April 20, 2010 Blog Chapter 9

Lots of good imagery and "wordy words".
"The mountains in their blue islands stood footless in the void like floating temples."
"They rode out of that vanished sea like burnt phantoms..."
"...hung like a marionette from the moon with his long mouth gibbering."

I especially like the first one. Again McCarthy makes a religious reference. I wonder if this is foreshadowing that the men are going to the mountains to escape or something...

"They sat their animals the way of men seldom off them."

What does "sat their animals" mean? I've asked before, but forgot to bring it up in class.

The Apache that Judge killed was interesting to me. What is a calculus and a madstone? The little bag around his genitals is an interesting idea, I don't think that I would tie anything down there... I wonder what was in it that was so important to him...

Gypsum, I know, is a fine white powder, and I think it's used in drywall. I didn't know that there are whole deserts of it though. The shadows, McCarthy described, are blue. I would think that they would be gray or black. Hm...

The Judge's lecture was funny. He's able to manipulate the minds of that group of men to believe something completely denouncing what they had most likely learned as children. This not only show's the Judge's intelligence but also the squatters' lack of it.

I think the part where the squatters are talking about the dead boy's "merits and virtues" shows characteristics of many people in the world. When someone is alive, they couldn't care less, but when they die, they feel obliged to speak nicely of them for fear of God, evil spirits, whatever.

"For this will to deceive that is in things luminous may manifest itself likewise in retrospect and so by sleight of some fixed part of a journey already accomplished may also post men to fraudulent destinies."

This is deep man. luminous things may become clearer after you look at if from a future perspective because you have a greater understanding with time of the situation. These same luminous things can lead men to think that they are meant to do something that they're not.

Then the last sentence of the chapter:
"pursuing(,) as all travelers must(,) inversions without end upon other men's journeys.
I'm not sure if I should take this literally of figuratively. Literally, when you travel, you go the way other men have come from.

Ciboleros-a skilled hunter of buffalo, a horseman who wielded a long and deadly lance.

ignis fatuus- A phosphorescent light that hovers or flits over swampy ground at night,

Inimical- adverse in tendency or effect; unfavorable; harmful: a climate inimical to health.

Viga- heavy rafter (the 6x6's in cabins and such I think)

Attic Tragedy- The origin of Greek tragedy. The only Greek tragedy we possess is Athenian; for that reason it is known as ‘Attic’ tragedy (from the state of Attica, of which Athens was the chief city).

arroyo- a dry creek bed or gulch that temporarily fills with water after a heavy rain, or seasonally.

Caldera- a cauldron-like volcanic feature usually formed by the collapse of land following a volcanic eruption

Promontory- a prominent mass of land which overlooks lower lying land or a body of water

Pyrolatrous- fire worship

Djinn- islamic spirit

Weft- textiles

Coalesce- to grow together or into one body

Spume- foam, froth, or scum.

ambuscado- ambush

trebillones- dust spouts

Probate- The legal process in which a will is reviewed to determine whether it is valid and authentic. Probate also refers to the general administering of a deceased person's will or the estate of a deceased person without a will.