Week 2

[lauraboehm]

1) Why is there a fascination with true crime in America? In what ways does In Cold Blood provide insight into the nature of American crime and how we react to it?

I believe there is such a fascination with true crime in America because Americans are so intrigued by the mysterious, the unknown of darkness, and evil. People are fascinated with all the different ways to judge a crime and to know if that crime was really murder or something else, such as self-defense. People love to judge cases by giving their "two cents in' because it interests them psychologically. There is a love in American culture to argue whether a murder was a case of self-defense, revenge, or human disorder. A sense of 'thrill' and 'mysterious' is created by watching a fictional thriller movie about murder and crime. But when a murder or crime is nonfictional and happens locally in your neighborhood, people actively listen and seek clues to reaffirm that they are safe and that this crime could never happen to them. People also like to combine religion with crime, such as if it was fate for a death or they were doomed by bad karma. There are endless possibilities. In Cold Blood, the perspective falls more with the murderer's point of view rather than the victims creating a different perspective for the audience to question whether the murderers were normal like them, or if they were completely irregular and could never function in society 'normally'. The book forces the audience to look at a different side of a crime which would never happen in the local news in your hometown. So when a real murder crime is committed in Holcomb on a normal family, the citizens of Holcomb are shocked as well as scared because they can not find any definite clues that will reaffirm their safety from this crime happening to them. But the murder in Holcomb provides a source of entertainment around the world rather than a source of news in media, which would explain the outpour of 'tips' that Dewey received about the crime from non-Holcomb natives.

[maddieroy]

I agree with this view of crime!! In my response, I included how people of a town love to talk and listen about someone else's drama but not their own. And this is evident in crime/murders also like you said. The fascination is definitely there which makes the public want to get involved and try to get as many details as they can on it. I would like to add that In Cold Blood emphasizes the normality of this murder, and how the actual murder scene was very fast and the main point was what the murderers were doing after they committed the murder. Which again, contributes to the fascination of the people who committed the crime and their lives.