TRUE DETECTIVEAND PHILOSOPHY

The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture SeriesSeries editor William Irwin

A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, and a healthy helping of popular culture clears the cobwebs fromKant. Philosophy has had a public relations problem for a few centuries now. This series aims to change that, showingthat philosophy is relevant to your life—and not just for answering the big questions like “To be or not to be?” but foranswering the little questions: “To watch or not to watch South Park?” Thinking deeply about TV, movies, and musicdoesn’t make you a “complete idiot.” In fact it might make you a philosopher, someone who believes the unexamined lifeis not worth living and the unexamined cartoon is not worth watching.

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24 and Philosophy: The World According to JackEdited by Jennifer Hart Weed, Richard Brian Davis, andRonald Weed30 Rock and Philosophy: We Want to Go to ThereEdited by J. Jeremy WisnewskiAlice in Wonderland and Philosophy: Curiouser andCuriouserEdited by Richard Brian DavisAlien and Philosophy: I Infest, Therefore I AmEdited by Jeffrey A. Ewing and Kevin S. DeckerArrested Development and Philosophy: They’ve Made aHuge MistakeEdited by Kristopher Phillips and J. Jeremy WisnewskiAvatar and Philosophy: Learning to SeeEdited by George A. DunnThe Avengers and Philosophy: Earth’s Mightiest ThinkersEdited by Mark D. WhiteBatman and Philosophy: The Dark Knight of the SoulEdited by Mark D. White and Robert ArpBattlestar Galactica and Philosophy: Knowledge HereBegins Out ThereEdited by Jason T. EberlThe Big Bang Theory and Philosophy: Rock, Paper,Scissors, Aristotle, LockeEdited by Dean KowalskiThe Big Lebowski and Philosophy: Keeping Your MindLimber with Abiding WisdomEdited by Peter S. FoslBioShock and Philosophy: Irrational Game, RationalBookEdited by Luke CuddyBlack Sabbath and Philosophy: Mastering RealityEdited by William IrwinThe Daily Show and Philosophy: Moments of Zen in theArt of Fake NewsEdited by Jason HoltDownton Abbey and Philosophy: The Truth Is NeitherHere Nor ThereEdited by Mark D. WhiteDungeons & Dragons and Philosophy: Read and GainAdvantage on All Wisdom ChecksEdited by Christopher RobichaudEnder’s Game and Philosophy: The Logic Gate is DownEdited by Kevin S. DeckerFamily Guy and Philosophy: A Cure for the PetardedEdited by J. Jeremy WisnewskiFinal Fantasy and Philosophy: The Ultimate WalkthroughEdited by Jason P. Blahuta and Michel S. BeaulieuGame of Thrones and Philosophy: Logic Cuts DeeperThan SwordsEdited by Henry JacobyThe Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and Philosophy:Everything is FireEdited by Eric BronsonGreen Lantern and Philosophy: No Evil Shall Escape thisBookEdited by Jane Dryden and Mark D. WhiteHeroes and Philosophy: Buy the Book, Save the WorldEdited by David Kyle JohnsonThe Hobbit and Philosophy: For When You’ve Lost YourDwarves, Your Wizard, and Your WayEdited by Gregory Bassham and Eric BronsonHouse and Philosophy: Everybody LiesEdited by Henry JacobyHouse of Cards and Philosophy: Capitalism withoutConsumerismEdited by J. Edward HackettThe Hunger Games and Philosophy: A Critique of PureTreasonEdited by George Dunn and Nicolas Michaud

