Gnadenhutten Massacre

Gnaddenhutten Massacre
March 8-9, 1782: Pennsylvania militia attack Moravian church in Gnadenhutten, OH, killing 28 Delaware Indians in pairs after holding them captive the night of the 8th. Only two survived.

"Following the American victory in the Revolution, the Delawares struggled against whites as they moved onto the natives' territory. In 1794, General Anthony Wayne defeated the Delawares and other Ohio Indians at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. The natives surrendered most of their Ohio lands with the signing of the Treaty of Greeneville in 1795.

In 1829, the United States forced the Delawares to relinquish their remaining land in Ohio and move west of the Mississippi River." (http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=584)

Baby Injin Killing Techniques Olympics 2014!

Perfect amount of gore and yuck for this chapter. There were a lot of good metaphors in this chapter, such as pg 151 very bottom "...and in each flare of lightning as the storm advanced those self same forms rearing with a terrible redundancy behind them like some third aspect of their presence hammered out black and wild upon the naked grounds", pg 154 "the cloudbanks stood above the mountains like the dark warp of the very firmament and the starsprent reaches of the galaxies hung in a cast aura above the riders' heads." pg 164 "from time to time one of the company would dismount with rifle and wiping stick and the Indians would flare like quail" I searched YouTube for a video of flaring quails, and got nothing useful, just use your imagination.

I feel really bad for the Delawares, the entire company is pushing it as it is; but the Delaware are doing the extra riding and scouting, no fun. Then when they have to wade in the water for dead bodies in the lake, the thought of searching for corpses with my toes is vomit inducing.

Judge man, McCarthy doesn’t have to come out and say that Judge rapped the little Indian boy, but you know it happened. I understand that the Judge is a FREAK, but at least get a little Apache Indian girl, strange homo…

Glanton really got into this battle, as he does with every battle i guess. Anywho, I didn't understand at first why he was trying so hard to get the leader Indian, I hate to think how disappointed he was when he found out that not only it wasn't Gomez, but it wouldn't even pass for him.

The baby bash! i instantly thought of monster mash, just replace monster with baby, i think its a new hit. It would take some serious lack of morality much less a soul to bash babies heads into stones; sure it'd be awesome for the movies or things such as books; but when you think of all of the barbaric ways the company has killed Apache Indians it clicks how disturbed these men are.

harlequin(165) - a combination of patches on a solid ground of contrasting color.
desiccated(165) - to drain of emotional or intellectual vitality OR to dry up
phantasmagoria(163) - an exhibition of optical effects and illusions
paloverde(161) - any of several small spiny trees or shrubs OR jerusalem thorn
equestrian game(155) - games where players are on horseback

Niggard Acaia(151) - i got 10 different answers for this, lets google it.

April 23, 2010 Blog Chapter 12

McCarthy describes the mens souls "conjoined" and the communal soul as "wastes hardly reckonable more than those whited regions on old maps where monsters do live and where the is nothing other of the known world save conjectural winds." I'm not sure I get this entirely. Is this saying that the mens souls were so impure that they would be less understood than empty spaces on maps where monsters live?

McCarthy's sick sense of humor...."Some, by their beards, were men, but yet wore strange menstrual wounds betweeen their legs." Wow.... enough said. Then he says, "No man's parts for these had been cut away and hung dark and strange from out their grinning mouths." Were their phalluses (phalli?) put in their mouths after they were killed? If so... wow...-er...

The expriest asks if "some might not see the hand of a cynical god conducting with what austerity and what mock surprise so lethal a congruence. Cynical- Showing contempt for accepted standards of honesty or morality by one's actions, esp. by actions that exploit the scruples of others. So Tobin thinks that God's workings are harsh and surprising and, as a result, deadly; and Tobin thinks that God does this because he wants to deviate from social standards.

Page 153, third paragraph, Last sentence (which is half the paragraph). What does all that mean? We were talking yesterday about the tree falling in the woods; Holden says "For what could be said to occur unobserved?"

McGill's talent with the horse was awesome. He clings to the bottom to watch the skyline while the horse is galloping. Horses aren't exactly smooth in their movements, making that even more impressive. Shame he dies though...

Sat his horse: From what I could find, this just means being able to stay on the horse while it's moving, which doesn't make sense in the book really...

The village held 1000 people and they were all killed by 19 men with only one loss.... dang.... They killed babies!

Wikiup
Enfilade- a position of works, troops, etc., making them subject to a sweeping fire from along the length of a line of troops, a trench, a battery, etc.
Fontanel- one of the spaces, covered by membrane, between the bones of the fetal or young skull.
Remuda- a group of saddle horses from which ranch hands choose mounts for the day.
Cauls-
Set triggers on a rifle- A set trigger allows a shooter to have a greatly reduced trigger pull (the resistance of the trigger) while maintaining a degree of safety in the field. There are two types: Single Set and Double Set

Ah, more imagery- In those dark pools there sat each a small and perfect sun, describing the chief.

chaparral- dense growth of shrubs or small trees
paloverde- a spiny, desert shrub, Cercidium floridum, of the legume family, of the southwestern U.S. and mexico, having green bark.

Holden says, "I'll write a policy on your life against every mishap save the noose." Is a policy like life insurance? Then, why don't any of the men want to help Brown with the arrow? Then Tobin scolds the Kid for helping him....????
It said meridian again: "...the meridians of chaos and old night..."

ocotillo
Phantasmagoria- a changing scene made up of many elements. (also a strange looking band....

NAMBLA circa 1849

Phun chapter yo. Judge chuckles. Nasty, disturbing business going on. I read the chapter aloud and pretended I was recording a book on tape. This helped to follow the book, but I constantly stumbled upon the really wordy sentence/paragraphs. Then I got tired. But here's some blog.

In the first paragraph, McCarthy uses this here simile: "Like a patrol condemned to ride out some ancient curse." He is describing the group riding over the weeks, rarely speaking and having zero fun. Erp, I don't know if you guys like The Lord of the Rings (and I can't say I've actually read the books. I'm just a big fan of the movies and the whole world Tolkein created, but that's neither here nor there), but there's an army of undead folk who are cursed with eternal life until they fulfill a promise they made however many millennia ago. But the simile here reminds of the Lord of the Rings situation. They are forced to ride around, (seemingly) forever. They are so drained of life they don't even want to talk.

And more of the title! "They eyed the sun in its circus and at dusk they rode out upon the cooling plain where the western sky was the color of blood," (McCarthy 152) We said earlier that meridian can also mean horizon; something like that. So there it is, folks. The blood horizon. Only I think he should've used this opportunity to use the title in the book because I think we all get pretty excited when we see the title in the book.

