MAR 26
Hegel, Blood Meridian, and shots from space
Hegelian Ascetic
Subjective spirit: the individual psyche/mind (consciousness, self-consciousness, reason).
Objective spirit: social practices and institutions (right, morality, ethical life, state) as the public “objectification” of freedom.
Absolute spirit: art, religion, philosophy as cultural modes in which spirit becomes explicitly self-interpreting.
The aim of spirit-as-consciousness is to make appearance match it’s essence.
To raise mere certainty to truth.
Re-reading Blood Meridian
In the morning they crossed a bed of thunderstones clustered on that heath like the ossified eggs of some primal groundbird.
Beyond the fire it was cold and the night was clear and the stars were falling. The old hunter pulled his blanket about him. I wonder if there’s other worlds like this, he said. Or if this is the only one.
And some discussion on the ending sequence:
The little girl gone missing at the end, after her bear was killed, was it the judge? Seems related to the judge killing the idiot.
The Judge preys on children throughout the novel (there are multiple hints and references to missing children whenever he appears). Whenever children disappear in proximity to him, violence follows.
A child disappears.
The Judge remains.
The Judge dances.
He survives. The innocent does not.
The bear and the girl matter symbolically too.
The bear = something wild, ancient, mythic.
It’s reduced to spectacle.
It’s shot for entertainment.
Space
Clearest photo of Venus ever rendered.
And our first image of another multi-planet solar system.