Inception and Philosophy: Because It’s Never Just a DreamEdited by David JohnsonIron Man and Philosophy: Facing the Stark RealityEdited by Mark D. WhiteLEGO and Philosophy: Constructing Reality Brick byBrickEdited by Roy T. Cook and Sondra BacharachLost and Philosophy: The Island Has Its ReasonsEdited by Sharon M. KayeMad Men and Philosophy: Nothing Is as It SeemsEdited by James South and Rod CarvethMetallica and Philosophy: A Crash Course in BrainSurgeryEdited by William IrwinThe Office and Philosophy: Scenes from the UnfinishedLifeEdited by J. Jeremy WisnewskiSons of Anarchy and Philosophy: Brains Before BulletsEdited by George A. Dunn and Jason T. EberlSouth Park and Philosophy: You Know, I LearnedSomething TodayEdited by Robert ArpSpider-Man and Philosophy: The Web of InquiryEdited by Jonathan SanfordSuperman and Philosophy: What Would the Man of SteelDo?Edited by Mark D. WhiteSupernatural and Philosophy: Metaphysics andMonsters . . . for IdjitsEdited by Galen ForesmanTerminator and Philosophy: I’ll Be Back, Therefore I AmEdited by Richard Brown and Kevin DeckerTrue Blood and Philosophy: We Wanna Think BadThings with YouEdited by George Dunn and Rebecca HouselTwilight and Philosophy: Vampires, Vegetarians, and thePursuit of ImmortalityEdited by Rebecca Housel and J. Jeremy WisnewskiThe Ultimate Daily Show and Philosophy: MoreMoments of Zen, More Moments of Indecision TheoryEdited by Jason HoltThe Ultimate Harry Potter and Philosophy: Hogwarts forMugglesEdited by Gregory BasshamThe Ultimate Lost and Philosophy: Think Together, DieAloneEdited by Sharon KayeThe Ultimate South Park and Philosophy: Respect MyPhilosophah!Edited by Robert Arp and Kevin S. DeckerThe Ultimate Star Trek and Philosophy: The Search forSocratesEdited by Kevin S. Decker and Jason T. EberlThe Ultimate Star Wars and Philosophy: You MustUnlearn What You Have LearnedEdited by Jason T. Eberl and Kevin S. DeckerVeronica Mars and Philosophy: Investigating theMysteries of Life (Which is a Bitch Until You Die)Edited by George A. DunnThe Walking Dead and Philosophy: Shotgun. Machete.Reason.Edited by Christopher RobichaudWatchmen and Philosophy: A Rorschach TestEdited by Mark D. WhiteWonder Woman and Philosophy: The AmazonianMystiqueEdited by Jacob M. HeldX-Men and Philosophy: Astonishing Insight and UncannyArgument in the Mutant X-VerseEdited by Rebecca Housel and J. Jeremy Wisnewski

TRUE DETECTIVEAND PHILOSOPHY

A DEEPER KINDOF DARKNESS

Edited by

Jacob Graham and Tom Sparrow

This edition first published 2018© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

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Names: Graham, Jacob editor. | Sparrow, Tom, 1979– editor.Title: True detective and philosophy : a deeper kind of darkness / edited by Jacob Graham,

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bibliographical references and index. | Identifiers: LCCN 2017014278 (print) | LCCN 2017028324(ebook) | ISBN 9781119280798 (pdf) | ISBN 9781119280828 (epub) | ISBN 9781119280781 (pbk.)

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Contents

Introduction: Welcome to the Psychosphere ixJacob Graham and Tom Sparrow

Part I “It’s All One Ghetto, Man … a Giant Gutter inOuter Space”: Pessimism and Anti-natalism 1

1 Why Life Rather than Death? Answers from Rustin Cohleand Arthur Schopenhauer 3Sandra Shapshay

2 Grounding Carcosa: Cosmic Horror and PhilosophicalPessimism in True Detective 11Christopher Mountenay

3 Hart and Cohle: The Hopeful Pessimism of True Detective 22Joshua Foa Dienstag

4 Loving Rust’s Pessimism: Rationalism and Emotion inTrue Detective 31Rick Elmore

5 Rust’s Anti-natalism: The Moral Imperative to “Opt Outof a Raw Deal” 42Chris Byron

v

vi CONTENTS

Part II “We Get the World We Deserve”: Cruelty,Violence, Evil, and Justice 53

6 Where Is the Cruelty in True Detective? 55G. Randolph Mayes

7 Nevermind: Subjective and Objective Violence in Vinci 65Luke Howie

8 Naturalism, Evil, and the Moral Monster: The Evil Personin True Detective 76Peter Brian Barry

9 “But I Do Have a Sense of Justice”: Law and Justice in theBleak World of Vinci 87Beau Mullen

