Monday, May 3, 2010

Six Versions of Blood Meridian

I haven't read it yet, but Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian has been deemed by many as one of the greatest American novels of the twentieth century. Some artists have now started a project where they produce a picture based on each and every page of the novel: http://www.shawncheng.com/bloodmeridian/

Here's one image by Zak Smith, the same artist who drew every page of Thomas Pynchon's 700+ page headtrip WW2 novel, Gravity's Rainbow (all images here: http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/zak_smith/page%20index.htm)

[EDIT: actually, I'm having trouble uploading the images, but take a look!]

2 comments:

emma rowe said...

Thanks for the link Ciaran, I’ve read this book and I love it, I own two copies because I lent one to a friend and got separation anxiety and had to have another copy this happens when I give books away I love, think Apocalypse Now which came by way of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and you got a Colonel Kuntz type character and band of men not misplaced from a sam peckinpah movie, its so violent but an amazing read his use of language is so distinctive,I have an obsession with the American west and the myth of the American west. any way you should read it

Anonymous said...

Emma Rowe I love you! I agree-- awesome book. It's probably not for everyone, but worth an attempt. For the language alone, I think you'd love it Ciaran. I saw Zak Smith's Pychon drawings in the Whitney Biennell show about 5 or 6 years ago. His rendering of the book via drawings took up an entire wall of the show. It was crazy. I remember people being blown away.