[3ric]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

"The King in Yellow" is a book of short stories by Robert W. Chambers from 1895. Some of the short stories in that book are about a mysterious play called "The King in Yellow." In the stories about it, there are only hints at the content of the play but when a character reads it he or she is driven insane with visions of a King in Yellow. The play talks about a mysterious city called Carcosa. You never really know what the play is about. It's only hinted at.

Permeating each of the short stories is the dread of un-seeable and un-knowable terror. By reading “The King in Yellow,” a person glimpses some unspeakable truth behind existence, one that the human mind can’t process. It really feels, for all intents and purposes, that McConaughey's character is already there.

"The King In Yellow" was referenced by H.P. Lovecraft in some of his writings and his become a part of the whole Cthulhu Mythos.

If you're an Amazon Prime member and have a Kindle, I believe original "King In Yellow" book is a free download. At least it was.

Very excited to see a TV show touching on the Cthulhu mythos in a way. This was a good article going into some detail about it:
The One Literary Reference You Must Know to Appreciate ​True Detective