Surviving Myself

“ The novel Blood Meridian (1985) establishes Cormac McCarthy as unchallenged king of literary mule carnage. No fewer than fifty-nine specific mules die in the book, plus dozens more that are alluded to in groups and bunches. Mules are shot, roasted, drowned, knifed, and slain by thirst; but the largest number, 50 out of a conducta of 122 mules carrying quicksilver for mining, plummet from a single cliff during an ambush, performing an almost choreographic display of motion and color, “the animals dropping silently as martyrs, turning sedately in the empty air and exploding on the rocks below in startling bursts of blood and silver as the flasks broke open and the mercury loomed wobbling in the air in great sheets and lobes and small trembling satellites… . Half a hundred mules had been ridden off the escarpment ” - Skybarn reminds us, here, of one of our favorite literary essays ever, “The Dead Mule Rides Again,” in which Jerry Leath Mills argues that the distinguishing characteristic of Southern Literature is the presence of wholesale mule slaughter. If you haven’t read this, drop everything and do so now. (via newsweek)