Re: Writer Nic Pizzolatto on Thomas Ligotti and the Weird Secrets of ‘True Detective’
 

Aaaaaand...

Nic Pizzolatto throws Weird Fiction under the bus...

True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto looks back on season 1

Wow.

Re: Writer Nic Pizzolatto on Thomas Ligotti and the Weird Secrets of ‘True Detective’
 

Thank Azathoth for the Death of the Author!



NB: The quote in your signature is one of the best aphorisms I have ever read. Where does it come from?

Re: Writer Nic Pizzolatto on Thomas Ligotti and the Weird Secrets of ‘True Detective’
 

I think all that hedging about mentioning Ligotti at the very beginning pretty much hinted at this. The guy should be a politician.

Re: Writer Nic Pizzolatto on Thomas Ligotti and the Weird Secrets of ‘True Detective’
 

The Pizzolatto interviews did not exactly inspire confidence:

"And if we’re talking about hard-boiled detectives, too, what could be more hardboiled than the worldview of Ligotti or Cioran? They make the grittiest of crime writers seem like dilettantes. Next to “The Conspiracy Against the Human Race,” Mickey Spillane seems about as hard-boiled as bubble gum."

Opposing LIFE! Hardcore, right!?!? In other news Slayer is heavier than Metallica!!!

Ligotti isn't buying it:

"Anything truly disturbing can’t even be written. Even if it could, no one could stand to read it. And writing is essentially a means of entertainment for both the writer and the reader. I don’t care who the writer is - literature is entertainment or it is nothing. Some readers would object and point to someone like Lautremont's "Les Chants De Maldoror." If they want to see it that way, it's fine with me. Who am I deny someone their demonic heroes? No one has that much credibility in the history of humanity, nor ever will."

Evidently Pizzolatto missed that part. It's easy to imagine him thinking:

"Ligotti seems underground and hardcore. Need to steal his ideas and sell them to the mainstream! I doubt anyone will notice, so I won't mention him as an influence, even as I rephrase exact quotes from his work. Anyway, this 'antinatalism' gimmick is too hardcore for the masses...need to sell it to them in a form they understand...drag racing, no...hmm...young middle class women navigating the New York dating scene...wait...a detective story! TRUE DETECTIVE."

More interview greatness:

"The totality of Cohle’s character and the show’s agenda won’t be clear until the eighth episode has ended. It’s also important to me that the mass audience doesn’t need to know or engage these associations in order to enjoy the show. Likewise, I wouldn’t want any viewers to assume we had some nihilistic agenda, or reduce Cohle to an anti-natalist or nihilist. Cohle is more complicated than that."

Translation: redemptive arc!

Second translation: "I totally get all that pessimistic darkness but I can see that there's more to life than that. The pessimistic darkness is only a small part of life. Sort of like an iron-on patch on my jacket. That gets me cred."

I'm being unfair. It just seems funny that people expected anything other than mainstream entertainment from...mainstream entertainment!

For another example of avant ideas being stolen/diluted by television, see: the Lawrence Miles thread.

Re: Writer Nic Pizzolatto on Thomas Ligotti and the Weird Secrets of ‘True Detective’
 

To be honest, I think the most interesting part of the show was to see how people would react to Ligotti's ideas. Most have been mocking Cohle or have tried to disqualify his monologues with ad hominem attacks, which was to be expected. Also, he was frequently deemed a "nihilist" which, as we know, is bull#### of course, because that term is as meaningless as the concept it denotes (especially when applied to someone like Cohle, who has a moral code, which, at least in my opinion is the antithesis of nihilism).

But I think what bugged me is who people on the net have tried to discredit him as juvenile, when I belief that there is no philosophy more adult than pessimism. Then again, the number of viewers who have ever really taken the time to think about "the meaning of life" is probably close to zero. And that's fine I guess, but I feel like the show - and especially its ending - has somewhat lessened the legitimacy of pessimistic philosophy in the public eye after introducing people to it at first. If anys such thing was even possible...

Re: Writer Nic Pizzolatto on Thomas Ligotti and the Weird Secrets of ‘True Detective’
 

Tagline for hypothetical Antinatalist Drag Racing project: "In the race out of nonexistence and into life, whoever wins... loses."

Re: Writer Nic Pizzolatto on Thomas Ligotti and the Weird Secrets of ‘True Detective’
 

I have mixed feelings about this situation. On one hand, I really enjoyed the series. Tumbled a bit a couple times, but it came round into a relatively satisfying conclusion. On the other, well, there's this bait-and-switch tactic I'm not sure I appreciate.

If anything, I think this makes it clear that there's lots of people expecting and looking forward to a proper weird fiction series (or even a "mythos" series, Cthulhu or otherwise), but one that doesn't hold back nor has to dilute its contents for mass consumption. Here's hoping we eventually get it.

Re: Writer Nic Pizzolatto on Thomas Ligotti and the Weird Secrets of ‘True Detective’
 

It is futile to call life futile, because it is.

One day, I may watch True Detective and be able to comment properly on it, but it's on Sky here in the UK, and I haven't got Sky. I have Heaven and Hell, though, with Perpetual Autumn between.

Re: Writer Nic Pizzolatto on Thomas Ligotti and the Weird Secrets of ‘True Detective’
 

Another:

"Everybody's racing... TO A RED LIGHT!"

Re: Writer Nic Pizzolatto on Thomas Ligotti and the Weird Secrets of ‘True Detective’
 

Spoiler if you haven't watched ep. 8 of True Detective:

It seems that Marty's thoughts about a "high functioning retard" committing the murders weren't far off the mark, after all.

It was definitely the chemistry between Harrelson and McConaughey that made TD the show it was and I am sorry to hear that McConaughey won't be returning for season 2.