Updates: General Craziness

First of all, I promise that I have not stopped reading. I'm just a strange combination of swamped and lazy, so I haven't posted since...well, you know better than I do. Probably.

Second, I am currently in the process of PhD school research/applications, adding to the giant to-do list I already had (which includes taking the GRE--in two weeks, preparing a chapter of my thesis for publication, editing my novel manuscript, querying for another novel manuscript, traveling to and presenting at RMMLA, attending a mystery writer's conference in Santa Fe, teaching three sections of English 104, getting ready to perform a show this weekend with my band, making paper bead bracelets for a local craft/food festival, and tutoring at a local community college).

What does this mean? I pretty sure it means that I hate myself, because I was rarely ever this busy even in graduate school. It also means that my reading has been sporadic and all over the place. Right now, I'm reading The Sorrows of Satan, Vanity Fair, and How Novels Think: The Limits of Individualism from 1719-1900. There are also a few books in my currently reading pile that I hope to finish soon but have set aside for other, more pressing, reads.

It also means that if I can pull all of this off I will be one happy camper come the middle of December. And one waiting-with-baited-breath camper, because once I submit those PhD applications I know I'll be checking my email every day even though THE LOGICAL PART OF MY BRAIN KNOWS BETTER. Sorry. Just yelling at myself...

Update: It's Fall and I'm Still Reading

Yesterday, I finally finished drafting my mystery novel, and that accomplishment set me thinking about other things I've been meaning to catch up on. This blog, for example.

August had me missing in action on here, and for that I apologize. Theoretically, my schedule should be fairly laid back, now that I have completed my M.A. and am *only* working, but between two part time jobs (one of which includes teaching/grading three sections of Freshman Composition and Research), converting my thesis into journal articles for publication, getting ready to present at RMMLA, finishing my novel and a couple of short stories, prepping for the GRE, preparing PhD school applications, and little things like housework, marriage, and a social life, I've been mostly swamped. 

Still, my loyal readers (all two and a half of you) deserve to know how my reading quest is going, and it's about time you got an update. Right? Right.

Since July, I've read

• Third Grave Dead Ahead, by Darynda Jones (book 31)
• 'B' is for Burglar, by Sue Grafton (32)
• Blackbirds, by Chuck Wending (33)
• Kitty Takes a Holiday, by Carrie Vaughn (34)
• 'C' is for Corpse, by Sue Grafton (35)

I'm currently reading:

• An Elegant Madness: High Society in Regency England, by Venetia Murray
• The Sorrows of Satan, by Marie Corelli (Victorian Sensation, Oh Yeah!)

Books I've started and intend to finish soon:

• Bitter Seeds, by Ian Tregillis
• Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
• Norwegian Wood, by Haruki Murakami

Books I intend to read next:

• Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray
• The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
• October Country, by Ray Bradbury
• Mockingbird, by Chuck Wendig
• The rest of the Charley Davidson series by Darynda Jones
• The rest of the Kitty Norville series by Carrie Vaughn
• WHATEVER JIM BUTCHER PUBLISHES NEXT
• Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Thirty: Second Grave on the Left....Plus, Some Grave (pun intended) Realizations

Second Grave on the Left, by Darynda Jones, 2011.

                                               

TTR: One day. Again, I say MUAHAHA.

Comments:

I feel like this book was written in a hurry, because there are quite a few places where I noticed continuity and/or typo issues.

That said, I DEVOURED this book so fast my eyes are still a little spinny. I love the world Darynda Jones creates, I love her characters, and I love her obsession with coffee.

I also love that the books are set in Albuquerque, NM, which is part of my beautiful home state.

Moreover, and this may attest to my love of the series, I've decided to hold out on reading #3 until I've finished the current draft of my novel. That's right, Third Grave Dead Ahead just became the proverbial carrot at the end of the stick.


SEGUE.


I've come to the somewhat depressing realization that, on this, the thirtieth week of the year (unless my math is wrong, which it could very well be) I have only read thirty books. That's right. I'm averaging JUST ONE BOOK A WEEK. I blame my newly minted attention span. I also blame my schedule. Not to worry, I will still prevail.

*maniacal laughter*

Twenty-Nine: THE DIABOLIST

The Diabolist, by Layton Green, 2013.


TTR: three or four days

Comments:

I read about this book on a book blog, or heard about it on a podcast, or maybe just noticed it on Amazon and decided it sounded intriguing. I can't really remember anymore.

