American Honor Killings
Page 23
I relied on the literary comments and advice of more people than I can remember who read part or all of the manuscript in one state or another, often rough. Special thanks to Patrick Ryan, Bob Smith, Keith McDermott, Vestal McIntyre, Bob Glück, Edmund White, David Ebershoff, Lisa Howorth, Claire Howorth, and Edward Orloff. Some just lent an ear and encouragement or did me a favor along the way, including Angelo Nikolopoulos, Matthew Goldin, Theresa Starkey, Susan Turner, Michael Carroll, Nora Wright, Justin Spring, Evan Wright, Zachary Lazar, Jim Holt, Jon McMillan, Bruce Benderson, Jerl Surratt, Rick Whitaker, Chris Bram, Giovanni Lucchetti, Dale Peck, Everett McCourt, Ken Siman, Steven Baker, Kevin Pinzone, Jeff Bond, Michael Slipp, Peter Cameron, Richard Kaye, Sam Roche, Stephen Bottum, Matthias Leutrum, and Thomas Keith.
I owe a unique debt to Don Weise, publisher of Magnus Books. We were at a bar together when I jokingly invented a “big-selling” true crime book for him—Gay Panic: Men Who Kill the Men Who Love Them. The harsh joke was the ultimate forebear of what became a serious passion of mine. Zachary Pace is responsible for finding a place for this book when it had none; his enthusiasm always bolstered me. Johnny Temple has made it a better book than it was, despite my occasional heel-dragging. Ibrahim Ahmad and Johanna Ingalls of Akashic Books have been indispensible, as have my agent, Monique DiDonna, and Sarah Russo, my publicist.
“Thanks” are probably out of order, but I want to at least acknowledge the people who chose not to talk to me, whether from pain, mistrust, or just emotion-charged dilatoriness. If you come across the book, I hope you see I did everything I could to make it fair. By far the most important of those who didn’t talk to me are the ones who couldn’t, the ones who really had no choice at all about being in this book. I especially hope I’ve honored them, not with a eulogistic black veil, but with bright light and a compassionate awareness of our shared humanity.
Finally, for me everything begins and ends with Darrell Crawford.
Reading Group Guide
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1. Somewhat provocatively, the book identifies as "Honor Killings" murders conventionally known as "hate crimes" or "gay panic killings." The usage appears to complicate understanding of these events. Why would the author introduce ambiguity into the description of acts about which there's no ethical doubt that they're wrong, even evil?
2. And where exactly is honor located in the various cases? It's fairly clear that Steve Mullins felt his personal honor affronted by Billy Jack Gaither's proposition. And the murder of Steven Parrish was prompted by a notion of "gang honor." But in the other cases the honor motive is more obscure. The author suggests Darrell Madden acted with a certain unconscious sense of "dishonor." What about the Williams brothers or John Katehis? Were they simply insane, or did their actions play off a broader cultural conception of honor?
3. The book concentrates on the dark heart of violence in young men. But unquestionably most of the killers are to some degree sociopathic or otherwise psychologically damaged. So what's the relevance of the stories to the rest of us and to society?
4. The book's emphasis is on the killers. Is it possible to imagine a way to heal or tame the violence and anger of these men? How could they have been raised or educated differently? Is it even possible to derive practical or political conclusions from stories so full of specific detail and paradox?
5. It's uncomfortable to identify with the people described in this book, but should we? Do we? The author briefly mentions his own identification both with Darrell Madden and Madden's victim Steve Domer. What can a reader get out of experiencing such feelings?
6. Who's really gay or bisexual or straight? The author says that Steve Mullins now identifies himself as "bisexual" but adds that one of Mullins's friends considers the killer "basically straight" because his bisexuality doesn't appear "innate." Are there two kinds of sexuality corresponding roughly to the "genotype" and "phenotype" of biologists, that is, inborn and expressed? Is one more privileged than the other?
7. The sexual roles of top and bottom form a ground base to many people's notions of masculinity (often treated as winner/loser or strong/weak). Does moral content inhere in either role? Is one or the other good or bad? Why?
8. The writer comes to these stories from a literary viewpoint, not that of an activist or of a gender studies or gay studies academic. How might the treatment of an academic or activist have differed? And what does his perspective have to offer academics and activists?
9. The author seems to follow the pattern of legal "case histories," one enriched by literary technique, in recounting these crimes. Is his tone the legal pose of objectivity or classic artistic coldness? Do the author's opinions or prejudices eke through in places? Does he seem an honest broker? Do you feel able to make your own judgments about what happened?
10. Masculinity or ideas of masculinity are key to the events described in the book. Will women and men have fundamentally different readings of these cases? Gay and straight people?
11. Is there a real relationship between sex and violence or is it just a resemblance? Recent studies show the human brain processes simile and metaphor quite differently. Scientists were amazed to see widely separated parts of the brain become active when a person hears, for example, "The snow is sugar" and "The snow is like sugar." What might happen if we tried the experiment using the words "sex" and "violence?"
12. Because the book concentrates on the link between ideas of sex and violence in a purely masculine context, all the cases involve gay victims or victims thought to be gay. But the violence described could easily have been visited on members of any out-group—Jews, African-Americans, etc. To what extent does youthful masculine violence seem directed at a particular group and to what extent is it simply explosive?
DAVID McCONNELL is the author of the acclaimed novels The Silver Hearted (a finalist for Lambda and Ferro-Grumley awards) and Firebrat. His short fiction and journalism have appeared widely in magazines and anthologies, including the Literary Review (UK), Granta, and Prospect magazine (UK). He is the former cochair of the Lambda Literary Foundation, and lives in New York City.
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