Part III “Everybody’s Nobody”: Consciousness,Existence, and Identity 97

10 A Dream Inside a Locked Room: The Illusion of Self 99Evan Thompson

11 I Am Not Who I Used to Be, But Am I Me? PersonalIdentity and the Narrative of Rust 108Andrew M. Winters

12 “The Light Is Winning” 120Sarah K. Donovan

13 The Tragic Misstep: Consciousness, Free Will, and the LastMidnight 132Daniel P. Malloy

Part IV “This Is My Least Favorite Life”: Noir, Tragedy,and Philosopher-Detectives 143

14 The Tragedy of True Detective Season Two: Living Our“Least Favorite Lives” 145Alison Horbury

15 The Noir Detective and the City 158Chuck Ward

CONTENTS vii

16 Cohle and Oedipus: The Return of the Noir Hero 169Daniel Tutt

Part V “Time Is a Flat Circle”: Time in True Detective 177

17 Time Is a Flat Circle: Nietzsche’s Concept of EternalRecurrence 179Lawrence J. Hatab

18 Eternal Recurrence and the Philosophy of the “Flat Circle” 186Paul A. DiGeorgio

Known Associates 196

Index 201

IntroductionWelcome to the Psychosphere

Jacob Graham and Tom Sparrow

If you’re anything like us, you enjoy listening to Rust wax philo-sophical as much as you like watching Marty balk at the odd shitthat comes out of Rust’s mouth. When it comes to big questionsabout value, meaning, truth, and existence, these characterscouldn’t be further apart. Professionally, on the other hand, theycomplement each other pretty well: they get the job done, solve thecase. For two guys responsible for enforcing the law, however, theirmoral compasses don’t always point them in the right direction.Which is not to say that the officers in Vinci shoot any straighter.Remember that time Velcoro kicked the crap out of Aspen Con-roy’s father right in front of the kid? Of course you do. It was kindof wrong, but felt kind of right, didn’t it? The cops in True Detec-tive can be as twisted as the backroads of the Louisiana bayouand the freeways of Los Angeles. They’re defined as much by theirdeceit, disloyalty, substance abuse, self-loathing, and violence asthey are their compassion, duty, and peculiar sense of justice.

As we ride along with Cohle and Hart or Bezzerides andVelcoro, it’s impossible not to marvel at the bleak Louisiana andCalifornia landscapes. Drenched in shadow, foretelling somethingsinister, they are populated by masked men, cruel and murderous—the worst kinds of men. Corruption, decay, and degradation toucheverything. And yet, we viewers choose to linger in those desolatelandscapes, happily pursuing real-life monsters in the squad car ofour true detectives, enthralled by the promise of some unforeseenhorror. But why do we watch? What draws us in? Do we detect

ix

x INTRODUCTION

something of ourselves in these worlds? That should worry us. Dowe know who we really are? There’d be a victory in that.

We’ll leave it for you to decide where you fit in the picture orwhat makes for a true detective, but we’d like to suggest that detec-tives and philosophers have something in common—both seek thetruth—and that True Detective can teach us a lot about philosophy.Unlike detective work, however, and fortunately for us, the risk ofimminent physical harm is low with philosophy. Yet, the stakes arestill high, especially if, as Socrates (470–399 bce) said, “the unex-amined life is not worth living.” Through the eyes of the charactersand the stories of True Detective, the squad of authors in this bookpull back the curtain on some philosophical ideas more powerfulthan any cultic demigod or corrupt mayor. By exposing the philo-sophical roots and contexts of pessimism, our squad uncoversjust why Rust is so bad at parties. Examining topics such asgood and evil, tragedy, personal identity, and time, they introduceus to philosophers such as Socrates, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche,Lacan, and Zizek. Ultimately, though, you must become your owndetective and figure out the truth for yourself.

