Inhabiting Carcosa: 5 Things You Ought to Know About the ‘Yellow King’
Congratulations! If you’re anything like me, you heard about how great this True Detective show was halfway through its 8-episode run. Like any rational person, you then marathoned a bunch of episodes to get caught up. You’re now ready for the season finale on Sunday.
Or are you?
Before we all gather ’round to watch what fate befalls Rust and Marty, let’s take a stroll down the weird mythos underpinning the series — Carcosa and the King in Yellow. Since I have some expertise on the source material, I figured it was the perfect time to put that knowledge to work. (While other folks were getting marketable degrees, I was comparing the meta-narrative structures of Robert W. Chambers and Luigi Pirandello. I’m not exaggerating; that was a project for my graduate Modernist Theatre class.)
The professor for that class — I kid you not — was coincidentally the son of a man named “R.W. Chambers.” Just not THIS particular R.W. Chambers.
Here are five things you’ll want to have rattling around the back of your brain when the chords of “Far From Any Road” kick up Sunday night for the last time this season (minor spoilers, naturally). And we’re going to start with the big one: [Read more…]