[REVIEW/ACRA] End of Month Reviews #41 - May 2007 [spoilers]

[Martin Phipps]

On Jun 17, 2:45 am, Tom Russell <milos_par... at yahoo.com> wrote:
> On Jun 15, 12:07 am, Martin Phipps <martinphip... at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > My point is that, legally, Martin's interpretation of the experience
> > is irrelevent
>
> I agree with you here about the legal/moral issue.  My point is that,
> story-wise, the legality of the experience is irrelevant. :-)
>
> > I'm not saying I don't sympathize with Martin: I'm just saying
> > that when you are writing crime stories the motivations and state of
> > mind of the attackers are ultimately far more important than that of
> > the victims.
>
> I disagree strongly.  Again, I understand where you're coming from
> appropos the legal issue.  But as far as storytelling goes, I'm more
> interested in what makes a person tick.  Suffering is a good way to
> find that out, and so in any act of violence, I'm usually more
> inclined to investigate the psychological and phsyical affects of that
> violence on the victim.  (Gregory Dingham proving to be the notable
> exception.)

I think this is related to your feeling that you should "never leave
the room" when you are writing suspense stories.  At yet I feel you're
going a bit too far: from the beginning of this series, the focus has
_always_ been on Martin Rock; you've never left his side, as it were,
not even to the point of shifting -if only briefly- to the point of
view of other characters.  As a result, the secondary characters (Pam,
Danielle, the Priest) are only ever seen through Martin's eyes and we
have no more idea what makes them tick than Martin does.  This is
precisely not the sort of storytelling we would expect from a series
called "Jolt City": one might expect the series to either have an
ensemble cast and/or be an anthology of stories taking place in that
city.

Martin