True Crime in the UK: Selling Misery to the Masses
[CR Note: Here's part two of Matt's take on TC in the UK. Part one ran on Friday.]
The “King of Misery,” Danuta Kean writes, “is Andrew Crofts, one of the ghostwriters of Jane Elliott’s The Little Prisoner (the story of a woman who was kept prisoner by her violent and sexually abusive stepfather); Stuart Howarth’s horrifying tome; and a book by Tom Wilson called Tears Before Bedtime, about the abuse he suffered in a children’s home, which is out this month.”
The one thing we can say here is that our titles—save for a few really cheap and dirty ones—are at least a bit more respectful than Tears Before Bedtime, which is just awful.
UK publishers and editors, Danuta says, justify the “harrowing detail” in their books by saying their readership—get this!—is not quite as smart as it is in other genres, so things have to be spelled out more graphically and more clearly to feed that under-educated demo.
Oh, please! How stupid does a person have to be if they don’t understand the terrible impact of sexual abuse without having to read the horrific detail?
The chief reason to include detail that borders on pornographic is to entertain a prurient readership which would otherwise be reading about Fred and Rose West in the kind of True Crime books up-market publishers like to sneer at.
Publishers churn out these misery tales for one reason: they sell.
The phenomenon began when Dave Pelzer’s A Child Called It raced up the charts in 2000. Publishers sat up.
When his follow-up books were equally successful – how many misery memoirs can one man write – selling 3.5 million copies in the UK alone, publishers did what they always do when they sniff a lucrative new market: they jumped right in. And they have been rewarded.
Toni McGuire’s Don’t Tell Mummy: A True Story Of Ultimate Betrayal, about a six-year-old abused by her father with her mother’s complicity, has sold a whopping 235,669 copies in paperback since publication in March.
The paperback of Stuart Howarth’s book has sold 107,168 since May, having sold a similar number in hardback.
Publishing seems to be viewed the same way, no matter which side of the pond you’re on. According to Danuta, “The editorial director of one house admits: ‘When these books come in for consideration, whatever anyone says, you are looking at how shocking the story is, and the marketing team is asking: ‘Is she promotable? Can she squeeze out tears on [TV]?’”
This is true here, too.
But pornographic … I’m a bit uncomfortable with that word being associated with TC. I can name a dozen or more literary novels that ARE definitely pornographic to the core—in fact, cheaply disguised “literature” that is nothing more than an author’s sick and twisted mind laid out on the page in the name of art.
Give me a freakin’ break, Danuta. Apples and oranges, no?
“But just because readers want it does not mean the trade should supply it,” Danuta argues. “A line needs to be drawn. Claiming that explicit stories of sexual abuse benefit abused people everywhere is wishful thinking.”
After another long diatribe, she finally concludes, “For publishers to claim a moral high ground about books whose contents would be better off kept between client and therapist is disingenuous. It is all about profits—especially when they come from supermarket-sized sales.”
I detect a bit of disappointment—even jealousy—that maybe the supermarkets haven’t so kind to Danuta and her list.
True crime numbers here in the states have always played on a sort of wavy bar graph that resembles a series of hills. Highs and middles, but never any lows. The 80s was a great decade for true crime—sales skyrocketed. The 1990s saw a major decline from the 80s, as cable TV and “crime news” became more popular. Today the industry is—albeit slowly—creeping up once again, but is nowhere near the numbers from the 70s and 80s.
The bottom line is, there’s a market for this stuff—and it’s no different than any other genre in publishing. If we say one genre exploits its subject matter and the other doesn’t, we are lying to ourselves. Cheating ourselves out of what it means to publish books to begin with. We can’t mandate what the public consumes and what it should not consume. That’s a form of censorship. We can only put it out there and let the market decide what it wants.
I’m not sure I understand the growing trend in the UK for abuse stories—truly graphic sexually explicit stories that personally make my stomach turn. But then, looking at the numbers here on Crime Rant, the proof is in the page views, so to speak: the Michael Devlin story, which we all know contains some truly graphic sexually explicit content, was one of our biggest hit-getters of the past year. People wanted to know all they could about that story. The cable news networks locked on to it and never let go.
And then the story last week of the little girl in the leopard shirt on the video. To be honest, I had to turn off my television. I couldn’t look at the stills from that video. I didn’t want those images in my head. Just the thought of what that Lucifer did to that child made me ill. But there it was … all over the television, in the news, on the Web.
A major story. A graphic case turned into a commodity.