Apparently, it is the third book in a series, but I didn't realize that until after I'd finished it. This should tell you that it works well as a standalone novel. However, perhaps the constant absinthe references would've made more sense to me if I'd read 1 and 2 first.

I liked it. It has an interesting blend of reality and the supernatural that errs on the side of realism, which is a nice break from all of the urban fantasy I've been reading (not that I don't love me some urban fantasy).

Twenty-Eight: A IS FOR ALIBI

A is for Alibi, by Sue Grafton, 1982.

       

TTR: one day! MUAHAHAHHAHAHA

Comments:

As you might remember from some of my earlier posts, I have an unhealthy fascination with  an ongoing academic and creative writerly interest in female detectives. I wrote my Master's Thesis on them, for heaven's sake. I'm also writing a mystery and a couple of Urban Fantasy novels featuring female leads who solve conundrums of varying severity.

Somehow, despite all of that, I had never read a Sue Grafton novel (or really any semi-modern female detective novels, for that matter). This was a problem I needed to remedy, stat.

So I picked up a used, three novel omnibus of Grafton's work at the local Hastings and started setting things right.

I love Kinsey Millhone. Despite the fact that her character is old enough to be my mother, she is also a relevant and realistic (for the 80s/90s) female P.I. She is tough but still concerned with the things an actual forty-year-old woman might be concerned with. She cares but she also has had enough life experience not to be too touchy-feely or invested in other's lives.

I'm in the middle of reading B is for Burglar right now.

Twenty-Seven: CONFESSIONS OF A FREELANCE PENMONKEY

Confessions of A Freelance Penmonkey, by Chuck Wendig, 2011.

TTR: about two days

Comments:

GO TO THIS WEBSITE, NOW: http://terribleminds.com/

BUY THE BOOKS AND FOLLOW THEIR ZANY AUTHOR ON THE TWITTERS...

Seriously, guys, it's not often that I read one book by an author and slap them into my little black book of favorite authors who will one day suffer at my hands ala Stephen King's Misery. Haha. Just kidding. I'm too busy hobbling myself so that I can't leave my desk and am forced to write my own novels. Please don't shun me, favorite authors! I promise not to go all Annie Wilkes on you. I'm not even a nurse. It does't even snow where I live, not usually.

Anyhoo.

There are few books that make me chuckle and snicker and grimace and and weep little girly tears on almost every page, and Confessions of a Freelance Penmonkey is one of them (the Bloggess' book, Let's Pretend This Never Happened, is another one of those books, but I have not yet finished it 'cause I haven't actually purchased it, yet. I just read the bits I could for free on Amazon, 'cause I'm cheap like that. What? Don't look at me like that. Your eyes are like needles right now. I just graduated, I'm broke and looking for a full time job. I'M MELTING. Oh, wait, you're just giving me that look because there's an obvious solution? The library, you say? I think I might have one of those library card thingies...it's buried under the broken shells of a million Kindles, but hey, I'll give it a go).

Gurg. I've taken up too much time on crazed parenthetical rants again, haven't I? Well, here's what I said about the book on Facebook:

Courtney updated her status. 3:12pm

Best thing I've read all day: "Remember: someone paid Shakespeare. He didn't do it 'for the love'...Shakespeare got to get paid, son." From CONFESSIONS OF A FREELANCE PEN MONKEY.

If you're a writer, read this book. If you or someone you love knows or is a writer, read this book Yes, I sound like one of those Melanoma commercials right now. Maybe I should apply to be the voice of those commercials....

Nah.

I'm just gonna stop typing now...

Book Twenty-Six: Zen in the Art of Writing

Zen in the Art of Writing, by Ray Bradbury, 1990.

                                                                   

TTR: a couple of days

Comments:

This is the sort of book that could very easily end up highlighted front to back, if I had no self-restraint. It is soooooo quotable that, while I was reading it, I posted one or two quotes to Facebook a day. Yup. I finally had to cut myself off, slap my hands whenever I reached for a highlighter or facebook, and content myself with underlining in pencil.

Perhaps my favorite post and quote from the book:

9:29pm

Feels very true (if melodramatic) of my life this summer: "If you did not write every day, the poisons would accumulate and you would begin to die, or act crazy, or both. You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you. For writing allows just the proper recipes of truth, life, reality, as you are able to eat, drink, and digest without hyperventilating and flopping like a dead fish in your bed." --Ray Bradbury

Book Twenty-Five: SAVE THE CAT!

