True Detective

I've been watching the HBO miniseries True Detective and reading the 1895 collection of short stories, The King In Yellow.  I won't give anything away other than it has adult themes, ritualistic 20 year old murder cases and is as creepy as dammit!  T-Bolt says check it out.

But I suffer from pedantic gunnie syndrome, just like many of you.  In this latest episode, this week, The Matt McConaughey character asks the Woodie Harrelson character what he is carrying.    The answer is 'just a .38...'

Now wait a second.  I often think 1911s in the movies look small and I guess they are the slightly similar Colt Pocket Hammerless?  Am I now inflating the size of revolvers I see on the screen?  I mean it looks big and honking.

Anyway, so I have to check the imfdb.  It's a .44.  629.  Phew, I'm not crazy.  Woody sorta plays and older school style detective.  On homicide in 1995, so he entered the force, what?  Mid 80s?  Earlier?  If you want to keep consistent fiction with real life, and the progression from the academy to the murder police.  So I can see him being a bit of a throwback.  Conservative lawman (little 'c'), I don't think I've seen the character with any other weapon. 

You've come a long way from tending bar in the 1980s, Woody.

So he just called it a .38 out of ignorance of him or the writer, Nic Pizzolatto.  Probably the latter.  And more of a cross threading between the writer's vision and what the prop guys provided.    


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Another aside.  I'm sure many of you use Project Gutenburg.  Free ebooks in public domain!  Well, they give stats on how many times a book is downloaded.  Things like Tarzan and Mark Twain's stuff and Sherlock Holmes get's downloaded a lot.  10's of thousands.  The King in Yellow, this time a year ago probably had a coupla hundred at the most.  Well, it leads the pack now at 52,000+ all because of HBO. It's a good read, too.  It doesn't 'read' like 1895.  The language isn't as stilted as it can be coming from that far back.  And it inspired H P Lovecraft... 


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Update.  Ima idjit.  N-frame 627.  Insufficient rigor in my reading comprehension.  Big and honkin', but not a .44.