Trashing true crime

From J Stor Daily: “Although it occasionally aims for respectability — Truman Capote’s ‘In Cold Blood’ and Norman Mailer’s ‘The Executioner’s Song’ — true crime is usually relegated to the bin of ‘trash’ culture, a term that denotes cheaply produced, simplistic materials catering to the uncritical masses. This debate about the value of true crime speaks to our ambivalence over consuming real-life tales of horror. That anybody benefits — through monetary gain or personal titillation — from domestic murder, sex crimes, and grotesque violence seems distasteful, and so we want to consign true crime to the lowest rungs of culture.”