Home
Creators
Search Recent Random
Posts
Search DMs Popular Hash Lookup Tags Random
Importer
Import FAQ
Register Favorites Keys Review DMs Logout
Community
Telegram ThePornDude
Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout

Striking Fire in the Epilogue to Blood Meridian (Patreon)

Published:
2022-06-24 18:48:27
Imported:
2026-06
haven't archived this post yet. have a subscription? use the importer!

Content

"In the dawn there is a man progressing over the plain by means of holes which he is making in the ground."

Today we're making sense of the enigmatic epilogue to Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian.

Blood Meridian Series:

Lecture Timestamps:

  • 0:00 from ending to epilogue
  • 2:30 the difficulty of Cormac McCarthy
  • 3:00 a personal Judgement Day
  • 7:00 deep-reading the epilogue together
  • 7:40 "In the dawn..."
  • 8:30 progressing from past to present
  • 11:00 spiritual progress in Blood Meridian
  • 13:00 from epigraphs to epilogue 
  • 16:00 carrying the light through the darkness
  • 17:20 "there is a man"
  • 18:00 what is the implement?
  • 19:00 McCarthy's first draft of the epilogue 
  • 21:00 "striking the fire out of the rock"
  • 23:00 the wanderers like "mechanisms"
  • 24:40 what are they digging?
  • 27:00 the symbolism of fences 
  • 28:30 the variety of reader interpretations
  • 31:00 a Promethean questing after fire
  • 33:00 darkness as proof of light
  • 34:00 the hero of the next story to be told
  • 36:00 is the man of the epilogue a writer?
  • 37:53 Cormac McCarthy's typewriter 
  • 39:00 congratulations on reading Blood Meridian

Congratulations on making it through Blood Meridian.

Thank you for all of your brilliant insights and appreciations. In our next show, I will be reading and responding to your great comments from the discussion threads.

Some Questions:

1) Most readers who pick up this novel put it down without finishing. How would you convince another to stick with Blood Meridian?

2) Can we fence off the past? Why should we bear witness to history?

3) What is McCarthy trying to tell us in that epilogue?

Happy reading, everybody!

Files

Previews only

Striking Fire in the Epilogue to Blood Meridian

0:00 from ending to epilogue 2:30 the difficulty of Cormac McCarthy 3:00 a personal Judgement Day 7:00 deep-reading the epilogue together 7:40 "In the dawn..." 8:30 progressing from past to present 11:00 spiritual progress in Blood Meridian 13:00 from epigraphs to epilogue 16:00 carrying the light through the darkness 17:20 "there is a man" 18:00 what is the implement? 19:00 McCarthy's first draft of the epilogue 21:00 "striking the fire out of the rock" 23:00 the wanderers like "mechanisms" 24:40 what are they digging? 27:00 the symbolism of fences 28:30 the variety of reader interpretations 31:00 a Promethean questing after fire 33:00 darkness as proof of light 34:00 the hero of the next story to be told 36:00 is the man of the epilogue a writer? 37:53 Cormac McCarthy's typewriter 39:00 congratulations on reading Blood Meridian

Comments

Daniel Minton

"Well aint that the drizzlin shits." - My new go to line. Blood Meridian is amazing! There are a few authors that I read that floor me with their unrelenting prose. George Elliott does not have a wasted sentence, Hillary Mantel thinks and articulates in ways I can only dream of and Cormac McCarthy can paint a picture with the least amount of words and the most depth possible. Yes this is worth reading. Yes, it is worth being a witness to the horror. It is worth it alone to experience McCarthy's prose. There is a description of the gang and a group of Indians (forget the tribe off hand) on the edge of violence due to Glanton's unruly horse. The group is described as a perilous architecture, as men amongst thorns. I feel that edge of your seat tension through the whole novel. The gang is like a consequential storm over the land. A force of nature. Part of nature. This was my first read and I am still grasping with the layers and the meaning. I do see the Judge as a supernatural being, the Devil maybe. I get the symbolism (your lectures are ridiculously good, thank you) but I don't have fully formed opinions of my own just yet. I feel more like a witness on this first read through, wide eyed, shocked and changed. On my next reading I will be able to look for the clues and the meaning and I look forward to that. Thank you Ben for the journey. Now on to Moby Dick!!!

Terri Matter

Let’s change up this epilogue in honor of “Orlando”, the current HLBC read… In the dawn there is a woman progressing over the plain by means of holes which she is making in the ground. In each hole, she strikes fire and leaves piles of grey ash. The bone searchers recognize the Truth and Beauty in the ashes that ride on the wind. “In the name of the Bee— And of the Butterfly— And of the Breeze—Amen!” (E.Dickinson) The wanderer makes 1779 such holes, and returns to her own room, which overlooks an oak tree of unparalleled strength. She steadfastly ignores the loaded gun in the corner. (To remain true to the spirit of Cormac McCarthy, I refuse to explain any of the above, except to say the woman did require an implement to strike the fire in the holes, but it was small enough to wield with a single hand.) Acknowledgment: Many thanks to Ben for stuffing my head so full of Literature that it is now spilling out my fingers in puddles of nonsense.

Ellen M
>>109580201

Terri I had to switch threads to see the Orlando connection, this is my idea of wonderful nonsense :) I don’t know if I’ll ever fully understand the epilogue. Not sure when I’ll be able to stomach another reread of this book, but the epilogue is a puzzle that I still feel I need to get back to. It was genius of McCarthy to leave the women out of this sordid hellscape: if women were present nothing remotely close to the horror could have occurred