Conspiracy literature

[SDC]

This concerns the literature of conspiracies. Or perhaps fiction, novels, which postulate or rely on interesting conspiracies. These often are espionage novels, spy novels, of course, but they don't have to be. I am starting this thread because 1/ such works are interesting in and of themselves, and 2/ they tell us something about the conspiratorial world. If I am allowed to give an assignment, it would be to suggest that those interested consider how these novels explain conspiracies, and to what extent they are reflective of them.

Here are my recommendations, both for enjoyment and because they are so darned interesting.

Charles McCarry's novels: not just his "Paul Christopher" series, which mostly relates to the 1950s-60s (highly recommended: "Tears of Autumn," which ties JFK's murder to Vietnam), but also concerns US elections, wars and plots in the Middle east, etc. Now about age 80, McCarry is a hot patootie with several excellent novels in print, including reprints.

And who can beat Jos. Conrad and "Secret Agent"?

Then there are recent non-fiction works about Soviet intelligence in the 1950s-80s.

 

[Childlike Empress]

Illuminatus! founded the genre and made it obsolete (while it isn't a novel about conspiracies but about YOUR mind). Eco transformed it into something acceptable for the literature crowd with his Foucault's Pendulum. The people we have to thank for all the fun are the reader's of Playboy.

Thread closed.

 

[gumboot]

In the TV series Heroes one of the characters proposes to a potential future President that he helps cause a nuclear detonation in New York City to "wipe the slate clean" so they can rebuild better. He argues "People need hope, but first they need a common fear to bind them together".

-Gumboot

 

[Childlike Empress]

That's neighter conspiracy nor literature, that's common sense or something.

 

[NikZeta302]

Not a book of anykind, but I think the Metal Gear series is very good as video games go. In it the US government is run by a group of 12 men called the Patriots who died a 100 years ago, but they still rule over us.

 

[Nick Terry]

A significant chunk of the popular fiction/thriller market and also Hollywood are based around the notion of conspiracies.

1. Templars/ancient secrets suppressed by Catholic Church/ancient secrets lost by someone or other and found again by evil gubmint types.

(cf Dan Brown)

2. US gubmint is eevull; US Army is willing to murder its own citizens. Cliche: at least a major-general is required to organise mass extermination/mass internment of heroic citizenry (Outbreak, The Siege)

etc


But yeah, if you're looking for something actually well written, then Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum is the classic. See also some of Thomas Pynchon, tho'. There are other postmodern literati in the same vein, I am assured by friends, with some kind of conspiracy structure.

 

[lionking]

Illuminatus! founded the genre and made it obsolete (while it isn't a novel about conspiracies but about YOUR mind). Eco transformed it into something acceptable for the literature crowd with his Foucault's Pendulum. The people we have to thank for all the fun are the reader's of Playboy.

Thread closed.

Are we thinking the same Illuminatus? A trilogy by memory and about 25 years ago?

 

[leftysergeant]

I know this is going to make some people's skin crawl, but it might be a good idea to read The Turner Diaries. It might shed some light on what some of the more dire CTs are thinking of when they insert their woo-woo into the national psyche.

It could explain the motivations of Bollyn, D.B. Smith and Hufschmid. I kind of doubt that Kevin Barret would even consdier it a dystopian novel.

You might want to add a dolop of bleach to your bath water after you read it.

 

[SDC]

I know this is going to make some people's skin crawl, but it might be a good idea to read The Turner Diaries. It might shed some light on what some of the more dire CTs are thinking of when they insert their woo-woo into the national psyche.

It could explain the motivations of Bollyn, D.B. Smith and Hufschmid. I kind of doubt that Kevin Barret would even consdier it a dystopian novel.

You might want to add a dolop of bleach to your bath water after you read it.

Lefty, I have followed your comments about Blackwater (et al.) with interest. Now I wonder whether there are pop men's violent thrillers which are set in that world. I can certainly imagine some thriller writer with an eye to a quick buck writing "mercenary fiction."

Turner Diaries... I actually skimmed it once. All I could stand. It was actually, I believe, supposed to be a blueprint for action.

I have no idea what Illuminatus is, as a novel or series. Back to McCarry. His recent novels mostly focus on presidential politics with a conspiratorial bent. "Shelley's Heart" I found true and terrifying. See also "Lucky Bastard." You'll never look at elections the same way again.

 

[Brainster]

Phillip Jose Farmer wrote a series of novels about The Nine, a group of immortals who rule the world; Mad Goblin and Lord of the Trees are among the books. It's an entertaining series, although verging on pornographic in its depictions of sexuality.

 

[leftysergeant]

I can certainly imagine some thriller writer with an eye to a quick buck writing "mercenary fiction."

I'm sure there are, within the action/adventure genre.

Turner Diaries... I actually skimmed it once. All I could stand. It was actually, I believe, supposed to be a blueprint for action.

McVeigh set the timer on the bomb by the book.