature of the story would have to be done purely through formal techniques. Chantal Ackerman has proven the adaptation of a very difficult novels themes can be done purely through formal techniques in her fantastic adaptation of Proust. The only problem is there are not that many directors of Ackerman's calibre and I think it would have to be done by someone who is legitimately one of the greatest directors of all time.