I have enjoyed writing
Chillers and Thrillers, but I am turning my attention to other matters and must discontinue updating this blog, for the foreseeable future, at least. Thank you to all my readers and “followers.” I hope that you have enjoyed reading the potpourri of articles that have appeared here and, if you have not read all that is available, I hope that you will find some more articles of interest to you in
Chillers and Thrillers archives. As a parting contribution, I offer you
From Conspiracy Theory to Thriller.
Cheers.
From Conspiracy Theory To Thriller
Copyright 2011 by Gary L. Pullman
This handout will help you to create your own conspiracy theory as a basis for writing a synopsis for a thriller that you can then develop into a full-fledged novel using the plotting templates included for this purpose.
First, the handout identifies the specific objectives for this course.
Next, it identifies the reason that many people are interested in conspiracy theories in general.
Then, the handout identifies the specific elements that are typical of conspiracy theories and analyzes two actual conspiracy theories in relation to these elements, listing the types of characters that typically appear in thrillers involving conspiracy theories.
(This handout also contains four appendices: One provides a list of other actual conspiracy theories; the second lists single-sentence ideas that could become “starters” for developing a full-fledged conspiracy theory as the basis of a thriller; the third identifies authors of thrillers and various thriller novels as references, should you want to research and analyze them on your own, as further practice in preparation for developing your own conspiracy theory; and the fourth summarizes some pseudo-scientific, allegedly non-fiction books concerning supposed conspiracies--all of which were bestsellers!)
You will be invited to develop your own, original conspiracy theory as a basis for a thriller, using the same strategies that actual conspiracy theorists often employ. You will then have the opportunity of obtaining classroom responses and suggestions concerning your theory. In addition, to evaluate your conspiracy theory, for revision purposes, the handout identifies the type of evidence that conspiracy theorists typically provide to support their claims; you can use similar evidence to support your theory’s assertions.
Finally, the handout summarizes dramatic structure, as analyzed by Gustav Freytag, and provides a fill-in-the blanks plotting template, complete with an example that shows its application, which you can use to plot your own thriller, based upon the original conspiracy theory that you have developed.
During the workshop, the instructor will further explain and demonstrate the concepts and techniques introduced in this handout.
Objectives
From Conspiracy Theory To Thriller uses the following three steps to help you develop an original, full-fledged conspiracy theory of your own that you can then use to generate a synopsis for a full-length thriller:
Using the elements of actual conspiracy theories, develop a specific conspiracy of your own. (These elements will first be identified and clarified, as various actual conspiracy theories are examined.)
Develop a synopsis of your novel’s plot, based upon your conspiracy, using one of the plot-development tools presented in the course. (Handouts will be provided and explained in class.)
Create a platform for further novels (sequels) based upon the same conspiracy.
First, the Why
Why do some people believe in conspiracy theories? Michael Shermer, author of “Why people Believe in Conspiracies,” an online
Scientific American article, has a few ideas concerning this topic:
Why do people believe in highly improbable conspiracies? In previous columns I have provided partial answers, citing patternicity (the tendency to find meaningful patterns in random noise) and agenticity (the bent to believe the world is controlled by invisible intentional agents). Cnspiracy theories connect the dots of random events into meaningful patterns and then infuse those patterns with intentional agency. Add to those propensities the confirmation bias (which seeks and finds confirmatory evidence for what we already believe) and the hindsight bias (which tailors after-the-fact explanations to what we
already know happened), and we have the foundation for conspiratorial cognition
(http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=why-people-believe-in-conspiracies).
Conspiracy Theory Elements
A conspiracy typically possesses these elements:
A well-funded, clandestine group or organization with a nefarious agenda, which they seek to keep secret (the agenda includes the motive or purpose of the conspiracy). The agenda could be to cover up the cause or purpose of an event (the AIDS virus as a means of exterminating African-Americans); to suppress the truth about the nature of an action or an event (the moon landing); to initiate an event or a series of events (usher in the Fourth Reich); to end a regime, organization, order, or organization (to destroy democracy from within the American political system); to introduce social or political changes (institutionalize special rights for a small segment of the general population); or to deny that an historical event or series of events occurred (the Holocaust or the moon landing).
The use of esoteric knowledge (alchemy, art, secret codes); sophisticated deception (doctored technology, historical revisionism, systematic propaganda, misdirection and redirection); or scientific, medical or technological means (viruses, parasites, chemical poisoning or contamination); or intimidation and force (martial law, incarceration, or public beatings, maiming, and executions) to implement and execute the conspiracy.
A scheme that involves the initiation of a specific event or set of events that has a particular, focused objective (the assassination of President John F. Kennedy); an ongoing series of conspiratorial activities with broad goals and a social, a national, or a global end (genocide against an ethnic group or the takeover of a country through the infiltration of its government or educational system); a hierarchical confederation of several conspiracy groups with at least a few overlapping or common goals (international capitalists’ control of government, economic, educational, and religious organizations); or an historical process among one or more conspirators or conspiracy organizations dedicated to securing their goals over a period of generations, centuries, or even millennia, either through sustained or recurring organizations (the Masons or the rise of subsequent “reichs”).
One person or a group of people dedicated to discovering or exposing the conspiracy. The group may be dedicated amateurs or experts, and they may be organized loosely and informally or closely and professionally. They follow events, pursue suspected conspirators, share information with themselves and the public, store and safeguard data pertaining to their investigations, and protect and defend themselves and one another when possible. The “truthers,” as such groups are sometimes called, may actually communicate the truth about a real conspiracy; may only believe that they are doing so; or may distort the truth to support and advance a hidden agenda of their own.
A sense of “us” (the good, law-abiding, patriotic, and ordinary citizenry) versus “them” (the corrupt, criminal, treasonous, and elitist conspirators).
In
Voodoo Histories: The Role of the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History, David Aaronovitch cites seven elements that he finds to be typical of conspiracy theories, some of which have already been identified: (1) “historical precedent” (previous accounts of other conspiracy theories tend to make current conspiracy theories seem more plausible for those who are inclined to believe such theories in the first place); (2) “skeptics and sheeple” (the same as a sense of “us” versus “them,” identified in the last bullet, above); (3) “just asking questions” (conspiracy theorists pretend that they themselves do not necessarily subscribe to the conspiracy theory but are only making enquiries about bizarre incidents that may or may nor be related to one another, although “the questions asked. . . only make sense if the questioner really believes that there is indeed a secret conspiracy”); (4) “expert witnesses” (conspiracy theorists use statements by celebrity or expert witnesses to “validate their theories,” but the theorists are sometimes “opaque about the qualifications of their experts”); (5) “academic credibility” (conspiracy theorists “work hard to give their written evidence the veneer of scholarship” by supplying an abundance of footnotes and often extraneous, but voluminous information and a plethora of “quotations from non-conspiracist sources”); (6) “convenient inconvenient truths” (the fitting of new facts and arguments, including counterarguments and contradictory data into the conspiracy; explaining away contradictory facts and statements by labeling them as examples of “deliberate disinformation originating with the imagined plotters” or otherwise making excuses that twist or deny the contrary evidence so as to make it fit the conspiracy theory; and (7) “under surveillance” (implying that those who seek to expose the conspiracy theory are in danger from government agents, anonymous persons, or other public personnel or private individuals).
