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True crime
True crime is a non-fiction genre in which the
author uses an actual crime and real people as a point of departure. What
follows can be fairly factual or highly speculative and heavily fictionalized
depending on the writer. Some works are "instant books" produced virtually
overnight to capitalize on popular demand while others represent years of
thoughtful research and inquiry. Still others revisit historic crimes (or
alleged crimes) and make implausible and sometimes impossible claims of
solutions, such as any number of sensational books claiming to present solutions
to political assassination, unusually lurid and well-known unsolved murders, or
the deaths of celebrities even when authorities have ruled out foul play.
The modern genre is usually traced to Truman Capote's "non-fiction novel" In
Cold Blood, published in 1966, although Jack Webb's 1958 The Badge certainly
resonates with later works and has been republished with an introduction by
James Ellroy.
Many works in this genre explore and sometimes exploit high-profile, sensational
crimes by such serial killers as Ted Bundy, the JonBenét Ramsey killing, the O.
J. Simpson case, and the Pamela Smart murder, while others are devoted to more
obscure slayings.
Later prominent true crime accounts include Helter Skelter by lead Manson family
prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry; Ann Rule's The Stranger Beside Me
and Joe McGuiness's Fatal Vision.
The modern genre, which usually focuses on murders, is frequently marked by
biographical treatment of the criminals and victims, attempts to explain
criminal psychology, and descriptions of police investigations and trial
procedures.
Although true crime books center on sensational, shocking, or strange events, a
secondary part of their appeal is that they often contain elements of social
realism that are often too risqué or deviant for other non-fiction media, such
as detailed descriptions of working-class or socially marginal people and their
lifestyles.
Many of these books, such as The Badge, adopt a snide, superior and moralistic
tone toward their subjects or sensationalize blood and gore such as the
Hollywood Babylon series.
After the success of the movie The Silence of the Lambs, a subgenre of true
crime has focused on methods of "profiling" of unidentified criminals,
especially serial killers.
For the book by Chuck Palaniuk titled Non-fiction, see Stranger Than Fiction:
True Stories.
Non-fiction is an account or representation of a subject which is presented as
fact. This presentation may be accurate or not; that is, it can give either a
true or a false account of the subject in question. However, it is generally
assumed that the authors of such accounts believe them to be truthful at the
time of their composition.
Non-fiction is one of the two main divisions in writing, particularly used in
libraries, the other being fiction. However, non-fiction need not be written
text necessarily, since pictures and film can also purport to present a factual
account of a subject.
Essays, journals, documentaries, scientific papers, photographs, biographies,
textbooks, blueprints, technical documentation, user manuals, diagrams and
journalism are all common examples of non-fiction works, and fiction within any
of these works is usually regarded as dishonest. Other works can legitimately be
either fiction or non-fiction, such as letters, magazine articles, histories,
websites, speeches and travelogues. Although they are mostly either one or the
other it is not uncommon for there to be a blend of both, particularly
non-fiction with a dash of fiction for added spice.
The numerous literary and creative devices used within fiction are generally
thought inappropriate for use in non-fiction. They are still present
particularly in older works but they are often muted so as not to overshadow the
information within the work. Simplicity, clarity and directness are some of the
most important considerations when producing non-fiction. Audience is important
in any artistic or descriptive Endeavour but it is perhaps most important in
non-fiction. Whereas the motivation for fiction is often simply what entertains
the authors themselves, the reasons for producing non-fiction have more to do
with informing a readership. Understanding of the potential readers use for the
work and their existing knowledge of a subject are both fundamental for
effective non-fiction. Despite the truth of non-fiction it is often necessary to
persuade the reader to agree with the ideas and so a balanced, coherent and
informed argument is also vital.
Cave painting, arguably one of the oldest forms of human expression, could be
either a record of what prehistoric man caught on hunting trips or alternately a
story expressing what they would like to catch on future occasions. If cave art
is ambiguous on this matter, cuneiform inscriptions which hold the earliest
writings seem to have been initially for non-fiction. Some of the most important
symbols in cuneiform represent goods such as oxen and barley and the earliest
texts in existence deal with the buying and selling of these items and other
economic matters, although fiction was not far behind.
Much of the non-fiction produced throughout history is of a mundane and everyday
variety such as records and legal documents which were only ever seen by a few
and are of little interest except to the historian. It probably easily outweighs
fiction in the amount that has been produced but fiction generally has a longer
lasting appeal as it is designed for entertainment and even rather mediocre
fiction survives a few generations. The non-fiction that transcends its original
time tends to be viewed as either exceptionally well made or perfectly embodying
the ideas, manners and attitudes of the time it was produced, even if it was not
actually created as history.
At any one time in history there is the body of non-fiction work which
represents the currently accepted truths of the period. Although these
non-fiction works may be contradictory they form a corpus that is regularly
being altered with better explanations of ideas or with new facts. A good
example of this are the non-fiction scientific books and papers which explain
the science of the day but are then superseded by better representations.
Textbooks for explaining and teaching the current state of scientific and
historical knowledge are regularly updated and manuals for operating new
technology are also produced.
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