tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post4402977018729297448..comments2024-03-29T05:33:43.878-04:00Comments on Murder is Everywhere: Fact and Fiction. The Crime Writers' Responsibility? Ovidia Yuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05749549092493567689noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-35082712103865603952013-05-20T02:49:28.191-04:002013-05-20T02:49:28.191-04:00Thanks for your comments, it's an unsettling i...Thanks for your comments, it's an unsettling issue. I like to think that somewhere in the crime writers brain is a tumble dryer of ideas that absorbs all sorts and creates a story that is totally unrecognizable but credible.<br />Weirdly, I have had the opposite happen to me - I wrote a novel then a serial killer started doing the same thing- the media even called him the same name as I had called the killer in the book. Was that sheer coincidence or is there a serial killer train of thought that a writer can lock onto. Scary thought.Caro Ramsayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08499318515241879831noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-40714681280797870732013-05-18T17:40:51.815-04:002013-05-18T17:40:51.815-04:00Richard III died in 1485. Shakespeare wrote the p...Richard III died in 1485. Shakespeare wrote the play about one hundred years later. He didn't have to worry about his portrayal of Richard being damaging. The point of the play was to damage Richard's reputation to the point that it didn't resemble the real man at all.<br /><br />A drama based on Jodi Arias can be as damaging as the writer wants because she has been convicted of murder. The dramatist needs to make Jodi bad just as he would need to make Travis Alexander good. If Jodi killed a rapist, the world would look at her quite differently.<br /><br />Shakespeare owed his livelihood and his life to Elizabeth I. If Richard hadn't been killed, Elizabeth's grandfather wouldn't have become king. Shakespeare had to make sure everyone got the message in the play that Richard's death was a good thing. At the Arias trial, the media noted the pain suffered by both families. Well written crime novels acknowledge the humanity on both sides, even that of the perpetrator.<br /><br />BethAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-4209779549023753602013-05-18T08:15:02.828-04:002013-05-18T08:15:02.828-04:00I found this a really interesting blog and I'd...I found this a really interesting blog and I'd be intrigued to know which you thought was worse, a drama based on fact that keeps to these facts or one that twists them for entertainment purposes? <br /><br />From an academic point of view, I've often seen literary representations become part of popular myth surrounding an event or person (just look at your blog on Richard III and how Shakespeare portrayed him!)and I can imagine that this could be quite damaging given the sensitive subjects that crime writing handles. <br /><br />Its horrible to think that someone is gaining from someone else's trauma and perhaps that's the big difference between well-written crime novels that seem real, and reality re-packaged as fiction. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-51464300630179707632013-05-17T14:46:43.233-04:002013-05-17T14:46:43.233-04:00I read mysteries and thrillers all the time. I th...I read mysteries and thrillers all the time. I thoroughly enjoyed Anthony Prices's espionage series with David Audley as super spy. Charles Cumming is excellent. Maybe there is some truth (there certainly is in Cumming's TRINITY SIX), but it is sanitized. For the most part, the evil-doers get their comeuppance.<br /><br />But real life tragedy casts a shadow on imaginary loss and sorrow. I did not follow the trial of Jodi Arias but I have been watching the penalty phase and, in doing so, have heard more than enough of the death of Travis Alexander. Jodi Arias was in a relationship with Travis for about two years. When Travis started a new relationship, Jodi was displeased. She stabbed Travis 29 times, cut his throat, and shot him in the head. Sounds awful on the page but it is nothing compared to the actual details of how this man died. I don't know how his family managed to get through the trial. Jodi has been found guilty and it is the penalty phase that is fascinating. Jodi was found guilty of first degree murder making her eligible for the death penalty. Arizona allows individuals who know the accused to testify to mitigators and aggravators that should be taken into consideration by the jury as they decide whether Jodi is sentenced to death or to life in prison. The jury has to try to understand that which can't be understood.<br /><br />Margaret and Nicola appear to have had a very close relationship but how does a mother participate in a daughter's suicide? What brings these two women to the point where each decides she can't live without the other? What if one had survived? What about the rest of the family? <br /><br />In a book, when a writer dispatches a victim with a slash of the throat, it seems quick and painless. It isn't and two minutes is an eternity.<br /><br />BethAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-81890235193837781452013-05-17T04:18:45.671-04:002013-05-17T04:18:45.671-04:00On this subject, Caro, you've touched a nerve ...On this subject, Caro, you've touched a nerve with me. It's not any gripe I have in general with writers who pass off as their own ideas rewrites of actual events--after all that's what non-fiction is all about--but rather with one particular mystery writer known to all in the world but who shall remain nameless as far as I'm concerned. <br /><br />I was attending a Super Bowl party in NYC many years back and the host introduced to me to a woman who I was told had a question for me. When the woman said it was about a mystery writer I assumed it had to do with my own writing, but I soon realized she was interested in my other hat (at the time) as a lawyer.<br /><br />She began at the beginning. With the birth of her daughter, and took me in excruciating detail through a myriad of events haunting that poor child into young adulthood, including a considerable amount of time spent in an institution for those enduring serious psychological problems. Ultimately she was released, her life turned around. <br /><br />I felt for the woman, but it was now 20 minutes into her story, I'd missed a quarter of the game, had no idea where she was headed, but had the sinking feeling she was just warming up. To be honest, I wanted to kill the host. It was my chip of ice moment.<br /><br />Then she dropped the bomb.<br /><br />She handed me a copy of a best-selling mystery novel and said it was the story of her daughter's life in virtually every detail. When the daughter learned about the book she thought the whole world now knew the shame of her story and relapsed. Doctors had no idea when or if she'd ever recover from the shock.<br /><br />Her mother's question was, "Can we sue the writer?"<br /><br />My question was, "Are you sure it's your daughter's story?"<br /><br />Answer, "Yes."<br /><br />"How can you be certain?" <br /><br />She opened the book to the acknowledgments page and pointed to names. "They worked at the institution in which she was kept."<br /><br />I couldn't believe it. At any level. It was obvious to the mother that the writer had employees inside the institution (and who knows where else) providing confidential information on patients for the writer to turn into best-selling books!<br /><br />I told her that I wasn't sure what claim she might have against the writer, but there was one hell of a claim against the institution.<br /><br />But from the way she spoke I knew she'd never sue. Her daughter couldn't take the pressure of the litigation. All she could bring herself to do was curse the writer.<br /><br />As did I.Jeffrey Sigerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00718317707555064653noreply@blogger.com