So the question here is this:
Blood Meridian ... yes or no? Should it be in the curriculum of the class or not? Is the difficult reading experience worth the payoff?
In your blog entry you should make your case. I have mixed feelings and am curious to know what you think.
In my belief, Blood Meridian is essential to the course. Since the class is all about the West, having a realism novel is essential. The story of Blood Meridian is very fascinating and the writing style of Cormac McCarthy is magnificent. The book adds much insight into the course and touches upon all the major themes. It presents a different picture of what a Western novel is and thus, can be used to craft our picture of the West. Blood Meridian is essential to the course. How can there be LATAW with out the Judge?
ReplyDeleteFrench VaniLLa says YES. Blood Meridian is essential to this course because it informs and graphically depicts how brutal the West really was during that time. We read Shane, it shows how romanticized the West was: this class needs something to show it what ACTUALLY happened in the Wild West, and no offense but Jump-Off Creek did not do the job in the slightest. In my opinion, Blood Meridian is what gives this course kick and is necessary to give the students a better understanding of what actually happened as apposed to Shane.
ReplyDeleteI say yes. Blood Meridian is a classic example of the opposing viewpoints from the traditional western story. I think that these differing ideas are essential to understanding all of the themes and ideas in the first unit. It was valuable to me to compare and contrast the ideas and writing styles in Shane and in Blood Meridian. Overall, this book embodies the major themes of the class extremely well.
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Although I think the message and truth of Blood Meridian is very important, I'm not entirely convinced it is the most effective use of a whole month. Maybe reading some excerpts from Blood Meridian would be another way to still get the themes across. Some of the shorter works have had more of an impact on me than this book.
DeleteWhen we are considering taking Blood Meridian out of this course's curriculum, we really need to think about the purpose of the course. This is Literature and the American West. This style and genre of literature is laden with stigmas and stereotypes that have done an excellent job of obscuring what actually happened in the western United States. My mother and father are two examples of the impact that these stereotypes have had on American culture and literature of that period. My parents were convinced that the American west in the 1800s to early 1900s was actually similar to the culture described in an American classic such as Shane. Shane is a romanticized, aggrandized description of the American west. In Shane, the main conflict is between the Homesteaders and outsiders such as Luke Fletcher that are insisting they have original ownership of the property. The book never mentions racial conflicts, the disgusting acts of mass murder against the Native American population, or even some of the moderately gory conflicts between the dominant white men in that area of the American west. The book also suggests that there is a serious lack of rebellion and political organization in that area of the western United States; it seemed that it was relatively easy for a man such as Shane to arrive randomly and assert political power with ease. As Blood Meridian proves repeatedly, men who attempted to gain control of such areas of the United States never emerged unscathed.
ReplyDeleteIn taking out Blood Meridian, we would let such one-sided uninformed discussions on the American west remain in the curriculum. It would be a shame to leave that in absence of such a well-researched piece of literature as Blood Meridian. Most of the other works that we have read this year provide only one new perspective in the western United States curriculum. Molly Gloss' Jump Off Creek shows the western way of life from a female perspective, but doesn't address any of the other stereotypes about this genre. Whitman's poems tend to talk from only an Easterner's point of view rather than a holistic point of view. Fenimore Cooper's Last of the Mohicans and Deerslayer are yet other accounts only of the racism from men, and hardly mentions the female perspective or even a more in-depth account from a Native American tribe; and in the end, the male narrator ends up reverting on his prejudicial upbringing and abandons the new experiences he had.
Blood Meridian is also more than a work of fiction that came about from a reflective moment that McCarthy's had one day. Almost all of the details that McCarthy uses to create the foundation of Blood Meridian are proved accurate. He uses real names and real cities, and in some instances actual moments that were recorded to have happened. When reading Blood Meridian, the faces and names of these people are not abstract characters that were created for the sake of having a fluid plot but are representative of experiences that people endured in the late 1800s. McCarthy never sought to romanticize moments of this era for the sake of his novel and commercial success in the literary world.