I was... surprised (yeah that word sucks) when I read about the argonauts. I'll paraphrase and say "They got their penises shoved in their mouths." Funny enough, I had imagined something similar happening at some point in the book. Not quite spot on, but I did picture the Johnson/Wang on the face. I won't go into detail, but just imagine a rhinoceros if you will. So yeah, that's really the nastiest thing that could even happen (until McCarthy decides he wants something more disgusting). So then the guys decide to "lay down to sleep amongst the dead." I saw this as foreshadowing, and the guys' lack of... really the lack of everything we know today. Nobody (save one or two really weird folks) would lay down to sleep next to dead guys with junk in their mouths.

The guys are about to charge the thousands of Apache, and Glanton says "If we don't kill every [black guy] here we need to be whipped and sent home." So, I guess "sent home" is a euphemism for "sloddered, raped and have genitals put in your mouth." Sent home is definitely more appealing and it seems like the guys in the group try to make light of everything. Thing is, if they didn't, they would most likely go insane. Living your life knowing that within the next hour your best friends' dead balls are in your mouth is no way to live life. Better to just say "things might not be too good."

I'll spare talking about the fight because I'm sure everyone else will, and there's really not too much to say, other than "wow." But there are more fights that aren't described at all. The men have several more stands with the indians but there's little more detail than "they shot two of 'em." I guess that's all we really need to know though. I mean, much more and it would just seem overdone and cheesy.

I'd like to talk about my title now. Judge screams NAMBLA. He picks up the little kid. He's probably fondling the little kid while no one's looking (or maybe everyone sees and he doesn't care. Who knows?) and playing with him and all that. The kid is specified as "boy," however he is referred to as an "it." I guess this is to continue the comparison of Apaches and animals. It doesn't matter if it's a he or she. It's a savage. And when judge is all done with his sexual fantasies he has to kill the boy and get his scalp. Judge wins twice!

This is just to remind me in class: discuss page 153 middle paragraph and page 162-163.

Chapter 12

This chapter was good. Very gruesome, and very violent. There were good similes and lines in this chapter as well. One such simile is on page 151, "Like a patrol condemned to ride out some ancient curse." This just shows how the company is basically riding across the land, not really doing anything exciting or special. Just pure monotony.

I like how Glanton still kept the dog from last chapter. I think it shows that even the baddest of the bad needs a companion, and what's a greater companion than man's best friend? Also, later in the chapter, I thought it cool of Glanton to wonder where his dog went off to after the big fight with the Apaches. It kinda shows that this tough guy can have feelings too.

Another good simile is on page 152, "the hail leaped in the sand like small lucent eggs concocted alchemically out of the desert darkness." Alchemy is pretty much the ancient science back in the day. It's main goal was to turn any basic metal into gold, find something similar to the fountain of youth, and and obtain something known as the philosopher's stone. Here's the wikipedia page of Alchemy. It's got some pretty good information on Alchemy. I think this quote just implies how sudden the hail starts falling, as if the hail were created on the spot.

The dead argonauts they found were in extremely bad shape. I would hate to have been those guys. The quote on page 153 really says it all, "Some by their beards were men but yet wore strange menstrual wounds between their legs and no man's parts for these had been cut away and hung dark and strange from out their grinning mouths." Just wow. It's not really how this is so disgusting, it's more like it's so vivid that you can imagine this exactly. I feel for those guys, as getting castrated and being fed your own sexual organ is not a good way to go.

The big fight with the Apaches was just plain awesome. This quote on page 156 is great, "...one of the Delawares emerged from the smoke with a naked infant dangling in each hand and squatted at a ring of midden stones and swung them by the heeels each in turn and bashed their heads against the stones so that the brains burst forth through the fontanel in a bloody spew." I used the whole sentence, or the majority of it, to emphasize just what happened. This is going to sound sadistic, but bashing babies skulls on a stone is pretty hardcore. I don't think you can show that in a movie though.

I thought the death of McGill was pretty lame, which bothered me because obviously we have the same name. He had a lance and a sword through him, and Glanton shot him in the head. Really? McGill could've at least took someone with him, but no. He was even scalped!

I thought this quote about a dying Apache on page 159 was pretty interesting, "In those dark pools there sat each a small and perfect sun." This brings me back to whoever was saying a couple of days ago that there is death in perfection.

I was surprised the company allowed the judge to keep that little Apache kid, when he was going go scalp him anyway. It was sort of funny how he did it though, because Toadvine walked by when the kid was alive, then he turned and the little boy was dead and scalped. It made me think of the judge being child-like again. Also why did the judge bring him into the camp, and fed him do all that he did if he was just going to scalp him? Wouldn't it have been better to just scalp him where he was found? I thought it weird that Toadvine was pretty angry when the judge scalped the kid. It makes me think that even though Toadvine is ruthless in some ways, he does have boundaries, and I think killing children is past his. I mean he could've killed the kid in the beginning of the book, and he didn't. Sure he said he meant to, but I think he just said that to act tough.

Some quotes I didn't understand:

Page 159, "That gentleman is sangre puro." This is where the judge was telling Glanton that the guy he killed wasn't Gomez. The thing I don't understand is the sangre puro part. What is it?

Page 163, "Dont you know he'd of took you with him? He'd of took you, boy. Like a bride to the altar." This is where Tobin is angry at the kid for helping David Brown remove the arrow in his thigh. Why does Tobin feel that the kid did a wrong thing by helping him? I don't understand that.

Blood Meridian Chapter 12

Yay! A huge slaughtering! Finally! We've been waiting for a massacre like this since chapter four! The group finally got some scalps; good for them. They deserve a reward for all of the hard work they have done. Too bad they didn't get the head honcho's...well...head.

McCarthy really provides us with some interesting imagery. He writes, "...bashed (the babys') heads against the stones so that the brains burst forth through the fontanel in a bloody spew...(McCarthy 156)" I looked up the word fontanel and got: one of the spaces, covered by membrane, between the bones of the fetal or young skull (dictionary.com). It's amazing how McCarthy is able to pull off being very brutal and disgusting while being very scientific at the same time. Most of the time, he shows this through the Judge, however not in this circumstance. Also, the Delawares seem to be very violent, more so than the others. Possibly showing how Indians are violent and merciless no matter where they live. This adds to the whole view of Native Americans as savages thing.

