Summer of Sam - That’s Murdertainment
[1] Ridley Scott's Hannibal grossed $58 million on its opening weekend (Seymour 1). With overpriced popcorn and watered-down simulation-soda, I was there. While animated Raisinettes and Goobers played seriously bad jazz, I was anticipating the blood-soaked slayings of film's most popular serial-killer. Yep, it's sick, but that's our society. We salivate over the newest slasher-film. The gorier, the better. However, what if the on-screen disembowelments were the recreated crimes of a true-life killer? What if it was the story of Jeffery Dahmer? Would we still flood the theaters? While we watched the endless-stream of "Coming Attractions," would we still be anticipating a really good splatter-film?
[2] Let's face it, we have certain grotesque fixations in our society. We brought snack trays into the living room so we could simultaneously eat dinner and watch the O.J. trial. We purchase serial-killer cards instead of baseball cards. We even requested that Timothy McVeigh's execution be televised. Our society has an innate fascination with the real-life macabre . . . that especially applies to anything involving serial-killers.
[3] A haven to both Pokemon-wrangling kiddies and antique-hunting soccer-moms, Ebay once had a dark side. Serial-killer memorabilia used to generate big-bucks for this online auction-house. A former Ebay client, Ted Svejda "peddled wood from the remains of the Wisconsin farmhouse of deceased serial killer Ed Gein, who inspired Alfred Hitchcock's ‘Psycho'" (Stepanek EB84). His morbid Ebay auctions actually doubled his yearly income! Furthermore, serial killer Angel Resendez-Ramirez (a.k.a. "The Railroad Killer") has had "locks of h...
... middle of paper ...
... really want dwell on it because, maybe, just maybe, there is no difference.
Works Cited
Baxter, Billy. "The Spike Lee Interview." 14 June 2001. http://www.efilmcritic.com/hbs.cgi?feature=141
Bowman, James. "Spike Lee, ‘Artist.'" National Review. 26 July 1999: 46-48.
Graham, Renee. "‘Summer of Sam,' Spike, and 1977." Boston Globe. 1 July 1999, city ed.: E1.
Harden, Blaine. "‘Son of Sam' Weeps, as Others Rage, at Movie." New York Times 20 June 1999, late ed., sec. 1: 1.
"Hate Crime Items Banned on Ebay." Toronto Star 17 May 2001: 1.
Seymour, Gene. "'Hannibal' Doesn't Haunt Me." Newsday. 18 Feburary 2001: D4.
Stepanek, Marcia. "Making a Killing Online." Business Week 20 November 2000: EB84.
Villa, Judi. "A Fascination with Slayings; Group Battles Growing 'Murdertainment.'" Arizona Republic 11 August 2000: A1.
Blanco, Juan. "Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers." Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2013. .
A notorious murderer or serial killer is the typical next door neighbor one would hardly associate with a serious crime: an educated psychopath with little regard for life. Most of them commit murder for some misplaced psychological benefits. Their actions border on insanity as some commit theft by stealing their victims’ belongings and commiting rapes, an indication of a need for financial gain or a craving for distorted sexual desires. It is disheartening that people always associate the city of Chicago with crime, ranging from the prohibition-period gangsters to modern-day criminals; however, it is understandable because these crimes have a history going back several decades, and most received wide media coverage and documentation. Their names and pseudonyms are imbeded in the collective minds of the people. In all cases, these serial killings claim national attention and elicit heated debate, but this infamy sometimes fascinates the public to the extend that it sparks an initial interest in potential criminals. An examination into the characteristics of serial killers who were active in the Chicago area reveals they have varied motivations for their crimes but the overriding factors tend to include financial gains, sexual perversion, racial hatreds, and infamy. Chicago’s infamous reputation as a lawless and corruption riddled city stems from the motives for crimes committed by particular individuals in the Chicago area and the media attention these cases gained.
Chan, Sewell. "30 Years Since the Summer of Sam." New York Times 6 Aug. 2007. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. .
Serial killers are everywhere! Well, perhaps not in our neighborhood, but on our television screens, at the movie theaters, and in rows and rows of books at our local Borders or Barnes and Nobles Booksellers” (Brown). When people think of serial killers, names such as Dahmer, Gacy, Bundy, and Gein are cited. During the time Jack the Ripper was executing his victims in London, Holmes began his gruesome career in Chicago (America’s Serial Killers). “Despite being America’s first serial killer, Holmes is hardly a familiar name and until now we haven’t had any popular visual record of his crimes: (Spikol). Why is it that people only think of the more popular killers with higher known profiles? They are all very similar to one another because they share characteristics. H.H. Holmes was a successful serial killer because he was well educated, cunning and charming. Those are just a few traits Holmes ...
Mark Seltzer has clearly presented his concepts to reveal how the media has played part in exposing the existence of serial killers. Mark argues that some common videos that are shown on televisions have in one way or the other contributed to the increase of serial killers. Below are some of his arguments that reveal the media as part of the abnormality.
