Rootlessness and Blood Meridian

I think about Rootlessness a great deal.

It's one of the most destructive forces on planet Earth.

Rootlessness - even in small quantities - acts as a civilizational level threat, which tears citizens away from their families, friends, neighbors, and nations - and thrusts them into a perpetual state of wanton bloodshed.

"Blood Meridian" - it's a good book. Ignore all the memes and half-hearted analysis from stuffed shirts and hackfrauds online, let's cut into the meat of it all.

One topic I never hear anyone talk about in relation to it is the concept of Rootlessness as the driving force behind The Kid's actions.

Born under a meteor shower, his mother dies - and his father, an English teacher, quickly turns to drowning his sorrows with liquor. The Kid, from a very young age, was angry.

He didn't look up to his father, all we know of him is that he existed, was an English teacher, and a drunk.

Later on in the story - Judge Holden tells a parable of a man making his living as a beggar. He kills a noble traveler on the road one day and buries him. On his death bed, the beggar man's son finds the grave of the noble traveler, digs up his bones, and scatters them to the wind. He begins to lie, and say that the noble traveler was his father.

This story introduces the concept of a man denying his roots out of disgust - and immediately becoming a destructive force. He ransacks a man's grave, destroying what history was left of him, and enacts a sort of Damnatio Memorae of his own father - erasing him from the record.

The Judge catalogs long lost relics from ancient explorers and tribes long dead, before destroying them. An agent of war destroying the roots of all those inside the war, or in close enough proximity to it.

In this sense, the participants of the war, and the many conflicts that the Glanton Gang take part in during the timeline of the book, could be seen as child like. It's no wonder The Judge is described as looking like "An enormous infant" at times - and it's no wonder that when he speaks of war he speaks of how children all know that "Play is more nobler than work". It's all a game to him, and the game is all encompassing - all participants are rootless man-children who never truly grow up and face the responsibility inherent in trying to find a way around a problem with as little bloodshed as possible.

In a brief non-sequitur, I'd like to talk about Vietnam. I've known many soldiers, a few served in Vietnam in the 60's. One was my grandfather. He once told me "It was the most fun I'd ever had, until it wasn't."

In "Full Metal Jacket", they crack wise and tell jokes, don big shit-eating grins after they gun down small squadrons of VC - and joke around about "Vietnam: The Movie" to reporters, even while under heavy fire. The reality of the situation sets in when they lose Doc Jay, 8 Ball, and Cowboy in quick succession. Joker shoots a sniper girl, no older than 12, in the head - and as they march away through the fiery wreckage - they sing about the "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse", and all he can think about is how happy he is to be "alive" and "short" (soon to leave the country), and all the wet dreams he had had in the past.

The compartmentalization of one's own psyche into a sort of childlike state to cope with the realities of a hostile land, full of hostile inhabitants - where around every corner there could be a Pepsi can full of explosives, or a sniper lying in wait to gun you down in cold blood.

War truly is hell.

Back to Blood Meridian.

I find it interesting that The Judge appears before The Kid in times that he is likely to be reflecting on his misdeeds the most. He first sees him in a tent revival in Nacogdoches. The Kid had already been far from home - living rough, fighting, boozing, the whole nine yards. A preacher tells the group of what awaits them, and what can save them - and he rejects salvation through Christ.

Captured after a failed ride on Mexico, likely dwelling on the long path that got him where he was - he is bailed out of prison and cheats the reaper by joining the Glanton Gang. The Judge is present, an integral member of the clique.

After the battle at the Yuma Crossing - at the Oasis, The Kid is there with The Priest - a priest who had given up his old, peaceful, ways for a life of scalping, theft, and all other kinds of debauchery. While The Judge hunts them both - The Priest speaks to The Kid telling him to shoot The Judge - "Do it, lad. Do it for the love of God. Do it or I swear your life is forfeit."

And then, after The Kid sees the burning tree in the woods - one last "exit" from the life that had consumed him - mercy extended from God himself, he takes it. He makes his way to California - and he sees the last remnants of his old group hanged as criminals. He gets locked up - The Judge bails him out, but not before speaking to him and telling him that he could have been a father to The Kid - "Don't you know I'd have loved you like a son?"

A rootless boy, with no father or mother to speak of, no family, not even a name aside from his archetypal designation - with his only hope for guidance coming from a perpetual life of war, death, bloodshed, and all the terrible fruits of his terrible labor. Doom.

He rejects this life, and years later we hear of "The Man".

The Man is The Kid, all grown up. Matured. He leaves war behind for a while. He tries his best to be a force for good. He conveys the innocent across harsh landscapes rife with trouble to see them arrive safely.

One of the most striking parallels that underlines my point here is his Bible. He carries with him a Bible, knowing that all good things are derived from God on a subconscious level. He wants forgiveness, salvation, he wants to do good - but he can't read.

His father was an English teacher, who in his own, years long, drunken, stupor - never taught his boy how to read.

Such a fundamental part of his father's life, never experienced in his son's. No roots to grab hold of, no foundation upon which to build.

He sees his old reflection in a boneyard one night. A young boy, orphaned, and full of rage already. The Man shoots The Boy in self defense, and then finds his way to a saloon.

The Judge is there, and he speaks of the night as a ritual of sorts. He points to the stage and talks of how there are "Bears that dance, and bears that don't" - and as the literal dancing bear is shot, as the little girl mourns the bear before going missing, he effectively offers The Man a bridge back to his old life. "We are the last of the true" he says - The last true warriors left from the Glanton Gang's heyday.

What strikes me here is that the man does not fight The Judge, he doesn't shoot him, and he doesn't run from him. He drinks. He drinks mightily, before finding a woman and bedding her upstairs. He moves outside towards the outhouses and sees a meteor shower, before he meets The Judge inside an outhouse - and is embraced by him.

I want to stop here for a moment as I need to state openly and clearly - I do not believe that The Man was murdered, or raped, or any of that mess by The Judge. No, the hug was a kind gesture on the part of The Judge.

The Man was corrupted. He backslid into a life of war and debauchery after being reintroduced to bloodshed in the boneyard that night. He killed his own reflection, and it killed The Man that he had been trying to become all those years.

No wonder the stars are falling here as they did when he was born - The Kid has been reborn within The Man, creating a new, different, man.

That's why there's "a man" standing next to the outhouse warning others not to go in - not "The Man", but "a man". And that's why The Judge is dancing - there are bears that dance, and bears that don't, and both The Judge and The Man have decided to dance tonight.

But what's in the outhouse?

The girl - or what's left of her at least. Mention was made of her being missing earlier, there's only so many places you can hide a body in a saloon.

I believe The Judge - as an embodiment of bloodshed, war, and destruction which feeds the rootlessness that drives war - convinced The Man to part with his noble ways and murder an innocent - and that is why The Judge is celebrating.

In this, he has killed two birds with one stone.