Tuesday, August 01, 2006

I've Seen The Whole World Six Times Over

Ian McEwan wanted to know how long it would take to hack off another man's arm.

In the Paris Review a few years back, the British novelist (author of Atonement and Amsterdam, two books I'm extremely fond of) described a dinner he had with a well-known pathologist. McEwan had some research questions for the novel he was writing, a Cold War espionage thriller called The Innocent. Specifically he wanted to know how long it would take an inexperienced man to saw through a human arm. The doctor thought about that for a moment and said he wasn't sure, but he had an autopsy scheduled for Monday morning. "Why don't you come along," the doctor said. "We'll saw off the fellow's arm and see."

Horrified, McEwan asked about the dead man's family. The doctor told him not to worry. "My assistant will sew it back on and it won't show at all."

Sadly, I haven't always had such enthusiastic cooperation with my own research. When I was beginning Cast of Shadows, I knew I was going to have to do some investigating of my own. It was a high-tech medical thriller after all, and my practical experience was in advertising and sports marketing. I didn't have the slightest idea how to go about it. So before I had written a word I found a professor (at either Northwestern or the University of Chicago, I don't remember which) who was reportedly an expert in genetic science. I called him and explained I was writing a novel about a doctor who clones his daughter's unknown assailant and waits for the child to grow up so he could see what the killer looked like.

"He clones his own daughter's murderer? That's horrible!" the professor said. "He can't do that! Why would he do that?"

I said, "Well I'm not really asking for your permission, professor. See it's a novel--"

"That would be just awful!" the professor said. "What a terrible thing to do!"

"Yeah that's sort of the point," I said. "Anyway I have a few quest--"

"What a horrible thing!"

I returned the handset quietly to the receiver while the professor continued to condemn my main character for his lack of humanity. I never even got to my first question.

Not wanting to go through that again with another expert, I decided I would just start writing and when I came to a point where I was missing a piece of important information (and I couldn't find a reliable answer on the internet in a few minutes) I would just make it up. Then when I got to the end of the draft, I went back to these passages and came up with a specific list of facts I needed to know and I tracked each of them down to make sure I got them right.

Now there are plenty of novelists who do the journalism thing with great skill and many of them uncover facts and events and characters in their hands-on research that become critical elements in their books. My system just happens to work for the kinds of stories I'm trying to tell. For one thing it doesn't slow down the writing process which is already slug-like for me. When looking up information I have the kind of non-linear curiosity that will always suck me into an infinitely hyperlinked internet wormhole. I might begin with a simple inquiry into DNA but end up blowing an entire morning with a study of third party politics in Trinidad and Tobago.

But perhaps the most important function of my research technique is that it keeps me from filling my chapters with all kinds of interesting (to me) information that isn't essential to the story. I know if I committed hours and hours to research before I started writing I would be tempted to cram everything I'd learned into the book just to show the reader all the hard work I had done.

There's a blockbuster author who is famous for his extensive technical study and his novels are bursting with facts that are barely peripheral to the plot. I won't use his name because someday I might want a blurb from him, but the following is the actual opening to Chapter 26 of one of his most popular novels. To further protect the author's identity I have changed the name of his famous protagonist to "Harrison Ford."

Pellets fired from a shotgun disperse radially at a rate of one inch per yard of linear travel. A lightning flash blazed through the windows, and (Ford) cringed on hearing the thunder immediately after--then realized it had followed too quickly to be thunder. The shot pattern had missed his head by three feet, and before he understood what had passed by him, Blondie's head snapped back, exploding into a cloud of red as his body fell backward to crash against a table leg...

Now the physics of a shotgun blast are obviously irrelevant to the action and worse, that information is now a hurdle the reader must jump before getting to the good stuff. I mean Blondie's brains are about to be blown out the back of his skull and that sterile first sentence takes us abruptly out of an exciting scene. The omniscient narrator doesn't need to prove to me that he took a full load of AP classes, and I assure you Harrison Ford is not doing the math in his head while dodging lead in a room full of terrorists and European royalty.

The unidentified author finds this kind of trivia irresistible, and he inserts examples seemingly at random into his manuscripts. It appears his fans don't mind--he has more of them than I do by the population of a G8 nation. In fact if he's still interested in giving me a blurb after this, I might suggest something like, "Guilfoile's story speeds along like a 700-series Japanese bullet train, whose power output per traction motor can top 300 kilowatts." Nevertheless, as a writer you will always know lots of cool stuff that you can't fit elegantly into your novel and it takes discipline not to force it all on the reader. You might find it painful to delete the lovingly crafted interior monologue in which your main character identifies the primary agricultural export of the Kingdom of Tonga, but will the reader miss it? If the answer is no, leave that little nugget in your Moleskine.