Glanton is truly a heartless and emotionless killer. He just kills McGill (sorry Andrew) without even stepping off of his horse. He doesn't even try to soothe the man; he just figures that he should die quickly and without pain. Sure this may seem like a sort of "easy way out" for McGill but the others would surely be a little afraid and ashamed of Glanton. I would have thought that Brown would have interveined but sadly no. It looks like Glanton is too feared to be challenged. McCarthy uses this trait in Glanton to show his view of a good leader. I believe that McCarthy thinks that a good leader should be inspiring but feared at the same time. You should agree with your leader and be ashamed when you displease him. Glanton also seems to be very sympathetic towards his animals. He is always talking to his horse and his loyal pet dog. Maybe this is because he respects their instincts and wishes to befriend as many wild creatures as possible. On the other hand, it may be a sign of his power when he states that he can "tame all beasts."

The scene with the kid and Brown was very interesting. First of all, why would no one help Brown? Is he a jerk or is it because they don't want anything to do with him? Hmm... Anyway, the kid made a new friend and that's all that counts. A quote I didn't understand was when Brown says, "Stout lad, ye'll make a shadetree sawbones yet (McCarthy 162)." Sawbones is slang for a docter or surgeon (dictionary.com) however not really sure what a shadetree is. Also, the thing the expriest says was strange also. "Dont you know he'd of took you with him? He'd of took you, boy. Like a bride to the altar (McCarthy 163)." Does this mean that Brown doesn't care about the boy? That he would have no regard for the kid if it weren't for his wound? Seems like the rest of the group has something against poor Brown. Also, some more good imagery, "The veins in the man's neck stood like ropes...(McCarthy 162)" If you were to ask me, I would say that he is in some sort of pain...

The Judge was a jerk in this chapter. Well, he's a jerk in every chapter but he was worse in this one. He just killed that innocent kid for no reason, unless there was something we don't know about. Everyone loved the little Indian boy and Judge had to go screw everything up...jerk. I don't blame Toadvine for being angry with the Judge, however putting his pistol to the Judge's head may have sealed his fate later on. The Judge has a sort of two sided conscience. One minute, he's intelligent and gentlemanly. The next, he is slaughtering children and scalping them.

On page 163, the word phantasmagoria means: a shifting series of phantasms, illusions, or deceptive appearances, as in a dream or as created by the imagination (dictionary.com). I think that it is the same as a mirage or something of that sort. There seems to be alot of these kinds of things in the west.

golden grams are the equivalent of cardboard

Laaaaaaaame, boring, snoozefest, bleh.

This chapter was nothing, no one lost their scalp, sheesh, and no one even got a splinter. It wasn’t entirely futile; but I didn’t really learn anything about any of the characters and nothing adventureistic happened. Kid, where did Kid go? It’s good to steer away from the main character sometimes or is Judge going to share this main character title with Kid?

When Judge starts talking about bests, aliens, and the wild, I was confused, that paragraph pg 138 doesn't make all that much sense.. It makes Judge sound philosophical, and I like that in a character; when smarts or some sense of intelligence comes with some one that could very possibly kill you with a toothpick, it's neat. No one wants to be killed by a big dummy, right?

Half-naked or naked, the Judge is almost always doing something quasi freaky. "He is a draftsman as he is other things, well sufficient to the task." Judge is like the perfect person, aside from no hair, possible sodomy (?), and the devil evilness connection “bats came from some nether part of the world to stand on leather wings like dark satanic hummingbirds". One thing about the evil connection though, Judge is religious... he talks of God in positive, realistic ways, Judge being evil doesn't add up.

Glanton! He is prideful, and "roofless" [I seent it!]. "I can man anything that eats." If someone gave me jerky I’d follow them around too.

The story about the traveler, the old man, and the old man's wife was odd. Judge told this story and I was waiting to hear that he was one of the characters, this resulted in disappointment.

There were probably 25 words in this chapter that I didn’t know, I enjoyed his word choice in this chapter.

Gobbet – chunk-o-meat

Slaloming – a zigzag movement

Ubiquity - presence everywhere or in many places

Mescal - a usually colorless Mexican liquor distilled especially from the central leaves of maguey plants

Arcane – known or knowable only to the initiate.

Kivas - bats came from some nether part of the world to stand on leather wings like dark satanic hummingbirds."

The Alleghenies – All the information I get on this is the Appalachian Mountains; but the Alleghenies that Judge refers to are in the west. I don’t exactly know what he’s talking about, Google doesn’t either.

Old Hueco’s - “Hueco Tanks” is an area of low mountains in Texas.

Chapter 11

This chapter was alright, though no real violent scenes disappointed me. But oh well, next chapter should make up for it. There were a lot of good descriptive lines in the chapter also. The line, "the fallen leaves lay like golden disclets in the damp black trail," brings up a good image of the contrast between the leaves and the ground of the trail.


The part where Glanton and the Delaware was fighting the bear was pretty epic. I thought it was pretty cool the bear had blond fur the color of honey. That's a pretty interesting thing to compare its color to, since bears typically are known for their love of honey. Also this bear is pretty tough. It's taken at least three shots from Glanton before other people came to shoot the bear as well. The Delaware indian, was pretty stupid though. Why would you punch a bear with your fist? I'm not a genius or anything, but I'm almost positive that trying to box with a bear is not a good idea. In fact the only thing that punching a bear in the face can do is make it mad, which is bad mmkay. Though I do feel pretty bad that the Delaware got caught by the bear and carried off. Apparently the fetal position didn't help him like it did Seth Green. A good simile describing the incident is, "the bear swung with the indian dangling from its mouth like a doll. That guy is obviously dead.

I thought it was cool that when the company camped in the ruins, the judge basically took all the stuff he found that was interesting and drew it in his book. Though it was strange that after he finished drawing all of them, he just threw them in the fire. It reminded me of a child that got bored with a toy.

It was interesting that the Webster guy was just mentioned now, when we've been on the company for a while. I wonder just how many people in the company are interesting that aren't mentioned or haven't been yet.

The story the judge told was pretty awesome, and it wasn't surprising that there were tons of different versions to the story. For some reason, I can't help but think that either the child or the traveler's son was actually the judge. It makes sense that the traveler's son is judge though, because the way he described the son about not getting the patrimony and all the lessons he wouldn't learn just seems like the son would be a criminal. Though the old man's boy also seems like he could be the judge because he grew up and became a killer of men. It could be just a story that's interesting to the judge, but I think that the way the judge told it, smiling and stopping at certain parts, just made it seem like he remembered it, not just reciting a story.

A cool quote that the judge uses here on page 145 is, "He is broken before a frozen god and he will never find his way." I think this means that this kid is lost to a path of darkness and destruction.

