Reddit Reddit reviews Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West

We found 28 Reddit comments about Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

Literature & Fiction
Books
Genre Literature & Fiction
Historical Fiction
Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West
This is the 56th printing of the May 1992 First International Vintage edition, a new, unread, unworn, hardly opened, unmarked trade softcover.
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28 Reddit comments about Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West:

u/Anastik · 31 pointsr/AskReddit

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. The book provides a loosely based historical account on a scalp hunting expedition in the 1840s southwest. It touches on many themes like manifest destiny and the nature of evil in mankind.

And to build on the other AskReddit question about improving your vocabulary, this book has a plethora of unique words. This quote was taken from a study that was done on the book by Christopher Forbis. He writes:

> The book, although only 334 pages of text, contains 10,257 individual unique words. Some of these words
occur on nearly every page but a large percentage occur only once within the text. In fact, 5,308 words occur
only once in the book representing nearly 52% of the unique words used to create this masterpiece.

Here's the link.

And I also imagine there's many people who've already read this book who might be looking for additional interpretations on it. And for these people might I suggest John Sepich's Notes on Blood Meridian. This book does a phenomenal job of weaving together the historical sources that McCarthy used to write this work. It also contains literary criticism and interpretations of themes and symbols throughout the book.

If you're looking for a page by page reference of the book--translations of Spanish to English, background information on cities, definitions of words--then I suggest getting A Reader's Guide to Blood Meridian.

I'm a huge fan of this book and I've learned a lot more about it by reading these two books. I think the books becomes more enjoyable and you start to admire the way in which he put this book together after you read these two books about the book. The subject matter is brutal, and this turns most people off, but if you make it through it I think you're rewarded with a truly outstanding novel.

u/Mattximus · 8 pointsr/ifyoulikeblank

Now, I'm guessing you're looking for a movie recommendation, but I would highly recommend the book Blood Meridian as the best thematically similar experience you will likely have.

u/judgebeholden · 3 pointsr/books

Blood Meridian– better imagery than Oh, The Places You'll Go and more tips on what to do in complex social situations than How to Make Friends and Influence People.

u/YourDailyDevil · 3 pointsr/worldnews

...you’re posting THE HISTORY (and legacy) of forced sterilization and you literally tried to sneak in links about the Canadian sterilization to make it seem like you have links on the American one.

You honest to god thought just responding with a block of unrelated links would make it seem like a witty shutdown?

Well here’s what I have to say to you, good sir.

https://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/badgers

https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Meridian-Evening-Redness-West/dp/0679728759

http://www.small-cabin.com/forum/2_2885_0.html

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-w-58hQ9dLk

u/jamestream · 3 pointsr/booksuggestions

Well . . . if you're looking at a book simply as a collection of text, I too have never feared a line of text. What books allow, is a slow building of fear that require quite a bit of character development. I don't read horror novels waiting to be frightened, and truthfully read very little horror. The fear just happens. To be honest, it's a different type of fear - more of an uneasy feeling really. Certainly, a book can't have, what my son calls, "The scary jump out scenes". But if we exchange the term fear with edgy, here are a list of my favorite books with an "Edge":

[The Passage] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Passage-Novel-Book-Trilogy/dp/0345528174)
[The Terror] (http://www.amazon.com/Terror-Novel-Dan-Simmons/dp/0316008079/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404481514&sr=1-1&keywords=terror)
The Stand
Carrion Comfort
Desperation
I am Legend
The Sparrow
Night
Frankenstein
All Quite on the Western Front
Hunger
Blood Meridian
Watchers
The Minus Man

In no particular order - Not the usual suggestions either. Hope it helps, and happy reading!


u/somewherein72 · 3 pointsr/audiobooks

I finished 'Blood Meridian' by Cormac McCarthy. It was narrated by Richard Poe. I've enjoyed McCarthy's books for a long time, and I finally got my hands on a copy of this one, it's an amazing piece of work and definitely not for the faint of heart for it is filled with horrors and violence. I didn't realize until I was about halfway through the book, that it has a basis in reality, effectively detailing the exploits of John J. Glanton during the Mexican-American war in the latter part of the 1800's; that realization really cranked up some of the horrors that are represented in McCarthy's amazingly beautiful prose.

I want to include one of the best sentences I've read in a long time...."…they rode infatuate and half fond toward the red demise of that day, toward the evening lands and the distant pandemonium of the sun.

I also want to mention, I think this might be the first work that I've heard read by Richard Poe. He did a fantastic job. If you're a Frank Muller fan, like I am, you'd probably enjoy Richard Poe reading.

u/one_bad_pickle · 2 pointsr/Austin

More power to you if you want your book dollars going back into the local economy, but if you're just interested in reading Blood Meridian cheaply you might want to look online. I buy most of my books either through Amazon's used goods dealie or on Biblio.com ($6.50 w/ shipping at both).

u/Wombatzu · 2 pointsr/asoiaf

Blood Meridian

Judge Holden eats Boltons for breakfast and shits Freys before lunch.

u/mrxulski · 2 pointsr/deadwood

If you like westerns, you should read Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. If TV series are your thing, then the overlook yet brilliant Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco is something not to be missed. Can't go wrong with McCarthy and Eco. It's hard to compare Cranston to McShane though. It's like apples and oranges there.

u/WeGotDodgsonHere · 2 pointsr/books

I'm a little confused by the question. You mean the most aesthetically pleasing cover? And you only buy books if you really really like the cover?