Incidentally, before Ian McEwan could go to that autopsy, he described his predicament to famed stage director Richard Eyre, who told him not to go. "You'll invent it much better than you'll describe it," Eyre said. Indeed the arm remained attached to the anonymous corpse and McEwan still thinks the scene is better for it. "Had I gone to the autopsy," McEwan said, "I would have had to become a journalist--and I don't think I'm a good journalist. I can describe accurately the thing that I imagine far better than the thing I remember seeing."

Also Tonga's primary export crop is pumpkins.

I'm betting you still don't care.

34 comments:

Anonymous said...

Kevin – hilariously funny! Thanks!

We have an author like that here too, he knows all about calibres and how fast a bullet travels through a room. I couldn't care less but he is immensely popular, so I guess those things are what the audience really want to know.

In spite of my not caring, I had to research guns for my first book, among them a kalasjnikov which I actually fired at the police HQ in Stockholm. I also had to research explosives and will not forget the smile at the police expert's face as he played with the dreadful things, tossing them from one hand to another. Or his sheer enjoyment as we planned how to blow up a mountain. (Sara P, I'll never forget how you blew up an entire ship in one of your books). So I don't really give a rat's ass and was very confused when military veterans read the book and complimented me for my accuracy and throrough research!

I try to make most of it up, too. Strangely, many of the things I make up (including people) turn out to be true.

Jon The Crime Spree Guy said...

I think I'd like to know how long it takes to cut off the arm. Do you have the doctor's name?

Kevin Guilfoile said...

Hi Jon. Yeah, "How long does it take to cut off another man's arm?" is not really something you want to type into Google. Although now I guess all those people will be directed to this site, so we can start nurturing a readership of the criminally insane.

Last year at Bouchercon, Barb and I did a panel on forensic resaearch and after a half hour of gory details about knife wounds and ballistic tests and the disposing of bodies, I think I said that this exact panel was also being given at the serial killers convention.

Barb could be an especially good resource for budding arsonists.

Anonymous said...

It would have really interesting to see the Pathologist reaction to McEwan if he had asked how long it would take to cut a head off. Sounds like he would have enjoyed that, too!
It's odd, where our minds take us. Right now I'm researching botulism! If they ever subpeona my surfing history, I'm a dead duck!

Anonymous said...

Did you know nutmeg is poisonous...I forget which part but I found this out purely by accident while researching unusual ways to do a character in :o)
I did take a trip to a town in PA just to get the general details on police procedures there. Spent three hours with the cops and learned lots, most of which won't be written anywhere but it was important to know just how things work in smaller towns. Had fun too.
Thanks for the post...nice to know other people get tangled up in the net :o)

Anonymous said...

>>"How long does it take to cut off another man's arm?" is not really something you want to type into Google.

That is, unless you really want to get strip-searched by the FBI, CIA, DHS or whomever else in D.C. is "legally" monitoring your Internet usage these days.

Anonymous said...

Including this, Pete - a collection of unusual bloodthirsty people!

Anonymous said...

Your anonymous writer. It's A.A. Milne, right?

Kevin Guilfoile said...

Pete, every time we start one of these discussions I immediately start wondering who the government mole is. I don't think it's AB (although it would be clever to have an agent stationed overseas). I know it's not Jon. I don't think it's DA or Maryann (although she seems to know an awful lot about how to kill people with nutmeg, which seems like something they'd teach at Langley).

Okay, "mystery woman." I'm keeping my eye on you.

Kevin Guilfoile said...

"Your anonymous writer. It's A.A. Milne, right?"

And the book of course is Now We Are Rainbow Six.

Kevin Guilfoile said...

The Cardinal at Pooh Corner?

Executive Eeyores

Anyone?

Anonymous said...

"Now I am six, I am entering the concrete operational stage of cognitive development, characterized by the ability to use logical and coherent actions in thinking and solving problems. I understand the concepts of permanence and conservation by learning that volume, weight, and numbers may remain constant despite changes in outward appearance. I can build on past experiences, using them to explain why some things happen. So I think I'll stay six now forever and ever."

Anonymous said...

Great, Kevin. And I just mentioned beheading and Botulism in one post alone. I'll have the black helicopters overhead any time now. Well, I've heard prison is a great place to write. Get a few Hollywood celebs in my corner, and it's instant contracts and fame, no matter how lousy I am.
"Kill my landlord..Kill my landlord!"

Kevin Guilfoile said...

"Now I am six, I am entering the concrete operational stage of cognitive development, characterized by the ability to use logical and coherent actions in thinking and solving problems."

