Style Over Substance in Capote's In Cold Blood
In "Murder, He Wrote," William Swanson believes the stylistic techniques employed in Truman Capote's novel In Cold Blood are more memorable than the story itself. For Swanson, Capote not only captures the readers' attention with a story about a horrific crime, but his use of diverse voices, sounds, and silences make it an event people will never forget.
Almost two decades after his initial exposure to Capote's novel, Swanson discovered it was still a "brilliant study of crime and punishment" being more "haunting than ever" (32). When Swanson first read the novel, he was more impressed with Capote's "audacity" and stylistic techniques than with story (32).
Throughout the 1960s, journalists were "rewriting the rules of the craft, creating a fusion of journalism and literature . . . that was often breathtakingly fresh and powerful" (32). After the release of In Cold Blood, Swanson believed Capote not only invented "a new art form", but also established a standard against which all others who claimed to be writing "serious reportage" would be judged (32).
Though Capote was an outsider, Swanson was impressed with his ability to earn the trust and confidence of everyone connected with the case. In conducting his research for the novel, Capote managed to make friends and sources of the relatives and neighbors of the Clutters and the killers, the lawyers, the police, and Dick Hickock and Perry Smith (33). He did not use a tape recorder or a notebook when speaking with his sources, but relied on his memory to keep the facts straight.
It was Capote's use of stylistic devices that the novel memorable to Swanson. Capote not only vividly recreated the events leading up to the murders, but he also described in "meticulous detail and diamondlike prose" the "dozens of lives destroyed or altered" in the process (33). Capote carefully chose each word he recorded, enabling his readers to encounter the same feelings of despair, grief, and fear the characters experience. But Capote's greatest gift was his "ability to listen" and then composing what he heard into a symphony of voices, sounds, and silences (33). Swanson heard the voices of the Clutter family pleading for their lives, the sounds from the "roar of a twelve-gauge shotgun", and the subsequent silence of "an upright, accomplished, and much-admired" family's removal "from a quiet community" (33).
While other journalists have tried their hand at writing nonfiction novels, none have come close to creating the same psychological and emotional impact of In Cold Blood. In Swanson's opinion, it is not only the best example of a nonfiction novel, "it is one of the very best books of any kind, fiction or nonfiction, ever written by an American" (33).
In his article, "Murder, He Wrote," Swanson believes the events recorded in Capote's novel take a secondary position behind the stylistic techniques he employs to recreate the story revolving around an event few people will ever forget.
Works Cited
Swanson, William. "Murder, He Wrote." MPLS-St. Paul Magazine. November 1995. 19 September 2000. http://web7.infotrac.galegroup.com.Partner sites: Spanish school Costa Rica, Skin Cancer, and Free Essays and Term Papers