Blood Meridian: The Judge's Final Sermon

On war, destiny, the supermacy of man.

[@evilwisdom]

You're here for the dance.

[@benjaminb6678]

bears that dance, bears that don’t.

[@MelancoliaI]

Sie mussen schlafen aber Ich muss tanzen

[@hodldor6382]

Actually, I just need to take a leak, could anyone point me to the jakes?

[@WillShakes423]

​@@hodldor6382 Oh, I wouldn't go in if I were you.

[@onojioboardwalk9748]

Oh boy.. If one cant sense when theyre in the constant and continual-presence of something as dangerous and deadly as the fellow in the dark-capes from 'The Seventh Seal' .. Then those people are in trouble. Ive met people like that without having a say in it before.. You never ever want to meet them in your worst nightmares..

[@zree758]

That's just like, your opinion, man- the kid

[@TheRealRusDaddy]

Way to boil down the entire ending 😂

[@typicalgentleman]

It turns out that the kid had been at that bar to replace his rug.

[@mourad505]

I belief in nussing, kid! In nussing! - the judge

[@robinfrederick3020]

Walter, Smokey's a conscious objector!

[@conorwellman8592]

Then the judge said "Let me tell you something pendejo..."

[@82mcfayden]

Rest in peace Cormac. Your words will live on forever. "He is dancing, dancing. He says that he will never die."

[@manwithnoname8229]

And he is a great favourite, the Judge

[@lesterballard9075]

He never sleeps

[@chill-warlords]

He never sleeps the judge

[@iansmith9125]

Richard Poe’s reading of this book is as incredible as the book itself.

[@SousSherpa]

Agreed. He does a stellar job.

[@shavasanapose]

The greatest audiobook reading I’ve ever heard.

[@yucatansuckaman5726]

I got 69th like!

[@mattblah7737]

I heard him do some random English dub voice over on the discovery channel or womething like that, and honestly got a little excited

[@joelglanton6531]

@@danielrae861 I am so, so very impressed with your comment and with the vast stores of intellect said comment alludes to.

[@jamesfagan172]

“Do you believe it’s all over son ?” The most terrifying words I have ever read

[@godricheir]

"do you believe it's all joever son?" "no, we're so barack"

[@m1ghtysauc3E]

The fact that he squeezed in another missing child between this sermon and the end is just wild

[@thrwwccnt5845]

the judge is a little rascal

[@thechingwithebling]

He engages in a little bit of tomfoolery

[@1031Sonic]

@@thrwwccnt5845a lil stinker

[@pickleneck526]

A small broken neck here, and a little missing girl there. What a prankster!

[@jacobosullivan2018]

The judge always has time for some horse play

[@toaster9922]

"You ain't nothin'!" -The kid "You speak truer than you know." -The judge Yeesh.

[@mini_worx]

"The freedom of birds is an insult to me..." That fucking line is so insanely good. I go back to it in my mind randomly and without any real desire, it's just always there, waiting to hit me again.

[@armintor2826]

Reminds me of "i dont want to be a product of my environment, but for my environment to be a product of me"

[@cothinker680]

@@armintor2826 the departed film?

[@armintor2826]

@@cothinker680 Well i heard it from a General Sam video

[@privatejet98]

​@@cothinker680 "No on gives it to you. You have to take it!"

[@SouthDakotaFacts]

Reminds me of “Whatever in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent.”

[@billyboy8534]

To summarize it, the Judge is basically saying "Drink up! Tonight, you die."

[@tony_dogs]

Holden left out the worst part though, he let it be a surprise to be revealed in the jakes

[@plaguepandemic5651]

"Drink up. This night thy soul may be required of thee."

[@TanoBrati]

This audiobook is a goddamned masterpiece

[@abeorama]

'He looked about him in a puzzled and artful way, and he was a passable thespian.' Amazing subtleties throughout the book alluding to the dance.

