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).
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).