Save the Cat!, by Blake Snyder, 2005.



TTR: two-ish days.

Comments:

As those of you who've stumbled across my personal writing blog, Syncopated Synonyms, have probably already deduced, I'm not only an avid reader, I'm also one of those maniacal, pseudo-psychopathic individuals that our society likes to call "writers." Those of you who've read my "about me" page have probably deduced the same thing, but that segue doesn't allow for my shameless self-promotion. Duh.

So, I've been reading a lot of nonfiction about the craft and lifestyle of writing. This is one of *those* reads.

This book was pretty awesome, even though I haven't yet tried my hand at screenwriting and read this primarily as a discussion of plotting/pacing. It made me think about structure and content of my story, pointed me in the direction of some other awesome writers, and made me want to write a screen play EVEN MORE THAN I ALREADY DO. Which is probably bad, since I'm already crazed enough as it is.

Book Twenty-Four: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, by Stieg Larsson, 2007.




TTR:  This was another book that I read during my fitful post M.A. reading stage (who am I kidding? that stage is not yet over *sobs*). So, I read it in spurts over the course of two or three weeks.

Caveat: part of the lengthy reading time has to do with Larsson's style, not my recentandcripplingreadingdisability ADHD. Like the Victorians (whom I love but also sort of want to kick in the shins, depending on my mood and the author in question), Larsson takes a LONG TIME TO GET INTO THE ACTUAL ACTION OF THE STORY. So, we know everything we need to know when Blomkvist starts kicking butt and taking names in a very Swedish manner.

So, yeah.

That pretty much covers my comments, too, but that won't stop me from giving you more.

Comments:

If you've kept reading this far into the series, you are probably invested in Lizbeth Salander's story. So, while this book is enormous and hard to follow (have I mentioned the similarity to Victorian fiction?) it is worth reading if you care to know Salander's fate. You might wish Larsson was alive so you could slap him in the face for ending it the way he did. *Shifty eyes...I'm not the only one, right?*

Why I Should Never Do 'Thons...

When I try NaNoWriMo, I bomb.
When I try Summer Lovin' Readathon's, I bomb.
When I...
Nope, that's about it for the bombing.

Why? Well, let me lie on this oddly shaped couch-bed thing and talk whilst you scratch your whiskers and hmmm at the symbolic and psychological implications of my remarks.

I don't do well on other's timelines. Which is not to say that I can't work with deadlines or that pressure ruins me, because I EXCEL under pressure and I have always met deadlines imposed by bosses and/or instructors. I just...need a sense of urgency, or balk at willynilly cramming. Or maybe I don't respect my own authority. I'm not sure.

All of this is to say that I read ONE book during last week's read-a-thon. One whole book. The rest of the time I spent fighting a cockroach infestation and/or procrastinating on my writing. Some weeks. Let me tell ya.

A Midsummer's Night Update

Have you ever looked back over an ongoing project and realized that, as you go on, you get less and less precise?

I have.

Now, don't get me wrong I love precision. I demand precision from my students (and myself, when it comes to academia). But, sometimes I start out very precise and then relax as I realize that the parameters of my precision were possibly a bit too tall of an order to fill, even for me.

Blah, blah, blah, you're saying. Get to the point already, you say.

Okay.

My blog is less precise. Instead of exact dates, I'm giving estimates in terms of hours, days, etc. Why? Because I'd like my reading to be recreational this summer, and when I try to keep track of dates and other such specifics it starts to feel a bit too much like a chore.

I hope you are all cool with that, because that's just the way it is.

The second point of this post is to give you all an update on what's coming up in the next several posts. The books I've read that I haven't yet posted about on here:

24. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, Stieg Larrson.
25. Save the Cat! Blake Snyder.
26. Zen in the Art of Writing, Ray Bradbury.
27. Confessions of a Freelance Pen Monkey, Chuck Wendig.

Plus, you know, I'm hoping to reach the 30 mark before the month is over so that I can start the Bloglovin' Summer Readathon with a bang!

Book Twenty-Three: FIRST GRAVE ON THE RIGHT

First Grave on the Right, by Darynda Jones, 2011. This is the first book of the Charley Davidson series, which I intend to catch up on before the summer ends.


TTR: a day and a half.

Comments:

I love Darynda Jones' book for many reasons, among which are the fact that I've met Darynda and chatted with her at a couple of writer's events (we were even on the same panel for new writers at the Jack Williamson Lectureship in 2012). It love to support local authors, in part because it is probably karma of some sort. One day soon I'll be a published author looking for local support *crosses fingers*. But also because--YEAH--people from around here are awesome. They're my people. They should definitely succeed.

