Lista de lectura True Detective

Philosophy
Thus spoke Zarathustra by Nietzsche
The world as Will and Representation by Arthur Shopenhauer
On the heights of Despair and The Trouble with being born by Emil Cioran
The Conspiracy Against the Human Race and The Nightmare Factory by Thomas Ligotti
In the dust of this planet and Cosmic Pessimism by Eugene Thacker

Literature
Blood meridian by Cormac McCarthy
H.P. Lovecraft (almost everything)
The imago sequence and other stories by Laird Barron
An inhabitant of Carcosa by Ambrose Bierce
The King in Yellow by Robert Chambers
2666 by Roberto Bolaño
Galveston by Nic Pizzolatto (duh)
Sanctuary by William Faulkner

Texts Immediately Relavent To The Show

David Benatar's "Better to Have Never Been?"
Ray Brassier's "Nihil Unbound"
Robert W. Chambers's "The King in Yellow" (The main text the show seems to draw most
symbols and some plot structure from.)
Emil Cioran's "The Fall Into Time"
Jim Crawford's "Confessions of an Antinatalist"
Dante’s "Inferno" (Dante & Virgil's encounter with the Minotaur. Also, CIRCLES, man!)
Richard Dawkins's "The Selfish Gene" and "The God Delusion" (Dawkins invents the idea
of ideas & languages having viral properties. "Selfish Gene" is a must read for anybody alive
in the 21st Century.)
Brian Greene's "The Elegant Universe" (If you want to get an idea of what Rust is talking
about with regards to "M-Branes" and such. A word of warning, though: string theory as a
true scientific hypothesis died back in the early '00s with the development of the string theory
landscape.)
Stephen King's "The Lawnmower Man" (Saw in another thread that lawns and lawn mowing
is a massive symbol used throughout TD.)
Thomas Ligotti's "The Conspiracy Against the Human Race" (Without a doubt the number
one recommendation folks have given for understanding TD.)
H.P. Lovecraft's "Notes on Writing Weird Fiction" and "Shadow Over Innsmouth"
Herman Melville's "Moby Dick" (I debated this one with myself for a while, but Ahab's
monologue about striking through the pasteboard mask really seals the connection between
him and Rust.)
Friedrich Nietzsche's "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" and "Beyond Good and Evil"
Thomas Pynchon's "The Crying of Lot 49" (Another play-within-a-book narrative that has a
heavy reliance on conspiracy theories and paranoia.)
Eugene Thacker's "In the Dust of this Planet"
Karl Edward Wagner's short story "Sticks"
W.B. Yeats's "A Vision" and "The Second Coming"
Peter Wessel Zapffe's "The Last Messiah"
The Bhagavad Gita
The Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism, "The Book Of Symbols: Reflections
On Archetypal Images"
The Upanishads

Art/Television/Movies Relavent To The Show

Andy Goldsworthy's stick sculptures.
Twin Peaks (TD can be seen as a slightly more coherent, grittier, and more pessimistic
version of this excellent show.)
The Big Lebowski (for a, uh, comparative analysis of nihilism in popular culture)
Texts Seen In The Show
Most of these books are from this screen cap. If you know of any other screencaps from the
show showing Rust's books or if you know what book Marty was reading when "Crash" and
"Ginger" first reunite, post in the comments and I'll add them to this list.
John E. Douglas, Ann W. Burgess and Robert K. Ressler's "Sexual Homicide: Patterns and
Motives"
Christopher D Duncan's "Advanced Crime Scene Photography"
Louis N. Eliopulos's "Death Investigator’s Handbook: A Field Guide To Crime Scene
Processing, Forensic Evaluations, And Investigative Techniques"
Barry A. J. Fisher and David R. Fisher's "Techniques of Crime Scene Investigation"
David Lester's "Serial Killers: The Insatiable Passion"
William R. Maples and Michael Browning's "Dead Men Do Tell Tales: The Strange and
Fascinating Cases of a Forensic Anthropologist"
Brian Marriner's "On Death's Bloody Trail: Murder and the Art of Forensic Science"
W. S. Merwin's "The Second Four Books of Poems"
Friedrich Nietzsche's "Beyond Good and Evil"
George B. Palermo and Richard N. Kocsis's "Offender Profiling: An Introduction To The
Sociopsychological Analysis Of Violent Crime"
Theodore Roethke's "The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke"
Alice Vachss "Sex Crimes" (Not in this screencap. I just remember it from when Marty first
walked into Rust's apartment.)