Conspiracy Elements Exemplified: Two Actual Conspiracy
The Pearl Harbor Conspiracy Theory
The claim that the president and military commanders purposely allowed the Japanese to attack Pearl Harbor is a conspiracy theory, not an actual historical event. The theory goes like this:
Although he received a message from the U. S. Navy on December 6, 1941, that the Japanese government had sent to its embassy in Washington, D. C., announcing that Japan had terminated diplomatic relations with the United States, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt took no action. The U. S. Army commander was General George C. Marshall, and the U. S. Navy commander was Admiral Harold R. Stark. The U. S. government suspected that, should the U. S. come under enemy attack, the strike would be directed against Pearl Harbor. Nevertheless, neither Roosevelt, Marshall nor Stark notified Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, the commander of the Pacific Fleet, which was stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, or the unit’s commanding general, Walter Short, of the imminent attack.
Marshall and Stark later testified that they had not notified Kimmel or Short because they did not want to confuse them with any more intercepted messages from the Japanese. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, both the base and the fleet were unprepared to defend themselves and 4,575 servicemen were killed in the “surprise” attack. Although both Marshall and Stark were found guilty of dereliction of duty for not having notified Kimmel and Short of the imminent attack on Pearl Harbor, these findings were kept from the public. Not until eleven days after the attack did the Roberts Commission, led by U. S. Supreme Court Justice Owen Roberts, find what it declared was the truth concerning the matter. According to the Commission, Kimmel and Short were the culprits. The Commission’s meetings were held behind closed doors, and Kimmel and Short were forced to retire. Some found the Commission’s proceedings questionable, including Admiral William Standley, a Roberts Commission panelist, who characterized Roberts’ actions as “crooked as a snake.”
There were another seven investigations of the Pearl Harbor attack, one of which, conducted jointly by the House and the Senate, included the testimony of Marshall and Stark that they could not recall their whereabouts on the night that Roosevelt declared war on Japan. However, their claims were contradicted by a friend of Frank Knox, the Secretary of the Navy, who said that Marshall and Stark were with Knox and Roosevelt in the White House, waiting for the Japanese to attack Pearl Harbor so that the U. S. could enter World War II. According to historian John Toland, Marshall told his senior officers, “Gentlemen, this goes to the grave with us.” Short, who had considered Marshall a personal friend, felt betrayed by Marshall’s actions in allowing him to take the fall for the Pearl Harbor attack.
There was more than one warning that the Japanese were about to bomb Pearl Harbor, including a Japanese message containing the phrase “east wind, rain,” which was know by U. S. military intelligence as the Japanese code for war against the United States. However, U. S. government officials denied that the “winds” message was ever sent or received. In addition, three days before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Australian intelligence sent a warning to Washington that it had seen a fleet of Japanese aircraft carriers bound for Hawaii, but Roosevelt dismissed this warning as a rumor initiated, for political purposes, by the Republican Party.
Toland concludes that Roosevelt acted on purpose to suppress the warnings he’d received concerning the imminent attack on Pearl Harbor because he wanted the U. S. to enter the war. “A small group of men,” he wrote, “revered and held to be most honorable by millions, had convinced themselves that it was necessary to act dishonorably for the good of their nation--and incited the war that Japan had tried [by announcing its intentions ahead of time to attack Pearl Harbor] to avoid.” Rear Admiral Robert A. Theobald, who commanded the destroyers at Pearl Harbor, agreed: “This was the president’s problem, and his solution was based on the simple fact that, while it takes two to make a fight, either one may start it.”
The Pearl Harbor Conspiracy Theory Elements
Again, it is important to remember that the claim that the president and military commanders purposely allowed the Japanese to attack Pearl Harbor is a conspiracy theory, not an actual historical event.
Here’s how the Pearl Harbor conspiracy theory stacks up against the list of conspiracy elements identified earlier:
A well-funded, clandestine group or organization with a nefarious agenda, which they seek to keep secret (the agenda will include the motive or purpose of the conspiracy). President Roosevelt and the commanders of the U. S. Army (General Marshall) and the U. S. Navy (Admiral Stark) withheld warnings that the Japanese were about to attack Pearl Harbor from the fleet commander, Admiral Kimmel, and the base commander, General Short.
The use of esoteric knowledge or scientific, medical, or technological means to implement and execute the conspiracy. The military suppressed the truth about the culpability of Marshall and Stark, who withheld the warnings of the Japanese’s planned attack on Pearl Harbor and lied about their whereabouts on the night that the president declared war against Japan, and the Roberts Commission convicted Kimmel and Short, in closed meetings, as the government’s scapegoats, forcing them to retire. Several messages used codes known by U. S. military intelligence and other intelligence organizations, such as that of the Australian government.
A scheme that involves the initiation of a specific event or set of events that has a particular, focused objective; an ongoing series of conspiratorial activities with broad goals and a social, a national, or a global end; a hierarchical confederation of several conspiracy groups with at least a few overlapping or common goals; or an historical process among one or more conspirators or conspiracy organizations dedicated to securing their goals over a period of generations, centuries, or even millennia, either through sustained or recurring organizations. Roosevelt and his conspirators wanted to involve the United States in World War II by allowing the Japanese to attack the U. S. fleet anchored at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Their actions later led to cover-ups by the Roberts Commission, the joint Congressional hearings, and other investigations.
One person or a group of people dedicated to discovering or exposing the conspiracy. The group may be dedicated amateurs or experts, and they may be organized loosely and informally or closely and professionally. The “truthers,” as such groups are sometimes called, may actually communicate the truth about a real conspiracy; may only believe that they are doing so; or may distort the truth to support and advance a hidden agenda of their own. An historian, several high-ranking U. S. military officers, and others sought to expose the Roosevelt conspiracy.
A sense of “us” (the good, law-abiding, patriotic, and ordinary citizenry) versus “them” (the corrupt, criminal, treasonous, and elitist conspirators). In Toland‘s words, “A small group of men, revered and held to be most honorable by millions, had convinced themselves that it was necessary to act dishonorably for the good of their nation--and incited the war that Japan had tried to avoid.”
The Denver International Airport Conspiracy Theory
The claim that the Denver International Airport is the headquarters of the New World Order’s leaders is a theory, not an actual fact. The theory goes like this:
The peculiar features of the Denver International Airport prove that it is the new World Order’s secret headquarters. Code words of possible Satanic or Masonic significance are carved into the terminal floor: Cochetopa, Sisnaajini, Dzit Dit Gaii, Braaksma, and Villarreal.
A dedication marker is inscribed with Masonic symbols (the compass and the square), and mention is made, on the marker, of two Freemason lodges in Colorado. In addition, the marker is mounted above a time capsule that was sealed during the airport’s dedication--a time capsule which may, in fact, also be a keypad with a secret purpose related to the future of the New World Order or the New World Airport Commission, which is also named on the dedication marker.
A large portion of the terminal, called the Great Hall, is named for the great hall of the Freemason lodges. Murals inside the airport depict bizarre situations and images, including a Nazi-like figure stabbing a white dove with the tip of his scimitar, dead children (an African-American, a Christian, and a Jew) laid out inside open coffins, and children worshiping a strange, rainbow-colored flower.
