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Truman Capote's Dark Visitation To a Red State
Opinion Journal (Wall Street Journal) ^ | November 4, 2005 | Daniel Henninger

Posted on 11/04/2005 7:48:46 AM PST by EveningStar

...I saw "Capote" on a recent Saturday evening, and got more than I bargained for.

The film is built around Gerald Clarke's 1988 biography and "In Cold Blood"--Capote's "non-fiction novel" about the brutal murders, by drifters Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, of the four members of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kan., in 1959...

This is not a Hollywood message movie like George Clooney's Edward R. Murrow film, waving warnings about McCarthyism. One can take from "Capote" what one wishes, and what I took away was how far the distance was in 1959 from New York's Upper East Side to Kansas...

...inside [the killer's] cell, Truman Capote suddenly passes to another place. He is staring into the face of evil, and after all these years, after all the articulate empathy, he knows it. Call it a Red state moment...

(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: bluestate; capote; incoldblood; moviereview; perrysmith; redstate; trumancapote
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1 posted on 11/04/2005 7:48:47 AM PST by EveningStar
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To: EveningStar

2 posted on 11/04/2005 7:50:26 AM PST by Andy from Beaverton (I only vote Republican to stop the Democrats)
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To: Howlin; onyx; Clemenza; Petronski; GummyIII; SevenofNine; martin_fierro; EggsAckley; Xenalyte; ...

fascinating article


3 posted on 11/04/2005 7:50:58 AM PST by EveningStar
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To: Andy from Beaverton

Look at Nebraska...can't they do better than Ben Nelson?

He's a nice guy and all, but he's hangs out with the wrong crowd.


4 posted on 11/04/2005 7:54:24 AM PST by rightinthemiddle (I know my enemy. I have Cable TV.)
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To: EveningStar

>>>>Call it a Red state moment...

Another leftist who got mugged...


5 posted on 11/04/2005 7:54:48 AM PST by .cnI redruM (Because change is not something you talk into existence.)
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To: EveningStar
...he becomes absorbed with the lives of the accused murderers, especially Perry Smith...

He became so absorbed that he "persuaded" the jailor to take a hike so he and Smith could enjoy homosexual couplings.

This, I read, sometime back.

6 posted on 11/04/2005 7:55:55 AM PST by FerdieMurphy (For English, Dial One.)
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To: .cnI redruM
>>>>Call it a Red state moment... Another leftist who got mugged...

On 9/11, NYC was mugged big time... and who do they continue to send to the Senate?

7 posted on 11/04/2005 7:57:07 AM PST by rhombus
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To: EveningStar

I read this article on the train this something and thought, "How dumb is this? And who cares about Truman Capote? I've never heard of him."

Some of Henninger's articles are awful.


8 posted on 11/04/2005 8:00:06 AM PST by GianniV
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To: EveningStar

9 posted on 11/04/2005 8:04:52 AM PST by martin_fierro ("Own Nothing, Have Everything" -- YEAH, RIGHT)
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To: GianniV

He was a darling of the doyennnes of New York society for thirty years. Other than IN COLD BLOOD that's about it....


10 posted on 11/04/2005 8:18:22 AM PST by Rummyfan
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To: GianniV

Capote came out of Alabama and became something that represents almost everything I detest. Yet, along the way he produced some great writing. BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S represents his early New York phase before he was completed subverted by drugs and homosexuality. His best work were the shorts stories A THANKSGIVING VISITOR and A CHRISTMAS MEMORY which were filmed staring Geraldine Paige and later another version with Patty Duke. Of course IN COLD BLOOD was also filmed with Robert Blake in the role of one of the murderers.

In the end I remember Capote as a prematurely feeble freak on talk shows wearing a bright woman's style of a Fedora and talking in the highest and sissiest voice imaginable. They always show the clip from Dick Cavet where Dick is very worried about Capote passing out or dieing right in front of him.