I looked up the Allegheny mountains to see exactly where they're at. Here's a link.

Chapter 10. No. I'm only joking, it's chapter 11.

Have we abandoned the kid? I don't mind because the judge seems to be a niftier guy anyway. We'll see what happens. I'm going in order of what I thought was the coolest.

To continue King's "Judge:Devil" metaphor established today: "bats came from some nether part of the world to stand on leather wings like dark satanic hummingbirds."After that the judge raised his hand and the bats flare in confusion. I think it's just because he is rustling the bushes, but at first glance it seemed like the judge had some connection with the satanic creatures. Like he's the devil, controlling his minions. And hummingbirds aren't usually satanic. Google image search offers no results for "satanic hummingbird." However they did have a few images for "happy bat," which I figured was the equivalent of a satanic hummingbird.

They were so close to using the title in the chapter. The judge said "meridian," which accounts for approximately one-half of the title, excluding the second much more boring title. "His meridian is at once his darkening and the evening of his day." So, is he saying a man's high point in life is found in his pursuit of evil? And I'm not at all sure about the "evening of his day" part. I wouldn't think he means it literally, even though nighttime is usually the best part of the day. And I don't think he means the end of his life either, because that just sucks. I think the "evening of the day" just continues the "darkening," since it gets dark at evening times. It does. Look it up.

I got almost nothing from the judge's story. I guess it means something (well, obviously something), but instead of making up some bull-plop about the message I got, I will quote Marcus Webster on page 141 by saying "[The judge] is a formidable riddler and I'll not match words with [him]."

Alright, here's something cool. I mentioned the brief changes in verb tense some time ago. It happens again in this chapter for just two or three lines. If I may, "He is a draftsman as he is other things, well sufficient to the task. He looks up from time to time at the fire of at his companions in arms or at the night beyond." The tense changes to greater describe the judge's movements and how he works on his art. There's no really large scale action here; just one man going about a very minute and easily overlooked task. The change in tense brings the reader in to the story. Recall the first lines of the book. Same business. By the brief switch to present tense, the finer actions can be more precisely described.

Dr. Judge's line "A false book is no book at all," is... not right. Maybe that's his view of things or maybe it's meant to be a lot deeper than the literal conviction (which is my guess) but I have no idea what it means. And I think I'll stop here, because any further bloggage-eering would be nothing more than "I don't understand it. Is it taken literally? What?" So that's it.

Blood Meridian Chapter 11

Judge Holden continues to show his intellect in chapter 11. The huge passage spans five pages and it's in these five pages that we see the raw form of the Judge's intelligence and his power in the form of persuasion.

The story about the traveler, the woman, the child, and the old man seems to be very popular between the group of men. A few minor details change, however the base story remains the same. The part that befuddles everyone is on page 145 on which the Judge says, "The world which he inherits bears him false witness. He is broken before a frozen god and he will never find his way." This shows the Judge's feelings toward people that are not challenged or don't challenge their surroundings. He thinks that if a child inherits his father's goods instead of earning them through hard work and labor that that child will be doomed in the long run. He won't be able to protect himself from the trials and tribulations of life and therefore he will fail. This is possibly McCarthy's view of people who are sheltered and fed with a silver spoon. McCarthy would have no sympathy for someone who is unable to take care of themselves.

I have noticed that most of the people in the group understand what the Judge is saying when he speaks in his trance-like intellectual state. The Tennessean, a man of basic knowledge, seems to know exactly what the Judge means when he says, "Whether in my book or not, every man is tabernacled in every other and he in exchange and so on in an endless complexity of being and witness to the uttermost edge of the world." When I read this, I felt really stupid, especially when the Tennessean gave an equally intelligent and confusing reply. It's almost like people get smarter just by being in the presence of the Judge. He gives the other members of the posse a feeling of comfortability and therefore, he can draw out the best in a person.

The fact that the Judge destroys his findings after recording them in his book is fairly strange. When the Tennessean asked him why he took notes, the Judge replied, "...to expunge them from the memory of man." This implies that the Judge wishes to keep his records of things deemed insignificant for himself only. This seems like a very selfish thing for the Judge to do especially since the Judge believes that the Earth is the most precious thing and that everything can be learned from it. I thought that someone like the Judge would want to share his findings instead of keeping them for himself.

The Judge must have had a rough childhood. On page 146, he says, "At a young age, (children) should be put in a pit with wild dogs. They should be set to puzzle out from their proper clues the one of three doors that does not harbor wild lions. They should be made to run naked in the desert until..." After this the expreist stops him. This may show something dark and twisted about the Judge that we are yet to learn. Another reference to the word meridian is on the same page. The Judge says, "His spirit is exhausted at the peak of its achievement. His meridian is at once his darkening and the evening of his day. He loves games? Let him play for stakes." Not really sure but this might mean that children are their happiest before they are sent toward adulthood. This may mean that games are taken in a different light once a child is older.

For some research

arcane, used on page 139 to describe eggs, means mysterious and exotic (dictionary.com)

Gnadenhutten (page 138) refers to the Gnadenhutten Massacre in which 96 Christian Lenape (Indians possibly Delawares) were slaughtered by the colonial American militia. (wikipedia.org)

The Anasazi were an ancient tribe of Indians that suddenly disappeared without a trace. Many people claim to be descendants. (wikipedia.org)

A awesome simile is on page 148. It reads, "night bats...to stand on leather wings like dark satanic hummingbirds." McCarthy uses this to show how things at night (especially bats) are very scary even though they may not be scary during the day. A good form of personification was on page 138 on which McCarthy writes, "...a country where the rocks would cook the flesh from your hand..." This doesn't seem like a good place to be at the time and it adds to the level of danger associated with the west. Just think, a place where if you sat on a rock, your butt would be cooked. I wonder if you could fry an egg on it?

I have one question, why is the group going through such dangerous territory in their search for Indians? They wonder why all of the villages they find are empty...it's because they were either carried off by the local bear population or cooked alive by the elements. It just seems like their looking in the most hostile places for Natives so I guess my question is why are they looking in wastelands for Indians that would probably be camped out on the prairie instead of sheer rock cliffs?

April 21, 2010 Blog Chapter 11

A bit anti-climactic after King promised a big murder/massacre.... Oh well, I think it's in the next chapter.

Again, I found some good imagery: "...the fallen leaves lay like golden disclets in the damp black trail." That just sounds... well, pretty. The contrast my mind creates between the gold and black is very nice in my head.

