Transcendence Within’s Reviews > Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West > Status Update

Read some of Harold Bloom's thoughts. The idea of this as "the final western" is interesting, but calling it nonpolitical seems weird. The book's about history and warfare, two inherently political topics.

McCarthy's style is so pervasive — sometimes to his credit, occasionally to his detriment, especially when it makes important plot events difficult to grasp.

I need to read an easy book next. I literally have to.

He seems interested in undoing a kind of sanitization of the bloody and murderous history of America that would have bloomed in the Reagan years. His prose is as hostile and bleak as the desert wasteland the outlaws trudge through. Judge Holden gets a lot of attention from the internet, which makes sense — it's rare for a character so gimmicky to work so well. McCarthy was good at that though (Chigurh comes to mind).

Leaving this at Massimo's dorm (may his name be forever cursed) took what little momentum I had out back and shot it. Sigh. Anyway — I appreciate this book, and even like it at times, it's just difficult for me to immerse myself in it. The water is too cold for me to bathe. I am so cracked at metaphors. I think the idea of being so explicitly violent in a very sanitized era of American history is pretty neat, though.

I think I would be way more into this if the vocabulary and prose McCarthy used wasn't so goddamn hard to follow. Maybe this is a skill issue, but the esotericity of his references make moments that should be taut and gripping very, very difficult to fully immerse oneself into. I'm still having a good time, though! Very interesting. We are violent creatures!!! Sad Judge Holden has been assimilated into 4chan culture.