i appreciate your response but not sure i agree. and again, this is me wrestling with the book and trying to figure it out in my way. but i dont think i agree with you on the whole structure falling if you remove one word. i could edit the book down to about 100 pages. im exaggerating but my point remains. he described the same things over and over again and in the same way over and over again that i was often tempted to skip ahead but refused to do so. i felt at times his descriptions setting the scenes were heavy handed and often threw in complicated phrases or obscure words just for the heck of it. it often took me out of the story and back to the realization that i was reading a book. and when he would drone on and on about the dusty white trail blah blah blah, i often thought that his publisher must have requested more pages because surely he understands that we get it by now. and even in the quote you listed, one of the most amazing scenes in the whole book, i was so excited about the horde from hell but alas, they were defeated on the side of a volcano in a flash back story. it was very much a let down as i hoped to see them battle glanton's group head on.
i dont disagree that the judge was similar to his villain in no country for old men in that he seemed to play evil itself than just a man. but as far as a comp to paradise lost, i dont see that at all. this was not a story of man's downfall or rising up or both or anything. it was a story about a kid who got in with a group who hunted scalps and got drunk until they died. but the kid disappears for 100s of pages at a time but then shows back up at the end. maybe i am just missing it. there was no moral conflict. there was really no conflict or tragedy or risk at all. i wasnt invested in anyone living, dying, succeeding, failing or just invested in anyone or thing. it was just a story without any investment. we were just riding along with a really bad group of people who did a bunch of really bad things to other people, some of those good and some bad, and there was nothing really risked or gained or rewarded or balanced in any particular outcome or venture. it was unlike any other book i have ever read. and thats probably why its confounding me. the fact i am so passionate about it probably means i really liked it but i just havent figured out how to express it yet.