Outside, a huge, wild, malevolent horse with red (radioactive?) eyes rears against the sky. The configurations, or layout, of the airport’s runways are shaped like Nazi swastikas. The airport takes up twice the space of Manhattan, New York, and rests atop an underground military base, which includes space for the headquarters of the New World Order and vast holding cells for future political prisoners.
The Denver International Airport Conspiracy Theory Elements
Again, it is important to remember that the claim that the Denver International Airport is the headquarters of the New World Order’s leaders is a theory, not an actual fact.
Here’s how the Denver International Airport conspiracy theory stacks up against the list of conspiracy elements identified earlier:
A well-funded clandestine group or organization with a nefarious agenda, which they seek to keep secret (the agenda will include the motive or purpose of the conspiracy). The Freemasons and the New World Airport Commission build an airport full of strange codes, images, and symbols on a plot of ground twice as large as Manhattan.
The use of esoteric knowledge or scientific, medical, or technological means to implement and execute the conspiracy. The airport includes strange codes carved into the floor, bizarre murals depicting horrific scenes involving various ethnic and religious groups and containing esoteric images, and a keypad associated with a time capsule.
A scheme that involves the initiation of a specific event or set of events which have a particular, focused objective; an ongoing series of conspiratorial activities with broad goals and a social, a national, or a global end; a hierarchical confederation of several conspiracy groups with at least a few overlapping or common goals; or an historical process among one or more conspirators or conspiracy organizations dedicated to securing their goals over a period of generations, centuries, or even millennia, either through sustained or recurring organizations.
The airport is home to the underground headquarters of the New World Order and includes holding cells for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of future political prisoners.
One person or a group of people dedicated to exposing the discovering or exposing the conspiracy. Such a group may be dedicated amateurs or experts, and they may be organized loosely and informally or closely and professionally. The “truthers,” as such groups are sometimes called, may actually communicate the truth about a real conspiracy; may only believe that they are doing so; or may distort the truth to support and advance a hidden agenda of their own. Christians and other groups have photographed and posted pictures of the airport and its peculiar features on the Internet to publicize the existence of the New World Order’s headquarters to millions and to expose its secrets. Other individuals and groups have produced online videos that interpret and explain the secret codes, images, and symbols and relate the history of the airport’s construction.
A sense of “us” (the good, law-abiding, patriotic, and ordinary citizenry) versus “them” (the corrupt, criminal, treasonous, and elitist conspirators). “They” are the New World Order/Masonic conspirators, who want to take over the world, institute a new totalitarian sociopolitical-economic order, and enslave “us,” the everyday citizens of a democratic and capitalistic society, who honors and respects individual liberty.
Types of Characters
Like any other genre, the thriller has developed several specific types of characters who tend to recur throughout these novels. Some of these types include government agents, spies, police detectives, private detectives, scientists, computer experts, weapons experts, disguise artists, mercenaries, martial arts experts, military personnel, and adventurers.
In addition to these types of characters, thrillers often people their pages with characters who are called for by the situations of the novels’ individual plots, including situations based upon conspiracy theories. The type of conspiracy theory often suggests the specific, even specialized, characters that are apt to be relatively distinctive to a particular storyline of this type.
In addition to the general types of characters common to thrillers as a whole, those derived from a conspiracy theory might also include:
World leaders
Members of secret societies
Business tycoons
Extraterrestrial beings
Agents of disinformation and intimidation
Prison officials and guards
Hollywood producers, directors, actors, and other personnel
Assassins
“Truthers” (fanatics dedicated to collecting evidence about the conspiracy and to exposing it to the public)
Victims of the conspiracy (and innocent bystanders)
Investigative reporters
Television or radio talk show hosts
Guides or scouts
Members of ethnic, minority, or special interest groups
“Deep Throats” (that is, insiders who defect from a conspiracy group, often supplying intelligence concerning the group to
“Truthers,” investigators, media personnel, or other interested parties)
Note: Refer to Appendix 1 an annotate list of additional conspiracy theories.
Create Your Own Conspiracy Theory
In discussing how “Truthers” twist the truth to supposedly debunk conspiracy theories, Christopher Hodapp and Alice Von Kanno, the authors of
Conspiracy Theories and Secret Societies for Dummies, provide a blueprint for authors of thrillers who want to create their own conspiracy theories in order to add adventure, zest, and excitement to their fiction.
Their sidebar debunking of the “documentary”
Loose Change, “Screws Loose in Loose Change” (155-156), offers a textbook case. Created “by three 20-something Truthers,” Dylan Avery, Korey Rowe, and Jason Bernas, the so-called documentary uses “unsupported assertions, scurvy intimations, and some out-and-out lies” to suggest that the events of 9/11 were results of a conspiracy (155). Included among their allegations, the authors point out, in a bulleted checklist, were the following falsehoods or misrepresentations of the facts (in bold font). Following each allegation in their bulleted checklist, Hodapp and Von Kannon debunk the “debunkers”:
The fires in the Towers weren’t hot enough to melt steel. Quite the contrary--they were plenty hot enough to weaken the girders, causing them to structurally fail under the weight of the floors above.
The Empire State Building wasn’t knocked down when it was hit by a B-52, so the [World Trade Center] WTC Towers should’ve survived the smaller plane hits. The Empire State Building wasn’t hit by a B-52. It was a much smaller, lighter B-25.
Terrorist hijackers couldn’t have been flying the planes, because the moves they executed were unsafe. What part of “they were intending to crash them” do these boys not understand?
The South Tower was hit by an unmarked, gray jet, with no airline markings. Maybe it looks unmarked when played back on an iPod, but the United paint job is undeniable in frame enlargements.
$167 billion in gold was stored under the World Trade Center and was secretly removed. It was really $230 million--not chump change, but considerably less than their outrageous claim, and all of it was recovered and accounted for.
Flight 93 didn’t crash in Pennsylvania. They claim the real Flight 93 was loaded with some 200 passengers from all four planes and landed in Cleveland, where the passengers were taken off and, presumably, “disposed of.” The problem with this one being that the total manifests of all four planes couldn’t fit onboard Flight 93. At other times, they claim Flight 93 did crash in Pennsylvania, but after being shot down by the military.
A mysterious “pod” was mounted under the fuselage of one of the planes, clear evidence that it’s a massive bomb. Both planes that hit the Trade Towers were 767-200s.
Comparisons with 767s under the same lighting show a bulge where the wings join the main body of the jet. This reckless claim was so loudly debunked that the boys quickly edited it out of subsequent versions (155-56).
The Truthers also claimed that “the phone calls from loved ones onboard the hijacked planes were phonies,” the authors say, since “pilots have never allowed passengers to use cell phones in flight.” However, under fire from the public and critics alike, the documentary’s creators retracted this claim, as they suppressed their original allegation that the airplanes were equipped with bombs. When “scientists working for Popular Mechanics were able to easily disprove their assertion about cell phones, one of these shrewd journalists said in a recent documentary on 9/11 conspiracy theories, ‘Well, we’re editing that out in our new version, because we don’t’ want to loose [sic] our credibility’” (156).
How do the authors of this conspiracy piece together their theory? It seems that they use one part unenlightened ignorance, one part innovative speculation, and one part deliberate deceit.
