That scene at the end where Holden is playing the violin is great. The judge, the most evil thing McCarthy ever created, plays music, and is good at it, he even feels the rapturous glee of artistic fulfillment as he plays in front of an adoring audience. He is not, in fact, a hollow man, not a demon that will be under your power if you learn his name. He is human, he is doing what he is best at, and reaps the rewards.
McCarthy was very focused on trying to capture and name “evil,” and I think with that scene something made sense to me, maybe to him. Evil thrives when you feed it, when you incentivize it. Judge Holden might have wound up being a musician in another world, and never have hurt a fly. But there’s a market for evil in Blood Meridian, and Holden discovered at some point that he could provide.
this is an interesting reading but i would disagree (to a certain amount) with it - the last scene isn’t about the judge’s artistic fulfillment or the attention on the judge, because (as far as I remember) he’s not playing in like a concert, but in a dance. In other words, its a participatory performance, in which everyone in the room is involved in. Attention isn’t focused entirely on the judge, but rather on the “ecstasy” produced by the dancing; even the prose that describes it has a certain breathless, mystical quality to it. This esctatic quality is the same in the violence of the glanton gang. to me, the ending is far more about connecting the forms of frontier American society with the forms of violence (war, ethnic cleansing, etc.) that paved the way for that society. the judge, of course, would have to be involved with both
You are right, I shouldn’t necessarily say “audience,” as if he’s in command, just that he’s clearly capable of being wrapped up into a performance in the manner of an artist. It’s something that is supposed to be one of those essentially “good” things, a socially experienced moment of ecstasy, to use your word. By weaving that group experience (something often associated with the essence of being human) with the specific violent character of settler society, your interpretation expands upon mine, so good one there (it has been over a decade since I read it).
That makes him all the more disturbing. Brilliantly written character. Despite there being speculation that be may be supernatural or he may be the devil himself this is more harrowing
That scene at the end where Holden is playing the violin is great. The judge, the most evil thing McCarthy ever created, plays music, and is good at it, he even feels the rapturous glee of artistic fulfillment as he plays in front of an adoring audience. He is not, in fact, a hollow man, not a demon that will be under your power if you learn his name. He is human, he is doing what he is best at, and reaps the rewards.
McCarthy was very focused on trying to capture and name “evil,” and I think with that scene something made sense to me, maybe to him. Evil thrives when you feed it, when you incentivize it. Judge Holden might have wound up being a musician in another world, and never have hurt a fly. But there’s a market for evil in Blood Meridian, and Holden discovered at some point that he could provide.
this is an interesting reading but i would disagree (to a certain amount) with it - the last scene isn’t about the judge’s artistic fulfillment or the attention on the judge, because (as far as I remember) he’s not playing in like a concert, but in a dance. In other words, its a participatory performance, in which everyone in the room is involved in. Attention isn’t focused entirely on the judge, but rather on the “ecstasy” produced by the dancing; even the prose that describes it has a certain breathless, mystical quality to it. This esctatic quality is the same in the violence of the glanton gang. to me, the ending is far more about connecting the forms of frontier American society with the forms of violence (war, ethnic cleansing, etc.) that paved the way for that society. the judge, of course, would have to be involved with both
You are right, I shouldn’t necessarily say “audience,” as if he’s in command, just that he’s clearly capable of being wrapped up into a performance in the manner of an artist. It’s something that is supposed to be one of those essentially “good” things, a socially experienced moment of ecstasy, to use your word. By weaving that group experience (something often associated with the essence of being human) with the specific violent character of settler society, your interpretation expands upon mine, so good one there (it has been over a decade since I read it).
That makes him all the more disturbing. Brilliantly written character. Despite there being speculation that be may be supernatural or he may be the devil himself this is more harrowing
Big agree, making him into something supernatural feels like it’s just exchanging one metaphor for another