I think that’s an allusion to the Gnostic demiurge.

Or maybe he was searching for "structure", the way Grothendieck was - in pure math, in systems biology, in complex networks (e.g. civilizations, culture, occult) and in individual behaviors

For the uninitiated (like me!):

TL;DR: An old testament reference to the "malevolent god". E.g. "god in the old testament wasn't so nice or forgiving.."

> In Gnosticism, the Demiurge is the lesser creator god who fashioned the material world and is often seen as the God of the Old Testament, Yahweh. Unlike the supreme, unknowable God, the Demiurge is ignorant, imperfect, and sometimes malevolent, responsible for the flaws of the physical world and the imprisonment of the divine spark within humans. Gnostic beliefs see a spiritual journey not as submitting to the Demiurge, but as a process of escaping his creation to return to the true, good God.

See also: https://gnosticismexplained.org/the-gnostic-demiurge/

The allegorical parents and the internalized judge to overcome.

Not an Old Testament reference, but a Gnostic belief. 1 John addresses Gnosticism by refuting some of its claims such as Jesus only appearing to be human. While John doesn't reference the Demiurge, the concept goes hand in hand with this Gnostic teaching that Jesus was a pure spiritual being. Gnostics considered material things evil, so Jesus coming in the flesh and a benevolent creator God did not fit their worldview.

If you want to learn more about the demiurge, this guy provides a good simple explanation and puts it in context. Without ever mentioning gnosticism, by the way. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgGfQdv_rPc

I hope that wasn't Cormac McCarthy's stand-in because the Judge character is like some type of supernatural violent being.

It doesn't have to be a direct stand-in. It's mentioned in the article that people suspect McCarthy of reveling in the violence in his novels. Whether he does or does not he would certainly have been aware of that perception. Judge Holden as a character embodies many distasteful qualities of mankind, it would make sense that the qualities he embodies the most distinctly are the ones McCarthy sees in himself.

The only "self-insert" he's done is the main character of Suttree which is semi-autobiographical

The judge is an incarnation of evil and a pedophile so I don't think that's his Mary sue

> The judge is an incarnation of evil and a pedophile so I don't think that's his Mary sue

Although... he did rather famously have a thing for underage girls...

https://medium.com/belover/cormac-mccarthy-was-a-pedophile-a...