[@worstoftheworst12]

“The past that was differs little from the path that was not.” Jeez what a line

[@ambatuBUHSURK]

can you please explain what that means? edit : i get it damn

[@SuperFartass]

@@ambatuBUHSURK I don't :(

[@fyodorfyodor9074]

@@SuperFartass I think it's said in respect to differing theories on the nature of time. Two common theories/ views on time are "Presentism" and "Eternalism". In presentism the argument is that only the present is real, not the past or the future. In eternalism the argument is that the past, present (if that term even makes sense) and the future are all equally real. Maybe the judge favours presentism as a theory. He also seems to put a strong emphasis on a conscious observer and the biases of our recollection, and if there is only our memories of an event, there will be no consensus as to what actually happened. Later he challenges the man with "did you post witnesses", to report on a place he's formerly been still being there, and if the man didn't he can't know for sure.

[@hardcoremutineer]

@@SuperFartass it’s Cormac saying that the historical record he evoked throughout the novel is not superior to the novel itself. He’s saying that the Judge as a literary figure is real, even if he didn’t actually exist.

[@johnsabin1235]

Time is a flat circle, a lie to convince ourselves we are Human. Man thank god religion is a thing that somewhat saves ourselves from our base nature.

[@IsaacV2001]

The way the Judge carefully explains to the Man why he’s about to do with him what he’s about to do with him, is absolutely horrifying.

[@Endymion766]

The Judge is saying that to embrace meaninglessness is to renounce one's own agency. So, if one has no agency, then one is a possession of someone else. Who is he, who possesses, then? But if you insist on having agency, then for what purpose do you exist? What purpose is there to exist in a meaningless world full of evil that goes unpunished and the innocent put to death? That's why he is the Judge. He judges everyone and the only real crime is innocence, in a world built on cruelty. He embraces the world as it is and expertly maneuvers its mazes like a minotaur, while the rest of us struggle to make sense of it and keep trying to put right things that just refuse to be right. And deep inside, we know this to be true. The Judge keeps winning because the universe is on his side, and against the man. Holden is a walking monument to the truth of things. Even after his eventual death whether it be due to someone finally getting lucky with a shot at him, or old age, he will keep walking in some form, laughing at us and fiddling and dancing the dance.

[@ironhide5611]

I feel that what you’ve said here so perfectly encapsulates The Judge’s character that I just want to say how much I appreciate it!Saying that he’s the judge because he judges everyone, but only the innocent are the ones who are condemned in a world of evil is an amazing way to view him! Kudos!

[@chrisdiaz4876]

Judge Holden disagrees with The Man's wanderer mentality, he disagrees that he hasn't driven himself to something more "holy", something that gives him more suzerain power over other. He's disappointed that he isn't a Warlord decked out in his war finery. The Judge thinks little of men who don't take into account their own fate, men who don't care for the authority the practice of war can give them. After all what is a man that amalgamates nothing of himself or his others? We see it a lot today you know, men who care little of themselves. What is that kind of man? A false man then?

[@epic_sans8229]

We have ourselves a chatterbox

[@Zordlord1337]

He says that he will never die.

[@ManfredTheFirst]

​@@chrisdiaz4876People who aren't egomaniacs, warmongers and what not.

[@GuilhermeMarques-wz7sm]

Me in eight grade: trying to not be the one picked to solve the math problem The teacher: "Was it always your idea that if you did not speak, you would not be recognized?"

[@cryptic9511]

I feel like I need a dictionary next to me at all times to enjoy this book, but I admit I love the story.

[@Jose-rc3dl]

Read it with my phone next to me the entire time and I'm so glad I did. Whenever McCarthy used words I didn't know to describe the environment I would look them up and it helped add so much clarity to the mental picture in my head.

[@KianoUyMOOP]

I had to look up Google from time to time when reading 'No Country for Old Men' to understand what a caldera and a barrial is.

[@Plantlover8898]

I probably used Google 4 timers per page

[@Joe-sf9wz]

Same ​@@KianoUyMOOP

[@ahsuser]

"Bears that dance and bears that don't" - One of my favorite lines from the novel :)

[@lennyjudd123]

I like the part where the judge says "its judgin' time!!!" And just starts judging away

[@spoonsrattling]

my interpretation in the ending is not that the judge is right but that he isnt wrong. and that whatever you want to do or believe you should do. you must. the greatest crime is inaction even in the face of the unexpected. so even when things dont go as you planned, you still have to dance. and dance fierce and dance hard because if you dont, that only leaves people like the judge to dance, and he will never sleep, he will never die, but we certainly cant outlive him. maybe, you can outdance him.