Alter facts to fit a preconceived view or substitute lies for facts: The fire was not hot enough to melt steel (but the fire was hot enough); the smaller, older Empire State Building survived being hit by a B-52 (although the Empire State Building was actually hit by a smaller B-25); and Flight 93 didn’t crash in Pennsylvania; it was loaded with passengers from all four planes and landed in Cleveland, where the passengers were taken off and, presumably, “disposed of” (but the total manifests of all four planes couldn’t fit onboard Flight 93)
Introduce irrelevancies that sound significant: It’s unconvincing to assume that the terrorists would commit acts that are unsafe to themselves (but they were suicidal fanatics who willingly died for their beliefs--and knowingly killed others as well).
Omit details that contradict the conspiracy theory: The planes were unmarked (but they only seem to be unmarked; when the film footage of the attack is played, the airline’s markings are clearly visible).
Exaggerate facts, especially those that suggest a motive for a hidden or secret agenda on the part of the conspirators (and, again, omit any contradictory details): $167 billion in gold, stored under the World Trade Center, was secretly removed (but it was really $230 million, all of which recovered and accounted for).
Offer a sinister interpretation of anything that appears unusual or anomalous: A “pod” under the airplane’s fuselage contained a bomb (but the “pod” was really just a bulge at the junction of the main body of the aircraft and its wing).
Eliminate (or modify) details that are easily disproved or that may cause others to summarily reject your theory: The idea that the Flight 93 passengers lied about having communicated with their families before the airplane crashed offended many and its basis (that cell phone communication with relatives was impossible aboard the flight) was disproved by scientists, so this part of the conspiracy theory was abandoned.
Let’s consider how you can use these techniques to generate a conspiracy by examining a controversial issue, such as global warming (climate change). Although more scientists than not accept as true the notion that the planet’s temperature is gradually increasing, some do not believe that such a change is taking place. Even among those who do believe that global warming is happening, some do not consider such change to be dangerous to the welfare of plants, animals, or human beings.
Let’s see how to use this controversial issue to develop a conspiracy theory.
First, there is no need to eliminate or alter facts that are “friendly” to your claim that global warming is the product of a conspiracy among scientists and government officials who one to get rich quick off by promoting the supposed dangers of climate change. These facts seem friendly to the idea of global warming as a conspiracy theory rather than a reality, so you can accept them as they are:
The lack of a long-term record of temperature changes prevent scientists from ascertaining whether the warmer temperatures observed during the past few years is anything more than a temporary trend.
The data concerning global warming are sometimes unclear.
Some scientists’ belief that global warming is occurring may affect how they interpret data; they may fit the data to their assumptions rather than considering the data objectively.
If it exists, global warming may be a natural event, not one that is being caused by human behavior or the use of technology.
Even if global warming is happening, it presents no dangers to living organisms, for plants, animals, and humans will adapt to climate changes.
Now, with regard to facts that are “unfriendly” to the conspiracy theory, those that contradict, rather than support, it, use one part unenlightened ignorance, one part innovative speculation, and one part deliberate deceit, or, more specifically:
Alter facts to fit a preconceived view or substitute lies for facts.
Introduce irrelevancies that sound significant:
Omit details that contradict the conspiracy theory:
Exaggerate facts, especially those that suggest a motive for a hidden or secret agenda on the part of the conspirators.
Offer a sinister interpretation of anything that appears unusual or anomalous:
Eliminate (or modify) details that are easily disproved or that may cause others to summarily reject your theory:
Start by listing the “unfriendly;” facts: Then, fit them to the theory that global warming is a conspiracy, not a reality (changes are indicated in bold font):
Eleven of the past twelve years have been the hottest since 1850. This fact sounds impressive--if one forgets that, by the same yardstick, out of 100 years, 88 percent of them have not been unusually warm. Global warming conspirators cherry-pick their data to suggest that harmless trends as long-term conditions. (The point ignored her is that the 88 percent is unimportant; what matters is that eleven of twelve most recent years of history indicate that there is a sudden, rapid warming of the planet.)
The rate at which the planet is warming has doubled in the past century. Again, this may sound impressive, but, by scientists’ own admission, even if the planet’s temperature is increasing at such a rate, the actual increase in temperature measures only .74 degrees Celsius. (The debunking of this claim ignores the point that “even small changes in climate can have major effects” and that, according to NASA, “during the last ice age (ice ages recur roughly every 50,000 to 100,000 years), the earth's average temperature was only 5 Celsius degrees cooler than modern temperature averages”).
Up to a depth of 3,000 feet (and maybe more), oceans are warmer than they have been before.
Glaciers have decreased in both the Northern and the Southern hemispheres, causing a rise in sea levels, arctic temperatures have increased dramatically during the last century, and frozen ground in the arctic regions have thawed by seven percent since 1900. There have been more sunny days lately. However, such days are effects of weather conditions, not climate changes. (This explanation purposely confuses weather, which is “local and short-term” with climate., which is regional or global and “long-term.”)
Precipitation has increased in many rainy parts of the world and has decreased in drier regions, droughts are longer and cover more land than they have in times past, heat waves are more frequent and intense and cold spells less frequent and less intense than they have been in the past, and the intensity of tropical storms has increased. Weather conditions, which cause rain, drought, heat waves, cold spells, and tropical storms of greater or lesser intensity are also effects of the changes in weather and do not indicate any long-term climate changes. (Again, this explanation purposely confuses weather, which is “local and short-term” with climate., which is regional or global and “long-term.”)
By accepting “friendly” facts as true and explaining (or explaining away) “unfriendly” facts, a strong case can be built for global warming (or any other controversial issue) as comprising nothing more than a conspiracy on the part of people who have much to gain by frightening people with such unwarranted claims.
However, make sure that the conspirators do have a lot to gain by promulgating their conspiracy theory; otherwise, there would be no motivation for them to spend the vast amounts of time, money, and other resources to attempt to get others to believe and accept their theory as true. In the case of global warming, if it were a conspiracy theory rather than a reality, the conspirators would have much to gain through legislation that outlaws or penalizes the use of some energy sources (petroleum products, coal, and incandescent light bulbs, for example, while requiring or encouraging the use of alternative energy sources (wind, solar energy, hydroelectric generators) and activities (energy conservation, recycling).
Note: some facts and other material for this segment of this handout were quoted or paraphrased from the online article, “How Global Warming Works“ (
http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/global-warming7.htm).
Use the same techniques to create a conspiracy theory of your own! (Remember to include the elements that are typical of most, if not all, actual conspiracy theories.)
Evaluating Evidence For Conspiracy Theories
Knowing how to evaluate the evidence that conspiracy theorists provide to support their claims can not only help one debunk those claims, but it can also disclose techniques that one can use him- or herself to more readily develop his or her own, original conspiracy theory.
The authors of
Conspiracy Theories & Secret Societies identify a number of principles which facilitate the creation of conspiracy theories:
“Nothing happens by accident.”
“Nothing is as it seems.”
“Everything is connected “
Because facts can be twisted, they cannot be trusted.
“Lack of proof is proof.”
Conspirators “control the media, business, banks, universities, [and] governments” (among other things) and use these organizations to misdirect, deceive, suppress, and “discredit” their enemies (21-23).
The authors also identify three problems from which, “psychologists” and “psychiatrists” claim, conspiracy theorists suffer:
Conspiracy theorists suffer from apophenia: they find patterns in meaningless or disconnected images, numbers, words, and other data (the face on Mars).
