An Unexpected Effect of Reading Blood Meridian

Generally speaking, I think obsessive behavior is usually a bad thing. But I have an obsession that I’ll admit: I am reading Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy for the fourth time this year. This probably brings the total up to at least 30.

Lately, it is the only thing that stops the tics. I can’t prescribe it to you as a remedy for your Tourette Syndrome, but it is the current ameliorative for my own. And the most intensely I study the book, the calmer I get.

I’ve been buying a new copy each time. Then I go through that copy and mark a specific thread or theme. So far this year I’ve done, with four copies:

Instances of mercy (shortest list!)
Words spoken by the kid
Words spoken by the judge
descriptions of landscape

BM rewards careful reading, and it’s rewarding me in a way I never could have anticipated right now. It makes me focus. It calms me down. I don’t even wonder why because it just feels so good to sit still, even if it means wading through gore and hanging out with judge holden.

If you’re a McCarthy nut and you’re looking for a new take on things, Peter Josyph’s Adventures In Reading Cormac McCarthy has some great insights.