“What's he a judge of?”

Abstract

AbstractIn this article, I argue that the character of Judge Holden in Blood Meridian ought to be regarded as the fictional author of the novel, and that the kid ought to be considered a sign of the reader of Blood Meridian within the text of Blood Meridian itself. I argue further that the particular challenge the novel presents its kid-as-reader, the act of critical judgment that it requires this figure to perform, is that of apprehending the judge, of judging him. I then argue that the difficulty of accomplishing such an act of judgment is due to the fact that it threatens to repeat the acts of judgment already performed by the judge in the novel, with the implication that if the reader is to avoid doubling such a regime of judgment and its specifically scriptural violence, then this judgment must be performed in a manner that is different to the judgment meted out by the judge in the novel. I conclude my argument by affirming the necessity of an ethics of reading that is in exception to the judge's regime of textual violence, and offer a reading of the novel that demonstrates what such an ethics of reading may look like in practice.