You're listening to the partially examined life, the philosophy podcast by some guys who,

at one point, said I'm doing philosophy for a living, but then thought better of it.

A question for episode 305 is something like, what is the role of violence in the teleology

of the world?

For this discussion we read, the 1985 novel Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the

West by Kormak McCarthy.

This is Dylan Casey protecting my thropple in Madison, Wisconsin.

This is Seth Paskin with my shadow contorted on the broken terrain in front of me like a

creature seeking its own form.

This is Wes Owen, like a raggedy man wondering from some garden where I used to frighten birds.

You gotta love all these similes.

I actually found a website that listed every single simile in the book because there are

so many over the top, you know, and it's just like after a certain point you're like,

God, can you really get away with this as a writer?

Totally.

We've done another Kormak McCarthy book years ago, no country-friiled men.

This one is the one that I guess made him famous over and above sort of the in the know type

famous that he had before this book.

Did he write this when he had the MacArthur grant?

He got it before.

He thanks the John Dean, Catherine, and Tim MacArthur Foundation.

And he did a lot of research and work for this too.

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