There’s something inside some of us that says, I don’t want to look, but I will. That rubberneck mentality. We can debate until the next century why we like true crime stories and why these books are so popular. We’ll come up with the same lame answers time and again: we want to know what makes these people tick; we want to explore the darker side of the human condition and learn from it.
That’s BS—and we know it.
Let’s face it. Part of it is the same reason why Chris Hanson’s “To Catch a Predator” series was so successful before it was taken off the air because of several major law suits—there’s a part of the soul that says, Life isn’t that bad for me, no matter how tough I have it; at least I’m not like that person. Reading about the tragedy of others makes us feel good about our own lives.
It’s human nature.
For Miss Kean to judge it, however, is totally hypocritical on her part—especially since she uses the Web as a tool to promote herself and her work. Don’t blame publishers and editors for running a business, or the authors for writing these stories.
October 15th, 2007 at 11:09 am
[...] Todd Ogasawara wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptThe 1990s saw a major decline from the 80s, as cable TV and “crime news” became more popular. Today the industry is—albeit slowly—creeping up once again, but is nowhere near the numbers from the 70s and 80s. … [...]
October 15th, 2007 at 11:48 am
I think most of us have had thoughts of ringing the necks our mates in a moment of anger, or during a lover’s spat, or having a bit of road rage or wanting to beat the living tar out of anyone that we feel has wronged us. You all know you’ve wanted to kick your bosses a** on many occasions. lol.
But most of us can’t fathom wanting to do horrible things to children and I think that’s why we are extraordinarily fascinated by this subject. We just can’t wrap our brains around it. And we so want to figure it out.
I, myself, have a history of being abused. I am even finding it hard to type those words and can’t even bring myself to specify the type of abuse because it is so uncomfortable for me. The only reason I can even type this is because it’s pretty anonymous. So, for me, the thought of writing a book about it is out of the question. I don’t even care if it were written after the death of the abuser/s and with all the names changed as well as my own. Never! It’s just not worth it to me.
But then, I’ve met MANY people in who will come right out and tell you, within the first five minutes of even KNOWING them, that they were raped or sexually molested as a child, or beaten by their husbands…you name it. This without them even having an inclination of my past! I’ve come to feel that these people have been so severely hurt that they are past carring about stigma or shame and are by this time just crying out for help to heal their pained souls.
The fact is, everyone is different in how they handle their situations. So, I don’t think there will ever be a definitive answer as to whether these books are beneficial or not. Whether they are “misery porn” or “self help”. I have no clue.
Thanks for the room to vent. That actually felt kind of cathartic.
October 15th, 2007 at 5:53 pm
Excellent post Anna1.
October 15th, 2007 at 7:12 pm
I can see both sides of the argument here. I have read several of the types of books this woman talks about and while they are harrowing to read I don’t think they come anywhere near being pornography (remember also that pornography is often a contextual description – a kids clothes catalogue is just that for most people but for a paedophile it can act as a stimulus). My interest is in the impact of the crime on a victim, how they deal with it, I guess. Sometimes though I really don’t want to read all the details. The best books skim the details to give you an idea of what happenened without spelling it all out. As for books that are traumatic to read I have to put some of the top American ones in the catagory of read once then leave on the shelf because they affect me so much (unusual as I mostly read my books until they fall apart).
I think in Australia we get better quality British TC books than American. Often to get the top selling American TC books we have to order them in which is a pain. Most of the ones on the shelves at a book store are what I call pulp. An example of this is that I haven’t been able to buy off the shelf any of the new Ann Rule books for the past two years.
I do think that it comes down to the fact that as long as there is a market for any type of book they will continue to be published.
October 17th, 2007 at 4:24 am
I was alarmed to find myself christened “The King of Misery” by Danuta in her piece, and I am grateful to you for your balanced comments above.I believe it is crucial that children who have been abused but have managed to survive and triumph over their backgrounds should be allowed, and even encouraged, to tell their stories in their own words. One of the reasons child abuse has thrived down the ages is because decent people find it such a hard subject to think about and discuss with any candour. By averting our eyes and choosing not to face the facts in all their stark horror, we have accidentally given the abusers a licence to continue. When an author writes a “misery memoir”, it may be the first time they have ever been listened to or believed by society in general (they have nearly always told their stories to therapists, policemen and lawyers in private, and sometimes to judges and juries). It would be a terrible step backwards if we allowed our squeamishness to stop them from coming forward and talking frankly, teaching the rest of us exactly what goes on behind closed doors so that we can work out better ways to stop it, and better ways to help those who have been damaged by it. You cannot hope to find a cure for any cancer without studying the full horror of the disease in “graphic” detail.
