Whatever exists, he [the judge] said. Whatever in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent.
He looked about at the dark forest in which they were bivouacked. He nodded toward the specimens he'd collected. These anonymous creatures, he said, may seem little or nothing in the world. Yet the smallest crumb can devour us. Any smallest thing beneath yon rock out of men's knowing. Only nature can enslave man and only when the existence of each last entity is routed out and made to stand naked before him will he be properly suzerain of the earth.
I just finished reading Heart of Darkness and realized that the Judge is the reincarnation of Mr. Kurtz. Powerful coincidences at work here. McCarthy had to have consciously remanifested the character of Kurtz to give voice to the evil, the "darkness". Both were in pursuit of the barbarous pleasure of their existence and not the product (ivory/scalps). Hmmm.. Could make a great essay.
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