So, why should you, dear reader, continue beyond this introduc-tion? Because you have a debt. You owe it to yourself to do sometruth detecting, to step back into the forsaken world of True Detec-tive where ominous shadows grow ever darker and stories are toldwith facts and lies. We’re not asking you to make this journey oneof silent reflection. We want you to figure out for yourself what youthink, to give yourself the philosophical world that you deserve,and to remove the mask from the truth that lives among us, welldisguised.

Part I

“IT’S ALL ONE GHETTO,MAN … A GIANT GUTTER

IN OUTER SPACE”Pessimism and Anti-natalism

1

Why Life Rather than Death?Answers from Rustin Cohle and

Arthur Schopenhauer1

Sandra Shapshay

Rustin Cohle, the protagonist of the first season of True Detective,declares that he is “in philosophical terms, a pessimist.” Before weare introduced to him, Rust has already experienced the terribleloss of his two-year-old daughter and the painful dissolution of hismarriage. His employment confronts him daily with the horrors ofhuman conduct, where the “law of the stronger” reigns and thestrong and sadistic exploit the weak and vulnerable. Throughoutseason one, we see Rust struggling to find the best, truest responseto all this seemingly endemic and unredeemed suffering.

Rust thinks that human consciousness is a “tragic misstep innature.” The doctrine of “pessimism” espoused by Rust is remark-ably similar to the view adumbrated by Arthur Schopenhauer(1788–1860), who holds that (1) conscious life (both human andnonhuman animal) involves a tremendous amount of suffering thatis essentially built into the structure of the world and (2) there is noCreator (providential or otherwise) to redeem all of this suffering,by, say, punishing the wicked and rewarding the good.

Arthur Schopenhauer’s Pessimism

Schopenhauer is just as attuned as Rust to the tremendous amountof evil in the world, caused for the most part by other human

True Detective and Philosophy: A Deeper Kind of Darkness, First Edition.Edited by Jacob Graham and Tom Sparrow.© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Published 2018 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

3

4 SANDRA SHAPSHAY

beings. Whereas the “true detective” is nauseated and jaded by thesadistic acts of bayou killers who prey mostly on innocent girls andyoung women, Schopenhauer is nauseated and jaded by more insti-tutional sources of human suffering in nineteenth-century Europeand the United States that spring largely from pervasive humanegoism and, to a lesser but not insignificant extent, malice:

The chief source of the most serious evils affecting man is man him-self; homo homini lupus. He who keeps this last fact clearly in viewbeholds the world as a hell, surpassing that of Dante by the fact thatone man must be the devil of another. … How man deals with manis seen, for example, in Negro slavery, the ultimate object of whichis sugar and coffee. However, we need not go so far; to enter at theage of five a cotton-spinning or other factory, and from then on tosit there every day first ten, then twelve and finally fourteen hours,and perform the same mechanical work, is to purchase dearly thepleasure of drawing breath. But this is the fate of millions, and manymore millions have an analogous fate.2

Additionally, Schopenhauer focuses on the suffering of nonhumananimals at the hands of human beings who view them as mereinstruments for their use:

Because … Christian morals give no consideration to animals, theyare at once free as birds in philosophical morals too, they are mere“things”, mere means to whatever ends you like, as for instancevivisection, hunting with hounds, bull-fighting, racing, whipping todeath in front of an immovable stone-cart and the like.3

Why Not Suicide?

Given this grim view of the human condition, it makes senseto raise the question of suicide: Why not put an end to one’slife, in order to escape from this ultimately senseless vale oftears? Throughout True Detective, Rust struggles with “lettinggo” and, regarding the last episode of season one, “Form andVoid,” the creator, Nic Pizzolatto, explains that the episode“represents the dilemma Rust walked for some time: why liferather than the opposite?”4 Rust thinks that our “programming”

WHY LIFE RATHER THAN DEATH? 5

(in Schopenhauer’s terms, the “will-to-live”) “gets us out of bed inthe morning” but that it would be better, all things considered, to“deny our programming” and walk ourselves “hand in hand intoextinction” (“The Long Bright Dark”). Thus, Rust enunciates hisin principle embrace of suicide.