The setting is AWESOME. As a New Mexico girl, I am always happy to see New Mexico in books, movies, television, etc.

I also just love supernatural detective stories, and Darynda is great at writing them.

Book Twenty-Two: OUTLINING YOUR NOVEL: MAP YOUR WAY TO SUCCESS

Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success, by K.M. Weiland, 2011.

     

TTR: A day and a half.

Comments:

If you're a writer, this is most definitely worth a read. It helped me jumpstart my mystery novel (which I've been struggling with and rethinking for at least the past four years). I am now almost halfway through a fresh draft (and I only had three-thousand words when I read this at the beginning of June) and am looking forward to having a polished draft by the end of the year.

Yep.

Book Twenty-One: KITTY GOES TO WASHINGTON

Kitty Goes to Washington, by Carrie Vaughn, 2007. Book Two of the Kitty Norville series.

(See, I'm not all excuses! Told you I'd read this sometime near the beginning of the summer).
     

TTR: Uh, a day and a half? Something like that.

Comments:

I read the first Kitty book after listening to Carrie Vaughn speak at the Jack Williamson Lectureship in Portales, NM. She talked about the roots of Urban Fantasy and mentioned the Bronte sisters, which was awesome because I LOVE ME SOME VICTORIAN LITERATURE. And anyone who can reference it on a whim is worth talking to, or reading as the case may be.

I liked this book better than the first Kitty book. I like that the series takes place in different locations, and I like that Kitty is much more self-confident in this book.

Consensus? I'll keep reading the series. I like the premise.

Book Twenty: FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, by Hunter S. Thompson, 1971.

   

TTR: I started reading this one sleepless night during finals week, and finished it after about a week of off and on reading (once again, I cite burnout for the slow reading time).

Comments:

What to say about Fear and Loathing? What to say? What to say? Ah, yes...

AHHHHHHHHHHHH. *Twitch* *Twitch*

This book was interesting and painful and, perhaps because I read it during some very severe bouts of insomnia, surreal. I felt an odd connection with the drug saturated pair.

What is it about? Eh, the American Dream, the pursuit of...difference, distance.

Book Nineteen: MOCKING JAY

Mocking Jay, by Suzanne Collins, 2010.

 


TTR:  A day or two.

Comments:

I liked this book, but I also had less than happy feelings about this book. Blerg. It was frustrating (and, as a writer, completely understandable). Katniss is (again, understandably) a very unlikeable character in this book. She's being churned, once more, through the system. She's being asked to make decisions that go against everything she ever knew or thought she believed. She makes decisions that (SPOILERS) I do not think she should make: namely, to reinstate the Hunger Games one last time. BAD KATNISS. Although, I'm also not sure if this "yes" vote on her part is just her plan to assassinate President Coin or what.

Sorry for the garbled response. Garbed feelings equals garbled review...

Book Eighteen: CATCHING FIRE

Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins, 2009.
    

TTR:

A few days. I read this during finals week, and although it was great I was pretty burnt out.

Comments:

For some strange reason, this series reminds me greatly of Cormac McCarthy's The Road which (SPOILERS!) is about as pervasively hopeless in terms of world view.

In terms of the series as a whole, I think this was one of my favorite books. Although it feels somewhat abrupt and disorganized at the end, the characters in this book are much more relate-able than the characters in the first. Which is partly because Katniss is forced to move out of the narrow world-view she inhabits in the first book to see the humanity in people she would normally write off as sell outs or evil.

I liked it. *Shrug*

Book Seventeen: HARK! A VAGRANT!

Hark! A Vagrant! by Kate Beaton, 2011.

 
(you can find samples of Beaton's work at her website).

TTR: a day or two.

Comments:

I'm not sure if I should count this book, mostly because it's a collection of comments. But I did read it cover to cover. So there.

Beaton is a genius when it comes to the satire of pop culture, past and present (and by past, I mean 19th Century Romantic Period and onward). I LOVE her comics about the Victorian and Romantic authors. But, I also LOVE her Sexy Batman comics (which you can find here).

Verdict: awesomeness, pure and simple.

Book Sixteen: THE CATS OF COPENHAGEN

The Cats of Copenhagen, James Joyce, Ithy Press 2012.