An interesting website on the Delaware Indians: http://www.usgennet.org/usa/topic/colonial/pioneer/chap16.html

When the bear attacked the company, it said it was blond. I assume this is talking to its fur, and the bear is an albino. This bear is awesome! Glanton shot it three times, then the rest of the company started shooting it and the bear was still able to not drag, but carry a man for a day then drag him for another two days and then live, not to be found by the Delawares, the master trackers. Then, when the Delawares get back, the dead Delawares things are split up and "that man's name was never said again. Why not talk about a dead man? hm... maybe it's a bad omen to talk about death when they are on such a dangerous mission.

I like how McCarthy describes the cave paintings, especially the Spaniards: "Contemptuous of stone and silence and time itself." For clarity sake, I looked up the definition of Contemptuous. It means showing or expressing disdain, scornful. So, the paintings look as if they hate being on the cave walls, they hate being in constant silence, and they hate time for keeping them there. interesting that McCarthy chooses to give emotion to cave paintings.

Acequias- irrigation ditch
kivas- large room, partly or wholly underground, used for religious ceremonies in Pueblo Indian villages
Tapadero- . a hoodlike piece of heavy leather around the front of the stirrup of a stock or range saddle to protect the rider's foot.
draftsman- a person who draws sketches, plans, or designs.

Judge's wisdom is again expressed in this chapter: "every man is tabernacled in every other and he in exchange and so on in an endless complexity of being and witness to the uttermost edge of the world." I think what Judge is saying is, metaphorically, every man lives in every other man, tabernacled meaning dwelling within. It again refers back to religion, Christ dwells within all Christians and all Christians dwell within Him, spiritually speaking. By dwelling in Him, we take on his purity and He dwelling in us, he takes on our impurity, forgiving us of our sins and, by grace, allowing us into heaven. Judge is suggesting that all men dwell within each other in a similar way, but without any exchange of purity, but the exchange of likeness.

Hueco- hmm, it translates into "hole" but that doesn't make much sense in this context.
Portmanteau- a case or bag to carry clothing in while traveling, esp. a leather trunk or suitcase that opens into two halves.
euchred- exhausted
ubiquity- being everywhere at once

Judge's point of his story, he says, is this: "Whoever makes a shelter of reeds and hides has joined his spirit to the common destiny of creatures and he will subside back into the primal mud with scarcely a cry. But (he) who builds in stone seeks to alter the structure of the universe and so it was with these masons however primitive their works may seem to us." Wow, what mouthful... Ok, so. If you live your life naturally, just going with the flow, you will die quietly and leave little impact on the world, but if you build, create, manipulate the Earth, your impact will last and you will be respected in the future.

On page 147, it says "...something that had better been left sleeping." refering to the judge. Remember the old Mennonite? He refered to something sleeping in the desert. An interesting theme that continues throughout the book, sleeping, ominous things.

maguey-

chapa 10

Can I have 58 Apache looking people and let them be murdered at the foot of a volcano? ..it's okay, my dad said no too.

Tobin, a man of many words and metaphors; that has a borderline obsession with a large, hairless, and naked at times man. Sir Judge is strange enough as it is, I honestly don't think he minds. Laughter aside, I think Tobin and Judge just had a past together, Tobin knows Glanton as well but no where near as much as he intimately knows Judge man. pg 123: "He's an uncommon love for the common man and godly wisdom resides in the least of things so that it may well be that the voice of The Almighty speaks most profoundly in such beings as lives in silence themselves" I think Tobin is referring to Judge's spirituality, saying that he is a quiet man, and if you've ever seen Boondock Saints (go watch it) you can understand a little better as to how believers of such religion can justify murder just as easily as everyone else can. Tobin is an expriest, he rid the world of the wicked big bad freaky injins. Judge is the same minus the naked part..i just don't get that, I’m sure being naked all the time could be a refreshing experience, but really? get a Tarzan cloth or something.

I can definitely see, without a doubt how Glanton and Judge can get along and befriend one another so well, they're impulsive, or maybe it's rational. Everything they do, they do for a reason and McCarthy put it all in there for a reason; so I'll be involuntarily impatient and wait to find out what these reasons are.

As for Judge's gun, Et In Arcadia Ego means "And I (too) in Arcadia." Arcadia is a region in Greece; the region was named after a Greek god, Arcas, son of Zeus and Callisto. Callisto was a nymph, who wanted Artemis, but Zeus wanted his way, blah blah blah, Zeus has 5478 kids anyway.

It was good to find some things out about the Judge, but the chapter still left ya (you just doesn't fit when you say it) hanging a bit.

17 sandwiches and their beloved companions

This chapter was a fun variation. Rather than being from the normal removed narrators point of view, we hear what happens from a simple, no-big-word-using expriest. For some variation in the blog, I'm going backwards. For fun, and because the best stuff happened in the latter half of the chapter.

The last few lines are great. Tobin spent a whole chapter talking about the judge, but the kid asks a question and he says they best not talk about him. So... what's his deal? Is he trying to get out of the question, "What's he a judge of?" And I get the feeling it's like a blind contradiction of himself too. I don't think Tobin was being funny. I think he seriously meant what he said. Odd. And as for the name, "the judge," can a guy not just be called "judge" every now and then? I call people doctor every now and then but most of them aren't even doctors. Different times.

I was looking forward to a better slaughter scene, but wow. I think I speak for everyone when I say it took me by surprise. My favorite part is "They slid down the slope like chaff down a hopper." This is describing the falling Apache and it reminds me of the term "canon fodder." The Apaches are just dropping; they have no effect on their opposition. And I think the judge should change his name to MacGyver (that is for Andrew). "Everybody pee in this mess and we'll shoot injuns with it!" The judge is basically a wizard. I'm excited to see him inevitably turn whale droppings into gold. It will happen.

Saltpetre (more commonly known as Saltpeter). The first time I heard about saltpeter was in an episode of Beavis and Butthead. The two go to Dr. Lebowitz's impotence clinic so they can finally "score." Dr. Lebowitz quickly realizes the two are not at all impotent, but they are sex crazed morons. He gives them saltpeter and they stop getting... wood. As it turns out, that is NOT how it is used in this book. I search-engineered saltpeter, and turns out it's some natural occurring mineral, Potassium Nitrate, which is used in gunpowder production. The first one was funnier.

Apparently, being skinned to the nasty tissue and whatnot "does very little for a man's appearance." An understatement if there ever was one. We've all seen "Predator," right? Would you say skinning "does little for appearance?" Ah, but it's great how it's used here. "Understatement" was a term on that list of rhetorical devices we had earlier in the semester. It works because we all know how serious skinning is (on a scale of 1-10 it resides in the high 8 range). By saying something as vague as "does little for appearance," it actually emphasizes it all the more I think. And with something so terrible as skinning, there's no way to show just how terrible it is being serious. Skinning sucks.