Ha!

Anonymous said...

Yes, it is SO practical sitting in Sweden monitoring the site! AND I am in cahoots with da... I made a webpage just as a disguise - hell, I wrote the books in Swedish as a disguise too - darn, would have guessed someone would get suspicious! :-) But I'm off the hook, right?

Anonymous said...

I dunno, is this 'CSI-ification' of writing really neccessary?

Say he said it took 20 minutes to cut off the arm. Would that really stop readers from reading any further?

"20 minutes? thats a bit long, isn't it? I don't believe this book, and I'm going to put it down right now. Damn that Ian McEwan and his lies! wouldn't take any more than five minutes max!"

Lets face it in our lifetime its pretty rare that we'll get to cut of any arms anytime soon. Not that I'm begrudging people who's job it is to cut off arms. Big up the arm cutting people.

It's like your own book Kev. I mean - cloning a killer to see what he would look like just doesn't make sense at all. But hey its a book of fiction, lets go with it. Jurassic Park eat your heart out...

Anonymous said...

Okay, Kevin, I confess. I'm the mole. All the nice comments I've made about Cast of Shadows? Merely a ploy to weaken your defenses and infiltrate your shady criminal underworld. The "wife" and "daughter" of mine that you met at Printers Row? Merely fellow operatives--in fact, the kid is the Executive Director of the Agency. Despite the sweet smile and fondness for sticker books and chocolate chip cookies, she's actually quite ruthless, someone you really don't want to cross.

I wouldn't have admitted any of this to you, but I'm being reassigned to Dave Eggers and his band of smiley-faced pinkos. The Agency hasn't told me who the new operative assigned to you is, not that I'd divulge it anyway.

Anonymous said...

HUZZAH and also frabjous day. You are blogging! I will get a link up to you directly. And by "I will get a link up" I mean "Scott will get a link up." Obviously.

Anonymous said...

My husband, The Great Elk Hunter, estimates that with the right tools, less than 3-5 minutes to cut an arm from a body and he thinks that would be if a rank amateur was doing it. He said he read recently that Civil War doctors on the field could do it in 30 seconds...and they were trying to save lives! For the record, when he's hunting, I root for Bambi!

Kevin Guilfoile said...

Thank you DA, for some helpful information at last. Someone please go post 3-5 minutes over at Wikipedia under the entry for "amateur dismemberment."

Joshilyn, between your blog and being a mom and what is clearly an attempt to have your seventh novel released before my second there is no way you had time to just write that.

Pete, I think sticker books and chocolate chip cookies might be how you spot a G-Man these days.

Barbara D'Amato said...

Delete the pumpkins! Good god, man! Are you mad?
Barb

Kevin Guilfoile said...

Exactly! Those pumpkins are a good fact. It's so hard to let go!

Kevin Guilfoile said...

Why didn't the protagonist of your novel clone his daughter instead?

Hello Sexy Jesus Who Looks Suspiciously Like Randy Newman,

I get that question a lot (and incidentally the clone was created from hair follicles--genetic material such as semen can't be cloned because sperm and eggs have only half the DNA needed to make a human).

This is actually addressed in the book and the passage is the one from which the title comes. Davis Moore is asked by his wife (who does not know he cloned their daughter's killer) if he ever considered cloning Anna Kat. And he says that he didn't because she wouldn't be "real." When Joan expresses surprise that a proponent of cloning would say such a thing, Davis replies:

“She’s real to the new family. To people who knew the original, she wouldn’t be real at all. To them, she’s a doppelganger. A smudged copy. A ghost with no memory. Would AK be AK without that scar across her knuckles? The one she got learning to ride a bike? If she had fillings in different teeth? If she were a swimmer instead of a setter? Afraid of heights instead of spiders? If she liked English better than math?” Jackie turned flush and Davis held out his arm, but he couldn’t reach her chair and so he suspended his hand, palm up, in the air between them. “I know what you’re thinking. That all these years later there’s still this...this absence and the desire to fill it with something can be overwhelming. But to certain people clones can be like projections of the originals—abstract figures, actors on film, a cast of shadows. If we had another little girl walking around this house inside a shell that looked like AK wouldn’t that only make the void blacker?”

Jackie started to cry and Davis joined her, but he didn’t go to her and she didn’t come to him.

Kevin Guilfoile said...

I'll also say this. One of the things that appealed to me about this story is that cloning his daughter would have been the expected thing to do in this sort of novel. There's actually a movie called Godsend (with Robert DeNiro and Greg Kinnear) in which a couple does just that with their dead son.

