Style Over Substance in Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

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Style Over Substance in Capote's In Cold Blood

In "Murder, He Wrote," William Swanson believes the stylistic techniques employed in Truman Capote's novel In Cold Blood are more memorable than the story itself. For Swanson, Capote not only captures the readers' attention with a story about a horrific crime, but his use of diverse voices, sounds, and silences make it an event people will never forget.

Almost two decades after his initial exposure to Capote's novel, Swanson discovered it was still a "brilliant study of crime and punishment" being more "haunting than ever" (32). When Swanson first read the novel, he was more impressed with Capote's "audacity" and stylistic techniques than with story (32).

Throughout the 1960s, journalists were "rewriting the rules of the craft, creating a fusion of journalism and literature . . . that was often breathtakingly fresh and powerful" (32). After the release of In Cold Blood, Swanson believed Capote not only invented "a new art form", but also established a standard against which a...

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