IN THE BLOOD: COUNTERPOINT?

Hollywood has a sneaky little habit of putting the more intelligent words into the mouths of its villains rather than its saviors. If you don't believe me, watch any of the Die Hard movies. Writers do the same thing, I think, albeit on a smaller scale. Take, for instance, the awesome figure of Judge Holden from Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian: Or The Evening Redness in the West. "The Judge," as he is known, is one of the most compelling heavies in American literature (yes, I think McCarthy rises to the level of "literature" in this stunning book), aided in no small part by his formidable intellect. Following are The Judge's words on the nature of conflict and war and, for lack of a better term, the "rightness" of it all:

"Suppose two men at cards with nothing to wager save their lives. Who has not heard such a tale? A turn of the card. The whole universe for such a player has labored clanking to his moment which will tell if he is to die at that man’s hand or that man at his. What more certain validation of a man’s worth could there be? This enhancement of the game to its ultimate state admits no argument concerning the notion of fate. The selection of one man over another is a preference absolute and irrevocable and it is a dull man indeed who could reckon so profound a decision without agency or significance either one. In such games as have for their stake the annihilation of the defeated the decisions are quite clear. This man holding this particular arrangement of cards in his hand is thereby removed from existence. This is the nature of war, whose stake is at once the game and the authority and the justification. Seen so, war is the truest form of divination. It is the testing of one’s will and the will of another within that larger will which because it binds them is therefore forced to select. War is the ultimate game because war is at last a forcing of the unity of existence. War is god."

Is he right? I can honestly say that I don't know, but he makes a compelling fucking case. The Judge states, much more articulately than I have, why he believes strife to be deep in the heart of all men. Should it make me nervous that my own views regarding this subject are somewhat echoing one of the most malicious and evil characters in the history of fiction? Well, it does. But there it is, regardless.