Introduction to In Cold Blood

Truman Capote (1924-1984)

Biography One of America’s most controversial and colorful authors His personal life often overshadowed his work Born in New Orleans Troubled childhood Had early success as a novelist with Other Voices; Other Rooms and Breakfast at Tiffany’s In 1959, he decided to start a new literary project: the “nonfiction novel”

In Cold Blood Capote read a short article in the New York Times that described an unsolved multiple murder in a small Kansas town He had been searching for a subject to write about Decided to go to Holcomb, Kansas His good friend Harper Lee went with him.

Nonfiction Novel Capote coined the phrase describing In Cold Blood Apparently, in the years before he began the novel, Capote trained himself to remember interviews verbatim His goal was to take the literary techniques associated with novels and apply them to reporting on true events He was a novelist who wanted to write about true events in the same style

“New Journalism” A term used by Tom Wolfe that is interchangeable with the nonfiction novel In the 1950s and 1960s, journalists began writing news stories with the literary elements of short stories and novels Wolfe said “the extraordinary power was derived mainly from just four devices” Write this

The Four Devices “scene-by-scene construction”: telling a story cinematically or novelistically rather than through historic narrative Dialogue: communicating events and describing people through what they say rather than using description Third-person Point of View: presenting the scene from a particular character’s perspective and switching the point of view (often the reporter is absent from the story) “the recording of status life”: noting the details of everyday life that are often significant and symbolic Write These.

What does this mean? Essentially, “New Journalism” draws upon the elements of realistic fiction. The irony is that the mold is quite old—the realistic novel came on the scene in the 18th century after all. Fiction & novels abandoned realism and nonfiction filled the void And nonfiction has the added advantage of claiming: “all of this actually happened” Write this.

Implications In Cold Blood was a popular success when it was published It continues to be assigned in college and high school classrooms in a number of disciplines: English, Journalism, Psychology, Law, Criminal Justice It also solidified the place of “New Journalism” in publishing houses and opened the floodgates of nonfiction Now, memoirs and nonfiction using literary elements are widely read

Limitations Subjectivity Credulity/ Veracity Narcissism/ Solipsism Write these.

How do you read In Cold Blood? Identify the Four Devices and try to decide their significance Write characters’ names in the margin and underline description Write brief phrases for plot Underline memorable “gotcha” lines Put ? next to items that you don’t understand Circle page numbers when you want to return to something—you know there’s more to it or it may be significant

Warning Stay off the internet! Don’t let someone spoil the book for you

Epigraph (you know how I love epigraphs!) It’s in French

Translation: write this! “Ballade of the Hanged” (Villon's Epitaph) Brothers that live when we are dead, don't set yourself against us too. If you could pity us instead, then God may sooner pity you.