Editor's Introduction

Abstract

The Cormac McCarthy Society looks forward to an exciting year, with an international conference in Dublin from June 14–17, 2022, and a stateside conference in Savannah, at the DeSoto Hotel, September 21–23, 2022. Save the dates, if you haven't already!If you'd like more information about these conferences, you can visit the Society's new website, www.cormacmccarthysociety.com, where we're posting regular updates about events, McCarthy-related news, resources for readers and scholars, and new books—like Lydia Cooper's Cormac McCarthy: A Complexity Theory of Literature, which is also reviewed in this issue. The Society's first website, www.cormacmccarthy.com, and its longtime discussion forum, will remain active, though the new site will be the place to go for announcements, conference CFPs and registration, and joining the Society.In this issue, we see a typically wide variety of approaches to McCarthy's work. John Vanderheide kicks us off with a consideration of how German writers, and the idea of Germanic heritage, influence Blood Meridian and shape the novel's aesthetic, theological, and political concerns. Following that, Brian Schill thinks through the parallels of Blood Meridian's Judge Holden and Michel Foucault, particularly the latter's ideas about neoliberal economics. After those explorations of the novel's resonance with European traditions and thinkers, Trevor Jackson reads Child of God in the context of social responsibility and conceptions of modernity more broadly. And Italian scholar Federico Bellini investigates McCarthy's creative process in his composition of The Crossing, particularly his consultation with two medical advisers in crafting his story. Finally, Bryan Giemza reviews Lydia Cooper's new book and, in that discussion, engages with the intersection of humanistic scholarship about narrative and complexity theory as a practice. Enjoy, and keep in touch.