I did the dumbest thing tonight--I let myself get caught up in reading that Underwood dude's weblog.
MAN.
I don't even know where to start.
Maybe here: I'm like this with the true crime/serial killer aficionados--I give them a wide berth. I give the whole true crime genre a wide berth. I'm really loathe to read anything with an "inside the mind of a savage killer!" slant to it.
I believe the victims get short shrift when people get caught up in the true crime stuff too much. I know some people make little symbolic gestures like being sure to state the full names of the victims, and to include photos of them in happier times, you know, BACK WHEN THEY WERE ALIVE, and blah blah blah, but let's cut the shit here, true crimers: When you're writing 17 chapters about a killer, you're focusing on the killer.
It really bothers me. I've been involved in a violent crime; luckily, the intended victim survived, and I'm okay, too. We did all right. But I'll tell you, the big reason I mostly never tell anyone about it is because I can't stand seeing people get their True Crime Faces on. Their eyes go all wide, and they practically salivate requesting every mundane detail about the whole gory thing, and it becomes clear to me right away that they're no longer seeing me, I'm no longer a human being to them, I'm just the source of their latest fix.
I can't stand that. Even the nicest, most well-meaning people will do it to you, too. They can't help it. It's the freakin' culture, the culture that peddles this awful shit as entertainment. After awhile, how else are you gonna see it?
So I don't even get the luxury of being able to hold it against anyone personally. I'd have been that way myself, probably, had things been different.
"No, but--wait, okay, I don't mean to pry here, but--how much blood?"
All of which is to say that I have to despise myself for getting caught up in this freak show. There's a little girl DEAD, and I'm sitting there thinking, "Hey, maybe one good argument against women dating self-identified 'nice guys' is that sometimes, it turns out all they really want to do is to EAT PEOPLE."
Remind me from now on: "If it's got a link to crimelibary.com in it, Ilyka, just don't read the damn post."
Posted by Ilyka at April 17, 2006 11:05 PM in newsI don't ever watch the police reality shows, only follow some murder stories, and even then, only until the killer is caught. The victims absolutely get short shrift. The story always, always, always focuses on the killer(s) or the agency that caught them. It's especially true in the case of serial killers. If the serial killer of the story is responsible for 11 murders, those 11 victims had names and lives and orbits. They mattered. Unfortunately, this phenomenon is never going away. People yearn for sensationalism.
My wife was a near miss victim of a creep with bad intentions. We know now he didn't just want the gasoline he asked for when I opened the door just before she reached it. There's more but it's a moment I don't like to talk about, either.
Posted by: Rob at April 18, 2006 04:10 AMI'd read he had a blog but didn't know where it was. Now that I've popped in via your link, I have to say the whole thing feels so creepy. I hate rubber necking, I clicked right back out of it, but not before I got squicked out by the guy quoting endless Lovecraft.
Posted by: Helen at April 18, 2006 09:08 AMHeck, I often feel this way about any mystery novel, even the cute "cozy" ones. A person's death turned into a whimsical mystery for the village busybody to solve? The hell, people! Someone was murdered! As in notify the parents, tell the children their parent is gone, this person was (usually brutally) cut down! All the crime-solving cats and adorable nosy librarians in the world can't get me past that fact.
Posted by: Kitty at April 18, 2006 12:52 PMA person's death turned into a whimsical mystery for the village busybody to solve? . . . All the crime-solving cats and adorable nosy librarians in the world can't get me past that fact.
Hee hee! My Mom was one of those devoted fans of Murder, She Wrote, and I consider it quite an accomplishment that I managed to miss every single Sunday evening broadcast. Wretched, wretched, awful poop show.
Also: I work in a retirement center, and the libraries break down roughly like this: 10% religious books, 30% romance, and 190% mysteries. (I don't know how they fit such a huge percentage into the whole. Must be one of those Greatest Generation tricks.)
I refuse to look at it.
I have to look at too many police reports as is and I don't need anymore.
I understand why mysteries are popular... its the literary equivalent of a jigsaw puzzle. We all want things, even the most random or chaotic, to make sense. And the popular "crime shows" almost always solve everything and tie it up in a pretty motive ribbon that explains why it happened to that unfortunate victim, but not to YOU.
Sadly. Doesn't happen that way.
We've got three murder cases in trial in my courthouse right not, all small, ugly and banal.
Sometimes I like to watch things like CSI because it IS so neat...
nice fantasy
Posted by: Darleen at April 18, 2006 06:30 PMAlso: I work in a retirement center, and the libraries break down roughly like this: 10% religious books, 30% romance, and 190% mysteries.
Oh man, why do I have absolutely NO trouble believing that? Hahaha.
It ain't even Murder, She Wrote anymore, dude--it's the vastly-more-wretched Cold Case. And I think what I hate about Cold Case is, they try to pretend it's all about procuring justice for the victim, but it just never, ever comes off as being remotely sincere to me. That's one.
And two is, this show is the biggest believer in the "But It Was a Mercy Murder, So It's Okay!" copout ending. No! That episode where some hopeless interfering do-gooder IDIOT encouraged a tard to stand in the middle of the railroad tracks to be hit by a train, no, THAT WAS NOT OKAY.
Oh, wait, THREE: The episode that was scored entirely, I shit you not, with John Cougar Mellencamp songs. They must've worked in eight of the damn things so, you know, do the math: Every five minutes, another turgid Mellencamplet* bleated out the speakers.
Yeah, don't spread it around, but I don't exactly miss Sunday dinners, you know? (Besides his last Sunday I had tandoori chicken and saag paneer that I made my own self, and it was awesome. That's Easterish enough, right?)
*Well, whatever they are, they're not songs.
should be --- "right now"
Posted by: Darleen at April 18, 2006 06:32 PMAnd the popular "crime shows" almost always solve everything and tie it up in a pretty motive ribbon that explains why it happened to that unfortunate victim, but not to YOU.Sadly. Doesn't happen that way.
You got that right. And I think you're absolutely right that it's the puzzle-solving aspect that appeals to people, too. But you know, I could puzzle for the next century all I wanted, and I'd never figure out why a dude like this wanted to do what he did.
It's not neat and easy at all.
Posted by: ilyka at April 18, 2006 06:35 PMI almost left this long comment in defense of mystery/crime novels, then thought to myself: "What kind of asshole am I that I can't tolerate people criticizing mystery and crime novels?"
Now, back to my Murder, She Wrote diorama.
Posted by: Hubris at April 18, 2006 08:10 PM