Visual Propaganda #10: Jjří Sozanský

God is War in the work of Czech artist Jjří Sozanský

War is the ultimate game because war is at last a forcing of the unity of existence. War is god. – Cormac McCarthy

The unforgettable quotation above is delivered in McCarthy’s masterpiece by the character of Judge Holden; while Holden is a historical figure who indeed was a member of the REAL scalp hunting gang depicted in the book, McCarthy fictionalized and mythologized his character in the novel. In Blood Meridian, the Judge is seven feet tall, albino, and endowed with what appears to be supernatural strength and the ability to appear in more than one place at once. According to critics like Harold Bloom, McCarthy’s Judge Holden is a gnostic archon – a demon or angel that embodies certain philosophical ideals. The Judge then is the living embodiment of human warfare, and warfare IS God. It is the final judgement and the universal cleansing agent. This reminds me Ernst Junger, who often took psychedelics while observing war to relive the experience of actually fighting in World War 1. For him, the intensity and ego death of a powerful hallucinogen was the only experience that shatters reality to the extent that warfare does.