Biblical Hebrew Forum

[c stirling bartholomew <cc.constantine AT worldnet.att.net>]

on 6/26/03 9:22 AM, Peter Kirk wrote:

> Sorry, I thought that was the point of your argument, fiction
> masquerading as truth and vice versa. If not, what was your point about
> "In Cold Blood"? Is it in fact that this is truth presented in the genre
> of fiction ...

Capote wrote what he called a nonfiction novel. He spent several years in
rural Kansas interviewing the principal players (the ones who were still
alive!) and then cast his book in the form of a novel.

I am not a reader of True Crime, but I don't think Ann Rule makes any
attempt to write novels. I believe she is a former Seattle police officer
and her works focus on the bloody details of things like the "Green River
Murders." 

However, "In Cold Blood" does share a lot of the formal features of True
Crime. So one is tempted to conclude that genera stereotyping is something
we should be cautious about.

The point is that casting something in a fictional form does not mean that
it is fiction and vise versa.

greetings, Clay 


--  
Clayton Stirling Bartholomew
Three Tree Point
P.O. Box 255 Seahurst WA 98062