Galveston
by Nic Pizzolatto
read: 2014
Galveston is True Detective creator / writer Nic Pizzolatto's first novel. There are some similar themes to True Detective: it's ostensibly a crime novel, though protagonist Roy is on the wrong side of the law. It takes place in the same general area of the country, spilling from New Orleans to Galveston, Texas, and back. Most significantly, it features a hard-boiled character over a long period of time. In both Galveston and True Detective, Pizzolatto uses the passage of time to ruminate on the phenomenon of storytelling. Once events have passed, they exist only in the stories those who remember them tell. An ex-girlfriend of Roy's tells him:
This is how Pizzolatto's worlds are built: on a shaky foundation of stories. The past is malleable, and since in the long run everything is past, all of reality is ultimately subject to the biases and vagaries of those who live to tell about it.
EDIT: That said, Pizzolatto isn't making the case that there's no such thing as objective truth; in fact, the objective truth is important to the characters in the story. Late in the story, Roy is confronted with the choice to tell his story to a new generation or let it die with him, and he elects to keep the truth alive.
by Nic Pizzolatto
read: 2014
Galveston is True Detective creator / writer Nic Pizzolatto's first novel. There are some similar themes to True Detective: it's ostensibly a crime novel, though protagonist Roy is on the wrong side of the law. It takes place in the same general area of the country, spilling from New Orleans to Galveston, Texas, and back. Most significantly, it features a hard-boiled character over a long period of time. In both Galveston and True Detective, Pizzolatto uses the passage of time to ruminate on the phenomenon of storytelling. Once events have passed, they exist only in the stories those who remember them tell. An ex-girlfriend of Roy's tells him:
"Listen to me," she said. "The past isn't real." This struck the center of me like a pickax. She said, "you remember what you want."At another point, after explaining how he got into a life of crime, Roy thinks, "It was true, but the story didn't feel correct. It didn't really explain anything, did it?"
This is how Pizzolatto's worlds are built: on a shaky foundation of stories. The past is malleable, and since in the long run everything is past, all of reality is ultimately subject to the biases and vagaries of those who live to tell about it.
EDIT: That said, Pizzolatto isn't making the case that there's no such thing as objective truth; in fact, the objective truth is important to the characters in the story. Late in the story, Roy is confronted with the choice to tell his story to a new generation or let it die with him, and he elects to keep the truth alive.
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