Wednesday, October 28, 2009
storytelling versus reporting
From almost all of what I have read, it seems that Capote's main intention is to report. He lists facts. He describes people, and in a fairly objective way. He rarely states an opinion of his own. However I think that there is probably hidden storytelling throughout his "nonfiction novel." I think that certain aspects of the story simply couldn't have been accurately reported from any source. For example exact dialogue. It is almost impossible that anyone would remember exact dialogue between characters. Capote would have had to make this up himself. The actual story and details of the story and details of characters' lives, these could be accurately reported on. But what people said, how people acted, and what people's personalities were like cannot be accurately reported on, at least not objectively. Some things in the story seem contrived to me, they seem like Capote made them up to convey some point or achieve an effect. For example the bookmark in the bible on page 30 says "Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is." Although I could imagine a quote like this appearing somewhere i find it odd that it would be on a bookmark. One thing that arouses my suspicion is simply that this quote creates suspense. It causes the reader to realize that they have no idea how this murder is going to transpire. Capote reports what he can accurately. But he can't report everything accurately, and there may be things that it is advantageous for him not to report accurately. Capote may have fudged facts and exaggerated any correct ideas which favor his point of view. However many people probably do this automatically. I suspect that I am doing it right now as I type. There is really no reason to report anything that doesn't help one's case, and there is no reason not to emphasize that which strengthens one's case. It's human nature. The scope of In Cold Blood's factuality is limited by both actual evidence and by Capote's desire to get his point of view across.
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Truman Capote’s writing style is very unique. He is able to very effectively describe settings and people to create a true scene. There were a few things I noticed about his writing style, one thing being the reporter’s voice vs. the story voice. I feel that Capote tends to use more of a story based voice when he describes the scenarios with Dick and Perry. It especially seems like Perry is the one telling the story because it actually tells what he thinks but Dick’s thoughts are also portrayed to some extent. This can be linked to the movie Capote because it is Perry who he interviews extensively and he is able to get his thoughts on paper. This is especially seen on page 37 where It seems like Perry is thinking, “But Dick had made up his mind: stockings of any shade were unnecessary, an encumbrance, a useless expense (‘I’ve already invested enough money in this operation’)…” This quote shows the story getting inside their heads, you can tell what they are thinking giving it the “story voice”. However, when it starts talking about the Clutter family, the voice tends to get a bit more reportive (if that’s a word). It talks about who Kenyon, Nancy, the rest of the Clutters were but you can never really get what’s happening inside their head. They only tell what’s going on with them in quotes, not in the actual story, if that makes sense. This definitely gives the reporter’s voice because it isn’t actually going into a story. It just says the Clutters did so and so and they said “this and that” but they never actually thought out anything to the reader like Perry and Dick did. If that makes some sense, it’s hard to explain but there is definitely a pretty significant difference in the writing style when Capote writes about Dick and Perry than when he writes about the Clutters.
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