Anyway, I like the 25th Anniversary Edition as far as covers go: http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Meridian-Evening-Redness-West/dp/0679728759/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405309538&sr=8-1&keywords=blood+meridian

u/bigbeautifulbastard · 2 pointsr/booksuggestions

i would throw cormac mccarthy's name into your selection, too. both "the road" and "no country for old men" are great introductions to his style. If you get a taste for his writing, definitely pick up "blood meridian." it's my favorite work of his. he's got a good sized catalog of 10 books if you get a taste for his style.

u/dookie1481 · 2 pointsr/printSF

This is how I feel about Blood Meridian.

u/Zerothustra · 1 pointr/reddeadredemption
u/boydeer · 1 pointr/atheism

gnostics are mystics, basically. gnostic christianity is to regular christianity in somewhat as sufism is to islam. the general idea is that you reach god through "gnosis", some sort of higher understanding achieved through personal development.

gnostic christianity has a couple branches as i understand it, but the general idea is that there was undifferentiated bliss, and a schism between good and evil created the physical world. there are demiurges bound to the physical world who seek to have dominion over it, and those are archons. the true god simply wants for us to attain gnosis and return to undifferentiated bliss.

more or less. the gnostic view of the death of jesus was not that sacrifice was necessary to redeem oneself, but that he was simply done and was going to return to undifferentiated bliss. the recently found gospel of judas claims that judas was in fact his closest disciple, and he alone understood his actual teachings. when the guards came for jesus, judas bought him some time by leading them off in another direction and then leading them to jesus later. but then the remaining disciples who were less developed sold judas out.

i find gnosticism interesting because it maintains that the reason we feel alienated in this physical world is that our consciousness is a "spark of the alien divine", and we do are not in fact of this plane. it helped me be more at peace with the alienation and terror i feel at existing in a fucked up reality, and gave me resolve to restart developing myself and my consciousness.

i've always been a little interested in gnosticism, having been raised around catholicism but with knowledge of eastern religions as well. but i got really interested in it when i read Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, which is a western built on these heavy gnostic themes with an archon-esque character. it's an amazing book and you should read it, though be warned it contains lots of violence. he also wrote No Country For Old Men, and anton chigurh is supposed to be like an archon of material avarice.

i still haven't read much about gnosticism directly and the bulk of my knowledge is from editorialized summaries. i have purchased some translations of the gnostic gospels, though, as well as what is supposed to be a superior and heavily footnoted translation of the five books of moses by Robert Alter, a comparative linguist and professor of hebrew who was inspired by the writing of authors such as Cormac McCarthy.

my interest in gnosticism also led me to read Gurdjieff's Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, which is an allegorical summary of his belief structure told from the perspective of an alien being describing us, developed through many years of travel in remote areas of the world talking to spiritual masters of many disciplines. it has really changed my view of life, even if you ignore the spiritual aspects, and i consider it to be the most important book i've read. in any case, he's got a much broader gnostic view that is not restricted to gnostic christianity.

cheers. :)

EDIT: also, wikipedia on gnosticism, and archons

u/grinr · 1 pointr/AskReddit

Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West. Hands down the best book I've ever read.

u/rehsarht · 1 pointr/Random_Acts_Of_Amazon

'Marabou Stork Nightmare' by Irvine Welsh. It's deliciously twisted and has a very interesting premise. I read it over 10 years ago and it still sticks with me.

Another good one, and perhaps one of my all time favorite books, is Cormac McCarthy's 'Blood Meridian: Or The Evening Redness in the West'. Just an incredible read, dark and powerful, a visceral look at westward expansion in the mid 1800's.

u/chrisma08 · 1 pointr/AskReddit

I don't know about awe-inspiring, but I think 'The Crossing' by Cormac McCarthy is one of the most moving pieces of fiction I've ever read.

'Blood Meridian' is usually considered his best and most literary work, however, and it is quite good.

'Stand on Zanzibar' by John Brunner is really good and surprisingly predictive of our current world.





u/meetmebythesea · 1 pointr/CasualConversation

I have so many favorite books, one of which is Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. Not a light read by any stretch; it's harrowing, terrifying, really difficult to get through, and it makes you utterly sad about how evil the world can be.

But so, so, so well written and thought-provoking.

u/46_and_2 · 1 pointr/Random_Acts_Of_Amazon

Happy (almost) birthday and I hope don't cry on your party. ;)

Here's something for the raffle -been on my to-read list for a long time but there's no translated version in my country or easy way to get the original - Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

u/MrGoodEmployee · 1 pointr/chicago

I've heard House of Leaves is really bizarre and cool.

My current deck is Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa, Between Legitimacy and Violence: A History of Colombia, 1875-2002, Bitter Fruit: The Story of the American Coup in Guatemala, Blood Meridian, and One Hundred Years of Solitude.

It's a really depressing list.

I read American Gods a couple years ago and hated it enough to not pick up another fiction book for like over a year.

u/lougroot · 1 pointr/books

Bats Out of Hell - Barry Hannah

CivilWarLand in Bad Decline - George Saunders

Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy

Siddhartha - Herman Hesse

Actual Air - David Berman

u/Truckyx · 1 pointr/AskReddit

I was lucky enough to take a class taught by Dennis Lehane (Mystic River, Shutter Island) called Modern Novels of Chaos. It changed how I viewed fiction; so many dark, evil books.

Here are the top 3 books we read:

Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy

A Prayer for the Dying - Stewart O'Nan

The Lover - Marguerite Duras


u/Groumph09 · 1 pointr/booksuggestions

Well then... I have more to list!

u/jids · 1 pointr/books

Cormac McCarthy could definitely be read by a child (Blood Meridian is at about a 6th grade level according to the Flesch-Kincaid Index), except for the fact that his books would scare the shit out of them. And how is saying it's too "mature" for children any different than saying they couldn't handle it emotionally?

u/[deleted] · 1 pointr/AskReddit