Where To Next
Laird Barron
Ambrose Bierce's "An Inhabitant of Carcosa" and "Haita the Shepherd"
James Blish's "More Light"
Roberto Bolaño's "2666"
James Lee Burke (It's suggested to go with those novels featuring detective Dave
Robicheaux.)
Italo Calvino's "Invisible Cities"
Raymond Chandler's "The Big Sleep"
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"
Meister Eckhart (No specific works were listed, so...good luck.)
Brian Evenson's "Last Days"
Neil Gaiman's "I Cthulhu"
William Gay's "I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down"
Joe Hill's "My Father's Mask"
Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery and Other Stories"
Denis Johnson's "Jesus’ Son"
S.T. Joshi's "American Supernatural Tales" (This one appears to have everybody.)
Heidi Julavits's "The Vanishers"
John Langan
Victor LaValle's "Big Machine"
Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian," "Child of God," and "No Country For Old Men"
Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette's "King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Rediscovering the
Archetypes of the Mature Masculine"
Flannery O’Connor's "Wise Blood"
Nic Pizzolatto's "Galveston"
Edgar Allan Poe's "Eureka" and "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym" (or, you know,
basically anything he's written.)
Joseph S. Pulver, Sr.'s "A Season In Carcosa"
Karen Russell's "Swamplandia!"
Arthur Schopenhauer's "The World as Will and Representation"
Marcel Schwob's "The King Who Bore the Golden Mask"
Simon Strantzas
Andrew Vachss
Karl Edward Wagner's "River of Night's Dreaming"
Richard Wagner's "Parsifal"
Oscar Wilde's "Salome"
Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea's "The Illuminatus! Trilogy"
David Benatar, "Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming Into Existence" Ray
Brassier, "Nihil Unbound" Jim Crawford, "Confessions of an Antinatalist" Eugene Thacker,
"In the Dust of This Planet"