[@lofidoomguy]

The Alpha legion legend, we literally share all the same interests, it's uncanny 😂

[@spoonsrattling]

@@lofidoomguy the first time I've run into one of my viewers! Hydra dominatus

[@jarrodsullivan9230]

damn, well said

[@EH7yearsago]

I think this is sort of similar to wendigoon’s interpretation of the ending

[@realXVI.]

I feel like this is the most accurate interpretation of what this means

[@trouble820]

Harold Bloom said something to the affect of he had read the ending a dozen times and still hadn't gotten to the end of it or the bottom of it. When the kid is in the jail cell, that also feels like the ending as does the shootout at the river crossing before and of course the epilogue at the very end which is almost like a sermon or scientific conclusion. The book feels like it ends several times but actually doesn't: "Do you think it's over?"

[@raimundoalaniz4111]

When the judge says to the kid In jail " don't you know that I would have loved you like a son".. that haunts me the most.

[@trouble820]

@@raimundoalaniz4111 That line stands out and is haunting but the Judge can't really have a son. He can't love. That is the story, the kid trying to find a surrogate father but not finding one.

[@Tibbs736]

The Road and Suttree have similar multiple endings.

[@lennarthagen3638]

Thats at least a big part of it.

[@toi_techno]

A book about when European savages brutalised and stole the lands of the people of Turtle Island This crime has never ended en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtle_Island_(Native_American_folklore)

[@squirrelsyrup1921]

Before man was, WAR waited for him! The ultimate trade... awaiting its ultimate practitioner.

[@praetor9822]

"You're not entirely wrong, Holden. You just didn't have to be such an asshole about it."

[@JoeMama-yd1ve]

Man I think I just got a new audible token today. I've read this book a few times, but I wouldn't mind listening to this man read it to me again. Amazing audiobook performance. Whenever I read McCarthy now I kind of do it in his cadence in my head.

[@Saurophaganax1931]

This version is on youtube completely ad free

[@danielgrigg9501]

Do it!

[@OwenL2020]

When I read, I was struggling with the language a bit. It was hard to pick out dialog and was slow going. So I got the audio book and listened to some portions, and read most of it. Helped hugely with the first reading. And this narrator captures the voice perfectly. -- He also did East of Eden, but I like this audiobook better.

[@RhadaGhast100]

"And some are not yet born who shall have cause to curse the Dauphin's soul" One of my favorite lines in the book. It's a reference to Shakespeare's Henry V play. The Judge misquotes it the original being: "And some are yet ungotten and unborn that shall have cause to curse the Dauphin's scorn." And the play of Henry V is very much rooted in war. Even when quoting literature, war is still the topic. The Dauphin being the Prince of France.

[@dillonwalshpvd]

The ol’ Dolphin. Where’s Falstaff when you need him?

[@lastEvergreen]

The Dauphin being called that because his sigil was a dolphin. And Holden was more than once compared to a dolphin and a cetacean, being hairless and blubbery.

[@dillonwalshpvd]

@@lastEvergreen I always thought it was literally just because the words sounded similar, at least in the Shakespeare, which is pretty much the extent of my knowledge on… the war of the roses? That’s it’s right? Hundred years? I actually want to know someone teach me lol

[@lastEvergreen]

@@dillonwalshpvd The hundred years of the Hundred Years War overlap near the end and directly led to the War of the Roses. Near the beginning the Hundred Years War the Heir to the throne of France took on the title of the Dauphin, and near the wane of the war Henry V fought the Battle of Agincourt. Afterwards Joan of Arc led the French to victories and the English have been mostly driven from the continent. These losses lead to the English civil war called the War of the Roses and no longer able to mount offensives in France they lose the Hundred Years War finally.

[@metsrus]

Could the last sequence of events where he met the Judge again be a nightmare? The way the events were described seemed surreal. And it's known the Judge comes to him in his dreams.

