Comments on: A closer look at In Cold Blood http://blog.ctnews.com/bookends/2010/01/01/a-closer-look-at-in-cold-blood/ Lower Fairfield County's online book club Wed, 14 Dec 2011 17:27:45 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Chris Preovolos http://blog.ctnews.com/bookends/2010/01/01/a-closer-look-at-in-cold-blood/#comment-152 Chris Preovolos Wed, 06 Jan 2010 19:41:52 +0000 http://blog.ctnews.com/bookends/?p=755#comment-152 But are "changing the facts" and what amounts to adding color the same thing? Maybe. –CP But are “changing the facts” and what amounts to adding color the same thing?

Maybe.

–CP

]]> By: Tom Mellana http://blog.ctnews.com/bookends/2010/01/01/a-closer-look-at-in-cold-blood/#comment-151 Tom Mellana Wed, 06 Jan 2010 01:11:09 +0000 http://blog.ctnews.com/bookends/?p=755#comment-151 It absolutely matters. If a writer says something is true, then it better be true. It's part of the contract the writer makes with the reader, and it's a trust that cannot be broken. When a writer "bends" the facts, whether it's an important topic or not, he/she breaks down the trust readers have in all writers. As newspaper people we've all had the experience of starting on a story and getting excited because we think it's going some place great, only to find on further reporting that the issue or event isn't nearly as dramatic as we anticipated. It's a shame, but it is what it is, and the facts must win out. I read In Cold Blood a long time ago. I remember being disappointed because of its reputation as being such a revolutionary book that totally changed the game of how journalism could be presented. As I read it, I failed to see what was so revolutionary. Of course, it eventually dawned on me that, not having been alive yet when the book was published, I wasn't familiar with how non-fiction was presented pre-In Cold Blood. By the time I came of age, writers had done all kinds of things with non-fiction and journalism. So of course the book wouldn't seem revolutionary, given the context from which I came at it. I can be a bit dim at times. It absolutely matters. If a writer says something is true, then it better be true. It’s part of the contract the writer makes with the reader, and it’s a trust that cannot be broken. When a writer “bends” the facts, whether it’s an important topic or not, he/she breaks down the trust readers have in all writers.

As newspaper people we’ve all had the experience of starting on a story and getting excited because we think it’s going some place great, only to find on further reporting that the issue or event isn’t nearly as dramatic as we anticipated. It’s a shame, but it is what it is, and the facts must win out.

I read In Cold Blood a long time ago. I remember being disappointed because of its reputation as being such a revolutionary book that totally changed the game of how journalism could be presented. As I read it, I failed to see what was so revolutionary.

Of course, it eventually dawned on me that, not having been alive yet when the book was published, I wasn’t familiar with how non-fiction was presented pre-In Cold Blood. By the time I came of age, writers had done all kinds of things with non-fiction and journalism. So of course the book wouldn’t seem revolutionary, given the context from which I came at it.

I can be a bit dim at times.

]]> By: Chris Preovolos http://blog.ctnews.com/bookends/2010/01/01/a-closer-look-at-in-cold-blood/#comment-150 Chris Preovolos Mon, 04 Jan 2010 18:39:02 +0000 http://blog.ctnews.com/bookends/?p=755#comment-150 This is something I have long wondered about, especially after reading Mark Bowden's Black Hawk Down. The details in Bowden's book are painstakingly footnoted and interviews of accounts are cross referenced as much as possible. However, in the case of In Cold Blood, which unlike Black Hawk Down, does not have lasting implications beyond the actual events – now long past – does it really matter if he took liberties. It is, afterall, what makes it such a good read. -CP This is something I have long wondered about, especially after reading Mark Bowden’s Black Hawk Down. The details in Bowden’s book are painstakingly footnoted and interviews of accounts are cross referenced as much as possible.

However, in the case of In Cold Blood, which unlike Black Hawk Down, does not have lasting implications beyond the actual events – now long past – does it really matter if he took liberties. It is, afterall, what makes it such a good read.

-CP

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