In this positive attitude toward suicide, Rust actually parts wayswith Schopenhauer, which is surprising since the philosopher is oneof the most famous pessimists in the history of Western thought. Infact, Schopenhauer regarded suicide as a “futile and foolish act.”5

What accounts for this divergence?

Schopenhauer’s Answer

Schopenhauer does not discourage suicide out of philosophicaloptimism: he doesn’t think that this is the best of all possibleworlds, as Gottfried Leibniz (1646–1716) does; neither does hebelieve that the world must get better because of a necessaryrational structure, as Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)holds; nor that the world is a self-justifying divine cause, as BaruchSpinoza (1632–1677) argues. Also, he doesn’t see life as a gift, to bethankfully accepted. Schopenhauer is convinced that the world isand will always be full of unredeemed suffering, for nature involvesan internecine struggle for existence rather than a “peaceable king-dom” of animals living largely in harmony. And he is convincedthat much of this suffering will go uncompensated in this life, asthe sources of suffering seem to outweigh the sources of happinessand tranquility. Above all, he is an uncompromising atheist whoholds that there is no providential God to redeem all of this suffer-ing in an afterlife.

It might be surprising, then, that Schopenhauer thinks suicide isa “futile and foolish act.” Perhaps, like Rust, Schopenhauer shouldembrace suicide. For the nature of the will-to-live is ultimatelyblind, senseless striving and suffering for no particular end. Yet thereason Schopenhauer rejects suicide is that suicide does not negatebut rather affirms the will-to-live, for the person who would die bysuicide desires life; it’s just that the individual is unsatisfied withthe conditions on offer for their particular life. Within this logic,suicide is foolish because it prevents a person from attaining thehighest wisdom and the true inner peace that would come from

6 SANDRA SHAPSHAY

actual renunciation of the will-to-live. Thus, Schopenhauer writes,suicide is “an act of will” through which “the individual will abol-ishes the body … before suffering can break it.” He thereby likensa suicidal person to a sick person who “having started undergo-ing a painful operation that could cure him completely, does notallow it to be completed and would rather stay sick.”6 There is onlyone remarkable exception to his overall view on suicide: death byvoluntary starvation. At the highest levels of asceticism, the nega-tion of the will-to-live can attain such a point where “even the willneeded to maintain the vegetative functions of the body throughnutrition can fall away.”7

Rust’s Answer

Returning to True Detective, we see that Rust struggles with manyof the same issues that occupy Schopenhauer. For instance, thoughRust embraces pessimism and resignationist tendencies, as evi-denced by his rather ascetic lifestyle and in principle embrace ofsuicide, Rust does not actually resign himself from life. He is, afterall, the eponymous “true detective” and throws himself assidu-ously into the task of solving the ritualistic rapes and murders andbringing the perpetrators to justice.

So what really motivates Rust to spend most of his waking life(and he doesn’t seem to sleep all that much) attempting to solvethese crimes? Is it the intellectual puzzle? Is it compassion for thevictims and potential new victims? Is it a thirst for justice?

At times it seems that it is merely the intellectual challenge thatmotivates Rust. This recalls Schopenhauer’s own expressed reasonto devote himself to philosophy: “Life is an unpleasant business;I have resolved to spend it reflecting upon it.”8 Yet, what preoc-cupies Rust’s mind and takes up a good bit of wall space in hisbarely furnished apartment is reflection with a specific practicalaim—namely, to solve the crimes in order to prevent future victimsand to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Thus, Rust seems not just motivated by the intellectual puzzlebut also by a morality of compassion and justice. After all, his aimis not merely to solve the crimes but also to apprehend or otherwisestop the perpetrators. Further, these moral motives get to the heartof Rust’s espousal of pessimism in the first place, for he is—unlike

WHY LIFE RATHER THAN DEATH? 7

how Marty often seems—acutely sensitive to the sufferings of oth-ers and—again, unlike Marty but in line with Schopenhauer—rejects any theological story of redemption for all of this suffering.