[@stephencooper7459]

You can see it that way. This book is an achievement of being descriptively ambiguous. I don't see the judge as the devil but do in the way that he is manmade just as god is. That's my beliefs tho. He could be the devil to if you were to believe in god. It's fascinating book . 👍

[@coltonshore4444]

It would seriously remove the impact of the ending itself

[@Vincent-gl7bs]

If it ended right when he steps into the outhouse and is grabbed by the judge, I'd be willing to believe this idea, but the fact that it cuts away and then there's the other men going into the outhouse and seeing the aftermath makes me think it really happened. Otherwise it'd be a dream where he was himself in a first-person view, but then totally disassociated and observed everything from a disembodied outside perspective. I don't know about you but I've never had a dream like that.

[@Drod6969]

its uncanny that Poe's narration is done in the same tone I heard in my mind when I first read BM (i've actually read it five times). Greatest novel ever printed

[@benjaminborhart3321]

2:31 “the judge smiled and gestured with the bottle. He took up the glass, and drank. The judge watched him.”

[@lennarthagen3638]

"and he didnt move" Why did he not move? Jesus chris this is by far the best novel ive ever read. Beautiful violence and not many can do that. Amazing.

[@minechaftgamer288]

I have just read this after first only knowing the no country for old men movie then book, never imagined I would be so moved

[@lonl123]

Yep, I have read the damn thing 5 times now and still I'm puzzled by the meanings of it hidden beneath the veneer of death and slaughter. Tried to get me wife to read it, but she couldn't take the violence.

[@scmcintosh]

2:19 Drink up! he said. Drink up! This night thy soul may be required of thee.

[@robertcampbell3019]

And it was, if you interpret the judge being naked in the outhouse that way

[@socialcommentary1014]

@@robertcampbell3019 Well, all those murdered and raped children show up wherever the Judge is.

[@lennarthagen3638]

@@robertcampbell3019 Naked and doing something utterly terrifying to the kid(man). Raped and murdered probably.

[@jalenr.6542]

I love how nobody in the story ever questions the judge's weird and unnatural way of talking

[@DKingAround]

I know it doesn’t make sense, but whenever I revisit this scene I can’t help but picture them drinking from the bottle containing the captain’s pickled head.

[@immameatpopsicle9825]

4:38 "Of course I know him it's me"

[@ObiJakobe]

12:05 As senseless violence becomes questioned by laws and morals, those who take what they want and kill those who oppose will become exiled from riches and society- which is not survival of the fittest promised by nature. And thereby will society gain a false hierarchy- and the survivors-not the fittest.

[@Joe-sf9wz]

Thank you

[@samconnelly6289]

"I know him well" such a creepy line. The Judge seems to be suggesting he knows God, Fate or Destiny itself.

[@TH3F4LC0Nx]

This whole book is something of a rebuttal to the notion a lot of people have that the modern world is depraved and sordid. Things were actually way more fucked up in the past. In the end, the Judge admits that war is being dishonored, and its nobility called into question - and that's absolutely a good thing. Society is evolving, as (I think) alluded to by the epilogue. Violence is no longer a thing of honor, and armed conflict is being supplanted by economic dealings, (which the Judge loathes, as demonstrated by the scene where he pays an outrageous price for some puppies, and then promptly kills them). Although the ending is undeniably bleak, there's still a glimmer of hope. The Man says that, "Even a dumb animal can dance." Meaning that to settle for bestial behavior is ignoble and regressive. People are capable of better, and, while the Judge may never die, we can at least condemn him.

[@evilwisdom]

Do you believe it's all over, son?

[@themountainking3378]

How foolish you are. Violence wil always be a thing of honor, and even wanton violence like what is written in this book is vastly more honorable than the depravity of the modern world. Just you wait for your precious society to come crashing down around your ears, it will happen very soon, then you will see how quickly humanity can return to the honorable impartiality of violence. Do you beleive its all over, son?

[@themountainking3378]

Why would we condemn the judge when he is so clearly a superior man? His superiority alone absolves any excess of cruelty he may have commited, but the violence in itself was not a sin, especially since it was done in the service of Racial Holy War, which is his trade. How weak and soft you pacifists are, how easily you will be slaughtered when society collapses lol.

[@chrisheroldt5871]

@@themountainking3378 yer prob writing that from a starbucks

[@themountainking3378]

@@chrisheroldt5871 try the deep woods, urbanite, ive never set foot in a starbucks in ny life.

