Slog

News & Arts

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Crime Narratology Today

Posted by Charles Mudede on Sun, Aug 30, 2009 at 9:59 AM

Read this opening sentence to a report about a horrible crime that just happened in the UK:

A nine-year-old girl was found strangled in a lorry cab shortly before police discovered a man hanged in nearby woodland.

That is from the BBC. Now compare it to this opening sentence in the Telegraph:

A nine-year-old girl has been found strangled to death in the cab of a lorry parked on the side of a busy Northamptonshire road, while a man has been found hanged nearby.

What the sentences have in common: Both attempt to capture the eeriness of the terrible crime with a recognizable code. Where they part: The first sentence draws its eeriness from the narrative code of rural remoteness ("nearby woodland"); the second, from the narrative code of urban anonymity ("a busy Northamptonshire road"). As for the killer? It's so unfair that the universe is no more than what we see it to be and that nature, bound by a belt of nothingness, judges nothing.

Comments (8) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment

Natural selection says the universe does judge and deems some worthy of life by their ability to survive.

Posted by Vince on August 30, 2009 at 11:25 AM

WTF is the difference? This post is completely pointless.

Posted by Pointless on August 30, 2009 at 11:38 AM

A busy road isn't necessarily in an urban area, nor is Northamptonshire known for its cities. You would have done better to reference (post)modern anonymity or the sort of nightmare in which you can't scream even though you know someone is nearby who could save you.

Posted by ekswitaj

on August 30, 2009 at 11:55 AM

murder/suicide?

Posted by Y.F. Redux on August 30, 2009 at 12:14 PM

@3, i agree but i was getting to the roots of the code. which is of course urban and in the 19th century.

Posted by Charles Mudede on August 30, 2009 at 12:42 PM

6 Comment Pulled (OffTopic) Comment Policy

It's a creepy story either way. Yer man was the partner of the girl's mother, and took her along on a delivery run to the Spar stores as a goof. No one knows why he strangled her in the cab of his truck (parked in a lay-by), and then hanged himself in the adjacent woods. The local plod are treating it as a murder-suicide.

Posted by Toe Tag on August 31, 2009 at 6:49 AM

Is Mudede quite possibly the most irrelevant writer in Seattle? Or just the most attention-starved? It takes class and skill as a master bullshitter to turn the story of a little girl murdered into a lesson on narrative writing.

Posted by Can't write so I report on August 31, 2009 at 12:49 PM