Question 1

[mollyfernandez]

I believe that there is a big difference between reading a true crime book and reading a violent fiction book. The difference is the emotions that you feel. When you read a fiction book, it is comforting to know that the story is made up and gives the reader the ability to convince themselves the storyline could never happen. When reading a true crime book, the reader can not avoid the fact that these events actually happened. It makes the person who reads it feel uneasy when they come to the gruesome descriptions of murders and criminal activity. It is the same idea with television shows. Shows like CSI, Castle, Criminal Minds, and NCIS are gruesome but tolerable because when ever the audience feels anxious or uncomfortable they simply remind themselves that the story line was made up and the actors are acting, nothing like this could happened in real life. This is contrasted by shows like Snapped and Who the bleep did I marry?. When watching these shows, viewers become easily disturbed at the fact that real life people have committed these hate crimes with out the consolation that some one made a story like this up. People are ok with the idea of crime until they are reminded that it is real and could be happening right around the corner from them. Safety is the goal of all humans and true crime makes us question our own safety and taps into the insecurities that we all have concerning our safety. I have noticed as I read In Cold Blood that it is more conflicting to the reader than  fiction books. I am conflicted because, knowing that the story is true, I struggle to find compassion for the murders no matter how hard Capote works to make them seem like they deserve compassion. It is harder to find compassion for these murders because you know that what they did really happened and isn't just a figment of someone's imagination. True crime also is special in that it makes the reader paranoid. Knowing that these crimes are real and these criminals really exist messes with the audience's mind. The audience now thinks about the characters through out their life and begin to question everyone and stress when a person they know shares qualities of a killer like Dick or Perry. This causes paranoia as people try to secure their safety. 

[ikschultz]

I agree with Molly in everything she said. True crime stories strike a fear in humans because we can't remind ourselves that it's only made up. When looking at a real life murder and hearing what the victim was like we begin to wonder "what if that was me?" And become frightened as to what motivates a person to do such a thing. As children we are taught through fairytales that the evil stepmother or the bad guy always ends up being defeated and they always have a clear motive. Fiction stories make a complex situation seem so simplistic by the end while in real life nothing is simple. People kill for no apparent reason and most of the time the victims and their families don't get a happy ending.