The idea that this doctor would choose to do this insane thing, this illogical thing, this unexpected thing, is what made me want to write the book. Honestly I don't think I'd want to spend two years writing a story about a guy who clones his dead child. If I'm compelled to tell a story it's because the journey isn't quite so obvious.

Anonymous said...

If the daughter is a clone she will be the same person. She will not come as an adult ghost without a memory, she will come as an embryo, then a fetus, then a baby - like the first time around. She will like the same things, be scared of the same things.

But since cloning is made from old material, she would probably get strange diseases and die young. It wouldn't be a mystery, it would be a tragedy novel. So I am glad you decided against it. I am not sure the mother would be so easily convinced, though.

Anonymous said...

Cloning for spare parts is already happening and very scary. You don't clone for instance liver cells, you clone a very early embryo and enhance the liver part.

I don't think the sheep Dolly was very self-destructive. What you get is simply an entirely new individual. Which means you cannot let a clone become an infant and then remove its heart or something like that.

Kevin Guilfoile said...

Hmm. Well, Sexy Jesus I guess I agree that cloning the daughter would have been the more obvious road the story could have taken, which is exactly the reason I didn't take it there. That and the fact that it had already been done. I direct you once again to the movie Godsend. Honestly, I wouldn't have had much to say about that story that hadn't already been said.

Also, Cast of Shadows isn't about cloning, per se. That is, the point of the book wasn't to simply imagine a world in which human reproductive cloning is legal. That's the setting but the story is really a vehicle to get to themes about identity and free will. And it's also a mystery and a thriller and hopefully a good read. But one thing I wasn't trying to do was write a futurist novel about the dystopia that awaits us if we take genetic research to its logical ends. I'm frankly not smart enough--and don't know enough about the subject--to do that. And I also can't worry too much about where readers wish I had taken the story. If you want you can write a novel and take it wherever you like.

I am always glad when the book prompts discussion, though, which it inevitably seems to do.

As for the subject of cloning people to harvest organs there's a novel that came out about the same time as CoS last year called Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro and it's beautiful and heartbreaking.

Kevin Guilfoile said...

Well we did something for the first time (actually *I* did something) that we don't like to do. I deleted a comment. It wasn't because the poster said anything directed at me or any of the other writers who post here. But he told a joke that was in bad taste and I decided to take it down.

We are all free speech folks here and if the poster hadn't been anonymous I'd have probably let it stand. If we had a sign up with the rules of this pool, the first one would say that if you're going to write something just because you know people will find it offensive, have the guts to put your name on it.

Private Beach said...

ab said...
"If the daughter is a clone she will be the same person. She will like the same things, be scared of the same things."

No she won't, she will be an identical twin of the original person displaced in time. Identical twins often do like and dislike the same things, but they are separate individuals.

Anonymous said...

I came across this while surfing blogs (I admit "How long does it take to cut off a human arm?" did pique my brain). I enjoyed reading all of the comments up to ab's comment on a clone liking the same things. I would admit that if you have a genetic defect, your clone being a copy would likely have the same defect. But so much of who we are is not hard-wired at birth but is a result of this experience called life, of our points and placement in time and space. There are untold billions of choices that you have made (or were made for you) that have changed who you are and what you like. For me, my father was transferred when I was 14 and given a choice of Dallas and New Jersey. Right there, at that age, I would have ended up being 3 completely different people with different likes and dislikes. The What Ifs boggle the mind.

I didn't read the story, but being so much a product of our environment, the killer clone would probably turn out to be a decent person (unless there is a mental genetic defect). Remember in THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL, one of the key points on grooming another Hitler was the killing of the father at a certain age. You'd have to mimic the formative life as much as possible to get the same results.

And as to the cloning of the daughter vs. the killer, as the author stated, the daughter wouldn't be the same. Would there be underling resentment if she wasn't? And from what i gather, replacing his daughter wasn't the father's desire, but revenge on the killer. 20 years is a long time to wait. I'm sure the scientist didn't raise the killer clone, but kept tabs on him. I'm interested in knowing how the journey affected the scientist. Did it destroy his marriage as his wife (not being a part of the plan) moved on and he didn't? Did he hate the child through no fault of his own, but because of who he resembled? When the child reached adulthood, he'd still have to age the child's face by at least 20 years or more to know what he looked like and then all you would have is a photo (and DNA), it's like a high-tech police sketch, you still have to track down a name and location which I assume the scientist must have done. My last question would be whether the scientist took his revenge himself? Or if he let the law take care of it? They say that if you seek revenge, dig two graves. I'm betting the outcome wasn't for the best. I guess I'd have to buy the book in order to find out.

Dave

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