Slap Book Club: Like Reading Rainbow but with Sk8ers

[RoaryMcTwang]

Yo is this thing already dead in the water before the first round has even begun or what? Come on slap!

[matty_c]

It’s hard bro it would be easier if we were sitting round a table with a few drinks

It was sick how the judge geed everyone up to kill the preacher. I liked how later someone asks him something and he admits he never seen the bloke before and they all laugh and someone buys him a beer

I liked what Rory said about god doesn’t exist but the devil might. What happened so far is pretty much saying god is dead. I liked it how the kid and toadvine went and killed that other bloke and burned the hotel down. It’s like in this story one can do whatever and get away with it. You probably could do shit like that back in the day

Sorry for not putting too much effort into this I am rooted from work it was hot today. Hopefully we have more intelligent discussion as we get further into the book

[RoaryMcTwang]

It’s hard bro it would be easier if we were sitting round a table with a few drinks

It was sick how the judge geed everyone up to kill the preacher. I liked how later someone asks him something and he admits he never seen the bloke before and they all laugh and someone buys him a beer

I liked what Rory said about god doesn’t exist but the devil might. What happened so far is pretty much saying god is dead. I liked it how the kid and toadvine went and killed that other bloke and burned the hotel down. It’s like in this story one can do whatever and get away with it. You probably could do shit like that back in the day

Sorry for not putting too much effort into this I am rooted from work it was hot today. Hopefully we have more intelligent discussion as we get further into the book

No worries mate, much appreciated. A few more posts to get things going and then maybe we an develop some momentum with this

[modern life is war]

Anyone still reading? I finally started getting into it. It's not what i was expecting but I'm enjoying it so far. I feel like it's hard to say much about a book when you're only 2 chapters in though.

[RoaryMcTwang]

Anyone still reading? I finally started getting into it. It's not what i was expecting but I'm enjoying it so far. I feel like it's hard to say much about a book when you're only 2 chapters in though.

I'm still down if other pals are. Who else is still on board?

[pugmaster]

I read the first two chapters. After the first page, I found it really hard to keep reading. The lack of punctuation makes reading dialogue an arduous task. I'm trying to keep an open mind because I like westerns and whatnot. Hoping the kid comes across a prospector at some point. I'm also hoping the plot becomes more than a series of bar fights and description of the kid traveling to another place and meeting some random person.

[rawr1922]

Any recommendations on where I can read for free?

[pugmaster]

Any recommendations on where I can read for free?

Check your PMs

[beatifk]

I read the first two chapters. After the first page, I found it really hard to keep reading. The lack of punctuation makes reading dialogue an arduous task. I'm trying to keep an open mind because I like westerns and whatnot. Hoping the kid comes across a prospector at some point. I'm also hoping the plot becomes more than a series of bar fights and description of the kid traveling to another place and meeting some random person.

Haha, it's a really difficult book to read. And it doesn't really go beyond descriptions of traveling around and various fights but rather it escalates to extremes. That's kinda the point of the book I think. There is a 'conflict' later in the book between characters but I think really the meat of the book is all the gruesome detail and relentless gore which was the foundation of the formation of the great country of the the U S of A.

I've read it twice and I don't really want to spoil it for those who are reading it currently, but I would recommend pressing on if you can. It is a very difficult book to read. It's not pleasant and it's not particularly 'poetic' or 'literary' but it does put you into a certain state of mind like a hypnosis or something.

No Country For Old Men is McCarthy's most beautiful and poetic book, but Blood Meridian is a book like no other, and therein lies its importance.

[Sketch Hitchcock]

My copy’s on its way.  I’ll be playing catch up this week.

[modern life is war]

If you're writing a post in this thread that contains spoilers you should alert people at the start of the post

[modern life is war]

spoilers contained in this post I am at page 129.

I think I'm about a third of the way through right now.

This book is so gnarly. Although at times I'm finding the brutality is almost too much. Like when the group of Indian-hunters find that old village with the disheveled prospectors staying there and the Mexican child, then the next morning they wake up and the child is somehow dead and has his spine broken, and they just ignore it. How did that happen? He was alive the previous day and it was an uneventful night. There is just so much death and bloodshed. Or when the black guy cuts off his rival's head around the campfire and they all just kinda ignore it and ignore the corpse with blood spurting out of its neck. I suppose it's supposed to be just an overwhelming amount of death.

Overall I'm really enjoying it though. The lack of grammar was hard to read at first but I've gotten used to it now and it was definitely written in this way for a reason. The writing style of certain scenes has really portrayed how fast the bloodshed happens.

I'm waiting to see what kind of political angle this book will take. At this point it has painted a pretty nasty picture of the native Americans. We'll see where it goes though.

[pugmaster]

Thanks for putting the spoiler alert in your post. I wonder if it would be helpful to specify where the spoiler is located?

Something like, "Spoiler alert: Do not read unless you have read up to chapter 3" or something of that sort.

I don't want to avoid reading someone's contribution if I do not have to. I am enjoying hearing the different perspectives and takes that people have on the book so far.

[modern life is war]

Thanks for putting the spoiler alert in your post. I wonder if it would be helpful to specify where the spoiler is located?

