Cormac McCarthy on Jesus

How did Cormac McCarthy feel about Jesus? How did he imbue Jesus and his symbolism into his novels? In today's video, McCarthy will talk about Jesus and we will then analyze how he evokes Jesus in "Blood Meridian" through The Kid.
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Interview with Aeon Byte on Gnosticism in Blood Meridian
• The Gnostic Cormac McC...

[@hangingon]

Jesus Christ is King, Lord, & Savior. He is everything He said He was/is. If you seek Truth eventually it leads directly to Jesus.

[@samgross2027]

Hey Ian. Enjoyed the video. I find this gnostic idea of Christ fascinating. It seems that McCarthy is sort of practicing a sense of comparative religion when writing his novels. I was born Jewish and attended Sunday school. Studied the Torah. Passed on my bar mitzvah. My mother practiced new age spirituality. Had books on metaphysics, astral projection, and meditation which I also studied and read with hunger. I Moved to Utah in my late teens and early twenties. Joined the Mormon church and then left within a few years. In those days I read the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Book of Mormon. I learned a lot searching for some kind of wisdom, some essence of truth wherever I could find it. So I relate to Cormac McCarthy kind of sampling all sorts of ideas of faith and devotion. I even befriended some Satanists in a half way house. I think there is something profound there in the pursuit of truth and wisdom and I adore it. To this day I pray and I meditate. I think all beliefs are somehow pieces to a greater puzzle. Just a thought. Again, great video. Appreciate what you do.

[@Daveye663]

I enjoyed listening to your gnostic McCarthy breakdown on Aeon Byte. Keep it up brotha!

[@clemfitzsimmons685]

Blind leading the blind. Only God’s Spirit can open the eyes of men to see who Jesus really is and His resurrection power. And He certainly doesn’t need my, yours or anyone else’s permission and or endorsement. Not even Cormac McCarthy’s.

[@AleksandarBloom]

That's just a childish claptrap.

[@wungabunga]

@@AleksandarBloombut enough about blood meridian.

[@brennancarter7721]

I’m happy you live a good life, but keep it to yourself.

[@sodalakevine]

@wungabunga why are you even here?

[@rickysrockinreviews]

This has to be one of your best videos. Holy shit. Really is one of the greatest novels.

[@darklands14]

Are there spoilers for BM in here? Watched a couple minutes in, but will come back and finish after I complete the novel if so.

[@carrion-vj1yz]

I saw your Aeon Byte interview, so cool to see you tak to Miguel.

[@dill899]

Found you from your interview on Aeon Byte and so glad I did. Funnily, it was posted the day after I finished reading Blood Meridian for the first time. Your analysis has added so much enjoyment to a book I already considered the best novel I'd ever read. Thank you for all your hard work and dedication, your knowledge, and for helping to spread the love of literature to younger generations. I wish I had an English teacher like you in high school.

[@WriteConscious]

Weelcome to the channel brotha! Thanks for the kind words also!

[@mutnazrub8180]

Interesting. I've just finished As I Lay Dying and I think that also has a messianic element to it. Addie made Jewel out to be her own savior, prophesizing that he would save her from water and fire. The symbol of wood works with this too: characters describe Jewel as wooden, Addie calls him her cross, and wood has a prominent presence at each incident (the log in the river, the wooden barn, the coffin itself). On the other hand, Darl is a failed savior who tries to spare his dead mother the indignation of the trip to Jefferson by burning down the barn, and this only lands him in a madhouse. In a way this is his own salvation as he won't have to endure life with the other Bundrens anymore.

[@Fawn-hv7mx]

Interesting. I thought that Darl's barn-burning was yet another dig at Jewel, who'd lost his horse in Anse's trade for the mules. I felt that Darl cared nothing for Addie. That he enjoyed referring to her decaying corpse as 'it'.

[@mutnazrub8180]

@@Fawn-hv7mx I could see that viewpoint because Darl was a dick to Jewel throughout the novel and he felt a sense of rejection from his mother. I don't see his act as a manifestation of his care for her. He tells Vardaman before the burning that Addie was calling on God to help her, to hide her from the sight of man so she could lay down her life. I think he was compelled to do what he did by either what he thought was a legitimate divine call or a fit of madness. Darl had not heretofore taken such an extreme action to hurt his siblings, I think there needed to be something which pushed him to this point.

[@TheGoodMD]

An exceptional video Ian! This is fantastic!

[@rocketmatt1996]

First

[@WriteConscious]

second!

[@Hunac-Ceel]

''see the child'' 😎

[@fun-with-purpose1436]

Hey man, great channel. I highly recommend the book, the chemical muse, by Dr Ammon Hillman. It’s non-fiction but will give you insight to the ancient cults of the gnostics and those before. It’s also an eye opener to Dune, since Frank Herbert read Ancient Greek texts and pulled many of his ideas from the snake cults of Ancient Greece. He even mentions the Ancient Greek in children of Dune and God emperor . The Aion is the God outside of Cronus (outside of time) and the gnostics used viper venom and the antidote to experience the divine. It’s crazy but the medical resources are there. Such as Galen, the physician to Markus Aurellias

[@Jd-808]

Almost everything that dude says is fantasy

[@sweetviolents29]

The kid's three opportunities to kill the judge was the moment I connected the kid as some kind of messiah, but for a slightly different comparison. Not the denial of Christ, but the temptation in the desert! Christ is offered three chances to end his tribulation early, but he denies them. Maybe this is half-baked, because I still really want to like the expriest... but he's kind of a snake! The other gang members repeatedly tell the kid that the expriest doesn't lie, but he lies several the time! Sometimes he even seems to be more devoted to the judge than the other gang members, as the serpent was servant to the creator god. Great dive, Ian! Saving up for that substack!