TTR: 10 minutes (more or less)

Comments:

Just when you think Joyce can't confuse you any more, he reaches out beyond the grave and, with a smug, "ha ha ha," tosses a children's book into the world. Or at least that's what it seemed like when, late last year, I stumbled across this article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/09/james-joyce-childrens-story-cats-copenhagen.

Honestly, I bought it out of sheer curiosity. What sort of children's book would Joyce write? I also bought it because the illustrations are amazing.

                                     

I didn't pull a typical analysis of this book, mostly because I was finishing my thesis.  So, my impressions may come from some misunderstanding. It was entertaining, but I felt like there was some theoretical winking going on (you know, like theoretical inside jokes), and I didn't really understand who/what the cats were supposed to be.

But I will reread it eventually and let you know.

Some Books I Recently Bought

To tide you over until I start posting about actual books again, a picture of my newest acquisitions (at some point I will update this post to include a picture of the bookstore in which they were found, as well as a review of the bookstore: Books of Interest in Santa Fe).

Book Fifteen: THE LADY INVESTIGATES

The Lady Investigates: Women Detectives & Spies in Fiction, by Patricia Craig and Mary Cadogan, 1981.



 


TTR: As with the last book, it is difficult to say how much time I took to read this. But approximately two weeks.

Comments: Although this book has the same goals as, say, The Woman Detective, it was much more focused on American Female detectives and was very useful to me while I wrote the second chapter of my thesis. As I quickly learned while writing my thesis, a book with a good bibliography is doubly invaluable. This one has both good content and a good bibliography.

Book Fourteen: THE WOMAN DETECTIVE: GENDER AND GENRE

The Woman Detective: Gender and Genre, by Kathleen Gregory Klein, published by University of Illinois Press, 1988.


TTR: it is difficult to say how long this took me to read as I read through it as needed while writing my prospectus and thesis.

Comments: if you are interested in the history of the female detective (both British and American), this is an excellent place to start. I'd also suggest Michelle B. Slung's Crime on Her Mind, Joseph Kestner's Sherlock's Sisters, and Craig and Cadogan's The Lady Investigates.

Summer Lovin' Read-a-Thon

In hopes to boost my reading numbers, I'm signing up with the Summer Lovin' Read-a-Thon (though I'll have you know I am actually at 20 books read, I'm just a bit behind on blog posts). Check out the blurb below for more information!

The Summer Lovin’ Readathon is a week-long readathon event hosted by seven independent bloggers! (Oh, Chrys!, Tumbling Books, Effortlessly Reading, Love Life Read, Shelf Addiction, Read Sleep Repeat, and Reviewing Wonderland)

Spend the week reading at your own pace, when and how you want to. There will be daily challenges for awesome prizes and opportunities to get points toward the Grand Prize Packs.

As if that weren’t enough – the week will end with a 24-hr marathon readathon! Twitter parties, mini-challenges, games, prizes given EVERY HOUR, and more chances to get points toward the Grand Prize Packs.

Sign-ups will be open through July 6th. I’m in, are you?!

Book Thirteen: THE ROAD

The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, published by Random House, 2007.


   

TTR: I read this in about two hours. I could not put it down. In fact, I got a phone call in the middle of reading and it jarred me so badly that I was probably rude to the caller (sorry, mom).

Comments: Aside from the fact that I kept expecting zombies and getting cannibals, I both loved and hated the book. Hurray for my inability to decide, right? The world McCarthy created was so alive for me, which is ironic considering that it is a dead world in this book. The simplicity of the dialogue and plot were poignant.

I *may* have cried at certain heart-rending parts. Ehem.

The ending, though, seemed to undermine itself. It presents a hope that cannot exist in the world McCarthy creates. I also felt very suspicious about the family that adopts the boy at the end.

Book Twelve: TROPIC OF ORANGE

Tropic of Orange, by Karen Tei Yamashita published by Coffee House Press, 1997.
 

TTR: On a whim, because the book is separated into seven parts that are named after the days of the week, I took a week to read. But the book is engaging, one of the best I've read this year, and I could have easily finished it in a day or so, if I hadn't been trying to finish my Thesis.

Comments:

I. Love. Magical Realism. I love Chican@ lit. I love post-modern culturally chaotic craziness in a novel. Tropic of Orange has it all and more.

The book is full of interesting characters, references to film noir, and even references to Place and Space theory. My favorites are a character called Buzzworm and one called Bobby, who Yamashita describes thusly: "Bobby's  Chinese. Chinese from Singapore with a Vietnam name speaking like a Mexican living in Koreatown. That's it" (15).

