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It is depression not madness that cows us, demoralization not insanity we dread, disillusionment of the mind not its derangement that imperils our culture of hope.
TRUE DETECTIVE became a cultural phenomenon first and foremost because it offered something different to television audiences. Not only it came pre-ordained in a single season package, but it also featured real nihilistic philosophy and these two concepts really captured the imaginary of people watching at home. Author Nic Pizzolatto was pretty adamant about quoting his inspirations in interview and the name that kept coming back was horror author/philosopher Thomas Ligotti.
Pizzolatto singled out THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE HUMAN RACE as the main source of inspiration for lead character Rust Cohle. That didn't stop Thomas Ligotti's fans to claim plagiarism. Despite that I philosophically disagree with that claim, seems that it has legal basis. So I don't know if I read THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE HUMAN RACE out of enthusiasm for discovering a new author or if I just wanted to verify these claims for myself. I don't think it's a book that should be remembered for either of these points, really.
So, THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE HUMAN RACE isn't exactly a collection of essays. The philosophical writings of Thomas Ligotti are all-out academic papers, set to defend the legitimacy of pessimism and anti-natalism. Ligotti claims that pessimist don't get taken seriously, because the academic intelligentsia takes for granted that being alive and self-conscious is something we should all be greatful for, and the greatest mystery that manking was ever dared to resolve. The six pieces of THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE HUMAN RACE are both a good case fo anti-natalism and for the relevance of supernatural horror.
I think that my favourite point made by Ligotti is the inherent horror of humanity. In his fist piece titled ''The Nightmare of Being'' Ligotti illustrates the supernatural horror story of a puppet who comes to sentience after its strings got cut, claiming that any protagonist would be legimimately freaked out to witness that. The human race is perhaps the best example of this said horror, yet people claim that we should be thankful for being given the opportunity to exist, refusing to admit that it's freaky and that it shouldn't have happened in the first place. I don't necessarily agree with the idea that existence is a horror, but I could understand and appreciate the thinking.
What is most uncanny about the self is tha tno one has yet been able to present the least evidence of it. Like the soul, that figure of speech which has long since been snickered out of existence, the self may be felt but never found. It is a spectral tapeworm that takes it reality from a host organism and grown along with the physical matter in which it is encased.
The format of THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE HUMAN RACE is going to put off a lot of people. It's not everybody that has the stomach for academic essays and lengthy quotations. Don't think Ligotti is approachable if you've read Chuck Klosterman, or even David Foster Wallace. These two authors write to please their audience first and foremost. Ligotti writes because he has a point to make, an axe to grind with humanity and leans on a tradition of pessimist and anti-natalist writing in order to prove his point. THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE HUMAN RACE is not something you can read quickly and lightly, but it's a gateway to a philosophical current that I knew too little about, and whose ideas don't entirely differ from mine.
Obviously, there are a lot of parallels between THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE HUMAN RACE and TRUE DETECTIVE. The dialogue lines of Rust Cohle are not exactly built from the content of this book, but there are some ''almost-word-for-word'' moments. Once again, I don't think Nic Pizzolatto ever denied it, but Thomas Ligotti is indeed not quoted in the series and I can understand why it would technically be referred as plagiarism. I don't see the issue though. I would've never read THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE HUMAN RACE if it wasn't for TRUE DETECTIVE and I would've never discovered the fascinating world of pessimism.