If it was a one-way ticket, then you definitely got your money's worth.

I'm putting off reading Charles' article until I know I won't be interrupted. And I need to get ahold of a print edition; reading it online sort of minimizes it. I'm thinking either Saturday morning at Bauhaus or maybe Sunday at home with a bagel.

I actually had noticed that he hasn't posted anything in the last few days. It's been kinda refreshing.

Perugian architecture sucks.

Not nearly boxy, angular, or stark enough.

We need Charles. He keeps us real, yo!

This piece reminds me why I rarely read the Stranger anymore. You send a talented writer to Perugia and he writes about...himself. There's *one* new piece of information that's about Amanda Knox. And the piece of writing is not beautiful; it needs an editor. Mudede writes some terrific prose but is overly self-indulgent, he goes purple and cliched and no one stops him.

The way to find out more about Amanda Knox is not to go stand outside her prison or soak in the atmosphere in her favorite hangout and speculate about Meredith Kercher's death. There's another way: it's called reporting. Interview people, find out things, report them. Do that and I'll come running back to read about it.

French women and Italian women both have no age limits on sexuality - something that American women could observe and then learn from. And there's a long writers' tradition of soaking in atmosphere outside a prison to write about someone - just look at the scenes in Persepolis if you doubt me.

I really don't understand why The Stranger has that person on staff. I know what he's supposed to be, what he's trying to be; but he's just not it.

Charles is so fascinated by himself that he's incapable of writing anything that is worth reading.

I'm pretty sure Chaz just sat in his hotel room the whole time bemoaning the lack of afro combs in Perugia.

Of course it's OK for a writer to soak in an atmosphere and write about it--

but I'm saying that in this case I don't think the piece or the literary device worked. If the point of the article was to find out more about Amanda Knox, aside from one fascinating glimpse--the "my people killed your people!" story--it doesn't help the reader learn about her.

I really appreciated this piece, Charles, it was thoughtful and thought provoking. I hope that we someday learn what happened that night. I found the ending of the article particularly poignant.
Thanks.

Will @7: With all due respect, I'm not sure American women could simply observe and learn from French & Italian women. There's something deeper. Culture. Culture that goes back hundreds if not thousands of years. America is one of the most historyless countries in the world, and as a result our population is some of the most juvenile. Wait another 500-1000 years, perhaps American men and women will grow up. Perhaps.

The historylessness of America is not going to be different in 500-1000 years. Our cultural history only goes back ten or twenty years, and moves with the times, so that it ALWAYS goes back ten or twenty years. In 1000 years it will go back ten or twenty years.

I can get the most up-to-dates facts about this story from a lot of places. Charles' article gave me a true sense of place that you wouldn't find with other news sources. Getting the latest facts of the case through other sources combined with Charles' article totally enriches my knowledge and interest in the the story. Good job.

Let's see: he couldn't speak the language, didn't know where anything was, and talked to people who knew nothing new (tho he did, by God, get to see where Amanda sat!) As if to underscore these failures, he walked us through the whole thing anyway, emoting like a tin horn sob sister. Unflushed shit indeed.

So NOT true!

What you fail to mention is that, by sending Chaz to Italy, you GOT CHAZ OUT OF YOUR OFFICE FOR A COUPLE OF WEEKS!

C'mon, fess up. That's really all you wanted, wasn't it?

I agree with Chalupa. Charles presents a true sense of place and on top of that is a talented writer. It is shame that there are readers who still refuse to understand him.

I fucking loved this article.

An first-rate piece of writing, plus it taught me a lot about this case. Which proves that I haven't bothered to read much about this case, but why would I?

I'm sorry, but his "flowery" writing reminds me WAY too much of a highschool freshman trying just a little bit too hard. "...her passing causing my heart to flutter like the wings of a bird that has seen something truly amazing." Ugh...

I'll tell you what I want to see in Italy...an enormous penis!

This story is so old already. I can't believe the Stranger actually sent Mudede ALL THE WAY TO ITALY for this piece.

You have many other TALENTED writers on staff and you sent HIM???

Waste of Time and Money.

Choose wisely, next time.

This was a report from a writer with a unique point of view, a writer & adjunct professsor, originally from Zimbabwe, educated in English schools, sent on assignment for The Stranger, from America. It is thick with semiological references, atmosphere, research, point of view, and Sherlock Holmes/Police Beat speculation. Nothing wrong here, what more could he report? This is what it is, leaving everything open to interpretation. Lovely for such a dark, sad subject, rife with racial, sexually deviant overtones. A rarified world for only the fewest of few, doing their thing in an ancient Italian town, sister city to Seattle, which has one of my favorite coffees named after it. Perugia, dark and rich. There I go, writing about myself...Charles does that as do all the writers for The Stranger and beyond, it is style of the times, so appropriate for a pop news rag, however often annoying. There is no one "truth" and objectivity is a refuted perspective. Perhaps he should have brought a camera crew, that was the only "mistake" here.
From an American woman who is greying, but far from completely, and I am told, defying the stereotype of a sexually attractive woman in America. One can hope... There I go...