Which brings us back to the beginning of the chapter. "There's little equity in the Lord's gifts," says Tobin, expriest extraordinaire. I've heard the word equity thrown around in finances and insurance or something like that, but here it means: something that is just and fair. The Lord's gifts are not fair! And it's true. Life isn't fair. Some folk get all the good fortune; some folk get all the not good fortune. But, what are you gonna do, right?

Chapter 10

This chapter was pretty good. God a good battle / massacre in here, even if it was a flashback.

I think that it's interesting that the ex priest Tobin is still highly religious, even though he's a criminal and a murderer. I think it's contradictory in a sense. I liked his quote on page 123, "I don't doubt but what he'd be the first to admit and you put the query to him boldface." I don't understand the last part though.I thought it was a little bit creepy when Tobin kept bragging about the judge. The way he kept just naming all the things the judge excels at made me think Tobin was obsessed with the judge. Tobin has some more good religious quotes. "The voice of the Almighty speaks most profoundly in such beings as lives in silence themselves." From what I got out of it, this means that, in a literal sense people who live in solitude are closer to God.

The way that Glanton's army met the judge was pretty awesome. The way he was just sitting on that rock in the middle of the desert, like he was waiting for them. Though, it made me think that the judge may have been following them or something. His inscription on his rifle, "Et In Arcadia Ego," translates to Even In Arcadia I Exist. Arcadia refers to a harmony with naute. I looked this up and it's interpreted as Memento Mori as well. Memento Mori is translated to Remember You Will Die.

I thought it was weird that Tobin mentions the judge would go off into the mountains, make notes in his little book, and then later on would put leaves in the book. This is probably a common hobby during this time, but if the judge is so interested in this, then how come McCarthy hasn't showd the judge do any of this during the time the kid has been around him? Did he all of a sudden stop? Or did he just get bored with it?

The deserters they mentioned got a not so cool fate, but hey it shows you not to desert when Apaches are chasing you. So I think those deserters were pretty stupid.

I didn't understand the quote on page 128, "And by my own warrant, for I added up the counters on the bar with my own and somber eyes at a stockscale in Chihuahua City in that same month and year." Is Tobin talking about how much the judge weighs? Because, once again it's kinda creepy that Tobin just knows the judge's weight out of nowhere.

Also, what's with the quote on page 129, "I would never shoot a wolf and I know other men of the same sentiments." Tobin doesn't explain why he wouldn't shoot a wolf. I don't know if this is an obvious statement, but I don't know what makes a wolf so special that one wouldn't shoot it.

The part where they go to the volcano was interesting and later very disgusting. Once again, you see Tobin saying some religious mumbo jumbo, "...there has been sinners so notorious evil that the fires coughed em up again..." That is a descriptive sight, just to see zombies crawling out of the lava because they were too evil for Hell. The urinating into the mixture part was extremely disgusting, especially since the judge was going crazy when everyone started it. I seriously think the judge is mentally insane, though at least he can make some potent gunpowder.

The massacre of the Apaches was well deserved. I loved the quote on page 134, "They just slid down the slope like chaff down a hopper." The scenes like this would be great if they made this book into a movie. To just see 58 indians being slaughtered at the foot of a volcano. Epic.

Blood Meridian Chapter 10

You know how, in several movies, there is a part where we learn either how terrible the antagonist is or how great the protagonist is? That was chapter 10. The whole chapter is a reply to our unanswered questions about the Judge. Where did he come from? Well we're not really sure, but we did find him on a rock in the middle of the desert. How did he get to be so smart? He has traveled around the world and has kept every note in his entire life in one simple book. And so on and so forth.

Glanton and the Judge share a very coexisting relationship. Glanton, like the Judge, is very misunderstood. He kills randomly and for his own personal reasons and feels that he could learn alot from the Judge. The Judge would love to have a peer he could teach and maybe learn a little about the taking of lives as well. McCarthy shows this relationship to enhance the characters of Glanton and the Judge. If you thought that they were weird and deranged by themselves, wait untill you see them as a team! Also, this increases the mystery of each character.

One character that is interesting is Tobin, the expreist. He is obviously a very religious man, however he accepts and backs up the idea of murdering another individual. Alot of the things he says refer back to religious things. On page 130, Tobin says, "Then (the Judge) turned and led the horse...and us behind him like disciples of a new faith." However, on the other hand, Tobin is very non-religious in some of the things he says. On page 131, he says, "I thought at worst we'd throw ourselves into the caldron rather than be taken by those fiends." This is strange because suicide is one of the worst sins commitable in the eyes of a God-believing man. McCarthy includes this detail about the expreist to show how even religion can be affected by the happenings in the west. He does this to show that, even an expreist, can succumb to the evils of murder.

I looked up what the latin phrase on the Judge's gun means.
Et- this means somewhere between both and and
In- this means in or into
Arcadia- this means a box or coffin
Ego- this refers to one's self or person (I)
(stars21.com)
Therefore, we can assume that the phrase Et In Arcadia Ego means to enter one's coffin. I think that this is similar to the idiom "digging your own grave" in the sense that you are causing your own demise. Using this, we can believe that the Judge believes that you only die because you allow yourself to die or because you did something that would affect you later on.

I also found a picture of North American volcanoes...if you can't see the picture, click here http://www.volcano.si.edu/volcanoes/region12/12_map.png
Using this photo, we can infer where approximately the group found the Judge.
I looked up volcanoes in Mexico and found that most of them are in the very southern part of the country, however there is one near the connection to the Baja Peninsula and the mainland (wpcontent.answers.com)

I think that the Judge has some sort of connection with a demon or devil of sorts. For one thing, the Judge loves fire. He sits in front of one every day in a sort of tanning style. Also, he is compared to a djinn alot which we have learned is a evil or mischevious spirit. We have no idea where he came from and he supposedly knows everything. On page 130, Tobin says, "...tellin us that our mother the earth as he said was round like an egg and contained all good things within her." This may be a reference to hell that the Judge brings up. He still seems like a shady character to me and from the hints we have been given from our teacher, it seems like the Judge is only going to get worse.

chapter 8

The setting you are given for the cantina is dreary and creepy. This would not be the sort of place I would want to get my alcohol fix from, especially in a foreign country. This cut throat guy here, he has every where else in this world to go besides with a table of men- one of which did this cutting of said throat-who are probably not all that interesting in the first place. It says a lot about the man’s character I suppose.