McCarthy makes references that are seldom seen in typical stories of the American western genre. He make allusions to Moby Dick, to biblical stories, to dichotomies and conflicts that are recurring in famous pieces of literature such as Paradise Lost. Most western novels are so immersed in their own isolated conflicts and concerns that such connections are few and far between. Its as if they exist in their own world of reasoning. In making such connections, McCarthy is delving on only into the complexities of western American culture in the late 1800s and early 1900s, but giving his own spin on what literature often focuses on: the oddities of human nature.
In short, taking this book would be depriving students of a wealth of knowledge and experiences not only in terms of western American literature, but in terms of the great classics that have ever existed.
I think if you have a chance to teach this course again next year, you should teach Blood Meridian. It depicts and describes a more graphic and grotesque West than any other novel (probably in existence). It may in fact even exaggerate the brutality of the West. That is its purpose, to describe a West different than what readers have experienced in the past, although possibly exaggerated, still closer to the truth than the romanticized Westerns. Also, it is an engaging and well written novel. it is not a poorly written book simply used to illustrate a point. It is a legitimate and enjoyable novel that gracefully presents an idea to the reader. You should teach it.
ReplyDeleteI think that Blood Meridian should be kept in the curriculum of the class. Not only is the story itself very interesting and thought provoking, but I feel that it provides the perfect contrast to the typical romanticized image of the West, such as in Shane. While it does seem that some parts of Blood Meridian could be exaggerated, I think that it is very important for the class to get a good idea of what types of situations were really occurring in the West.
ReplyDeleteI think keeping Blood Meridian in the curriculum would be a good idea. The reason is that the course might get a little boring with the same classic western books and a book like Blood Meridian, that is so crazy and out there, really brings strong attention to the students. I also feel like some of the best and strongest conversations in class were ones relating to Blood Meridian. It also provides an extremely vivid and intense view of the west
ReplyDeleteI think that, in retrospect, Blood Meridian was instrumental in exemplifying the deconstruction of the formula western. Blood Meridian contrasts so greatly with the other novels' depictions of the west that it shows how our historical memory has become distorted over time and how the true picture of the American West is open for interpretation. I will say that the book was quite difficult to read and there were sections when I had absolutely no idea what was going on. I think that the book intentionally had no emphasis on holding the attention of the reader, rather it just told its story and allowed the reader to provide the drive to turn the pages. I know that oftentimes when I was reading the book I would become board of the convoluted story line and frustrated with the absurd, unrealistic violence. Additionally, I was never able to identify with any of the characters and thus felt no connection to the story. Thus, I would keep Blood Meridian in the curriculum, but I would warn students that they may not enjoy reading it and that it’s the overall themes of Blood Meridian that matter above the actual story.
ReplyDeleteI strongly believe that Blood Meridian is a staple of the LATAW Curriculum because it is such a strong contrast to what we know as the 'formula western'. Before this class I certainly believed in the notion that the American West was actually how it was depicted in films, but Blood Meridian shows that the west was not the romanticized past we see in John Wayne movies or Back to the Future III. I do not necessarily believe that Blood Meridian is the perfect example of the "real west" because of the immense and most likely exaggerated amounts of violence in the novel, but it does certainly break the mold of the western and opens the mind to other views of the west.
ReplyDeleteI thought there'd be a little more resistance to this side of the argument, and yet I'm apparently in excellent company in saying we should keep Blood Meridian in the curriculum. In addition to it's role as probably the most interesting book we read (probably a less popularly help opinion) it serves as the ultimate example of a deconstructed, realistic western. One of the things I most enjoyed about this course is the way in which we flowed down the timeline of western literature. We established the main themes, actions, and ideas of the genre with short stories and excerpts from classic western books, used Shane as an example of romanticized western with a few minor differences acting as a comment on the closing of the frontier and the changing American lifestyle, and then finally Blood Meridian came in as the logical, antithetic conclusion to centuries of glorified, unrealistic western literature. In addition, there are also so many other cool ways to look at the book that I think it is worth a month entirely in and of itself, even without the necessity of using it to exemplify a stage in western writing. It acts as a critique of historical memory, which goes hand in hand with it's purpose in the class, and also presents very interesting ideas about life, death, and morality that I actually wish we had had more time to discuss. All in all, I would be very saddened to hear of this class continuing next year—which it most definitely should—without Blood Meridian in the curriculum.
