Epistemological violence in America

At present, I am devouring Cormac McCarthy's ridiculously terrific Blood Meridian. The novel, which mostly takes place in Mexico in the early- to mid-nineteenth century, requires use of two dictionaries: one to translate the semi-frequent Spanish dialogue and another to translate McCarthy's arcane lexicon. For example, he tosses around words such as djinn (which I knew thanks to the Final Fantasy series of games), caesura, and filibuster (used with regard to a person, not the infamous legislative (in)action.)

It isn't often that I reread a work of fiction. The Great Gatsby and Broom of the System (and the first fifty or so pages of Infinite Jest) are the only such books that come to mind. But in the case of Blood Meridian, I expect to turn back to page one upon completing the first read. As the critic's blurb on the back cover states, "The book reads like a conflation of the Inferno, the Iliad, and Moby Dick." What more can one ask for?

Labels: Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy, dictionary