Conspiracy theorists suffer from confirmation bias: they develop a theory and make all evidence conform to it, ignoring contrary evidence altogether.
Conspiracy theorists suffer from cognitive dissonance, holding mutually contradictory thoughts as true without stress (23-24).
In general, the authors point out, there are three types of conspiracy theories:
Event conspiracies
Systemic conspiracies
Super conspiracies ((24-25).
The authors recommend that conspiracy theories be tested by checking “sources” (does the author cite fellow conspiracy theorists in his or her bibliography?); check the credentials and writings of any experts who support conspiracy theories; examine whether conspiracy theorists have treated their subject in full and without bias (make sure that they have not ignored inconvenient facts); “separate facts from emotional claims”; distrust “eyewitness testimony” and other anecdotal evidence; “be alert for unsupportable statements”; and “examine how authoritative people are portrayed”: are they fairly depicted or represented as human monsters, madmen, or fools? (31-32)
Your Turn!
Use the elements typical of conspiracy theories to create your own, original conspiracy theory; this theory will become the basis for your thriller’s plot synopsis:
A well-funded, clandestine group or organization with a nefarious agenda, which they seek to keep secret (the agenda includes the motive or purpose of the conspiracy). The agenda could be to cover up the cause or purpose of an event (the AIDS virus as a means of exterminating African-Americans); to suppress the truth about the nature of an action or an event (the moon landing); to initiate an event or a series of events (usher in the Fourth Reich); to end a regime, organization, order, or organization (to destroy democracy from within the American political system); to introduce social or political changes (institutionalize special rights for a small segment of the general population); or to deny that an historical event or series of events occurred (the Holocaust or the moon landing). __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The use of esoteric knowledge (alchemy, art, secret codes); sophisticated deception (doctored technology, historical revisionism, systematic propaganda, misdirection and redirection); or scientific, medical or technological means (viruses, parasites, chemical poisoning or contamination); or intimidation and force (martial law, incarceration, or public beatings, maiming, and executions) to implement and execute the conspiracy. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A scheme that involves the initiation of a specific event or set of events that has a particular, focused objective (the assassination of President John F. Kennedy); an ongoing series of conspiratorial activities with broad goals and a social, a national, or a global end (genocide against an ethnic group or the takeover of a country through the infiltration of its government or educational system); a hierarchical confederation of several conspiracy groups with at least a few overlapping or common goals (international capitalists’ control of government, economic, educational, and religious organizations); or an historical process among one or more conspirators or conspiracy organizations dedicated to securing their goals over a period of generations, centuries, or even millennia, either through sustained or recurring organizations (the Masons or the rise of subsequent “reichs”). __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
One person or a group of people dedicated to discovering or exposing the conspiracy. Such a group may be dedicated amateurs or experts, and they may be organized loosely and informally or closely and professionally. They follow events, pursue suspected conspirators, share information with themselves and the public, store and safeguard data pertaining to their investigations, and protect and defend themselves and one another when possible. The “truthers,” as such groups are sometimes called, may actually communicate the truth about a real conspiracy; may only believe that they are doing so; or may distort the truth to support and advance a hidden agenda of their own. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A sense of “us” (the good, law-abiding, patriotic, and ordinary citizenry) versus “them” (the corrupt, criminal, treasonous, and elitist conspirators). _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Plot-Development Tools
The following plot-development tools will be used:
Gustav Freytag’s Analysis of Dramatic Structure
Fill-in-the-Blanks Plot Template
Gustav Freytag’s Analysis of Dramatic Structure
Literary critic Gustav Freytag divided plots into five parts, or acts: (1) exposition, (2) rising action, (3) turning point, or climax, (4) falling action, and (5) resolution (comedy) or catastrophe (tragedy). In addition, he identifies two other points: (1) the inciting moment, which concludes the exposition as it initiates the rising action and (2) an optional moment of final suspense, in which the reader or viewer is left in doubt for a moment as to whether the protagonist shall succeed or fail in his or her attempt to realize the goal that he or she has set or that has been set for him or her.
In the exposition, background information (such as the introduction of the protagonist and other characters, the identification of the setting, and the introduction of the basic, or main, conflict) is provided.
The inciting moment initiates the rising action, wherein the conflict is complicated as a series of increasingly more difficult obstacles is placed between the protagonist and his or realization of his or her goal
The turning point, or climax, occurs as the protagonist begins to succeed or fail at his or her attempt to achieve his or her goal. (In a comedy, which is defined as a story in which the main character is better off at the end of the story than he or she was at the beginning of the story, things will go badly for him or her at the beginning of the story but will begin to improve at the turning point, or climax. In a tragedy, which is defined as a story in which the main character is worse off at the end of the story than he or she was at the beginning of the story, things will go well for him or her at the beginning of the story but will begin to worsen at the turning point, or climax.)
The falling action unravels the conflict that was complicated during the rising action.
If the story is a comedy, it will end in a resolution, whereas, if it is a tragedy, it will end in a catastrophe. With this information in mind, you can use the following template to structure the plot of your story:
Fill-in-the-Blank Plot Template
Referring to your conspiracy theory, use the following template to create a synopsis of your thriller’s plot. The use of this template ensures that your novel has all the ingredients of a fully developed story: characters, motivation, conflict, suspense, setting, dramatic structure, unity, a cause-and-effect sequence among the incidents of the action, and theme.
By employing this template, you, the author, will have both an overview of your thriller’s entire plot, a guide to the writing of your novel, and the context that you need to understand the relationships of the parts of the story to the whole and the meaning of the entire story.
However, when you actually write your novel, you may wish to reorder the incidents for dramatic and narrative purposes.
For example, most thrillers begin in media res (in the middle of the action) and use flashbacks or dialogue to fill in needed exposition (explanatory or background information), and most end each chapter on a cliffhanger--a moment of high suspense that encourages readers to read the next chapter--and the next. Therefore, think of this template as a means of summarizing your plot and of including all the necessary ingredients of the story, not necessarily as the final approach that you should take in writing the novel.
Begin by defining your conspiracy in a single sentence: ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The main character, ____________________, wants to ____________________ because ____________________, but he or she must struggle against ____________________, who wants ____________________ because _____________________. This story takes place in ____________________ (location) in ____________________ (time period). To attain his or her goal, ____________________ (the main character) must overcome the following, increasingly difficult obstacles: ____________________, ____________________, and ____________________ (add more if desired). For ____________________ (the main character), for whom everything goes more or less ____________________ (well or poorly) at the beginning of the story, the turning point (climax) occurs when he or she ____________________, and then the opposite state of affairs ensues, as/when things begin to _____________________ (worsen or improve) by ____________________, ____________________, and ____________________ (add more if desired). At the end of the story, ____________________ (the main character) ____________________ (attains or does not attain) his or her goal, because ____________________ (reason), learning that ____________________ (lesson learned from experience, the story’s theme) and, as a result, changes by ____________________ (how the main character changes).
Here is an example:
Begin by defining your conspiracy in a single sentence: To suppress protests against state-sponsored or -sanctioned activities, the United States government uses plainclothes agents, FBI and otherwise, to infiltrate political protest organizations and to incite riots.
