Post by matthewgray on Nov 17, 2014 0:17:13 GMT
With In Cold Blood, Capote has crafted an entirely new genre of writing - one that blends the excitement and suspense of fiction with the cold, hard truth of reality. It's not just a straight reporting of the facts in the style of a crime report, yet the story is based in reality and most of the events can be presumed to have happended as dictated. However, the depth of research into not just the events but into the motives and lives of the characters leads to a deceivingly interesting and enticing narrative - almost too thrilling to have actually happened, yet the knowledge that the events occured makes the narrative all the more intriguing. The motives behind writing literary nonfiction can vary, but Capote's intent is to provide his readers with a truly gripping crime story - one as enjoyable as And Then There Were None, Sherlock Holmes, or The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - that is founded in real events that have happened to real people in our world, a fact that gives readers even more interest into the story. Knowing that such horrible things happened to normal, kind people like any other, both excites and scares any reader, since logic dictates that if the Clutters were brutally murdered, could it be me next time? Of course, statistics show us that events like these almost certainly never occur in the same manner as happened to the Clutters, but that doesn't stop fear being instilled in the heart of the reader, and it is this kind of uncertainty that allow novels such as In Cold Blood to become prominently successful in our modern world.