fiction and truth

[cornerofmadness]

In the realm of fiction, I'm finally getting started on finishing that first nano novel. I got hung up but suddenly I think it's moving along. I think the hang up was realizing how close I was to the end and realizing I was about 20K short of a standard novel length. Okay this never happens to me. I'm ususally over by that much. I don't think it will be hard to fix now because I also came to the conclusion that the villians needed a puppetmaster and he's not present. I need to go back and weave him in. I need to strength the villians in general.

And in the truth is stranger than fiction department this conversation was overheard at my library (where i overhear so many things it's not funny. It's the only perk of sitting there for 2 hours while my clothes wash/dry next door). This 60ish woman comes in and begins talking to the librarians (of which we have an enormous amount compared to library size). They're kidding her about being in a suspense novel. As I listen in (okay rude perhaps but they're so loud you can't NOT hear them), she starts telling the story about how she came home from work and opened her mailbox. Inside was a letter made up of cut out newspaper words telling her that they know where her family lives and if she doesn't give them 5,000$ they'll kill her family and burn down her house.

When she comes into the house, she immediately gets a phone call from the blackmailers saying don't go to the police and give her instructions for delievering said cash. She immediately rings the police and I believe they caught the guy. The truly amazing thing is that this happened here in the middle of nowhere.

But this leads you to think that this criminal had to have gotten the idea from any number of tv/movie plots. And that's the scary thing. I've always been big on NOT blaming tv/movies/books for things people do but sometimes you know that is where they get their ideas. CSI and similiar shows have been key in screwing up multiple cases now because real forensics don't work that way and the jury expects them to and it's become a real hassle for prosecutors. Stephen King has expressed many regrets over his book that was the inspiration for the kids at Columbine. I know that worrying about this has stopped me from using a few things I know as a plot point, including something you can do with a Desert Eagle (I DID see that same sort of plot in an old Columbo but never since).

Now I wouldn't want to have to edit myself constantly, worrying about what some nutcase will do. If we all did that, we'd end up with nothing but the worst kind of pap in books and on tv/movies. And no one would ever agree where to draw the line and I'd much rather the line drawing be a personal decision and not a governmental one.

But it is food for thought. And now I'm looking around at my neighbors wondering, could one of them be motivated by what they see on tv (because I know most of them wouldn't have an original thought) and wondering if that woman didn't pay and didn't go to the cops would that blackmailer have done things different. It's just a little scary.

Comments

[masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com]

IMO, screwed-up people are screwed-up people and they're going to get their ideas from *somewhere*. The screwed-upedness comes before the ideas. It's not as if they were perfectly nice people until they read a horror novel and never would have done anything bad if the "just had *not* read that awful book!1!"

That said, the "guns don't kill people, people kill people"-style arguments always annoy me because it's a lot *easier* to kill people with guns readily available than it would be otherwise. I think having a lot of violent media about encourages people who are already prone to violence.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

I agree. I don't think the books/tv MAKE people do things. I think it does however, give means to people who might not have come up with that on their own.

One of the gun things I know would make it MUCH eaiser to get away with murder and that is something I wouldn't be comfortable with putting into words because a lot of people don't know that.

Then again a high percentage of criminals just aren't that bright (the case mentioned in the post, the guy left prints ALL over the letter and his prints were in the system) so leaving them stupid is better than telling them hey pick up your brass or we can match the hammer strike to your gun

[aaronlisa.livejournal.com]

That is kind of scary. Especially the thing about CSI affecting jurors because they expect real forensics to be able to do that. I mean what part of fiction don't people understand?

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

i think a lot of 'it's fiction' doesn't register with people

[aaronlisa.livejournal.com]

true enough.

[rahirah]

I think that's one of those things where yeah, you do have to examine youself and ask why are you writing this thing you're writing--but at the same time, if a nutcase doesn't happen across book or movie A, sooner or later they'll happen across book or movie B instead. The answer, I think, is in trying to get better at spotting and treating the nutcases.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

The answer, I think, is in trying to get better at spotting and treating the nutcases.

And instead we tend to be going the other direction with this.