Has anyone ever realized how much Americans obsess over serial killers? Most Americans have a certain fascination with the minds of a serial killer, and the drive that one can possess to kill a human being. Americans are surrounded by the mention of serial killers through television and also throughout their daily social media feed. Wanting to know how a “normal” American, living in a neighborhood with other people could kill someone can trigger an obsession that nobody can stop. The people that obsess over these killers like to dig deep into murderers minds to find how one can kill, but maybe they take this obsession a little too far.
Mason, Bobbi Ann. "Shiloh." Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Sixth edition. Eds. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. New York: Harper Collins, 1995. 495, 496, 500.
Diversity management initiatives are long term and strategic in focus. They strive not only to recruit, but to actively develop, promote and capitalize on the different skills and perspectives of minority employees (Marquis, 2007.) Every day, peopl...
Hetherington, E. Mavis, and Margaret Stanley-Hagan. "The Adjustment of Children with Divorced Parents: A Risk and Resiliency Perspective." Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry & Allied Disciplines 40, no. 1 (January 1999): 129. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed March 8, 2011).
Buckman, Adam. “Following Footsteps of a Killer.” New York Post (Nov. 2002): 124: Proquest. Web. 28 Feb. 2014
The McCreary Centre Society. (2005). Time Out II: A profile of BC Youth in Custody.
Girgis, George, & Anderson (2011) define marriage as the union of a man and a woman who make a permanent and exclusive commitment to each other of the type that is naturally (inherently) fulfilled by bearing and rearing children together. These marriages are intended to last eternity and are partially accomplished by raising children together, yet four of every ten marriages lead to divorce and of these divorces, 35% involve children (Ambert, 2009). Children tend to blame themselves for the divorce and are usually caught in the crossfire. These divorces lead to both stress and depression for children and without a strong sense of family, children will have a huge disadvantage over children with a stable healthy family (Arreola, Hartounian, Kurges, Maultasch, & Retana, 2013). Without the ability to cope with the stress of a divorce, children can be effected in multiple ways including a change in mentality, unacceptable behavioural traits and both short and long term emotional factors that will ultimately lead to a critical issue in child development.
It is nearly impossible to turn on a television set during primetime programming and not be greeted with FBI agents on the hunt for a fictional serial murderer on at least one major network. These shows have some of the highest ratings and remain on air for multiple seasons, all because today’s culture is highly intrigued with these delinquents and their crimes. This realization often leaves people pondering why anybody would spend countless hours committed to such a dark and rare aspect of the world. Many would even argue that the public’s enthrallment with these particular deviants is caused by fear seeing as their methods are quite unusual and even unpredictable. Society’s fascination with serial killers stems from
The crime news coverage of so-called monsters is typically stylized and exaggerated in order to entice a wide public audience. Journalistic hyperbole makes them appear to be much more threatening to society than they actually are. Public concern and anxiety are heightened through journalistic exaggeration and, as a result, socially constructed monsters are demonized in the minds of the public. It must be remembered that the entertainment news media have a vested interest in tantalizing and even scaring the public. Sensationalized news content attracts a wide audience and a large audience attracts highly coveted advertising revenue. Serial homicide has long occupied a high-ranking position in media perceptions of what constitutes a newsworthy story, and so it should not be surprising that the news media are so instrumental to the social construction of serial killers. One of the most sensationalized and hyped serial killer stories in U.S. history was that of Jeffrey Dahmer, who was depicted as the “Milwaukee Cannibal” by the entertainment news media. Dahmer raped, murdered, dismembered and ate seventeen men and boys between 1978 and 1991 in Wisconsin. The unrivaled gruesomeness of the case virtually ensured that it would become one of the best known serial homicide stories of all time. Although the crimes took place in Milwaukee, media interest was a
Considering that over 45 percent of marriages today end in divorce, it is crucial to understand recent research regarding the positive and negative effects of divorce on children’s mental health. Studies have shown that although children of broken homes generally have more adjustment difficulties than children of intact families, the distinction between these two groups appears to be much less significant than previously assumed (1). In the case of parental separation, studies suggest that children undergo a decline in the standard of living, exhibit poorer academic performance, engage in increased alcohol/ substance abuse, as well as experience diminishing rates of employment. However, underlying factors must be taken into consideration when assessing the long-term consequence of divorce on children, which happens to be resiliency rather than dysfunction (1). These key contextual factors that influence post-divorce adjustment include parenting styles, custody arrangements, age of the child, financial stability, and most importantly, the nature and magnitude of parental conflict. Persistent, unsettled conflict or violence is linked to greater emotional anxiety and psychological maladjustment in children, whereas negative symptoms like fear and insecurity are reduced when parents resolve their conflicts through compromise and negotiation. Although divorce unveils many risk factors involving a child’s health, it may be more beneficial rather than detrimental to children living in highly discorded families, in which children are able to acquire externalizing and internalizing behaviors (1). The development of coping skills and living in a supportive and empathetic environment are two crucial components for children to manage their ne...