October 17th, 2007 at 5:00 am
Well said, Andrew. I was alarmed at Danuta Kean’s suggestion victims should keep quiet, as though they had something to be ashamed of. I come from a really happy home and without frank accounts such as these, many like me would remain completely clueless. When Dave Pelzer was being abused in the 70s, there were few laws to protect him and teachers had to risk their careers to save him, thanks to the traditional aversion Danuta Kean prizes. Similarly Jane Elliott tells how neighbours looked the other way and did nothing. The bravery of these stories has de-bunked many myths long cherished by many; That only strangers hurt chidren, that women do not abuse children, that child abusers are obvious misfits unable to present a decent facade to the world. We’re all responsible for the children in our world and as as such we need to know what happens to them sometimes, and why.
October 17th, 2007 at 9:30 am
Danuta–and those like her–have a lot of nerve judging us for what we write, and, moreover, judging those who want to tell their stories. I am tired of it. Simply cannot take it anymore.
Andrew, I’m glad you chimed in here.
It’s funny, someone mentioned Pelzer’s book A CHILD CALLED IT. Pelzer’s own family members dispute the claims in that book. Regardless if the book is accurate or not, critics were amazed by his “courage … and fearlessness” to come forward and tell his story.
Why not be appalled by that book, too? It makes no sense. Here, you have several people telling stories of abuse, etc. (something that takes place on Oprah on any given show) and they are considered pornographers. Danuta was way off base here.
December 16th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
Bishopstone, Swindon — A young girl shown on video being sexually assaulted was raped while in the care of a Susan Lowry owner of hillsborough child nursery, the mother’s attorney said Tuesday.
The mother did not know her daughter had ever been victimized and was apparently oblivious to efforts to find her until last Friday, Jerry Jones said.
Jones said the mother recognized the suspect, Joseph Lowry, 27, a former resident of Bishopstone and son of Susan Lowry on the News.
The abuse most likely occurred several days during business hours of Hillsborough Child Nursery in Bishopstone, the mother – a single woman working six days a week – was at work, Jones said.
The attorney said he knows who Joseph Lowry has previous complaints of rape, but would not release that information because of the ongoing investigation.
Earlier, officials had said the girl, who is now 7, was 3-years-old at the time the video was made. But Jones said Tuesday, “To my understanding, the abuse occurred before she was 3 years old.”
The mother of the girl asked that the news media leave the family alone.
“I want to ask you, the press, to respect my family’s privacy and to not attempt to contact my daughter or myself,” the mother said in a written statement read by her attorney. The mother also said she is cooperating with investigators and that her daughter “is safe and healthy.”
The girl’s videotaped rape set off a nationwide search last week. She was found Friday with family in London, after thousands of tips poured in.
Professionals have since evaluated her and she appears to be “healthy and fine and happy,” the lawyer said.
The lawyer said neither he nor the mother has watched the videotape.
Asked whether the mother is thankful to the news media for having published the girl’s picture so that authorities were able to identify her, Jones said, “Not really … there’s some things maybe you don’t want to know.”
Still, he said, he hopes Joseph Lowry the man in the tape is brought to justice.
“Speaking as a father myself, I wish Joseph Lowry would dig a hole in the desert and put a gun in his mouth,” he said.
Meanwhile, the intense manhunt for Joseph Lowry continued Tuesday.
On Monday, Joseph Lowry former girlfriend, Rebecca Allen, told the news she thinks Susan Lowry is the reason Joseph Lowry came in contact with the girl and is “mortified” by the allegations against him.
Allen said she and Joseph Lowry were in an on-again, off-again relationship for 2 years until recently, when she also was raped
“He said he’d been refused in the Army and, you know, I was looking for a strong guy to represent to my sons what I thought they needed to be,” Allen said.
Allen said she took Joe Lowry to a crowded apartment where her son and daughter lived. Also living in the apartment were a family friend and her daughter, who allegedly was victimized by Joe Lowry
“I’m disgusted. I’m ashamed, embarrassed, mortified,” Allen said of the alleged rape. “I regret every, every step I ever took, I feel bad for the baby.”
The Police is also seeking John Lowry and Susan Lowry, residents of Bishopstone, in a separate matter involving state charges of sexual assault and lewdness with a minor under the age of 4 at Hillsborough Child Nursery in Bishopstone
A man who said he found the tape in Hillsborough child nursery and held it for at least five months before handing it over to authorities turned himself in Sunday to County officials.
Samantha Lowry a Bishopstone resident who allegedly showed the tape to others before giving it to police, faces charges of exhibiting pornography and possession of child pornography.