So... Blood Meridian...

So... Blood Meridian.
I guess that I could just leave it at that, and I would still be saying a lot, but that would be too easy. Instead, for this blog entry I'm going to randomly flip to a page in the book, read it, and then write about how Cormac McCarthy crosses borders on that particular page.
Alright.
(Mitchell places the book on the table and shuts his eyes. His left hand is positioned to flip through pages from bottom to top, and his right index finger is ready to thrust in at some random interval... The sound of rapid page-turning ensues.)
Ah. Page 177.
(Mitchell reads it.)
Okay, Cormac McCarthy crosses an interesting border on page 177. Basically, the Glanton gang arrives at the village of Nacori and goes into a bar. Tobin stays outside to watch the horses, and a funeral procession goes by while he's there. He isn't bothered by any of the townsfolk because they're accustomed to American's coming around to commandeer meals and rape the local women. That's where a border gets crossed. Essentially, Cormac McCarthy subverts the depravity of the acts of theft and rape by painting them as everyday circumstances. In the context of the novel, they certainly are, and this adds to the overarching demystification of the West that the author sought to accomplish. However, this passage also indicates that there where countless other Glanton gangs wandering the west, doing he exact same thing. The crossing of the border between civilized behavior and rape is more easy to cross, then, than many would assert.

There you have it. Even flipping to a random page of Blood Meridian will reveal the crossing of a border between civilization and savagery. Go Cormac.