I know you probably all suspect my ability to hate a book, at this point, and that's okay--because I'm a literature scholar (it's weird not to say English major, but I'm taking a break before applying for doctoral programs, and it would be equally weird to call myself a major right now) and my success depends upon my ability to find ways to like books enough to enter into discourse with and about them.

But I didn't just find ways to like this book. I had no reason and no choice, I just loved it. From sentence one. I would read it again.

The Bookworm

Book Eleven: Gardens in the Dunes

Gardens in the Dunes, Leslie Marmon Silko, 1999.

TTR: Two weeks, give or take. This is a fairly long book.

Comments:

Honestly, Gardens in the Dunes is probably my least favorite Silko novel. I think it is because of what Silko was trying to do with the novel, which is to step away from angry political writing in a sense. I'm a huge Ceremony fan, and I also love her poetry. But this book, while in many ways still intriguing, didn't feel all there for me. Mostly it was the ending, which I really disliked.

What did I love about the novel? The constant references to gardening across the globe, which I read as a sort of alternative globalization. I also loved the references to the Female Spiritual Principle and Hattie's very Victorian mannerisms.

My favorite character is Indigo, despite the fact that she is rather problematically idealized throughout the text, and her animal friends: Linnaeus, the monkey, and Rainbow, the parrot.

Book Ten: BLOOD MERIDIAN

Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West, by Cormac McCarthy, 1985.

TTR: This took me more or less a week, mostly because, as I have stated elsewhere, reading McCarthy is like watching a tragedy unfold and being unable to either walk away or intervene. I think at most I made it through 4-5 chapters at a time before I had to put it down.

Comments:

Blood Meridian is many things, but scarring may be the most accurate. It is like and yet so disturbingly unlike McCarthy's other work. My friend and fellow grad student has suggested that his work in this book is particularly grotesque--a mixture of the beautiful and the terrible. I think it's an astute assessment.

Blood Meridian is so saturated with meaningless, gory violence that I began to wonder if I would eventually become desensitized. I think, more accurately, I just became so overwhelmed with it all that I stopped being able to process it, stumbling through page after page in an attempt just to make sense of it all.

That said, I think that this book is full of interesting, insightful moments (maybe this is just the English Geek in me).

While reading this sorta/kinda historically rooted novel, one character in particularly both intrigued and repulsed me: Judge Holden. So, I think I'll share a portion of the paper I wrote about this insane, giant, hairless judge:

In the first third of Blood Meridian, the kid poses a question that is one of the text’s central mysteries: “What’s [the Judge] a judge of?” (135). Hinted answers are scattered throughout the text, and nearly all of them are cryptic and ambiguous; the Judge is either the devil or a god, he is either a blessing to the gang or a curse, he is himself unknowable (Peebles 234; McCarthy 131). The Judge’s first meeting with Glanton’s gang, which occurred before the kid joined and while the gang was being pursued group of Apaches who had them outnumbered and outgunned, is related by Tobin and serves to emphasize the Judge’s discomfiting lack or moral, physical, spatial, and temporal context:

Then about the meridian of that day we come upon the Judge on his rock there in that wilderness by his single self. Aye and there was no rock, just the one. Irving said he’d brung it with him. I said that it was a merestone for to mark him out of nothing at all. He had with him that selfsame rifle you see with him now, all mounted in german silver and the name that he’d give it set with silver wire under the checkpiece in latin: Et In Arcadia Ego. A reference to the lethal in it. (125)

The Judge appears to Glanton and his men completely without context; his origins are never given and his first meeting with the gang is marked by an ambiguous mysticism. Tobin suggests that the rock upon which the Judge sits, solitary, in the middle of the desert, is a “merestone,” which, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, can be used literally to mean “boundary stone,” an object used to mark spatial distances or the boundaries between distinct places, or, figuratively to indicate something that serves as the marker of an era, a temporal signifier of what has been (“merestone, n.” def. a-b). The Judge sits upon the metaphorical confluence of time and place, rather than existing within either time or place. In fact, in the novel’s final chapters we learn that “whoever would seek out [the Judge’s] history…must stand at last darkened and dumb at the shore of a void without terminus or origin” and will ultimately “discover no trace of any ultimate atavistic egg by which to reckon his commencing” (309-10). The Judge has no discernable beginning and claims, likewise, to have no end.