The main character, FBI Special Agent Kimberly Wilder, wants to expose the government’s use of undercover agents to infiltrate political protest organizations and incite riots to suppress political protest against state-sponsored or -sanctioned activities because she witnessed the death of a child during one such riot, in which she was involved as an infiltrator, but she must struggle against high-level government leaders and her colleagues, who want to continue and expand these operations because they have been proven to be very effective in suppressing opposition to the government’s conduct of illegal and immoral operations. This story takes place in Washington, D. C., various other U. S. cities, and the Middle East in the present day. To attain his or her goal, Kimberly must overcome the following, increasingly difficult obstacles: gain the trust of the protesters she’s infiltrated, convince the media that she is not delusional (as the government claims) and the conspiracy exists, enlist the aid of several of her former fellow FBI agents, and avoid being captured by the government as she exposes the conspiracy. For Kimberly, for whom everything goes more or less poorly at the beginning of the story, the turning point (climax) occurs when she admits to her role in infiltrating a protest organization on national television, confessing how her actions inadvertently led to the death of an innocent child and provides the names of a half-dozen other whistleblowers, and then the opposite state of affairs ensues, as things begin to by improve when Congress initiates an investigation of the FBI and other government agencies named as conspirators and several conspirators are indicted, tried, convicted, and sentenced to prison. At the end of the story, Kimberly attains her goal, because she identifies and motivates others to expose the conspiracy, learning that the will of the people and their rights as citizens outweigh the clandestine interests of a corrupt faction of the federal government and big business, and, as a result, changes by becoming a private investigator who serves as a watchdog against similar government abuses of citizens‘ rights.
Note: My idea for this storyline was inspired by an online news report, “Witnesses describe State Fair mob attacks,” by 620 WTMJ News Radio, part of which reads:
WEST ALLIS - Witnesses tell Newsradio 620 WTMJ and TODAY’S TMJ4 of a mob of young people attacking innocent fair-goers at the end of the opening night of State Fair, with some callers claiming a racially-charged scene. Milwaukee Police confirmed there were assaults outside the fair. . . .. . . “They were attacking everybody for no reason whatsoever.”
Add a single sentence that suggests that there may be a sequel
After developing your story’s synopsis, add a “However” statement at the end, suggesting that the story will continue or, in other words, that a sequel may follow.
Here’s an example:
However, Kimberly finds that the conspirators are not about to let bygones be bygones. Enraged by what they regard as her “betrayal,” a remnant of unidentified loyalists within the corrupt FBI-military cadre seek revenge, planning to put an end to her life (and, therefore, to her political and legal opposition to them), while making an example of her to others and paving the way for them to continue their suppression of political protest by violent means without her to thwart them. Meanwhile, as she dodges or frustrates their attempts to assassinate her, staying alive must become her first priority.
Assessment Checklist
Use this checklist to assess the conspiracy theory that will become the basis of the “actual” conspiracy in your thriller. Any blank in which you can add a checkmark indicates that the element associated with it is satisfactory. However, if you cannot check one or more of the blanks, your inability to do so indicates an element or elements that require improvement.
Place a checkmark in each of the blanks that precede an item that is satisfactory; if you wish, you can jot yourself notes in the blanks that follow each item on the checklist. (You may want to photocopy this checklist so that you can use it more than once.)
____ The group of conspirators is well funded by _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____ The group of conspirators’ secret agenda involves _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____ The group uses one of more of the following to execute its conspiracy: esoteric knowledge, sophisticated deception, scientific or medical means, intimidation and force: _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____ My conspiracy involves a scheme to initiate a specific event with a particular and focused objective; an ongoing series of conspiratorial activities with broad goals, and a social, national, or global end; a hierarchical confederation of several conspiracy groups with at least a few overlapping goals; or an historical process among one or more conspirators or conspiracy organizations dedicated to securing their goals over a period of generations or longer: _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____ My conspiracy includes a sense of “us” (the good guys) versus “them” (the bad guys): _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____ My thriller features characters that are typical to the thriller genre: _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____ My thriller includes characters that are especially appropriate to my thriller’s particular conspiracy: _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____ In my conspiracy, everything is connected through cause and effect, not circumstance or coincidence: _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____ In my conspiracy, appearances are usually deceiving: _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____ Although I may have changed the sequence of events for dramatic and narrative purposes, my thriller has an exposition, a rising action, a turning point (climax), a falling action, and a resolution (if a comedy) or a catastrophe (if a tragedy) _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____ My thriller also has an inciting moment: _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____ My thriller has a moment of final suspense (not required, but strongly recommended): _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____ My protagonist has a strong, believable motive for opposing the conspirators: _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____ My thriller contains plenty of strong, believable conflict: _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____ My thriller is suspenseful throughout: _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____ My thriller is usually fast paced: _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____ The incident in my thriller’s plot are related through cause and effect; nothing is merely circumstantial or coincidental: _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____ My thriller has appropriate and interesting settings: _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____ My thriller suggests an important lesson about people or life in general: _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Appendix 1: Other Examples of Conspiracy Actual Theories: A Reference List
New World Order: International elites control and manipulate governments, industry, and media organizations worldwide through the use of central banking and other means. They fund and sometimes cause most of major wars, execute false flag attacks to generate support for themselves, and control the world economy, causing inflation and depressions whenever it suits them to do so.
Federal Reserve System: Created in 1913, the Federal Reserve System is the central bank of the United States, although it is not a part of the government. It transfers wealth from the United States’ poor and middle classes to international bankers of the New World Order.
False Flag Operations: Covert operations conducted by governments, corporations, or other organizations, but made to appear as if they are executed by other entities.
Military-Industrial Complex: The military is in cahoots with industrialists and other big businesses to profit politically and economically from wars waged for these purposes.
Freemasonry: The many conspiracy theories pertaining to the Masons relate to the control of the government, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom, through religious, (often anti-Christian or Satanic) and cultural (usually involving popular entertainment) means and may worship the devil.
Chemtrails: Chemtrails contain chemicals or biological agents purposely sprayed on the population by governments or other authorities.
U. S.-Extraterrestrial Allegiance: The United States government conspires with extraterrestrials in the abduction and manipulation of American citizens.
Global Warming: Dr. William Gray lists fifteen reasons for the global warming hysteria, including the need for an enemy following the end of the Cold War and the desire among scientists, government leaders, and environmentalists to find a political cause that would enable them to “organize, propagandize, force conformity and exercise political influence.
Big world government could best lead (and control) us to a better world!” In this article, Gray also identifies the election of Al Gore to the vice presidency as the start of his problems with federal funding: the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration stopped giving him research grants, as did NASA.
911: The U. S., Israel, or Iraq government orchestrated the attacks themselves.
Apollo Moon Landing: The moon landings never happened, but was faked by NASA with possible CIA and Hollywood support.
Barcodes: Barcodes are used to control citizens of a world government or are Satanic in intent.
Area 51: In Area 51, alien spacecraft (including material supposedly recovered at Roswell) are stored, examined, and reverse-engineered; alien astronauts (living and dead) are examined; and aircraft based on alien technology is manufactured.
Wingdings Font: “NYC” in Wingdings was rendered as Skull and crossbones symbol, Star of David, and thumbs up gesture to signify Bill Gates’ approval of killing Jews, especially those from New York City.