1 The Conspiracy Against the ... The Conspiracy Against the Human Race by Thomas
Ligotti
2The King in Yellow and Othe... The King in Yellow and Other Horror Stories by Robert
W. Chambers
3 Galveston Galveston by Nic Pizzolatto
4 The Stranger by Albert Camus
5 Time is a Flat Circle: Exam... Time is a Flat Circle: Examining True Detective,
Season One by Melissa Milazzo (Goodreads Author)
6 Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
7
Notes from Underground, Whi... Notes from Underground, White Nights, The Dream of
a Ridiculous Man, and Selections from The House of the Dead by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
8 Essays Essays by Peter Wessel Zapffe
9 Wise Blood Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor
10 The Devil All the Time The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollock
11 Knockemstiff Knockemstiff by Donald Ray Pollock
12 The Call of Cthulhu and Oth... The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories by H.P.
Lovecraft
13 No Country for Old Men No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
14 The Big Sleep (Philip Marlo... The Big Sleep (Philip Marlowe, #1) by Raymond
Chandler
15 Midnight in the Garden of G... Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John
Berendt
16 On the Heights of Despair On the Heights of Despair by Emil M. Cioran
17 Beyond Good and Evil Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche
18 The World as Will and Repre... The World as Will and Representation, Volume 1
by Arthur Schopenhauer
19 The Trouble with Being Born The Trouble with Being Born by Emil M. Cioran
20 A Season in Carcosa by Joseph S. Pulver Sr.
21 Better Never to Have Been: ... Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into
Existence by David Benatar
22 The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor
23 Preacher, Volume 1: Gone to... Preacher, Volume 1: Gone to Texas by Garth Ennis
24 The Temptation to Exist The Temptation to Exist by Emil M. Cioran
25 The Black Dahlia (L.A. Quar... The Black Dahlia (L.A. Quartet, #1) by James Ellroy
26 Mystic River Mystic River by Dennis Lehane (Goodreads Author)
27 L.A. Confidential (L.A. Qua... L.A. Confidential (L.A. Quartet, #3) by James Ellroy
28 Thus Spoke Zarathustra Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche
29 Without Conscience: The Dis... Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the
Psychopaths Among Us by Robert D. Hare
30 Can Such Things Be? Can Such Things Be? by Ambrose Bierce
31 The Imago Sequence and Othe... The Imago Sequence and Other Stories by Laird Barron
32 In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
33 In the Dust of This Planet ...by Eugene Thacker
34 A Quiet Belief in Angels A Quiet Belief in Angels by R.J. Ellory
35 Un habitante de Carcosa by Ambrose Bierce
36 Green River Killer: A True ... Green River Killer: A True Detective Story by Jeff
Jensen (Writer)
37 Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett
38 I Hate to See That Evening ... I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down: Collected
Stories by William Gay
39 The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
40 Everything That Rises Must by Flannery O'Connor
41 The Nightmare Factory by Thomas Ligotti
42 In a Lonely Place by Karl Edward Wagner
43 Sex Crimes: Ten Years on th... Sex Crimes: Ten Years on the Front Lines Prosecuting
Rapists and Confronting Their Collaborators by Alice Vachss (Goodreads Author)
44 The Franklin Cover-Up: Child Abuse, Satanism, and Murder in Nebraska by John W.
DeCamp
45 The Outsider by Colin Wilson
46 The Untold Tales of Ozman D... The Untold Tales of Ozman Droom by Robin Spriggs
47 The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George V. Higgins
48 2666 by Roberto Bolaño
49 Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Hum... Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals
50 Techniques of Crime Scene I... Techniques of Crime Scene Investigation by Barry A.J.
Fisher
51 Between Here and the Yellow by Nic Pizzolatto
52 The Western Lands by William S. Burroughs
53 A Short History of Decay A Short History of Decay by Emil M. Cioran
54 The Wide, Carnivorous Sky a... The Wide, Carnivorous Sky and Other Monstrous
Geographies by John Langan
55 Child of God by Cormac McCarthy
56 Last Days Last Days by Brian Evenson
57 The Essential Sermons, Comm... The Essential Sermons, Commentaries, Treatises and
Defense by Meister Eckhart
58 A Separate Reality: Further... A Separate Reality: Further Conversations With Don
Juan by Carlos Castaneda
59 Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner
60 Absolute Top 10 Absolute Top 10 by Alan Moore
61 Hagakure: The Book of the S... Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai by Yamamoto
Tsunetomo
62 Big Machine by Victor LaValle
63 Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
64 The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
65 Declare by Tim Powers
66 True Detection by Gary J. Shipley
67 Neonomicon by Alan Moore
68 Nihil Unbound: Naturalism a... Nihil Unbound: Naturalism and Anti-
Phenomenological Realism by Ray Brassier
69 The Encyclopedia of Forensi... The Encyclopedia of Forensic Science by Brian Lane
70 Black Maps: American Landsc... Black Maps: American Landscape and the Apocalyptic
Sublime by David Maisel (Contributor)
71 Sexual Homicide: Patterns a... Sexual Homicide: Patterns and Motives by Robert K.
Ressler
72 The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker
73 Sarah by J.T. LeRoy
74 The Double by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
75 Confessions of an Antinatalist by Jim Crawford
76 1000 Years for Revenge: Int... 1000 Years for Revenge: International Terrorism and
the FBI--the Untold Story by Peter Lance
77 The Greatest Men's Party on... The Greatest Men's Party on Earth: Inside the
Bohemian Grove by John van der Zee
78 Bohemian Grove: Cult of Con... Bohemian Grove: Cult of Conspiracy by Mike Hanson
79 Nightingale Songs by Simon Strantzas (Goodreads Author)
80 The Sunset Limited by Cormac McCarthy
81The Case of the Empty Killer by John Charles Scott
82 The Broken Shore by Peter Temple
83 The Franklin Scandal: A Story of Powerbrokers, Child Abuse & Betrayal by Nick Bryant
84 El horror sobrenatural en la literatura y otros escritos by H.P. Lovecraft
85 On Death's Bloody Trail by Brian Marriner
86 Practical Homicide Investigation: Tactics, Procedures, and Forensic Techniques by
Vernon J. Geberth
87 Sticks, The Bleeding Man, and Saturday Night at the White Woman Watching Hole by
Thomas Lopez
88 The Antichrist/Thus Spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche
89 Death Investigators Handbook: A Field Guide to Crime Scene Processing, Forensic
Evaluations, and Investigative Techniques by Louis N. Eliopulos
90 Jesus' Son Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson
91 Serial Killers: The Insatiable Passion by David Lester
92 The Birth and Death of Meaning: An Interdisciplinary Perspective on the Problem of Man
by Ernest Becker
93 The Collected Poemsby Theodore Roethke
94 The Vanishers by Heidi Julavits (Goodreads Author)
95 The Divided Self: An Existe... The Divided Self: An Existential Study in Sanity and
Madness by R.D. Laing
96 Swamplandia! by Karen Russell
97Advanced Crime Scene Photography by Christopher Duncan
98 Dead Men Do Tell Tales: The Strange and Fascinating Cases of a Forensic Anthropologist
by William R. Maples
99 The Second Four Books of Poems: The Moving Target / The Lice / The Carrier of Ladders
/ Writings to an Unfinished Accompaniment by W.S. Merwin
100 Ah Pook is Here! and Other Texts