Zeke Newbold
Carbon based biped.
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2015
- Messages
- 1,249
On a recent visit to London I found myself in one of the famous large bookstores - Foyles I think it might have been. After some looking around, I aked a Sales assistant where the Unexplained section was.
`We don't have one`, he replied. `we don't even have a True Crime section`.
The implication of his words stayed with me. They were that there is some implicit connection between True Crime and the Unexplained.
I have pondered this since and yes, I can kind of see what he meant. The BLAZE TV channel, for example, is composed of half crime and half Mysteries of a more Fortean nature, and presumably it knows its constituency. Then there are peop;le like Colin Wilson. This writer covered a great deal of topics connected with the paranormal but also wrote quite a lot about murder and serial killers in particular (to the point where he even became personally acquainted with some of them).
For myself, I have never taken any real interest in the genre of journalism called `True Crime` and, indeed, have always found something a bit suspect and morbid about those that do. Yes, I'm a mild Sherlock Holmes fan ( along with some other detectives) but that is more because I like the characterisation in these stories as well as the slight fantastical horror element to many of them. I also did follow the Harold Shipman case a bit when it was happening, but that is just because I was intrigued as to what the man's motives might have been. Otherwise I take no interest in reading about criminal activities.
So Fess up: what about you? Are you interested in True Crime and, if so, why - and do you see it as part and parcel of your Fortean interrests, and if so why?
`We don't have one`, he replied. `we don't even have a True Crime section`.
The implication of his words stayed with me. They were that there is some implicit connection between True Crime and the Unexplained.
I have pondered this since and yes, I can kind of see what he meant. The BLAZE TV channel, for example, is composed of half crime and half Mysteries of a more Fortean nature, and presumably it knows its constituency. Then there are peop;le like Colin Wilson. This writer covered a great deal of topics connected with the paranormal but also wrote quite a lot about murder and serial killers in particular (to the point where he even became personally acquainted with some of them).
For myself, I have never taken any real interest in the genre of journalism called `True Crime` and, indeed, have always found something a bit suspect and morbid about those that do. Yes, I'm a mild Sherlock Holmes fan ( along with some other detectives) but that is more because I like the characterisation in these stories as well as the slight fantastical horror element to many of them. I also did follow the Harold Shipman case a bit when it was happening, but that is just because I was intrigued as to what the man's motives might have been. Otherwise I take no interest in reading about criminal activities.
So Fess up: what about you? Are you interested in True Crime and, if so, why - and do you see it as part and parcel of your Fortean interrests, and if so why?