Yet to read Capote is to find something of old Alabama in him and something likeable.


11 posted on 11/04/2005 8:27:21 AM PST by Monterrosa-24 (France kicked Germany's teeth out at Verdun among other places.)
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To: EveningStar

As this article suggests, Truman Capote represents a strange mixture of complete nihilism, great intelligence, and human insight. He also represents a strange window on the emptiness of the New York celebrity world, the world where folks like Capote and Warhol could become tremendously influential cultural leaders.

Did Capote see into the heart of evil and undergo a conversion? Or was he thrilled by the idea of sleeping with a murderer? Who knows? The whole point is that you don't know. There are no answers.


12 posted on 11/04/2005 8:55:25 AM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: Rummyfan
Other than IN COLD BLOOD that's about it....

Breakfast at Tiffany's is pretty memorable.
13 posted on 11/04/2005 8:58:30 AM PST by BikerNYC (Modernman should not have been banned.)
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To: EveningStar
Gerald Clarke's 1988 biography...

A fantastic book. I can't recommend it strongly enough. That rare occurrence when a biography about a great writer is in itself a superb piece of writing.

I can't wait to see this movie! Philip Seymour Hoffman may be the best film actor of his generation, and Capote was a central figure in the world of literature and the American culture.

In Cold Blood was arguably the beginning of the post-noir true crime genre, which so flourishes today in many forms of media.

14 posted on 11/04/2005 9:09:41 AM PST by veronica (What will "Ronnie" think? The question that obsesses the internut clowns...)
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To: veronica

I haven't read it but you recommend it so maybe I'll look it up on Amazon. What perspectives does the author bring to Capote and his last sickly years?


15 posted on 11/04/2005 9:13:29 AM PST by Monterrosa-24 (France kicked Germany's teeth out at Verdun among other places.)
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To: EveningStar

Saw the movie Last Saturday, it sucked. Boring and way too slow for my tastes. It could have been good with a different director. People trying to make art with movies is not to my liking...


16 posted on 11/04/2005 9:17:19 AM PST by seeker41
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To: EveningStar
...this movie takes no sides and, even more admirably, condescends to no one in Kansas. (Nor did Capote himself...

Not true. Indeed, that's why Capote chose to write about that particular murder. He could've chosen any murder from among the hundreds and hundreds of murders that occurred in New York, Pennsylvania, California, etc. But he chose Kansas and threw money at the defense, all to demonstrate to the country what a bunch of cornpones we were. All of us living in Kansas at the time were well aware of what that queer New York pervert was up to. Good riddance to him.

It's just too bad we'll never stop hearing about him. Lots of writers were as good or better than he was. But we don't hear anything about them anymore, 20 or 30 years after their deaths. Why? Because they weren't queer. Homosexuals will keep Truman Capote alive in our minds for a hundred years, though the talent of the man doesn't come close to justifying it.

17 posted on 11/04/2005 9:55:45 AM PST by LibWhacker
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To: LibWhacker
[ It's just too bad we'll never stop hearing about him. Lots of writers were as good or better than he was. But we don't hear anything about them anymore, 20 or 30 years after their deaths. Why? Because they weren't queer. Homosexuals will keep Truman Capote alive in our minds for a hundred years, though the talent of the man doesn't come close to justifying it. ]

Well said.. Capote took the small word "queer" and capitalized it... "QUEER"..

18 posted on 11/04/2005 10:08:41 AM PST by hosepipe (CAUTION: This propaganda is laced with hyperbole..)
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To: EveningStar


You're right. It's is fascinating and I always found Truman interesting. Thanks for the ping.


19 posted on 11/04/2005 2:01:37 PM PST by onyx ((Vicksburg, MS) North is a direction. South is a way of life.)
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To: veronica

Another good book that I read about Capote was the book edited by George Plimpton, consisting of oral interviews of his associates.


20 posted on 11/04/2005 2:05:37 PM PST by IndyTiger
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