You Don't Need to Read Blood Meridian

-
A few weeks ago I started reading a book lent to me by a work friend. It's called Blood Meridian, and old American Cowboy epic which is told like an anthology, but has a main protagonist going through a journey that shows the harshness and cruelty of the frontier in the early United States.

And I fucking hate it.

It's a depressing story and I felt tired with each passing chapter. Nothing good is ever happening, but when I remembered it's written by the same guy who wrote No Country for Old Men, I understood why this book is so heavy.


I kept complaining that nothing good is happening, and no one has a decent bone in their body. But perhaps that was the point? The frontier wasn't kind, and most of the west is desert. A harsh wasteland where people needed to be just like the landscape in order to survive. There was no place for sentiment, loyalty, or any form of altruism.

A harsh world create harsh men.

If I could take anything away from reading Blood Meridian, other than the fact that it places a heavy load on my mind, it's that the human spirit ignores morality when you are at the end of your rope.

People we call evil are sometimes just desperate. A thief steals a loaf of bread not because of malice or greed, but because of hunger and pain.

We, who are fortunate enough to not be living in the wild west should understand that there are a lot of factors that contribute to why people do what they do. It's never black or white, but usually Grey, and it is up to us to decide how much we should tolerate.

So should you read Blood Meridian? I couldn't recommend it if you can't tolerate reading about terrible people doing terrible things.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

New Year! So what?

-
Image
I've spent the whole day at work greeting my patients a "Happy New Year!", with enthusiasm I would follow up with how they spent the new year, did they plan anything special, or in any way do anything different. I was sadly met with jaded indifference. Photo by Chris Buckwald on Unsplash   An important lesson I have learned about life is how time affects us, and how little we take the present for granted. The elderly have seen so much, gone through so much, that the only thing they can look forward to is the grave. There will come a time when your body gives up, you become too tired, too bored, too lonely. As you grow old, love ones will die and you sit in your empty house hoping that your children will call. If you are lucky, maybe you'll get a ring once a week, but as with most people maybe not at all. I reflect on the way I treat my parents, how often do I call? I think about my brothers, when have we talked last? Have I had any deeper conversations with my...
Read more

Cowards! All of you!

-
Image
I had a very tense conversation with someone and it was very odd. He was disagreeing with me. Emotions were very tense, I was getting angry, I wasn't making my case because I was completely disarmed by conversing with someone who didn't just shut up when they didn't have the same opinion with me. “Don't be offended” I reminded myself. The entire interaction ended with us talking about other things, only for us to be at completely opposite ends of another topic moments later. And I reflected on this interaction, I came to realize how terrible the internet has ruined discourse. I would be on chat with my friends, only for topics to become divisive and then silence. The  seen  message pops up and everybody turn into ghosts. Nobody wanted to stir the pot, argue, make valid points and come out learning more going out of the conversation than when they came in. Now we walk on egg shells. We are careful of how we phrase our discussions, we try not to make anyone uncomfortable,...
Read more

Brand Loyalty is Dumb and Makes you Poor

-
Image
For a long time, I only bought ASUS. My first phone was the Zenfone 2, and my computers were all built with ASUS parts. I had this unshakeable belief in the brand because my personal experience was mostly positive, and I placed everything ASUS as the pinnacle of tech. Nobody could convince me otherwise, and any criticism I dismissed as “haters be hating”. Then the ROG phone was introduced. It retailed for 499$ at the time, and I was so excited to buy it, but when I saved enough for it, the ROG phone 2 was released at a significant mark-up. So I skipped it. I would have bought the Zenfone, but the flagship was selling for almost 800$. So I skipped it as well. I settled for a cheap Honor Phone, and I was midly surprised that it wasn't terrible. This phone became my daily driver for the next few months, and I couldn't tell that it was a 400$ midrange phone. I wasn't gaming too much, all I cared about was scrolling social media and playing music. I avoided mobile gaming because...
Read more