Princess Diana Assassinated: There was a plot to murder Diana, Princess of Wales, because she intended to marry Dodi Fayed, intended to convert to Islam, was pregnant, and planned to visit the holy land. Organizations responsible for her death include French Intelligence, the British Royal Family, the press, the British Intelligence services MI5 or MI6, the CIA, Mossad, the Freemasons, and/or the IRA
Appendix 2: Starters
It is often helpful to start a conspiracy theory by summarizing the gist, or general idea, of it in a single sentence that is later embellished by applying all the elements of the typical conspiracy theory and using the plot-development template to flesh out narrative details. The single-sentence summary of the conspiracy theory should explain the nature of the conspiracy, who or what is behind the conspiracy, and the purpose of the conspiracy (what the conspirators hope to gain from the conspiracy). Here are a few examples to serve as models and, perhaps, to inspire your own starters:
Aliens caused Earth’s climate change to exterminate human beings so the aliens can claim the planet for themselves.
Entrepreneurs (paranormal researchers, scholars, tour guides) create crop circles to support and further their respective careers.
Companies that gather personal and financial data from clients, ostensibly to protect their identities, use this information to steal their identities.
Top secret Area 51 is nothing more than a decoy to distract citizens and divert their attention from the actual clandestine military projects that are undertaken elsewhere.
In cooperation with a federal government behavior-modification program, cereal manufacturers put a special food additive in their products.
Signs warning of the presence of bears are purposely posted too far down the trails to warn national park visitors so that some are killed by the bears, their deaths intimidating others from visiting the parks, just as the park authorities intend.
Soft news stories are aired by powerful interest groups and government organizations to distract the public from more important commercial, economic, and political events.
To ensure future funding from public and private donors, universities coerce scientific researchers to conclude what their financers want the research to prove or disprove.
Appendix 3: A List of Thrillers
Several thrillers involve conspiracies. Among the better-known conspiracy thrillers are:
The Crying of Lot 49 (Thomas Pynchon): Protagonist Oedipa Maas must decide what is real and what is illusion when she uncovers a mysterious underground organization, Trystero (which may or may not actually exist), which vies (or seems to vie) with two mail-delivery groups that defeated it, Thurn and Taxis.
The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown): The Priory of Sion and Opus Dei battle over the suppression of the continued bloodline of Jesus, through a child he fathered by Mary Magdalene.
Dreadful Sanctuary (Eric Frank Russell): A global conspiracy seeks to prevent humanity from reaching the stars via space travel.
Foucault’s Pendulum (Umberto Eco): Employees of a publishing company invent a conspiracy of their own, but many mistakenly believe that the theory is real; finally, even its inventors begin to wonder whether their supposedly age-old, secret plan is fictional or factual.
Gravity’s Rainbow (Thomas Pynchon): Characters seek to discover the true meaning of Schwarzgerät, a black device installed in a rocket that has been assigned an equally mysterious serial number, 00000.
Illuminatus! (Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson): An ancient and global web of conspirators may or may not have been involved in the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, his brother Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr. and may or may not have been associated with Adolph Hitler, John Dillinger, and extraterrestrial beings.
Ministry of Fear (Graham Greene): Having survived World War II, a band of Nazis seem bent upon establishing the Fourth Reich.
The Thirty-Nine Steps (John Buchan): A plot is afoot to destabilize Europe and precipitate a world war.
The Manchurian Candidate (Richard Condon): The Chinese have secretly brainwashed an American soldier to serve them as their agent and assassin.
Winter Kills (Richard Condon): The protagonist attempts to verify the deathbed confession of a man who claims that the president was not killed by a lone assassin, as a Congressional committee has determined, but by a team of killers who orchestrated the murder.
Not all of the novels listed below uses a conspiracy as the basis of their plots, but each is a thriller. (In addition to thrillers which involve conspiracies, others, as thriller author James Patterson points out, focus upon law, espionage, action-adventure, medicine, police procedures, romance, history, politics, religion, and technology (“Introduction,’ Thriller).. As such, they demonstrate the genre’s suspenseful and adventurous qualities, employing tense situations, mysteries, menaces, and other elements that, in Patterson’s words, create “an intensity of emotions . . . particularly those of apprehension and exhilaration, of excitement and breathlessness, all designed to generate that all-important thrill” (“Introduction,’ Thriller).
The following authors are especially known for the thrillers they write:
Eric Ambler
Peter Benchley
William Bernhardt
Dan Brown
Raymond Chandler
Lee Child
Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Tom Clancy
Mary Higgins Clark
Richard Condon
Michael Connelly
Robin Cook
Michael Crichton
Clive Cussler
Jeffrey Deaver
Ted Dekker
Joy Fielding
Ian Fleming
Ken Follett
Frederick Forsyth
W. E. B. Griffin
John Grisham
Dashiell Hammett
Thomas Harris
Stephen King
Dean Koontz
John Le Carré
John Lutz
David Morell
Perm O’Shaughnessy
Richard North Patterson
James Rollins
Craig Thomas
Scott Turow
Mary Willis Walker
Some of the more popular thrillers include:
A Stranger Is Watching (Mary Higgins Clark)
A Cry in the Night (Mary Higgins Clark)
Along Came a Spider (James Patterson)
Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
The Big Sleep (Raymond Chandler)
The Brotherhood of the Rose (David Morell)
Clear and Present Danger (Tom Clancy)
Coma (Robin Cook)
Cujo (Stephen King)
The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
The Deep (Peter Benchley)
Deliverance (James Dickey)
Farewell, My Lovely (Raymond Chandler)
First Blood (David Morell)
Foucault’s Pendulum (Umberto Eco)
Gerald’s Game (Stephen King)
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (Stephen King)
The Good Guy (Dean Koontz)
The Good Husband (Dean Koontz)
The Hunt for Red October (Tom Clancy)
The Ice Limit (Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child)
Intensity (Dean Koontz)
Jaws (Peter Benchley)
Misery (Stephen King)
The Name of the Rose (Umberto Eco)
Patriot Games (Tom Clancy)
Red Dragon (Thomas Harris)
Riptide (Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child)
The Silence of the Lambs (Thomas Harris)
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (John le Carré)
The Spy Who Loved Me (Ian Fleming)
Sole Survivor (Dean Koontz)
Subterranean (James Rollins)
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (Morton Freedgood, writing as John Godey)
Thunderball (Ian Fleming)
Ticktock (Dean Koontz)
Appendix 4: Bestselling Pseudo-Scientific “Non-Fiction”
Accounts of (Alleged) Conspiracies
In a chapter of
Voodoo Histories: The Role of the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History, David Aaronovitch identifies the authors and works of pseudo-intellectuals who have published bestselling books--sometimes whole series of bestselling books--in which they document (after a fashion) what they claim are actual conspiracies. I offer summaries of these books as a means of suggesting how you could develop similar, but original, more fully developed conspiracy theories as the bases for the plots of your thrillers.
