Julie is quite right. I'm looking for _fictional_ characters who do what Don José does when he kills Carmen: "c'est moi qui l'a tué", followed by the heavy chords that tell us where he's headed. It interests me that the US, which nurtures so many divergent sub-cultures, is a place where beating the rap seems to be normative throughout.
nm JimKandJulieB@xxxxxxx Krueger wrote:
I keep wanting to suggest a difference between turning one's self in and admitting to the crime (particularly as, if I understand correctly, people are with some frequency encouraged to plead guilty in court to whatever, to reduce the sentence and/or avoid jury trial). But perhaps that's all splitting hairs and does not go to what Norman is getting at.Julie KruegerOn 4/12/07, *Andy Amago* <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:-----Original Message----- >From: Carol Kirschenbaum <carolkir@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:carolkir@xxxxxxxxx>> >Sent: Apr 12, 2007 5:53 PM >To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> >Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Murder in two cultures > Harris's style >wasn't frenzied. She felt that her life was over when she realized her >lover, her life, was dead. Herein lies the pathos. > >Perhaps it's less likely that American men in love would feel like this. I once heard a feminist describe acts of passion as acts of possession. That was in the context of the O.J. Simpson murder. You hit it on the head when you say that her lover is synonymous with her life. To lose him was to lose her Self. That's what O.J. was going through, coupled I imagine with some fantasied revenge, probably of mother going way back into early childhood. There was way too much energy for anything else. People who commit acts of passion (possession) are really functioning out of a place of extreme immaturity. Likewise machismo. There is just no need to settle disputes violently. Adults just don't do that. ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html <http://www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html>