I don’t understand why Kid is Texas, is he using that as word play because he believes he is from Texas? Is he calling him Texas because he is fighting for Texas? I don’t know, this just intrigued me.

Using deductive reasoning, I figured out that Madre de Dios = Mother of God. But everything else that is in Spanish after that is just babble as far as I can comprehend.

I really liked the way that the old man talks of Mexico, that it is a thirsty country and not but the blood of 1,000 Christs will do. It kind of helps you throw things into perspective as far as Mexico of 1840’s. Even still isn’t it a raging murderous country, thought so.

PROBLEMATICAL – a real, live, official word. –adj of the nature of a problem; doubtful; uncertain; questionable. (I was told in one of my previous English papers that it wasn’t something I could use..)

Jackson killed Jackson in what I would call a sneaky-yet-at-your-face-quick-slice-kind-of-kill (I did not make that up…yes I did.) the fact that all of the men just let him sit there all decapitated and what not was kind of odd. I can understand not wanting to do anything with the body because you wouldn’t want to touch something like that.. but don’t just leave his body there for all to see! And I don’t care if they thought it wrong to take someone’s boots, the man is HEADLESS, what is a little boot thievery compared to taking his head?

Animas Peaks – a small mountain range in southwestern New Mexico. Named after a nearby town.

Chapta seven

There are a lot of good words in this chapter for vocabulary; there is also a large amount of Espanol, which only added to the confusion… Any who, this chapter was strange and I wasn’t ever really sure of why the juggler and his family were ever in the story, they were just simply odd. And the Jew, how could you not add a Jew into a western.

As far as characters go, I'm really starting to like Glanton; when he shoots up all of the animals right after they’ve loaded each of the guns, just imagine the look on everyone’s face. He seems like an impulsive and trigger-happy man, and shooting the older woman at the end only confirms such. One thing I don’t get is why he would shoot her and not at least have the decency to scalp her himself; it’s only fair. And Judge Holden is just pure trickery; by using large words and a lot of them he obviously befuddles the poor soul who probably can’t even read. As for the kid, I'm curious as to why he isn’t very active in this chapter, isn’t this a book about him?

Page 84-bottom “He adduced for their consideration references to the children of Ham, the lost tribes of the Israelites, certain passages from the Greek poets, anthropological speculations at to the propagation of the races in their dispersion and isolation through the agency of geological cataclysm and assessment of racial traits with respect to climate and geographical influences... I am lost at this point; I don’t understand why this is being said, who is saying it and whom it is being said to.

This chapter had a few good parts, it was fairly easy to read and get through, but it certainly wasn’t a very exciting chapter.

Wordage

Scabbard (n): a sheath for a sword, dagger, or bayonet

Interlocutrix (root word: interlocutor) someone who takes part in a conversation

As for the Six Shot Colt’s Patent Revolver, I was curious to see what these guns looked like; they’re pretty plain. http://collections.mnhs.org/cms/display.php?search=civil+war&CivilWarCategory=A02F&irn=10270447

April 20, 2010 Blog Chapter 10

Not really much to say about this chapter. The priest doesn't seem very bright in my opinion and the Judge is further exemplified of his intelligence. I thought it was funny that the priest, at the end, told the kid not to talk about what the judge is a judge of because he hears well. It makes me think that he wanted the judge to hear him, but for reasons I can't figure out. Perhaps to gain favor with him, or perhaps in the hope that the judge will choose to explain it to him.

Tobin said that every man in the company claims to have encountered the judge, "sooty souled rascal." Did the kid actually see him? I assume so since the book is written in 3rd person omniscient so... but the judge remains a very interesting character.

the judge's gun is named Et In Arcadia Ego. This means "I, also, am in Arcadia." This quote is most know from two paintings by Nicolas Poussin and is also associated with the Priory of Sion per Dan Brown in Holy Blood, Holy Grail and The DaVinci Code. In this context, Arcadia is an ideal, Utopian society in which the people are one with nature, similar to the Garden of Eden without the religious connotation. I found this on a website about the painting by Poussin:

Et In Arcadia Ego may translate several ways, such as: 'I, too, was born [or lived] in Arcady'; or, 'Even in Arcady, there I am'. After much deliberation, Erwin Panofsky (Meaning in the Visual Arts, Doubleday Anchor Books, New York, 1955) concluded that it is not the ghost of the shepherd that declaims to us from the depths of the rustic sarcophagus, but Death itself. Indeed, there is Death -- even in Arcadia.

The judge seemed to know that the company was coming down the river and was expecting them the day they met. It says, "...as if everything had turned out just as he planned..." I wonder, if he did plan their meeting, what his purpose was. Does Glanton have something he wants?

Malpais- an extensive area of rough, barren lava flows.

Chancre- the initial lesion of syphilis and certain other infectious diseases, commonly a more or less distinct ulcer or sore with a hard base

Alpenstock- a strong staff with an iron point, used by mountain climbers.

parley- discussion



The "queer powder" judge makes really impresses me. He made it from nitre, sulfur from the brimstone, and charcoal. Nitre is potassium nitrate. The nitre was collected from the cave where the bats dropped their feces, this was called saltpetre earlier in the chapter. It is used in gunpowder commercially. The charcoal judge made from the oven he made in the cave.

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.

Blog rhymes with cheese.

This chapter. Yeah, it was pretty boring. You know, I'm getting the same thing from every chapter. It's like the exact same thing keeps happening over and over. They ride. They meet some folk. Someone dies. They ride. Oh well.

I've noticed the author/fellow using the phrase "in the void," and permutations of that phrase quite often. It stays pretty fresh though, I think. It sounds really... creepy. Void is one of those words. And the desert is just so vast void is a really fitting term. It's a lot of nothing and if one were to perish there, no one would care or ever find out. It's just a pit of black stuff. Empty space. Vooooiiidd.

After they terminate the Apache riders, the guys shoot that runaway (or whatever he is, but that's what I thought). "Sand stuck to his eyeball." Pretty terrifying. It's a really minute detail, but just that shows so much. It's hard to explain, but there couldn't be a better way of saying "he's dead and it sucks to be dead because you get all nasty and such." And then his dark genitals are floating around in the judge's face.

Does anybody think the words are getting bigger and bigger? By bigger I don't really mean big as in length, but them 'ere fancy words that nobody has ever heard before. Seriously I'm circling two or three words in a row on several occasions. He has such a simplistic writing style otherwise. No quotations and only a few commas. It's all confusing.

