Paper Title: “Fresh Scalps,” Glanton bragged when asked what his donkey was burdened with.

Author: John McLaughlin

Email: ktmcl@aol.com

       "Blood Meridian Or the Evening Redness in the West is a story, based on historical events and actual characters, that recounts the exploits of a brutal bond of professional scalp hunters who, employed by local governments in the American Southwest and Mexico, murder the Native Americans for bounty. The novel emphasizes the violent manner in which “civilization” is imposed on a savage land and thus challenges accepted notions concerning Manifest Destiny and the settling of the Southwest.
      My topic for this presentation concentrates on McCarthy's use of “optical democracy” as a style of writing. His representation of nature and the power of its influence in Blood Meridian, sets it on a level playing field with its human characters. As such, it is written in a style of “optical democracy.” As David Holloway states, it is “a kind of writing that verges on deep ecology in its reduction of all that is animate and inanimate to a dead level of equivalence.” The goal of this presentation is to give the listener a glimpse of the writing of Cormac McCarthy and the nuances that his writing presents. “Optical democracy” is a small, but integral part of this style that leads the reader into a greater appreciation of his work and a new appreciation for the nature depicted."