[@djc807-5]

"The straight and the winding way are one and now that you are here what do the years count since last we two met together? I believe the judge is telling the kid his intentions here. He's saying it is now as if he never escaped him in the desert.

[@AndyGravity]

🎶I'm never gonna dance again, guilty feet ain't got no rhythm 🎶

[@Macroprosopus]

Major props to the voice actor, Richard Poe. He really nailed the essence of this entire story.

[@BTKYG]

I want to sound like Holden when I run my mouth

[@thewolfmanhulk2927]

Such a beautiful, horrifying, amazing book and story

[@robertmiller2367]

There is no judge the judges dialog and actions are that of one of the gang members, the kid, or another character. The visualization is that of an impotent hairless sexless eunuch because we don't give distinct characteristics to our inner voice. The "judge" becomes materialized because he is the universal thread that runs through all humans hence he will never die. The universal thread that we are glorified animals no matter how sophisticated we become as a species we will always be driven by animalistic tendencies and they will have the same affect no matter how we dress the actions up. In the end the kid, now the man, kills himself after raping and killing the girl in the outhouse...

[@kelvinm.n.5146]

Oww..

[@alexaldridge6357]

This, though possibly the most depressing interpretation, is right I do think

[@PR0MAN01]

So I 100% believe the Judge was not really here in this ending. It's the last vestiges of the Man's soul arguing with his inner demon he embodies as the Judge. The final scene is The Man embracing evil and becoming the newest version of the Judge. An apathetic monster who can only feel anything by causing harm onto others. What was in the outhouse was the little girl who went missing from the saloon after the Man had raped and killed her, just as the Judge had done so many times before. The Judge grabbing the man at the end wasn't literal, it's was a metaphorical subsuming of The Judge and what he represents

[@uberfeel]

Was the judge dancing naked at the end of the book metaphorical too?

[@Noticing-Enjoyer]

That interpretation only works if you take the last part out of context. The man grew to help others and showed empathy to others, especially that old woman by the rock. You could also say that the man turning his back on the dance was metaphorical the other way. He turned his back on the game the Judge layed out and he doesn't find meaning in blood ritual of violence. The Judge was a child predator through the whole story so its far more likely he did that to the girl, just as he does throughout the story. The man walking away from the game is what he was killed for, an insult to the Judge and everything he lives for.

[@PR0MAN01]

@@uberfeel Yes. Nobody in the scene reacts to the Judge like he's there. Nobody sees his behavior or appearance as odd. That last scene where he says "I don't sleep. I will never die" is meant to represent the Man stepping into the role of pure evil the Judge used to be.

[@PR0MAN01]

@@Noticing-Enjoyer See I don't think we see enough of the Man's life after the time skip to get an accurate Judge on his character. The Judge had moments throughout the story, like saving the Idiot from the river, that if viewed out of context would make him seen like a good guy. But we as omniscient readers know that not to be true. Same goes for the Man, he did a couple nice things but he also executed the rancher boy without a moments hesitation or remorse. A person truly turning his back on violence wouldn't kill so flippantly. The Judge was a monster who hid behind this facade of an intellectual and well spoken man. The Man is now a monster who hides behind a facade of a man who is trying to put his past behind him.

[@donwarwick3359]

@@PR0MAN01 the boy had a gun aimed at him, I feel like it’s not “without hesitation”

[@nastynick7425]

"I know him well" God that's brilliant

[@MrBig913]

I have no idea what is going on but I love it all the same

[@poru208]

I love that the narrator (Poe) was smart enough to change the Kid's voice into an older more mature one in this scene that takes place years later in the story.

[@jonmichael4784]

Evil sophistry.

[@bobo7918]

Makes me wanna act up

[@bondapovon]

RIP Cormac McCarthy. The minute I heard the news, I came right to this.

[@benjaminb6678]

Do you believe it’s all over, son?

[@weezycobain]

“Bears that dance, bears that don’t”

[@alessando63249]

"Do I have your consent in making a Blood Meridian game?" The judge stood before me, inscrutable and vast, his visage like an ancient stone carved with hieroglyphs of a forgotten terror. "Men are born for games," he intoned, his voice a cold and unyielding edifice, "nothing else. Every child knows that play is nobler than work. He knows too that the worth or merit of any game is not inherent in the game itself but rather in the value of that which is put at hazard. Games of chance require a wager to have meaning at all. Do you hold, then, the courage to hazard your soul in this endeavor? For I shall bear witness to it."