The Judge's wisdom. That of many men. He's the main leader (maybe co-leader with Glanton) and everyone respects what he says, but then he's dancing nude outside in a thunderstorm. Enigmatic. And people challenge his teachings of geology. Judge has a perfect argument though. His views of God aren't so much the bible, but... yeah, I don't even know what's going on. He likes God, only, he doesn't care about his teachings? He is an elusive fellow, this guy judge.

"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." When I read this, I knew it was important. It just sounds like foreshadowing, but for the life of me (probably not really for the life of me though) I don't know what it means...

The guy singing hymns and cursing God was one of the weirdest parts of the chapter. He's singing the hymns, probably because those are the only songs he knows, and between songs he curses God. I kind of follow what it's getting at. He's shot and everything. Maybe he's singing for salvation? And then yelling at God for bringing him to where he is? It's all a mystery. Nonetheless a funny image.

Blood Meridian Chapter 9

In this chapter, the group of men accomplished almost nothing. They only got one scalp out of the Indian ambush, they met some new and doomed friends, they got some deer meat, and they saw another group of renegades. That pretty much sums it up. However, McCarthy still finds a way to make art with his words in some of the simplest circumstances. McCarthy could make the act of combing one's hair the most detailed and intricate act ever achieved.

McCarthy's best and most intellectual paragraph is when he describes the inability of man to control his future (aka. the part about the tornado/dust devil). McCarthy writes, "Out of that whirlwind no voice spoke and the pilgrim lying in his broken bones may cry out and in his anguish he may rage, but rage at what (McCarthy 111)?" In this sentence, McCarthy shows us his view of death. He thinks of death as an inevitable circumstance that cannot be avoided. Therefore, man cannot be angered by his demise because his demise is destined to happen. This could be a form of foreshadowing that may predict the deaths of several men in the posse. I like McCarthy's description of the snake-bitten horse. He writes, "...with its head enormously swollen and grotesque like some fabled equine ideation out of an Attic tragedy (McCarthy 115)." I think that McCarthy is referring to the fairy-tale like stories we used to believe as kids (the whole monster in the closet thing). The thing I don't understand is why McCarthy chose to capitalize attic in this sentence. Judge's conversation with the prospectors is very interesting. Obviously he knows much more than they do, or more like he makes it seem like he does. The Judge has the talent of being able to please or punish people in the confines of one sentence. McCarthy probably added this characteristic to the Judge's personality to show how easily man can be manipulated and tricked. Also, the description of the Judge naked on the top of the building amid a storm of lightening just added to his craziness.

Now for the research portion.
I found that most of the ore prospected was for gold, not for industrial metals. Although mines would pump out lots of gold and riches, the prospectors would very rarely get any money for themselves (wikipedia.com). Most of the miners and prospectors panned the streams for gold, however some actually found huge deposits in the Black Hills of South Dakota. This was a hard life that was very dangerous at times. Even though riches were rarely found, thousands still fled toward the west in search of gold.

On page 120, the phrase ignis fatuus is used. This means: a flitting phosphorescent light seen at night, chiefly over marshy ground, and believed to be due to spontaneous combustion of gas from decomposed organic matter (dictionary.com). This is a fancy term for swamp gas. Also, the word fusil is used. This is a light flintlock musket (dictionary.com).

A good simile is on page 109. McCarthy writes, "...rode out of that vanished sea like burnt phantoms with the legs of the animals kicking up the spume that was not real..." This helps us visualize how the heat of the desert and plains can force some images to be misinterpreted or seed differently. This helps us, as readers, imagine how it would be seeing a large and fearsome enemy on the horizon of a strange and hot land. Another thing is that McCarthy references the supernatural alot in his writing. He mentions phantoms and ghosts in almost every chapter, which add to the mystery and strangeness of the west.

There were a couple of things I didn't understand. Who killed the young kid? It may have been Glanton, yet I'm not sure that Glanton is evil enough to kill a kid for just staring at him. Also, near the beginning of the chapter, McCarthy describes a deep rumbling of falling rock within the earth. Is this supposed to be an earthquake? Sometimes McCarthy's descriptive nature makes it hard to understand what exactly he is trying to say. I'm not sure what my fellow classmates think but sometimes being to descriptive can be a bad thing.

Chapter 9

This chapter was pretty good. It was long, but most of the scenes were so descriptive that it felt like a movie. Or it did when I was reading it. Though, some of the descriptions were highly disturbing, and that is putting it lightly.

The ambush scene was interesting. It wasn't much of a fight though. Just a few Apaches come riding and they past the group and kept going. Only a few people died, which I expected a massive casualty count. There was a good simile describing the kid on page 109. "...letting off the shots slowly and with care as if he'd done it all before in a dream." I think this quote shows how the kid has improved through fighting these indians, and he's not hastily firing his revolver's ammo away.

A very gross and disturbing scene follows when they come across the dead Apache. The way McCarthy described the Apache was pretty cool. From the way his scars were described it made me think of Rambo, and it's proof that he's been in many battles. In this scene, I didn't understand the quote on the following paragraph, "It held a calculus or madstone from the inward parts of some beast..." Dictionary.com's definition makes me think it's basically like a kidney stone or something, but why would that be important, and why would the judge think so? Ok, here's the grotesque scene, "Tied alongside the dark genitals was a small skin bad and this the judge cut away and also secured in the pocket of his vest." Really? That is probably too vivid and descriptive than I had hope, but it also shows that once again, McCarthy is not afraid to go there.

I've noticed that McCarthy used the phrase "they rode on" in some form of fashion a lot. It's probably not important, but I think of every cowboy movie, pretty much Silverado because I can't think of other ones, when the badbutt cowboy just rides on, even though he saved a town or stopped a terrorist. I think it cements the coolness of these guys, because even though they're doing whatever it is they're doing, they're just riding on. Thought that I'd point that out.

The next scene I thought was interesting was where they went in the presidio and found those wounded squatters. It was pretty funny that the first thing they asked for was whiskey, and the second was tobacco. Shows they don't think they're going to make it, so they want to have at least a drink and a smoke before they go. Also, the horse was pretty gross. "...this thing now stood in the compound with its head enormously swollen and grotesque like some fabled quine ideation out of an Attic tragedy." It sounds disgusting, but I don't understand the Attic Tragedy part. I searched Attic Tragedy but all I found was a tragedy from Attica, so I'm not sure what that could mean.

I also liked how Glanton treated the squatters when they were leaving. Shortly before, the judge was talking scripture to some of the squatters and he replied with, "He speaks in stones and trees, the bones of things." I think this quote is pretty awesome. When the squatters try to join, Glanton just basically ignores them because he obviously didn't want a bunch of useless people dragging him down.