The Learned Gentlemen with the Copies of Blackstone: Law and Power in Moby-Dick and Blood Meridian

ABSTRACT As much of Cormac McCarthy scholarship has time and time again observed, McCarthy’s novel Blood Meridian (1985) owes a great debt to Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick (1851). Nowhere is this clearer than in McCarthy’s thematic preoccupations and in his characterization of Judge Holden. Judge Holden indeed appears to be a composite of multiple characters in Moby-Dick—including Captain Ahab, Fedallah, and the White Whale itself. However, another and perhaps more fascinating influence on McCarthy’s Judge Holden can be found in one of Moby-Dick’s many narrative digressions. Namely, “the learned gentleman with the copy of Blackstone,” found in chapter 90 of Moby-Dick, significantly shaped how McCarthy chose to portray Judge Holden. Given the significance of Judge Holden’s representing “the law,” Melville’s learned gentleman likely shaped McCarthy’s views of the law, justice, society, civilization, and “progress.”