[@ReallyGoodandKind]

I keep coming back to this book like a great machine timed with escapement and pallet.

[@jackthornton9231]

One thing I am uncertain about: I've seen some interpret that the man takes an active role in the ritual, which is a reading I think has merit. However, people justify it by stating that the man could not be sexually gratified by the whore before he walks out of the Beehive. I did not pick up on this. The audiobook, which is an absolute triumph btw, doesn't pause to suggest a passage of time when he enters the room with the whore, nor does the dialogue suggest that he failed to perform. Has anyone actually read the book? Does reading it off of a page make that interpretation more valid? Thanks

[@maxwellschott6660]

The Judge is one of the scariest characters in literature but I think people mistakenly view him as infallible. He is a known and admitted liar so who can say if he really has traveled the world like he says or if his scientific lectures are based in fact or made up gibberish to impress his ignorant companions? He fails to track down the kid and Tobin even though the kid is relatively inexperienced and Tobin is dying from a neck wound. The only way he escapes the attack at the ferry is by using a child as hostage. Before the ferry when things are getting desperate he starts to rant more and more and it’s implied he starts repeating sermons as only the new recruits listen to him. Even when he makes the gunpowder (his “highest” moment I think) he sheds his cool demeanor and puts down his notes to see if the cloud will cover the sun with the rest of the gang. Fully at the whims of God and nature. The main accounts we hear of how accomplished The Judge is, is from Tobin who is fully enthralled by the man so we can’t really trust his account either. Hell he even misquotes Shakespeare in this final sermon. The Judge is evil, diabolical even. But he is a man and men are made of the dust of the Earth….and that ain’t no parable.

[@D-class9341]

I think that’s the point the judges existence is hypocritical

[@MrGW95]

Damn that poor bear I cry everytime😢

[@lennarthagen3638]

Your here for the dance!

[@abeorama]

If we're being honest most people are closer to the man hatless in the bar than the dancer. "The man was indeed muttering to himself and peering balefully about the room wherein it seemed there was no friend to him."

[@lennarthagen3638]

@@abeorama maybe. Bears that dance bears that dont

[@abeorama]

@@lennarthagen3638 "you speak truer than you know"

[@minechaftgamer288]

@@abeorama The judge maybe was not really there, especially with him agreeing he 'ain't nothing', it occurred to me to muttering man could be the kid himself

[@jackthornton9231]

​@@minechaftgamer288"You ain't nothing" is a double negative. The Kid says "You are not nothing". The Judge agrees.

[@trascendentalsunset]

I need a Blood Meridian audiobook narrated by Sam Elliott

[@gumbypokey]

Carnival....the wheels fly and the colours spin-through alcohol Red wine that punctures the skin-Face to face in a dry and waterless place...The Devil's Rain(Reign)....

[@tony_dogs]

I love The Man's dialogue. Holden is delivering a speech that's beyond eloquent and The Man pretty much replies with "Nuh uh"

[@tjk355]

A polemic against a materialist mindset.

[@reddeserted13]

Reminds me of something from Charles Bowden, but more polite.

[@FrankieMacRibs]

Sounds like something from Metal Gear Solid

[@danielgeronimo5538]

In hindsight, The Man could've had a chance to end everything here and now. Violence starts and ends the same way it begins. The way out is further in. The dance only starts and ends just the same. But could a man dance when his feet is tired and soul broken?

[@someguyinazoo]

POV: you are magic spoon once

[@markkeogh2190]

I think McCarthy is a pretentious writer. He seems to always portend something important but it is gobbledegook. Like Jordan Peterson.

[@codygillard]

A lot of people describe the Judge as a nihilist, or as an atheist, but I disagree. It seems readily evident to not only me, but to any other man who reads McCarthy that the judge is not an atheist, or a nihilist, but is, rather, a misotheist. The question of whether or not God does exist in McCarthy's world is almost irrelevant, because the answer is as obvious as the question. Yes, he does. But that doesn't mean the characters accept it either, rather, they hate God, or the afterlife, or purpose, or some combination thereof.

