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FACT OR FICTION? Possible Implications of Choosing One Subject Over the Other

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FACT OR FICTION? Possible Implications of Choosing One Subject Over the Other Ghent University Faculty of Arts and Philosophy FACT OR FICTION? Possible implications of choosing one subject over the other Paper submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of “Master in Supervisor: de Taal-en Letterkunde: Engels-Spaans” by Dr. Kate Macdonald May 2008 Katrien Persoons Preface This thesis came about in a rather unorthodox way. About five years ago, some time before the well-known films were released, I took a book from a shelf in my local library entitled In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. I had always liked crime literature, and found this a very special book since it managed to talk about a true crime in the form of a novel. Back then, I knew I wanted to do something with this story, but I had no idea what that “something” would look like. Five years and what seems like another life later, this is the result of the seed that was planted back then. The flower has taken the form of a comparison between Capote‟s novel and Raymond Chandler‟s The Lady in the Lake. My thanks go out to all the people that watered my plant and helped it grow. These are first of all my supervisor, Kate Macdonald, without whose contributions, in the form of giving advice, providing me with articles and proof-reading all of my chapters, the seed would have remained where it was. The same goes for my family and friends, whose patience and computer knowledge assisted me greatly, for the anonymous librarian at the KBR who graciously helped me find the articles I needed, and for my running partner Leen and her calming conversations. Finally, I am indebted to Julian Symons, whose comparison between the detective story and the crime novel supplied me with the necessary inspiration to start the whole process. Katrien Persoons Table of Contents 0. Introduction 1 1. Plot structure 5 1.1. In Cold Blood 5 1.2. The Lady in the Lake 13 1.3. Conclusion 20 2. Narrator 22 2.1. In Cold Blood 22 2.2. The Lady in the Lake 29 2.3. Conclusion 35 3. Style 37 3.1. The Lady in the Lake 37 3.2. In Cold Blood 55 3.3. Intertextuality 62 3.4. Conclusion 68 4. Social attitude 70 4.1. The Lady in the Lake 71 4.2. In Cold Blood 81 4.2.1. M‟Naughten Rule 85 4.2.2. Prosecutorial misconduct on several levels 87 4.2.3. Capital punishment 88 4.2.4. Historical background 90 4.3. Impact 91 5. Conclusion 93 Appendix: Plot summary 96 Works Cited 98 1 0. Introduction Crime writing is an umbrella term that covers many sub-genres, such as the classic detective story, the hard-boiled novel, the police procedural, the spy story, etc. Many critics agree that the first real work of crime fiction was Poe‟s Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841), although to some the genre goes all the way back to the Bible. This thesis covers representatives of two more recent types of crime literature: a hard-boiled novel by Raymond Chandler and a true crime novel by Truman Capote. The hard-boiled novel is a literary genre that emerged in the United States in the 1920s. Dashiel Hammett (1894-1961) is usually seen as the initiator of the movement, and Raymond Chandler (1888-1959) followed in his wake. It is basically viewed upon as the counterpart of the typical British detective story, since these American writers considered the locked room mystery and its variants to be too artificial, so that they intended their works to be more realistic. The genre lost most of its appeal in the 1960s. True crime novels on the other hand are less specific to a region or era, since all books that deal with real criminal deeds can carry this title. I have included a summary of the plots of the novels that will be discussed here in the appendix at the end of this dissertation. The outlines alone reveal some interesting information about the two stories. They were both written by American authors about twenty years apart. They both deal with multiple killings and are mainly situated in a rural setting. In In Cold Blood, this is a small community in Kansas, whereas the events of The Lady in the Lake are partly situated in Little Fawn Lake and partly in Bay City (a pseudonym for Santa Monica), California. Lastly, they are both set in the present day. Apart from being categorizable in separate literary genres, these works differ in one major respect: the nature of their subject. While Chandler‟s novel The Lady in the Lake 2 (1943) deals with fictitious multiple killings, Capote‟s In Cold Blood (1965) is based on true events, and intended to represent these facts as accurately as possible. Nevertheless, things are not always as they seem. That is, Chandler derived part of his inspiration for the novel from history as well. Hiney (88) reminds us in this respect of the “George Daley” case. The wife of this Santa Monica doctor allegedly committed suicide in 1935. In 1940, the case was reopened, and Daley was put on trial for her murder. He apparently drugged her, moved her body to the garage and started the car‟s engine. The exhaust fumes eventually killed her. In court, several witnesses testified that Daley had boasted to them that he had committed the perfect murder. Despite this evidence the doctor was acquitted. Chandler knew about the case because he was living in Santa Monica at the time of the trial. He used the story as a subplot in The Lady in the Lake, but changed the historical doctor‟s name to Albert S. Almore, and produced other, fictitious plotlines in order to construct the rest of the novel. This shows that Chandler was not so much concerned with veracity as Capote, who chose to keep the original names of all the people involved. This procedure is one clear sign that Chandler had another purpose in mind for his work than his fellow author. Still, despite his good intentions, Capote added some fictitious elements as well. I will come back to this later on in my analysis of the novel. Some consequences of choosing one subject over the other are quite obvious, for example that a true crime novel will seem more realistic because of its genre. Other effects are less straight-forward, and these are the ones that will be examined more closely in the following chapters. I have chosen four different areas on which the subject matter of the texts may have an impact, namely the work‟s structure, its style, the choice of narrator, and the social attitudes 3 expressed. The following statements might at first appear to be plausible predictions of the outcome of this investigation: - The novels‟ structure probably will not be affected all that much, since the contents of both stories do not differ greatly either. Both works are likely to begin with the murders, followed by an investigation, and the final revelation of the identity of the killer(s). - To all appearances, the narrator will be in the first or third person, since a second-person narrator is highly uncommon in any type of writing. Hard-boiled novels such as those written by Chandler usually have a detective investigating a crime; because of this they are mainly written in the first person. The author of In Cold Blood on the other hand had greater possibilities. For one, he may have chosen to use the same structure as Chandler, following the footsteps of a detective uncovering the truth. A second possibility is to adopt the form of reportage or documentary, by using the perspective of an omniscient narrator. Another option is to embrace the point of view of one of the major characters, such as the killers or their victims. It is much more likely that we will see a difference in the narrative styles of an invented story and a real one than in the choice of structure. - The style in which Chandler and Capote composed their works probably will not be affected at all. It is logical to assume that this aspect of the novels depends more on the author and his personal background, and less on the nature of the theme he has selected. - The social attitudes will probably be most influenced by the novels‟ subject. Since In Cold Blood deals with a true crime, Capote may very well criticize real parts of society. We may expect on the other hand that Chandler will not criticize anything, since we are dealing with a series of invented happenings. If he does opt to include a form of critique, it will likely be less clear that he is doing so. The next pages of this thesis will be dedicated to verifying the veracity of these claims. For that purpose, both novels will be analysed in terms of the four topics I picked out, and this 4 will be done in a comparative way. After each chapter, a conclusion will be drawn about the influence of the subject matter on the aspect involved. To finish with, I have included a general statement with the responses to my initial questions. In that way, it will be clear to what extent these presuppositions have to be modified, and in how far they were correct. Before we reach that point, however, let us start with the analysis of the first component, namely the structure of the two plots.
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