The Beast, The Deep State And Me: The Hidden Power Structures Lurking Just Beneath the Surface

AKA, the Best Things I Read in 2023

Occasionally a piece of art really slams into you, a sensory collision that leaves you shaken and disturbed. That’s the great power of art, the way it can transform you in such fundamental ways, often without your consent. Maybe even against your will.

I felt that way for some time after reading Kerry Howley’s Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs, a book whose individual set pieces seemed to be pulled from my own life in ways that were sometimes eerie.

It’s a book doing many things at once—it’s a portrait of Reality Winner, one of several celebrity secret leakers of the post-privacy age, presented here as an idealistic, naive and fundamentally foolish person caught up in a battle beyond her powers to cope with, fried in ways bigger fish would never be. It’s also a broad look at the security state, that amorphous collection of government agencies, defense contractors, black sites and server farms, as well as the detritus this all-powerful institutional force can leave in its wake. Finally, and quite sneakily, it’s a treatise on how we live our lives in this new world order, how you’re supposed to navigate being human in a time when you’re also a string of ones and zeroes, carefully tracked, scrutinized and monetized every time you’re blessed to take another breath. What do we do when even the most absurd conspiracy theories have some fundamental truths lurking within?

It’s no secret that I’ve spent most of my adult life working for the U.S. government, often just a finger tip away from places and scenarios outlined by Howley in her book. I’ve held a security clearance that allowed access to many of the inner workings of government. In part, that’s why I’ve been hesitant to write much about this incredible piece of work. There’s a lot I’d like to say about what she’s gotten right about some of these systems (a lot, the heart of the matter) and where she’s misfired (a few details here and there). But as she explained, like thousands of others who have sworn an oath, I can’t say much at all about what I’ve seen or done in the service of the United States. I suppose that’s built into the system, a way for it to shield itself from scrutiny, skepticism and consequences.

But I can recommend you read this book if you want a glimpse of what the government does every day, in theory to protect our freedoms and our allies around the world. Whether the resulting security is worth the very real costs, both moral and psychological, is a decision you’ll have to grapple with on your own. You’ll get no help from me.

My connections here run fairly deep. I’ve worked with and known Army linguists. I’ve been with units as they launched and piloted drones. I’ve toiled inside the White House complex on the 18 acres, watching in real time how the government handles complex issues like the ones Howley writes about.

She paints a vivid and very human portrait of Winner, in part to counter what Howley considered a fictional version of Reality concocted by the government’s attorney prosecuting the case. That attorney? My law school classmate Jenn Solari. We stood side-by-side at any event where you were placed in alphabetical order. She often sat in the back with the smart asses and stoners—then went ahead and graduated at the top of our class. She’s the villain here, but in my experience is also kind, wicked smart and driven. As with the rest of this story, the grays come in all shades.

I should mention I know Howley a little too. She wrote a magnificent book about mixed martial arts called Thrown, a really transformative story about fighters and the delicate fictions they tell themselves in order to compete in one of the most truthful and honest proving grounds in all of sport. Afterwards, I briefly worked with her on a television pitch about the fight game.

She’s a truly brilliant writer, that kind that leaves people like me in awe. Howley takes seemingly disparate ideas and then, like a magic trick, smoothly connects the dots. When you see a master at work like this, it’s both amazing and heart wrenching. For someone like me, whose prose is so meticulously, stolidly unspectacular, it’s a reminder that there are levels I can and will never reach.

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I thought about Howley’s book a lot while I was reading Everybody Knows, a fantastic piece of pop noir that leaps off the page in a way that’s really exciting. It’s not about the security state or any of the kinds of characters you’ll find in Howley’s work—but thematically the two tomes are sisters, both cynically tearing power structures to shreds.

Here the target is “the Beast,” a collection of black-bag publicists, fixers, knee-breakers, dope dealers, lawyers, agents, talent scouts and assorted scumbags who keep the Hollywood machine running. Mae Pruitt, a delightful creation, is struggling with her place in a world where the depravity only grows the further up the chain you slink. Her job is burying secrets, not always easy in a town where they can serve as a currency every bit as potent as money.

“Nobody talks,” Mae says. “But everybody whispers."

This is Chandler, Elroy, Chinatown. Classic LA Noir, but a version updated for the MeToo generation. The scenarios here are slightly different, as is the protagonist, but at its core it’s the same old story—powerful men doing bad things and getting away with it.

Or are they?

I don’t know a lot about the author’s background or how grounded in reality the stories here might be. Are they complete fictions or loosely built on real scuttlebutt that slithers around every industry? I’m not sure it matters—it feels true, and nothing is more important than that. It’s a remarkable book, the kind that inspired me to immediately buy everything Harper had ever written. Highly recommended.

Jonathan Snowden is a long-time combat sports journalist. His books include Total MMA, Shooters and Shamrock: The World’s Most Dangerous Man. His work has appeared in USA Today, Bleacher Report, Fox Sports and The Ringer. Subscribe to this newsletter to keep up with his latest work.