We'll Fix this Question Together in Lecture on Tuesday

remember that there's more than one right answer.

Power of Evidence

We're talking about the role of colonialism and then World War I in turning US and UK culture "noir." We're also stressing the importance of evidence in making assertions and coming to conclusions about whodunit, not to mention everything else.  A major New York Times investigation brings these two issues together.  The story points out that, "Recklessly or intentionally bombing hospitals is a war crime, but proving culpability amid a complex civil war is extremely difficult, and until now, Syrian medical workers and human rights groups lacked proof."  The NYT investigation has proof that the Russian Air Force, in support of the Assad government in Syria, intentionally targeted the four hospitals in question.  The proof consists of several kinds of evidence, which they detail at the bottom of the article. I'll cite the whole thing because I'm such an evidence nerd:

Our reporting began by collecting social media posts, interviewing witnesses and speaking with organizations that support hospitals in opposition-held Syria. They gave us the approximate time each hospital was struck on May 5 and 6.

We obtained access to tens of thousands of flight observations kept by spotters who watch the skies and warn civilians of incoming airstrikes. Each observation logged a time, location and type of plane.

Most crucially, we also obtained thousands of Russian Air Force radio transmissions never before made public. We spent weeks deciphering their code words. By the end, we knew when Russian pilots were receiving coordinates, locking onto targets and dropping their bombs.

Finally, we reviewed the videos of three of the four bombings and consulted with military experts. We concluded that the videos showed the hospitals being bombed at the reported times, and in two cases that they were hit with precision bombs that the Russians possess but the Syrians don't.

Combining all this information revealed that Russian pilots were flying at the time and place each hospital was bombed, that they released their weapons at the same time we'd been told the strike occurred, and that at least two of the strikes were too precise for the Syrians to have even accomplished.

This is an enormous amount of dedicated work.  It's also expensive, which is why most newspapers, including my hometown newspaper the Los Angeles Times, do a lot more cutting and pasting of internet stuff than they do investigating.

In addition to money, there's the problem of savvy replacing truth as the ethos of high-end reporting, at least according to this interesting analysis.

Sherlock Lecture Slides From Friday

We were talking about 2 theories of human intelligence, which we simplistically polarized as Theory 1, Only Sherlock is Sherlock, and Theory 2, Anyone Can Be Sherlock, But Almost Nobody Does the Work.  Here's a slide I raced through about how his personality helps.  Theory 1 or Theory 2? I know you know.

Also there was the kind of closure the "whodunit" or "mystery" offers, particularly before all hell breaks loose for the UK and Europe in World War I.  It gets much harder to make convincing in crime fiction later on.

Evil Appearing Where You Don't Expect It

In this case, it's the front page of the Sunday New York Times, which yesterday ran a huge, horrifying investigative piece on Internet-based child abuse material (access it through the link in the first paragraph of this story).  I mentioned evil in lecture on Thursday as the bad thing that seems to have (1) no explanation and (2) no cure.  We'll be investigating these features in the course: can we explain the worst things? Can we really not cure them?  (Photo: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.)

One of the lead authors, Gabriel Dance, has a Twitter thread with interesting background, including his own distress while researching and writing the piece.  In one tweet he writes, "every single image or video is documentation of a crime, and all are beyond the pale. i've read descriptions of abuse that were previously unfathomable to me. they've rocked me to my core. they raise fundamental questions about humanity."  Can't emphasize that last sentence enough.  He ends by warning, "this is just the start. we have more coming - lots more. and while it's not easy to read (or write), the @nytimes is committed to this line of reporting. i'm grateful for the opportunity to help children who need it, and to you all for reading."

This is an important piece, but take care reading it, and take good care of yourself.

Slavery and Voting

One of our course's 6 causes of "noir culture" is the legacies of slavery.  Here's one example--Black voting rights--from deep in the heart of Texas. My first teaching job was in Texas (at Rice University in Houston), and I try to keep tabs on the place.  In my experience, Texans were the most hospitable and partying bunch of Americans I've ever lived with.  The politics? another story.

Summer of Blood

This fall, Detective Fiction is yet again going to be wresting with the psychological, political, and cultural factors behind the U.S.'s off-the-charts levels of gun death--far higher than any other country in the world that is not actually at war or in a civil war.  The New York Times has a good overview of the summer's shootings that involved three or more deaths at a time.  26 mass shootings between Memorial Day and Labor DAy left 126 people dead.

I turned the page and there was a new mass shooting in a South Carolina bar that didn't quite make the Times' 3 person cutoff.

I taught this course last fall in the midst of multiople wildfires and the Thousand Oaks bar shooting that affected a number of students in the course. 

Better luck this year. R.I.P to the victims, whom we never forget. Vivos voco, mortuos plango.

Noir Candidate?

The  tweet on this post implies that Warren has decided to run as what we were calling a noir candidate.  It worked for Trump.