ReplyDeleteI think the themes that Blood Meridian addresses are very important to discuss in the context of the class. However, the book is a huge investment of time as it takes a full month to read. It is also a challenging book to read and I personally thought it unpleasant. If there was another book or movie that addressed the same themes and was shorter/ easier to read, it would be a perfect compromise. But since a book like that does not exist, I would say keep it in.
ReplyDeleteI personally hated Blood meridian and did not enjoy it in the slightest; But i do think it connects very well to the themes in the class and gives a more accurate version of the west then other books we've read such as Shane. I agree with Christine that maybe just reading important exerts from the book could be just as effective because the book is extremely graphic and i dont think anyone should be forced to read about babies skulls being smashed in if it doesn't have any relevance other then just showing pure evil and unnecessary violence.
ReplyDeleteI think that keeping Blood Meridian in the curriculum is a good idea. While it was a bit of a shock after we had gotten into the groove of reading tales of the romanticized west, I believe it helps the class incorporate another perspective and literary style. It was also a rather exciting read. If you were to keep it in the curriculum, however, I would maybe ease into it using other books that share a similar depiction of the west. It came as a rather sudden change from our typical novel in the class at that point. I believe it is an important book to teach, but can maybe be melded with the rest of the curriculum a bit more smoothly.
ReplyDeleteI say yes! Although it was somewhat of a slow book for my taste, it presented essential themes and topics crucial to the theme of the class. The typical Western is about a cowboy who saves a town in danger of a new rough and tough cowboy/mexican pandilla all while the cowboy drinks a lot of moonshine and falls in love with a prostitute or dancer with a good soul. However, as a student in this type of class, it's important to know that that's not the only type of Western that exists. A Western can be anything. It can be about defying conformity, escaping to the wilderness, or finding ones self within nature. I think Blood Meridian really put into perspective for all of us that there's more to a Western than just gunned cowboys on horses. During the Wild West, there wasn't always a happy ending to the story. There was blood shed, unbelievable gore, and loss of morality. Blood Meridian is essentially an Anti-Western, and although I personally didn't enjoy the process of reading it, it was a good story for juxtaposing the typical Westerns and what may have actually happened during the Wild West.
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ReplyDeleteI think that Blood Meridian is definitely worth the chunk of time it takes to read it. Not only does Blood Meridian carry the vital themes that re-er merge throughout your course, Blood Meridian also shows the dark, the dirty, the untold story of the west. As you said before we started reading Blood Meridian, no one really tells stories about the "dark side" of the west. Taking out Blood Meridian would eliminate that truth that has untold for many years, of the times the west became immoral.
ReplyDeletePlus everyone needs to read of a character like the Judge at least once in their lifetime. Also, evaluating the way McCormac :) writes with your guidance is actually quite interesting in my opinion. Don't get me wrong it was a challenging read, but once we sorted through McCormac's style and I figured out what was going on, it definitely got better.
I believe that Blood Meridian is very important to the core themes of the course, and should be kept in the curriculum. It provides a stark contrast to the American cowboy stories like Shane, and shows a completely different side to the American west. The story, while it may sometimes be hard to read, is very interesting. It was a good book and was a completely different view than any other book we have read. Every cowboy story we have ever heard, and everything about the American west, is romanticized and Blood Meridian at least makes the reader think about these themes, and whether there is any truth behind them. I believe that Blood Meridian should stay as part of the course, and is definitely worth reading.
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