Skip to main content

What of our murderers?

“In Cold Blood” is a 1966 book by American author Truman Capote. A movie was made on it in Hollywood called ‘Capote’. (What I write of this is based on what I have seen from the movie)

Truman Capote became the most famous author in America when he wrote this book. While he had completed many works before this novel, this was his last work. This book took a massive toll on Capote who died later because of alcoholism. He wrote an epigraph in his last uncompleted work: “More tears are shed on answered prayers then on unanswered ones”. (He said this, about his experience writing “In cold blood”)

“In cold blood” was about two people who had murdered a family in Kansas.

When Capote went to Kansas after the news to write an article about it he was taken in by one of the murderers: Perry Smith, and so he decided to write a book on the event. He says in the movie: “when I think how good this book is going to be I can hardly breathe”.

He said: “There are two elements in society, the conservative and the criminals that are the underbelly, the evil men. On that night those two converged”.

Capote could deeply relate to Perry who also had a very tough childhood, was poor, and had gone to that house that night not to murder but to steal money. He said of Perry: “Its like we were both born in the same house, I went out the front door and he went out the back door”.

What I realized after I saw this, what made the whole of America focus on this book and honor the author for it, was that the author had managed to show to the people that there was a story behind Perry. He related that story and the pain and grief that it eventually caused to society.

I say: What of our people? What of our society? What of the people in Pakistan? Crimes have gone up and for a number of complicating factors our people live in a lot of stress, some live in hell. The kind of lives many live here, the level of poverty is the misfortune of thousands of people.

There is a story behind each crime that takes place in Karachi, many are not insane. What is it? Who is writing it?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What should we aspire to

I have come about an understanding about the absolute purpose of our being and I think it’s not ambition but an aspiration. But if it is an aspiration what could be the absolute aspiration? Clearly the pharaoh must have taught his people to aspire to a position in his court. His method must have been a reward for serving him. But what service did he put his society to? It was the building of the Pyramids. Now the pyramids like all his other social projects were aggrandizement meant for him. And with the pharaoh at the top and his workers at the bottom another structure was created which was the hierarchy of society. Interestingly this entire society was put to one goal only: aggrandizement. Aggrandizement of any kind is inherently fleeting. For example if we aggrandize money it will get used up and disappear. If we aggrandize a seat of power sooner or later it will also disappear. Hence neither aggrandizement serving ourselves nor for another can be the highest we can aspire for. In fa...

Explanation of the movie 'Revolver'

I saw the movie for the umpteenth time last night and I finally got it. This is what the movie says: 1) In every game and con there is always a victim and there is always an opponent. It's good to know when you are the former so you can become the latter. 2) But the question is how do you prepare yourself for this game? 3) You only get smater by playing a smarter opponent. 4) The smarter the game the smarter the opponent 5) Checkers is an example of such a game. Chess is a better game. Debate is an even better opportunity to learn and so on. 6) But the question is where does the game stop? or one can ask what is the smartest game one can play? 7) The answer according to the movie is: "The game of con you play with yourself". ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The text below has been added on 3 Dec 2008 and is based on a comment posted on October 30, 2008, at time 4:12 PM. I have only recently understood what this person meant an...

Why feedback is important

We learn about the world as we get feedback from things within it such as from family, friends, mentors and even books. Feedback can tell you where you went wrong and affirm what you do right. It can thus help you predict the future. Interestingly there are people I have met who question the importance of feedback. They say: “I can figure out everything I need to on my own. I don’t need feedback like others do.” This is not true. In fact there is a big danger lurking in this notion. If the world you are creating is your own you might get stuck in it or some part of it and not know what to do next. If however, this world of yours and all parts of it are based on some feedback you will always know who to ask if you get stuck. Somebody once said that "fundamentally we are here not to be seen, but to see" i.e. to see things outside of ourself. You will notice that all growth you have had has owed itself to some consistent feedback. Suppose you wrote an essay. You wouldn't re...