[@adrianschroeder2798]

If yall like Richard Poe's narration check out his reading of East of Eden.

[@SuperGreatSphinx]

OUR LADY OF MERCY The Blessed Virgin Mary

[@SuperGreatSphinx]

THE MOTHER OF GOD Mater Dei

[@lornbaker1083]

KZbin keeps deleting comments.They hate this thing.Keep posting they hate this and they keep deleting comments.So you gotta keep posting because they really hate it.And they want it deleted.So you gotta keep posting you got to keep it alive

[@entrepreneursfinest]

Anything that exists without my knowledge does so without my consent.

[@Johnconno]

'Know what woke you up? You just had your throat cut.'

[@hardcoremutineer]

The penultimate tragedy of the kid (now the man) is that he may have saved himself if he simply listened to the judge. If he had chosen to dance, to take up what the dance represents, he would’ve never gone to the jakes. It was his own refusal to take up the call of destiny, the same apathy that he exhibited throughout the story, that doomed him.

[@guythathatesbull462]

My own interpretation now is that the Judge is only omnipotent and omniscience because we allow him to be. Or he is seen as such, anyway. We’re looking at the story in the eyes of the kid, he’s the person who’ll be influenced the most in the novel being as he is still in his age where he can digest information more throughly then an adult can. And because the Judge is a person that is imposing and influential man. (I say man) He is the person that is ultimately who the kid remembers and allows to have his influence on his life. So much so, I believe the judge in the end is not even there. By then, Holden has already passed away somewhere out there forgotten. All that’s left is the idea that’s been carved and tattooed in the mind of the child that he unleashed his horrible philosophy too, and ultimately created another judge in the world. See the child, he says that he will never die.

[@-YokoOno]

You ain’t nothin’

[@glame9001]

You think he gave the kid some kind of laxative it’ll explain why he watched him drink it down and would know to expect him in the out house, it’ll also mark something else easier

[@comictanker]

The judge relishes in his intellectual superiority over others

[@michaelnorman4069]

Did the Kid not recognize the Judge when he saw him?

[@carlosbaja678]

great post, thank you!

[@vladtepes3201]

"And where is the fiddler and where the dance?"

[@SkippyHunkleChuck]

8:06 powerful. The opinion on the world

[@ninjamalec]

We are the third. We are the witness to the story.

[@CharlesVane018]

I've never read this I'm going to have to get the e books

[@angelobernardo3503]

12:05 Just leaving this timestamp for myself

[@larsporsena7115]

Destiny, Death,and the Devil

[@haiwin224]

Let me just slip out to the outhouse real quick. Be right back.

[@BrainrotMeridian]

See you there

[@haiwin224]

@@BrainrotMeridian I sure do love surprises.

[@MeNoSleep1850]

I'm still dancing to this day.

[@BEANLORD6-9]

Nietchian mixed with Solipsism

[@MatthewDePasse-sm9qf]

I agree with this statement.! I can’t stop listening to it..

[@IrishTechnicalThinker]

What a ending. I personally believe that the judge actually did NOT kill the Kid but instead made love to him to finalise his dominance, then they both killed the little girl together in a display of their love of violence. And it was not the judge who killed the kids throughout the book but the Kid. Remember when the Kid was in prison and the judge came to visit him, he said he always loved him and tells him to come closer to him so he can touch the kid but the Kid refused. When the Kid finally arrives at the bar with the dancing bear, this is perhaps the judge confirming to himself that the Kid truly does love him by returning to him. The judge did not kill the Kid because the judge simply loves him but in a real sinister way.

[@flintsky7706]

I don’t think the judge rapes the kid. Even though the judge is naked, he’s naked throughout most of the book.

[@rupturedinpurulence4]

The Judge is always around, not the kid, the kid never chooses to return to the judge, the judge is always there. Also the Judge kills the native child that they keep with the gang for a couple of days, he also had a child in his room when the gang was killed. The child murder is always implied to be judge because of this

[@IrishTechnicalThinker]

@@rupturedinpurulence4 I do find it interesting that at no point does the Kid object to the killing of the native child or even effected in any way by it. The judge has literally tiny hands and it's mentioned multiple time how small his hands are. Unlike the killer had large hands but I also found it interesting that at the end the Kid picks a female prostitute who happened to be a dwarf, similar to a child. It's just an observation.

