For
anyone who has been watching True
Detective on
HBO you have come to know Rust Cohle's strange, seemingly rambling,
existential monologues really well.
Case
in point, the following now famous, or infamous (depending on how you
feel about it) example of speechifying to the two African American
detectives from Episode 5, “The Secret Fate of All Life,” has
divided many on the internet, as well as friends and loved ones close
to me, who watch the show. (Full disclosure: I love it when Rust
goes on these little metaphysical “rants.”)
COHLE:
You ever heard of something called membrane theory, detectives?
PAPANIA:
No. That's over my head.
COHLE: It's
like, in this universe, we process time linearly. Forward. But
outside of our space-time, from what would be a fourth-dimensional
perspective, time wouldn't exist. And from that vantage, could we
attain it, we'd see – [he crushes a can of Lone Star between his
palms] --our space-time look flattened, like a seamless sculpture.
Matter in a super-position—every place it ever occupied. Our
sentience just cycling through our lives like carts on a track. See,
everything outside our dimension—that's eternity. Eternity looking
down on us. Now, to us, it's a sphere. But to them, it's a circle.
Theories,
and opinions, abound about this little monologue. There are those
who see this as nothing more than mumbo-jumbo Cohle is spewing to
throw the two rube detectives off his track of either evil deeds, or
being a “TRUE DETECTIVE,” as opposed to (as Rust calls them
later), “company men.” Others see it as an ongoing shout out in
the series that goes back to H.P. Lovecraft and other writers of his
era. There are hints of Cthulhu-type descriptions of an infamous
“green-eared, spaghetti-faced man,” or “Carcosa” and “The
Yellow King,” which are a references to an influence and
contemporary of Lovecraft's, Robert W. Chambers and his work, The
King in Yellow.
I've
read a bunch of theories how people have sees this series as nothing
more than a bunch of fanboys who got together to write their
pay-network-TV episodic homage to weird literature and its themes and
structures. There have also been a great many individual theories
that have stated the references are just pointers to plot points in
the series' narrative in specific and nothing more.
Rust
is the “True Detective” and will end up saving the day, while
Marty will end up being exposed as a “company man” involved in
the rituals.
Rust
will be exposed as a “False Detective” covering his tracks.
All
of this has been a red herring just to keep us away from the real
“Yellow King!” Marty's now ex-wife!
And
they go on and on...
So
I figured I'd offere my interpretation.
Well,
actually, the theory belongs somewhat to Jan Kott, who wrote a book
about Greek tragedy called The
Eating of The Gods, a
book that looks at the structure, history, and present day relevance
of ancient Greek tragedy. I picked up the book today for the first
time in a long time and reread the first chapter...which started to
sound, at times, oddly like Rust's seemingly meandering monologues.
The
first chapter is called, “The Vertical Axis, or The Ambiguities of
Prometheus.” Replace Promethesus's name with Rust's and we're
talking about a present day HBO TV show, instead of the physical
structure of Greek theatres, and their relation to society and the
narratives of their plays. Other lines in Kott's first chapter
struck me as somewhat Rust-esque. The opening line is:
“Gods
are above, men are below.” (Kott p.1)
Sure
that line is too frank and direct to sound like Rust, but it
immediately fits in with his “membrane theory.” If you're ready
to turn this theory down, just read what Mr. Kott has to say later in
the same chapter about the structure of Greek theatre:
“In
Aeschylus' drama [Promethesus
Unbound]
the entire cosmos takes part: the gods, men and the elements. This
cosmos has a vertical structure: above, the seat of the gods and
power; below, the place of exile and punishment. In the middle is
the flat circle of the earth and the flat dish of the orchestra
around it where the action unfolds. The vertical structure of the
world with its definite functions, symbols and destiny, the above and
the below, is one of the most universal and perennial archetypes.”
(Kott p.4)
In
True
Detective
there are definite people who can be considered gods (the Tuttles,
the man with scars, etc.), men (the detectives, Marty's wife,
others), and the elements...? Well, Rust's “visions,” the birds
flying in one episode into the definite formation of the symbol that
appears again and again drawn on dead women's backs, and more.
What
about this “orchestra.”
Well,
we're watching it...WE...the AUDIENCE.
This
is our Greek tragedy. We can watch it again-and-again,
over-and-over, trying to behave, ourselves, like a Greek tragic
audience, like True Detectives. Don't believe me yet? Let me offer
up this last bit of Kott from the end of Part I of Chapter 1. Tell
me if you don't hear equal parts Kott Greek tragic analysis, and Rust
Cohle metaphysical mumbo jumbo in this:
“Prometheus
is crucified by the emissaries of the gods who have come from above
to punish him for his excessive love for men who are below. Zeus is
not seen, but it is to him that Promethesus directs his reproaches
and threats—to him, and to men who are the audience. God and man
are both parties in the drama. Promethesus is the accused; but the
accused turns into the accueser, whereas in the Oedipus
of Sophocles, it is the accuser who becomes the accused. Above, a
political drama is being performed, and the rulers change. Below,
men have emerged from their primeval animal condition. Men change;
so do the forces of nature and the gods. The entire cosmos moves in
time but still preserves its vertical structure, with Olympus,
Tartarus and earth's flat (orchestra-like)
circle in between. A topcosm moves in time, but a time that runs at
different speeds for gods and for men. Gods are immortal, men
mortal--
brotoi
who die but once. Emissaries of the gods derisively call them
“ephemerids”: for an ephemerid, a damselfly, one day is all
time.”
(Kott p.7)
I
wish I could have Rust give a dramatic reading at an interrogation of
that passage. It would fit if he just randomly started spouting
nonsense about Greek tragedy just as equally as when he talks about
Membrane theory.
Anyway,
for those of you who watched tonight's Episode 7 (“After You've
Gone”), instead of the Oscars sleep-inducing boredom, look again at
the last scene of the man on the lawn mower as the camera pulls away
from him. He has mown a concentric circle, similar to the ancient
Greeks' playing space, “orchestra.” There are white objects
piled in the background that vaguely resemble a skene, or some sort
of backdrop, and the whole area surrounding him looks like an almost
perfectly rounded amphitheatre.
Noir
tropes be damned! WE are the gods. These people on the screen are
our “brotoi” playing out a day for us. We are Rust's version of
“eternity” looking down on them playing out this drama over and
over. The makers of this show are actually honoring several major
tropes of Greek tragedy. The reversal at the climax of this story
should be one hell of a cathartic reveal, if they continue on with
following Kott's interpretation...or nothing will be revealed,
reversed, or resolved...and it will end having been all about a
green, spaghetti-faced weirdo named Cthulhu.
That
would just be stupid.
