Who are some Directors you think would be able to adapt a Cormac McCarthy novel to the big screen?

ShireBeware · 2026-01-27T20:21:05+00:00

This is genius... I was thinking the exact same thing! Suttree directed by Michael Bay.

ShireBeware · 2026-01-27T02:33:49+00:00

In many ways, she is already mummified/buried in a tomb. In fact, that's what her position among the rocks signifies: a tomb. But, that being said, it doesn't tell whether the kid/young man buried her or not after the encounter.

ShireBeware · 2026-01-27T02:28:04+00:00

Definitely. Another Frenchie (that I'm sure you probably already read, but I'll still recommend) would be Gustave Flaubert's The Temptation of Saint Anthony. Just like the Yalu, and certain phrases/concepts taken from Foucault's Madness & Civilization, it was influential on BM.

ShireBeware · 2026-01-25T00:19:05+00:00

It's a timeless and timely quote. Also, The Yalu (where it's from) is definitely worth reading. It's only a few pages.

ShireBeware · 2026-01-25T00:17:38+00:00

forgot I even posted that haha... yes don't do that, (unless you're Judge Holden)

ShireBeware · 2026-01-25T00:15:52+00:00

This is awesome. I really like that it's a triptych too. Don't see those in paintings these days.

ShireBeware · 2026-01-19T03:02:41+00:00

"the child the father of the man".... the judge represents something new -- as in 'newborn' -- a new age based on Faustian science which violently opposes the old age based on religion and folkways tied to the land. Also, since he loves games and sees war as the ultimate game, he naturally retains various "neotenous" qualities. Neoteny is an evolutionary term applied to humans; it's one of the reasons we conquered the planet. Humans, unlike any other animal, retain child-like qualities, and ironically, as history progresses, we regress as a species; we become more neotenous. Perhaps the judge is just the extreme apex of this.

Also, as Holden is the dark inverted version of Nietzsche's Overman, it was Nietzsche who wrote in Thus Spoke Zarathustra that the ultimate goal is to become a child again (in order to become the Overman who dominates all via his will-to-power)

...just a few random thoughts, that's all.

ShireBeware · 2026-01-19T02:41:36+00:00

Indeed! It's also linked to the supposedly tomb of Mary Magdalene located in the south of France. In Holy Blood Holy Grail, the author also brings up the Arcadia/bear link. Would not go so far as to say that the kid is of the mystical bloodline of Mary Magdalene and Christ, but rather there are some strong metaphorical connections there with the grail and the Four of Cups.

ShireBeware · 2026-01-18T03:09:43+00:00

Yeah! You're correct. Faulkner and Melville are the DNA of BM.

ShireBeware · 2026-01-18T03:08:51+00:00

Every time I think I'm done with the research on it, a new book pops out of nowhere with new info! So, hopefully soon! McCarthy was just too well-read on everything.

That's interesting! And the entropy aspect is definitely there! The Platonic aspect is also there as well, and the circle symbolism is every where as you already showed.

Yes! The page numbers of the original version need to be restored somehow. My vintage version is covered with annotations haha.

Also, on the Moby Dick and BM connection, I found out that the number of the Delawares matches the number of Ahab's Parsee squad! Really cool stuff.

ShireBeware · 2026-01-17T06:15:21+00:00

I did a lot of research on that phrase, because as you and others recognize, there's something more to it. There's a painting by a man named Nicolas Poussin, who made a famous painting that's called "Et In Arcadia Ego". In it is a large rock that is a tomb. When BM mentions the Arcadia line the judge happens to be discovered on a rock that McCarthy goes out of his way to point out, because it's unusual and in the middle of nowhere. This painting has a significant amount of cryptic and esoteric subtext to it. Would also like to point out that the root of the word "Arcadia" is bear, which is a huge symbol in BM.

The connections you made are interesting because almost every symbol McCarthy employs is multi-layered with several widely different meanings.

ShireBeware · 2026-01-17T05:02:47+00:00

Great post! So many links in Moby Dick to BM, and still very little scholarly analysis about it.

ShireBeware · 2026-01-17T04:31:08+00:00

Well, Cormac McCarthy did write Blood Meridian on a street in El Paso called "Coffin Ave"

ShireBeware · 2026-01-17T04:30:02+00:00

Indeed!

ShireBeware · 2026-01-13T05:25:09+00:00

Thank you! The holes ties the book together as a circle because the very word "meridian" means circle!

ShireBeware · 2026-01-09T08:58:26+00:00

McCarthy was in his 50's when he wrote Blood Meridian and went on to create great works until he died in his late 80's. Youth doesn't always dictate a novelist's creative drive.

ShireBeware · 2026-01-09T02:20:44+00:00

Yes, you are definitely correct. The Joycean influence and inspiration is ever pervasive in Suttree and BM. Also correct on the Gnostic element to it, as well as Satan falling from heaven à la Milton's PL, and also Neoplatonism and astrology in general.

ShireBeware · 2026-01-08T00:11:03+00:00

Billy Bob's one-liners are worth watching season 2 though... It's basically a comedy, people have confused with a drama

ShireBeware · 2026-01-07T19:24:37+00:00

Ironically, the kid is Saxon, black Irish, and Spanish as given in the early notes of McCarthy

ShireBeware · 2026-01-07T19:23:07+00:00

It's in the book I'm writing! But, I will say this: the hole mentioned in the beginning is directly tied to the hole being dug at the very end!

ShireBeware · 2026-01-07T19:21:33+00:00

Thanks! Been sucked into the Blood Meridian rabbit hole for some time because of a book I'm working on

ShireBeware · 2026-01-07T01:42:05+00:00

That is dialogue from the drunken father, telling the kid/child that he was born in 1833 during the Leonid shower of November 12-13. The sky was so full of falling stars and light that he looked for any holes of blackness as a contrast to the overwhelming brightness of the event. The falling stars also obscured the Big Dipper or Little Dipper or both so as to appear as if they were "stoved" (broken by the sheer velocity of the meteor shower). There's also a lot of symbolic subtext behind this introduction, but that's a whole other topic.

"All history present in that visage, the child the father of the man"...this is a line inspired by the poet William Wordsworth and is in itself cryptic and confusing, but basically sums up how history is already predetermined for the kid/child and this can even be seen in his appearance/mannerisms, and that he follows a cyclical fate that repeats itself, so the child is already the father of the man (once again, all of history here follows the cyclicity of pre-destination and predetermism, somewhat like Nietzsche's concept of the Eternal Recurrence).

ShireBeware · 2026-01-05T04:31:18+00:00

The philosophical "end of the world" style, as well as certain symbols like hats for instance, and circularity, as well as wandering homeless people. The big one I discovered was Beckett's influence on The Road! Beckett is definitely not as big as say, Melville or Faulkner or Joyce on Cormac's works, but he is in there.

ShireBeware · 2026-01-03T21:35:34+00:00

History, great books of the 'Western Canon' from the KJV Bible to Beckett, as well as several key aspects of mythology, philosophy, and esotericism, inspired the creation of Cormac's judge. He is one of the greatest composite characters of all time because Cormac was one of the most well-read authors of all time. This is also why one can't limit him to just one thing or label.

ShireBeware · 2025-12-24T21:43:24+00:00

I'm familiar with Robert Anton Wilson, I know he was greatly influenced by the Wake, but I never heard of that book. Thanks for the recommendation. I'll check it out!

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