What I want to suggest, then, is that Rust’s own practice belieshis stated pessimistic views. It is not just “programming”—the will-to-live, egoistic striving—that gets Rust out of bed in the morning;rather, it is the sense that if there is to be any kind of redemptionit has to be earthly, in the form of prevention or alleviation of suf-fering, and in bringing criminals to justice.

Schopenhauer on Compassion

Surprisingly, Schopenhauer at certain points in his writings seemsto recommend the general, compassionate, and justice-seeking paththat Rust takes in True Detective. Especially in his underappreci-ated essay “On the Basis of Morality,” Schopenhauer recommendsacts of justice and loving-kindness in response to the myriadsources of misery. For example, he praises the British nation’sspending “up to 20 million pounds” to buy the freedom of slavesin America.9 He also champions the proliferation of animal protec-tion societies in Continental Europe, recommending English news-paper reports to address “the associations against the torture ofanimals now established in Germany, so that they see how one mustattack the issue if anything is to come of it” and he acknowledges“the praiseworthy zeal of Councillor Perner in Munich who hasdevoted himself entirely to this branch of beneficence and spreadthe initiative for it throughout the whole of Germany.”10

Finally, Schopenhauer recognizes that the work of civic orga-nizations, especially in securing legal change, can bring aboutreal moral change and reduce suffering. Again, with respect tothe animal protection movement and laws against animal cruelty,Schopenhauer writes, “Everything adduced here gives evidencethat the moral chord in question … is gradually beginning to soundin the occidental world.”11

Schopenhauer opposes all forms of suicide, except the redeem-ing ascetic one, because suicide robs a person of the highest wis-dom regarding the apparent futility of life. However, the hopefulethics of compassion that Schopenhauer also espouses looks like

8 SANDRA SHAPSHAY

a second-rate option. On the traditional reading of Schopenhauer,he holds that it is better to go beyond willing and therefore beyondcompassion as well to a real renunciation of the will-to-live, if onecan. Only in renunciation is the patient truly cured of the ratherabsurd scourge that is the will-to-live. Yet, the rationality of thechoice between compassionate action, on the one hand (action thattries to improve the world), and resignation, on the other (inactionthat constitutes a redemption from the world), hinges on whetherthere are good grounds for hope.

Rust’s Doubt

Returning to True Detective, we see Rust doubt whether there aregood grounds for hope. The task of preventing and alleviating suf-fering as well as bringing a measure of justice into the world isonerous. It also threatens to seem futile given the large numbers ofmurders and disappearances, and the rampant cruelty and degra-dation inflicted especially upon children, teenage girls, and womenthroughout the series. This sense of futility, it seems, overtakes Rustin the interim between “solving” the first crime introduced in theshow and the second spate of similar murders.

During this hiatus, Rust has indeed opted for resignation as aresponse to pessimism. Although he does not have the constitutionfor outright suicide—as he says to Marty—he is nonetheless doinga pretty good job of drinking himself to death. He has essentiallyretreated from the world into a dark bar where he can engage inalmost nonstop anesthetization through the bottle, until a spate ofnew, similar murders awakens him from his resignationist slumber,resparking his intellectual curiosity as well as his compassion andsense of justice.

But it takes the final, spooky, and frankly nauseating confronta-tion with evil incarnate, in the form of the “Yellow King,” to showRust a legitimate path to the affirmation of life, as opposed towhat he sees as an intellectually dishonest, optimistic, theologi-cal route. After surviving the bizarre melee and shutting downthe activities of this serial killer, Rust gains a sense that perhapshis thoroughgoing pessimism is, at bottom, unwarranted. Despitethe fact of tremendous suffering and injustice in the world, thereare, nonetheless, nontrivial victories for compassion and justice.

