{"id":869,"date":"2026-04-08T09:42:55","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T16:42:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/burn-your-draft\/?p=869"},"modified":"2026-04-08T09:42:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T16:42:55","slug":"caleb-stanco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/burn-your-draft\/2026\/04\/08\/caleb-stanco\/","title":{"rendered":"#79: Bleakness and Hope in McCarthy\u2019s Blood Meridian with Caleb Stanco &#8217;25, English"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"579\" height=\"579\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/burn-your-draft\/files\/2026\/04\/Caleb-Stanco-web-photo.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-870\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/burn-your-draft\/files\/2026\/04\/Caleb-Stanco-web-photo.jpeg 579w, https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/burn-your-draft\/files\/2026\/04\/Caleb-Stanco-web-photo-300x300.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/burn-your-draft\/files\/2026\/04\/Caleb-Stanco-web-photo-150x150.jpeg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 579px) 100vw, 579px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In this episode, we hear from Caleb about the central theme of violence in McCarthy\u2019s 1985 novel <em>Blood Meridian<\/em> and its relevance to modern times. Responding to the grimness of McCarthy\u2019s book, set in the 19th-century American southwest, Caleb explores questions such as: What is the significance of violence in society, and how can we resist its inevitability? How can we make meaning, as readers, to respond effectively to violence in our society today?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tune in to hear about Caleb\u2019s process of literary analysis, how his background in Religious Studies showed up unexpectedly in his thesis, and how he found glimmers of hope amidst the bleakness of McCarthy\u2019s novel and, at times, the modern world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Reed community members can read Caleb&#8217;s thesis, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/rdc.reed.edu\/i\/42884796-d3d8-4b5e-aab3-542156edbb28\">American Theodicy: Blood Meridian and the Problem of Violence<\/a>,&#8221; online in the Electronic Thesis Archive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" allow=\"autoplay\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/soundcloud%253Atracks%253A2298870443&#038;color=%23ff5500&#038;auto_play=false&#038;hide_related=false&#038;show_comments=true&#038;show_user=true&#038;show_reposts=false&#038;show_teaser=true\"><\/iframe><div style=\"font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc;line-break: anywhere;word-break: normal;overflow: hidden;white-space: nowrap;text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif;font-weight: 100;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/burnyourdraft\" title=\"Burn Your Draft\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;\">Burn Your Draft<\/a> \u00b7 <a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/burnyourdraft\/caleb-stanco\" title=\"#79: Bleakness and Hope in McCarthy\u2019s Blood Meridian with Caleb Stanco &#x27;25, English\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;\">#79: Bleakness and Hope in McCarthy\u2019s Blood Meridian with Caleb Stanco &#x27;25, English<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this episode, we hear from Caleb about the central theme of violence in McCarthy\u2019s 1985 novel Blood Meridian and its relevance to modern times. Responding to the grimness of McCarthy\u2019s book, set in the 19th-century American southwest, Caleb explores &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/burn-your-draft\/2026\/04\/08\/caleb-stanco\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1039,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[41,53,84],"class_list":["post-869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-podcast-episode","tag-english","tag-religion","tag-violence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/burn-your-draft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/burn-your-draft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/burn-your-draft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/burn-your-draft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1039"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/burn-your-draft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=869"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/burn-your-draft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":871,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/burn-your-draft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869\/revisions\/871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/burn-your-draft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/burn-your-draft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/burn-your-draft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}