Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peter.r.kirk AT ntlworld.com>]

c stirling bartholomew wrote:

> <snip>
>
> Martin,
>
> Thank you, yes I understand the distinction between form and content. I was
> thinking this afternoon that it might be fun to ask Ann Rule* if she thinks
> Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood" falls into the genre of True Crime. I don't
> think Capote would have been pleased with that label but "In Cold Blood"
> shares several key formal characteristics with the pulpy True Crime books.
>
> The point is that genre analysis, for all its genuine value, is a somewhat
> slippery business. There is something about "In Cold Blood" that makes it
> NOT fit in the True Crime genre but I cannot tell you off the top of my head
> what that something might be.
>
> Trevor's comments got me thinking about what T.Logman is doing with this
> genera argument. Picture yourself walking into 2nd Bible Baptist Church of
> Cutbank Montana and stepping up to the podium and delivering an address on
> Ecclesiastes as a fictional work. How far do you get into your delivery
> before you are removed from the podium by the deacons?
>
> Thanks for your comments,
>
> greetings, Clay
>
>
> --  
> Clayton Stirling Bartholomew
> Three Tree Point
> P.O. Box 255 Seahurst WA 98062
>
> *Ann Rule is reported to be a very BIG true crime author and she lives right
> here in Seahurst on the beach. Her dogs bark at me all the time when I take
> the trail to the beach that runs above her house. I have never read any of
> her books. 
>
>  
But then one technique which modern novelists use is to deliberately 
present their material in genres of reporting the truth, so as to build 
for their readers a more convincing fictional world. Perhaps that is 
Capote's technique. And indeed vice versa at least on TV where I think 
there is a Law and Order series of true crime reports which are 
deliberately put in the format of their fictional counterparts. I wonder 
if such deliberate confusion of genres ever happened in ancient times, 
or if writers really kept truth and fiction separate. Of course that 
impacts historicity discussions - is a text either all truth or all 
fiction, or can it be a mixture? - but we are not supposed to get into 
that one here.

--
Peter Kirk
peter.r.kirk AT ntlworld.com
http://web.onetel.net.uk/~peterkirk/