WHY LIFE RATHER THAN DEATH? 9

Additionally, Marty’s quasi-reconciliation with his family showsRust that a measure of forgiveness and understanding can beattained even after a long history of strained relationships. Rustalso finds that he can take some comfort in knowing that his daugh-ter did not suffer at the end of her short life.

Rust’s Conversion

There are intimations of an afterlife in the final scene of the firstseason, and some sublime meditations on the starry night sky, to besure, but in the end it does not seem that Rust’s conversion is theo-logical in nature. Rather, I interpret his final turn as resulting fromthe realization that some degree of affirmation is warranted by theempirical evidence. In other words, he realizes that thoroughgoingpessimism and resignation from life is not an intellectually honeststance to take. In light of his epistemic shift, he might even come tothe view that his former resignation might be positively immoral,but Rust’s character arc, with the series, ends only with the former,more ecumenical realization.

So, Rust’s character throughout the series goes from (1) self-described jaded, wannabe-suicidal pessimist who belies his ownself-understanding by energetically fighting crime to (2) one whoreally embraces that self-description, resigns from life, and aimsto drink himself to death to (3) the cautious affirmer of lifethrough compassionate engagement with the world. Rust findssome grounds for hope, and he chooses to continue on the pathof compassion and justice, the path to try to improve the world.This prompts the question of whether he ever really embraced sui-cide in principle, and just lacked the constitution to pull it off, orwhether, like Schopenhauer, he perhaps always found the intellec-tual grounds for such a radical decision to be shaky. At the veryleast, we can conclude that, as the eponymous “true detective,” hewas duty-bound to pursue the evidence—evidence for hope or lackthereof—wherever it would lead.

Notes

1. An earlier version of this chapter originally appeared online at TheCritique.

10 SANDRA SHAPSHAY

2. Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation, vol. 2,trans. R. B. Haldane and J. Kemp (London: Routledge & Kegan,1957), 578. First printed 1883.

3. Arthur Schopenhauer, “Prize Essay on the Basis of Morals,” in TheTwo Fundamental Problems of Ethics, trans. and ed. ChristopherJanaway (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 162.

4. “True Detective Season 1: Inside the Episode #8 (HBO).” YouTube,March 9, 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE2n-nwiqDs.

5. Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation, vol. 1,trans. and ed. Judith Norman, Alistair Welchman, and ChristopherJanaway (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010), sec. 69,426. German original: Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung (Zurich:Haffsmans Verlag, 1988).

6. Schopenhauer, World as Will and Representation, vol. 1, 426–427.7. Ibid., 428.8. Rudiger Safranski, Schopenhauer and the Wild Years of Philosophy,

trans. Ewald Iosers (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1989), 105.9. Ibid., 218.

10. Ibid., fn. 230.11. Ibid., 231.

2

Grounding CarcosaCosmic Horror and Philosophical

Pessimism in True Detective

Christopher Mountenay

Like many fans of True Detective, I was somewhat disappointedwith the season one finale, “Form and Void.” It was definitely nota bad hour of television, but it undid much of the work that thefirst seven episodes had done. “Form and Void” both diminishedthe element of cosmic horror into something more terrestrial andmundane and replaced Rust Cohle’s trademark philosophical pes-simism with a metaphysical optimism.

“This Is Some Halloween Shit”

Let’s clarify what we mean by cosmic horror, supernatural hor-ror, or weird fiction.1 Most horror fiction that the West consumesconsists either of familiar folkloric archetypes or completely nat-uralistic violence. The former is often only frightening to childrenbecause the familiarity of, say, vampires and werewolves makesthem into easy objects of self-parody for most people. The latterincludes subgenres such as slasher films, which rely on scenariosthat, while typically outlandish, are at least physically possible. Par-tisans of this type of horror will argue that it is the scariest since itcould “really happen.”

Cosmic horror takes the opposite approach. A tale of cosmichorror will typically, but not always, begin with elements that seem

True Detective and Philosophy: A Deeper Kind of Darkness, First Edition.Edited by Jacob Graham and Tom Sparrow.© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Published 2018 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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