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Questions tagged [blood-meridian]

"Blood Meridian" (1985), a Western novel by Cormac McCarthy. Use with the [cormac-mccarthy] tag.

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In "Blood Meridian", why does the gang so fiercely disagree with the specifics of the Judge's story about the harnessmaker?

In Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, after the Judge tells his story about the harnessmaker that killed the traveler, the gang all start objecting to different aspects of the story: Here the judge ...
GGMG-he-him's user avatar
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1 answer
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Why are the gang afraid of helping the Judge kill a horse for food?

There is a scene in Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian where the Judge needs someone to hold a horse (this is chapter XV, page 229 in my edition) while the Judge dispatches it so it may be eaten. The ex-...
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Primers in "Blood Meridian" — an unmentioned/overlooked detail?

This somewhat recapitulates my question about making gunpowder which was so brilliantly answered yesterday. Basically, my question is, given that the gang in Blood Meridian certainly had primers, ...
releseabe's user avatar
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Does "Blood Meridian" accurately describe gunpowder manufacture?

In Blood Meridian (1985), Cormac McCarthy has the gang of "Indian fighters" surrounded and out of powder, so one of them manages to make it from scratch, making charcoal from wood, saltpeter ...
releseabe's user avatar
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Truce of the burning tree -- how realistic?

Seems to me that in real life we have situations where predators suspend attacks -- best example I can think of is the "Cleaning Station" in the ocean: wrasses clean larger fish and everyone ...
releseabe's user avatar
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In Blood Meridian, why does the judge call out the kid as being different?

Toward the end of Blood Meridian, Judge Holden says a curious thing to the kid when the two are hunting each other in the desert: There's a flawed place in the fabric of your heart. Do you think I ...
Matt Thrower's user avatar
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8 votes
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What's the significance of The Idiot in Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian?

Toward the end of Blood Meridian, the gang encounters a man whose brother is so severely disabled that he is kept naked in a cage. Obviously, this character cannot speak and does not contribute to the ...
Matt Thrower's user avatar
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What is the purpose of the surrealist content in Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian?

The bleak violence of Blood Meridian is punctuated at intervals by various vignettes that have an air of surrealism, almost of black comedy. Some examples from memory include: The "buffones"...
Matt Thrower's user avatar
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1 vote
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Is Blevins in All the Pretty Horses the modern-day version of Blood Meridian's The Kid?

Both The Kid and Blevins are not evil but at the same time extremely dangerous young men (of roughly the same age) on their own due to the death of their fathers. It seems pretty likely that if ...
releseabe's user avatar
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Origin of "give a watermelon a pure fit" in "Blood Meridian"

On page 334 of Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian, Elrod responds to the man’s assertion that the ears on his scapular were taken from Apaches by saying that the “Apaches would give a watermelon a pure ...
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What is the meaning of the epilogue in Blood Meridian?

Cormac McCarthy is famously tight-lipped as to his own interpretations of his work. Nevertheless, there are some clear themes in his novel Blood Meridian: human propensity to violence and the efforts ...
Matt Thrower's user avatar
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