[@catherinecipher8914]

​@@IrishTechnicalThinker I would like to add that the Kid is described as having big hands in chapter 1 "A year later he is in Saint Louis...He is not big but he has big wrists, big hands."

[@IrishTechnicalThinker]

@Lick Tasty The judge has very small hands and it's mentioned multiple times, how tiny his hands are compared to his size, you're right about him crushing a skull but this implies he has almighty strength and powerfully strong, having big hands doesn't automatically mean you have the ability to crush a man's skull. It is mentioned a few times that the Kid has very large hands. It's just an observation.

[@minechaftgamer288]

Last of true me and thee, but previously he'd told the kid otherwise

[@dillonwalshpvd]

Nobody talks about the image of him slipping into the bath up to his eyes, cigar burning behind one ear… or maybe that’s all they talk about. They’re just scared. Fair enough

[@MrTekdude]

"What exists without my knowledge exists without my consent." Could any other than Satan say such a thing? A creature so hateful of God's creation and with the arrogance to suggest that he will catalog gods creation for the purpose of its subjugation and destruction. For the purpose of stealing creation and controlling it himself. For the purpose of overthrowing God himself.

[@Sevatar_VIIIth]

Ok so I've only listened to the YT audiobook version, but i kept getting the feeling things were cut from the actual original book and i hadnt gotten everything that happened. Can anyone quickly answer with zero spoilers or telling of what i may have missed. Did what i think happened in the end to the Kid by the Judge actually happen and was just removed from that YT version i listened to? I bought the book and am about to start reading it, but i cant let it go......did the Judge do what i think he did to the kid in that outhouse? Just a yes or no please if you could.

[@Sevatar_VIIIth]

@@seel2835 good God....that's horrifying.

[@notaraven]

Its left ambiguous, some other people interpret the kid as.... More involved in evil than we think. Hell, some think Judge doesn't even exist and thinks the kid is an unreliable narrator. I think you're safe as, with how weird the ending is, you can probably guess an answer and it'd have the same likelyhood of being right

[@asketillus8679]

That’s just how McCarthy books are. Many people don’t believe that Anton Chigurh from No Country For Old Men is even a real person, but rather a concept. An idea that you can’t stop the evil nature of the world, but try and endure it. I think the Judge could be seen as something similar but entirely more “Hands on”, if that makes any sense. I don’t agree with people saying the Judge wasn’t actually here and did what he did to the Man. I don’t see a feasible reason to describe his torturous nature to such detail without him being there. With Anton, you could easily replace his actions with a random mercenary and no one would bat an eye. The movie is what made him such an enigma of evil, because Javier Bardem played him in such a unique and memorable fashion.

[@karlwikman3874]

I dont understand why the Kid never shot Judge Holden in this scene.

[@guythathatesbull462]

I think he did. I always interpreted the ending as the judge dying and going to hell and the dance is him fitting in perfectly. The I Never Die refers to his ideals instead of his physical self. Idk. I might be missing context.

[@angelrosas3724]

​@@guythathatesbull462well it does state that the judge held him later which leads many to think he killed the kid.

[@alabamaisyourdaddy6137]

@@guythathatesbull462the judge killed the kid, there is no proof in the text to support your opinion

[@domja9389]

I truly believe that The Judge is Grandpa Flick

[@Argos-xb8ek]

So is this great desert existence in itself and that the dancing is to find and demand recognition in one's own purpose and to stop that dance is to forgo the will to exist and the judge sees it all as a challenge

[@Truffle_Pup]

The most terrifying thing about Judge Holden... Is that he's correct.

[@paramsingh6830]

The staright and the winding ways are one . Its terrifying... Yet a simple line...

[@coomr419]

E G G

[@bookeblade]

11:32 How does the judge even know this? He wasn’t with the kid when this happened.

[@russianfederation4160]

Another argument towards him being the Devil.

[@bookeblade]

@@russianfederation4160fr

[@invisi-bullexploration2374]

Ya'd already maxed out your card, Kid... Whether you 'did' or you 'didn't' was of no real baring at that point. Your game could end poorly then or end poorly later. But it surely was going to end poorly.