Aaronovitch cites the following authors and books as examples of the work of “pseudo-scholars”:
Worlds in Collision by Immanuel Velikovsky
Chariots of the Gods? Unsolved Mysteries of the Past and
Return of the Gods: Evidence of Extraterrestrial Visitations by Erich von Daniken (who, according to Aaronovitch, also wrote “twenty-six” other volumes on the same subject, “paleo-contact” between early human societies and extraterrestrial visitors, which, worldwide, have “sold sixty-three million copies”)
The Sign and the Seal: Quest for the Lost Ark of the Covenant and
Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock
The Passover Plot by Hugh J. Schonfield
The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln
Worlds in Collision: Published in 1950, Velikovsky’s book is the granddaddy of its ilk. Among the first of its kind, the text offers an abundance of footnoted source material to bolster its incredible claims that the eruption of Venus from Jupiter and the expelled planet’s resulting close passage to Earth altered both Earth’s orbit and its axis, causing the earthshaking catastrophes mentioned in the Bible and the mythologies of ancient Chinese, Indian, and Mediterranean nations. Scientists’ immediate and continued rejection of Velikovsky’s thesis did nothing to slow its sales.
Chariots of the Gods?: This 1968 book contends that ancient astronauts from other planets, perceived by primitive humans, gave technological marvels and religious creeds to their worshipers, leading to the founding of civilization. Von Daniken seeks to back up his claims by pointing to artifacts and structures that seem too sophisticated to have been built by the human hands of the day, including the Egyptian pyramids, Stonehenge, Easter Island’s Moai, Peru’s Nazca lines, and the Peri Reis map; passages from the Bible that seem to describe human contact with aliens, such as Ezekiel’s reference to cherubim, Moses’ receipt of instructions from God as to how to design and construct the Ark of the Covenant, and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah; and bits and pieces of lore from comparative mythology which are supposed to verify the idea that the aliens’ influence upon ancient humanity was global, not merely local. Scientific reactions to
Chariots of the Gods? were more than skeptical; they were incredulous, and many took pains to debunk the half-baked theories that the book’s author presented, some accusing von Daniken of having plagiarized from Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier’s 1960 book,
The Morning of the Magicians. This criticism, however, did not prevent von Daniken from publishing
Return of the Gods and a number of other bestselling sequels.
Return of the Gods: Evidence of Extraterrestrial Visitations: Published in 1997, this book argues that religion--and, indeed, history itself--needs to be reinterpreted in light of the theory, presented by von Daniken himself, that the Earth has been repeatedly visited by extraterrestrials who have taken an interest in the progress of human civilization and who continue to monitor and visit the human species. Von Daniken reveals the truth behind the Biblical accounts of the angels of God’s eviction of Lucifer from heaven and of the origin of the nephilim (the giant offspring of alien-human interbreeding) and explains, among other things, where the gods of India originated (outer space). Other books in von Daniken’s series include
Gods from Outer Space (1970),
The Gold of the Gods (1972),
In Search of Ancient Gods (1973),
Miracles of the Gods (1974), and--well, you get the picture.
The Sign and the Seal: Quest for the Lost Ark of the Covenant: Supposedly based upon divine revelation, this 1992 book, supposedly traces the circuitous route of the Biblical ark of the covenant from its Egyptian origins, to Jerusalem, and back to Africa. Full of references to secret codes, lost treasures, “White Knights,” mazes, ghosts, and devils, the book’s contents virtually guarantee its success.
Fingerprints of the Gods: This 1995 book bills itself as revealing “the true origins of civilization“ by its “connecting [of] puzzling clues scattered throughout the world,” so that its author provides “compelling evidence of a technologically and culturally advanced civilization that was destroyed and obliterated from human memory”; its table of contents offers further clues as to its appeal to the masses; the text describes “a map of hidden places,” refers to “a Lost Science,” alludes to
“The Inca Trail to the Past,” to the existence of giants, to the apocalypse, to the worship of serpents, to a fall of “Black Rain,” and to enough other antiquities and mysteries--or mysteries of antiquity--to whet most readers’ appetites.
The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail: Many of the authors’ ideas are offensive and even blasphemous to Christians. This book, published in 1982, claims that Jesus did not survive his crucifixion; that he had one or more children by Mary Magdalene; that, after his death, she spirited their offspring off to live, first among a Jewish sect and then among the Merovingians, a family of European royals; that, after the Merovingians are driven out by the Carolingians, Mary and her child or children are accepted, after a time in hiding, by the House of Lorraine; that the Priory of Sion, a secret group once associated with the Knights Templar, remain bearers of these secrets and the responsibility of preserving the divine bloodline; that clues concerning the whole state of affairs are discernable in certain works of art; and that the Catholic Church is also privy to the survival of Jesus’ seed (and allows itself to be blackmailed by a priest who decodes a parchment that tells the tale. If this plot, which is supposed to be actual history, sounds familiar, it should: Dan Brown was sued for plagiarizing it (unsuccessfully, as it turns out) in writing his novel,
The Da Vinci Code (2003). This book is a good example of the faux-scholarship of which Aaronovitch writes, for, as Aaronovitch points out, “the 1996 edition” of the book is buttressed by “thirty-six pages of footnotes, a thirteen-page bibliography detailing works in English, French, and German, and twenty-four pages of photographs” which provide a sense of “popular scholarship” (201).
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4 comments:
Yeah, the after-the-fire ending is anti-climactic in the extreme. A bit of an uphill climb. You get the feeling that King kinda painted himself into a corner. The off-stage deaths of some of the characters felt like forced verisimilitude. Sure, it was realistic, but you get the feeling he only "saved" them just to kill them off later to keep us interested while he works things out. Still, for all it's flaws, I feel it was a good read.
I agree 100% with your observations, Lazlo. I think that, like any other writer's works, some of King's are better than others he's written, although, unfortunately, some of his earlier work seems far superior to his later work, which is atypical of many, if not most authors. As much as I (still) enjoy his novels, I doubt that his fiction will long survive his death. However, he doesn't seem all that concerned with establishing a literary "legacy" and I'm sure he's enjoying his millions. He's certainly earned them. Although his latest work is disappointing, I will continue to read him, although more selectively.
Anticlimactic, yes. But proper story form has never been King's strength. I am one of his 'constant readers', as he puts it, have been since my early teen years. I have always noticed that his endings usually leave something to be desired..for one thing, his endings are usually happy, benevolent(stark contrast to the gruesome, creepy, evil tone to many of his better works), and very final, as if he's saying "That's it, story's over, you'll never see a sequel!" To me, that's a shame because I get so into his characters that I WANT to see them again! Which brings me to his real strength - his characters. King is a master at character development. The players in his tales become so real, they take on a life of their own in your mind, so much that you can almost see them and think of them as real people. This is an art that not every writer has mastered - Charles Dickens was another author who was talented in this area. King's other strength is his extraordinary ability to take an absolutely ludicrous topic as the basis to his story, something that, upon reading the blurb on the back cover, makes you think "Wow, an evil clown? That sounds effin' retarded." But you start reading it, and somehow..you find that you can't put it down. His imagination, character development, and his ability to make you SEE it more than makes up for his weaknesses. I loved Under the Dome, I think it's the best thing he's done in years. I was sad when I came to the end,I would have cheerfully read another 1000 pages. By the way, I love that you did such an in-depth analysis of the book. I'm saving your blog to my 'favourites' page!
I agree with you, Lindsay, that King is more than competent in the creation of compelling characters. However, his stories, especially of late, seem to become more and more difficult to accept, even as fantasy (and horror is a subgenre, of course, of fantasy). Earlier in his career, he seems to have had better facility with both narrative structure and with character development than he displays nowadays. Not everyone can be a William Shakespeare, though, or an Ernest Hemingway, and, as entertainment, King's novels still manage to deliver.
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