Something like, "Spoiler alert: Do not read unless you have read up to chapter 3" or something of that sort.

I don't want to avoid reading someone's contribution if I do not have to. I am enjoying hearing the different perspectives and takes that people have on the book so far.

Good idea, i edited my post to contain my current page number.

[peterpenis]

Shit Im in the middle of the passenger and might have to follow that up with his other new novel. But at the current pace of the thread I might be able to catch up later.
Read BM a few years ago. I enjoyed it but was casually reading with out thinking too much about it and in hindsight felt like i missed a lot. So Im looking forward to reading it again and forcing myself to actually write down a couple of thoughts per chapter. Only noteworthy thing I can remember is how there were hardly any insights on the thoughts or emotions of the characters, just a seemingly random stream of violence and the story still captivated me. Was my first book by McCarthy and it made me buy a few of his others (which all felt pretty different from BM)

[Sketch Hitchcock]

Snagged the book from my library today, way thinner volume than I expected.  Excited to dig in.

[pugmaster]

I don't want to rush anyone or exclude anyone from the conversation, but I wonder if it would be a good idea to have a general timeline as to when certain chapters are completed?  I keep checking this thread periodically and I don't really know if I should continue on or wait for people to catch up. This is @SneakySecrets thread, so I will leave that decision up to him. So far I am not enjoying the book much, but am willing to keep reading if I know there is a definitive "due date." I very much enjoy the communal aspect of a book club and hearing different opinions.

[matty_c]

It’s not the end of the world but I read it all to last few pages and then someone posted a review on here that tells the ending I was a bit salty about that haha

But the ending sounds like a good one I like the book

[SneakySecrets]

This is @SneakySecrets thread, so I will leave that decision up to him. So far I am not enjoying the book much, but am willing to keep reading if I know there is a definitive "due date." I very much enjoy the communal aspect of a book club and hearing different opinions.

I decided I wanted to read something different, so I’m out, haha.  You all do what you want to, this belongs to you now.

[Sketch Hitchcock]

I havent read McCarthy before, just seen his work adapted for screen, and through two chapters, I’m certainly impressed with how rich his prose is, the economy of the storytelling, and McCarthy’s word choice for the most part, but…

SPOILER?

Damn, the amount of times the n-word gets tossed around is sort of astounding, and doesnt really seem character driven so much as McCarthy imposing his perceived sense of the time period, and for the shock value?  Maybe it’s a well-trodden topic on this book, I havent done my research, but I wonder if what flew in 1985 for a ‘beloved white novelist’ wouldnt fly today?  I personally couldnt rationalize the decision to use the word outside of dialogue here and there, and even then, I would do anything in my power to not use that word.  Just my two cents, but it’s pulled me out of the story a bunch so thought I’d bring it up.  Other than that, I’m enjoying this book quite a bit, in spite of my somewhat massive qualms, the writing is undeniably top tier.

[modern life is war]

Expand Quote

This is @SneakySecrets thread, so I will leave that decision up to him. So far I am not enjoying the book much, but am willing to keep reading if I know there is a definitive "due date." I very much enjoy the communal aspect of a book club and hearing different opinions.

[close]

I decided I wanted to read something different, so I’m out, haha.  You all do what you want to, this belongs to you now.

damn. you made me read this bloodbath of a book for nothing.

i say next time we read theodore kaczynski's manifesto - industrial society and its future. someone mentioned it in another thread and i think it's a good idea to read it and have a discussion on what he got right/wrong etc because regardless of what you think of the man the manifesto is at least an interesting read. it also only takes an hour or two to read. so maybe that would get more people involved.

[modern life is war]

I don't want to rush anyone or exclude anyone from the conversation, but I wonder if it would be a good idea to have a general timeline as to when certain chapters are completed?  I keep checking this thread periodically and I don't really know if I should continue on or wait for people to catch up. This is @SneakySecrets thread, so I will leave that decision up to him. So far I am not enjoying the book much, but am willing to keep reading if I know there is a definitive "due date." I very much enjoy the communal aspect of a book club and hearing different opinions.

i think rather than have a 'read up to page 25 by x date' people should just make posts with spoiler warnings and a page number as i did earlier. that way there can be an ongoing discussion and the thread can stay bumped. and then when the majority of regular contributors to the thread are finished we just move onto another book/essay/short story etc. idk, it's all a bit messy, but the idea of the book club in general is great.

[modern life is war]

SPOILERS i'm up to approximately page 190

Wow so the whites are just as bad if not worse than the indians. How historically accurate do you guys think blood meridian is? Obviously i don't think the events actually happened but were there similar battles/massacres happening in this time period?

Also i should also mention that i did not grow up in the USA so my knowledge of american colonial history is pretty much non-existent

[Frank and Fred]

Yes. Apparently 'Blood Meridian' is loosely based on  Samuel Chamberlain's "My Confession: The Recollections of a Rogue" which details similar events.

A good fictional companion novel to Blood Meridian is Burroughs' "The Place of Dead Roads."

[newguy]

I’m currently reading a bunch of books by famed pan africanist authors on how much shit crackers did to africa and the global south. Horrifying but very informative