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244 pages, Paperback
First published March 13, 1952
امی گفت بعضی وقتها فکر میکنم که هنوز من و تو آمادهی ازدواج نیستیم لو. گفتم: دیگه چیزی نگو امی... فقط هیچی نگو. لبخند بهلب در حالی که بازوانش را برای به آغوش کشیدن من باز کرده بود بطرفم آمد و گفت: باشه چیزی نمیگم عزیز دلم. فقط میخواستم بگم که چقدر دوستِت... حرفش رو قطع کردم: میدونم، مطمئنم که قلب میخواد از سینه بیرون بیاد برای من و بعد با تمام قوا مشت محکمی به شکمش زدم. مشتم آنقدر محکم بود که فرو رفت توی ستون فقراتش. با لگد پری��م روی کمرش، خب بایدم میپریدم و بعد کمرش دولا شد، انگار که لولا داشته باشه و شکست. لباسش را جر دادم و انداختم روی صورتش تا نبینمش. تقلا میکرد و صدایی شبیه خنده از خودش درمیآورد. همین موقع بود که دیدم از ترس ادرارش از زیرش راه گرفت کف زمین. من هم نشستم گوشهای و سعی کردم روزنامه بخونم. اما نور اصلا خوب نبود
“Just as there are physical monsters, can there not be mental or psychic monsters born? The face and body may be perfect, but if a twisted gene or malformed egg can produce physical monsters, may not the same process produce a malformed soul?
Monsters are variations from the accepted normal to a greater or a less degree. As a child may be born without an arm, so one may be born without kindness or the potential of conscience. A man who loses his arms in an accident has a great struggle to adjust himself to the lack, but one born without arms suffers only from people who find him strange. Having never had arms, he cannot miss them. To a monster the norm must seem monstrous, since everyone is normal to himself. To the inner monster it must be even more obscure, since he has no visible thing to compare with others. To a criminal, honesty is foolish. You must not forget that a monster is only a variation, and that to a monster the norm is monstrous.”― John Steinbeck, East of Eden, 1952
In fact from 1904 Kraepelin changed the section heading to 'The born criminal', moving it from under 'Congenital feeblemindedness' to a new chapter on 'Psychopathic personalities'. They were treated under a theory of degeneration. Four types were distinguished: born criminals (inborn delinquents), pathological liars, querulous persons, and Triebmenschen (persons driven by a basic compulsion, including vagabonds, spendthrifts, and dipsomaniacs). The concept of 'psychopathic inferiorities' had been recently popularised in Germany by Julius Ludwig August Koch, who proposed congenital and acquired types. Kraepelin had no evidence or explanation suggesting a congenital cause, and his assumption therefore appears to have been simple 'biologism'. Others, such as Gustav Aschaffenburg, argued for a varying combination of causes. Kraepelin's assumption of a moral defect rather than a positive drive towards crime has also been questioned, as it implies that the moral sense is somehow inborn and unvarying, yet it was known to vary by time and place, and Kraepelin never considered that the moral sense might just be different. Kurt Schneider criticized Kraepelin's nosology for appearing to be a list of behaviors that he considered undesirable, rather than medical conditions, though Schneider's alternative version has also been criticised on the same basis. Nevertheless, many essentials of these diagnostic systems were introduced into the diagnostic systems, and remarkable similarities remain in the DSM-IV and ICD-10.[4] The issues would today mainly be considered under the category of personality disorders, or in terms of Kraepelin's focus Antisocial/Dissocial personality disorder or psychopathy. (Emphasis added)
"You're a square Joe." "am I ?" i said."How do you know i am, Johnny? How can a man ever really know anything? Were living in a funny world, kid, a peculiar civilisation. The police are playing crooks in it, and the crooks are doing police duty. The politicians are preachers, and the preachers are politicians. The tax collectors collect for themselves. The bad people want us to have more dough, and the good people are fighting to keep it from us. It's not good for us, know what i mean? If we all had all we wanted to eat, we'd crap too much. We'd have inflation in toilet paper industry. That's the way i understand it. That's about the size of some of the arguments i've heard."
"Theres a time of peace I said and a time of war. A time to sow and a time to reap. A time to live and a time to die"
"The subject suffers from strong feelings of guilt... combined with a sense of frustration and persecution... which increase as he grows older; yet there are rarely if ever any surface signs of... disturbance. On the contrary, his behaviour appears to be entirely logical. He reasons soundly, even shrewdly. He is completely aware of what he does and why he does it..."
WARNING #2 - "Hitchhikers* may be escaped lunatics."
Let's begin with a Stephen King quote: "THE KILLER INSIDE ME is an American classic, no less, a novel that deserves space on the same shelf as Moby-Dick, Huckleberry Finn, The Sun Also Rises, and As I Lay Dying. Thompson's other books are either good or almost great, but all of them pale before the horrifying, mesmerizing story of Lou Ford, that smiling good ol' Texas boy who would rather beat you to death with cliches than shoot you with a .44 ...but if the cliches don't do the job, he is not afraid to pick up the gun. And use it."
Lou Ford is a deputy sheriff in the offbeat town of Central City, Texas. He is easy-going, soft hearted and genuinely (?) likes people. He has a pretty chatter-mouth girlfriend who he sort of loves, but will never marry, and an even prettier strumpet on the side that he claims to truly love. He likes bantering with people (to drive them crazy) and does indeed know how to handle troublemakers. He even likes good ol' sheriff Bob.
BUT....Lou is also a deeply disturbed, sneaky, conniving serial killer....a truly scary type of serial killer who struts down the street in his Stetson with a satisfying smile on his face after committing an atrocious act, AND, (as you will see) his shocking comments and thoroughly disgusting laugh-out-loud reaction afterward just takes the mind-boggling cake!
The first person narration works so well here giving the reader a glimpse into the mind of a psycho killer as he plans every move, and make no doubt about it, this dude eliminates anyone who gets in his way.
First published March 13, 1952 THE KILLER INSIDE ME classic is an unsettling, but notable work of crime-noir-horror that I must rate 5 Stars. It's just so....what?....indescribably dark and nasty?....or crazy good?
* (I can't believe how many times we picked up hitchhikers in the 60's!)
That’s what I was going to be; I was going to have to live and get along with rubes. I wasn’t ever going to have anything but some safe, small job, and I’d have to act accordingly.