RE: RARA-AVIS: The American Way (was serial killers)

From: Words from the Monastery ( anthony.dauer@erols.com)
Date: 04 Mar 2000


How can you object to a book(s) you haven't read or for that matter even know what you're talking about? Maybe you should apply your comments to specific works instead of over generalizing so much ... I have as of yet to read any novel in which a serial killer played the role of the antagonist where they were used simply as a wildcard who could do anything and I've read a lot of the works and various authors within the cannon ... listing specific works that you've read might eliminate the need for you to explain it three times. If you're going to over generalize a genre that you've already admitted not having read one of the pinnacle works, don't be surprised that there are going to be more knowledgeable readers who are going to disagree. Anyway ... every genre has its works that lack in carefully constructed plots and not every work needs it. There are those who read for enjoyment or as a diversion.

volente Deo,

Anthony Dauer Alexandria, Virginia

"I know. We are ... the lucky ones." Bif Naked, 1999

> From: Mark Blumenthal
> Sent: Saturday, March 04, 2000 1:17 PM
>
> I'll try to explain for a third time. I have never read Harris and know
> Silence of the Lambs from the movie. I never said I doubted the reality of
> the psycopath/serial killer. What I object to is an author who has one has
> no need to construct a book that has plot, motivation and logic all
> carefully worked out so they hang together and are reasonable.
> This may can
> be absent in the psycopath/serial killer book. In reading something that
> has been carefully constructed a reader can feel as the book progresses
> that one incident is the result of what has gone before, and the
> book makes
> internal sense. What I am complaining about is the author who uses the
> psycopath/serial killer as a sort of wild card allowing the
> writer to forget
> about all this careful work by in effect saying to himself about his
> villain. "He's crazy. He may do anything so anything can happen."

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