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Alice Sebold's "Lucky" (1999)
A memoir from a rape victim
Grade: A life-changing read
In a recent critique of the portrayal of rape in a Game of Thrones episode, one of my favourite internet film critics, Film Critic Hulk (a pseudonym used to conceal the blogger's identity), pointed out that Hollywood portrays rape using one of 4 tropes nearly 100% of the time:
1) "texture of horror", as a cheap shock tactic to let us know which characters are evil, a form of behavioural exposition;
2) The standard rape-revenge plot, where the trauma of rape is used as a shortcut for ready-made violence and rote catharsis;
3) A variation of the rape-revenge plot where a male figure does the revenging and then usually gets the girl at the end as a reward, to quote HULK, "YOU WOULDN'T BELIEVE HOW MANY WRITERS LIKE TO DRESS THIS UP AS SOMETHING "INTERESTING" WHEN IT'S THE SAME GROSS **** AS ALWAYS. "
4) The attempt for the gray scale, where the narrative in the mind of the attacker is grayed;
More here:
http://badassdigest.com/2014/04/29/c...ape-scene-yet/
and also here:
http://badassdigest.com/2013/11/14/w...lk-about-rape/
Two exceptions were listed to these tropes, the written memoir "Lucky" by Alice Sebold (who has also written the apparently famous "The Lovely Bones") and the movie "Irreversible by the Argentine filmmaker Gaspar Noé. I ordered both from Amazon in curiosity. I read Lucky this weekend.
***************************
"Lucky" is Alice Sebold's memoir of her rape by a stranger as a college freshmen at Syracuse University in the 1981 and the resulting aftermath including successful prosecution that lasted approximately one year. She wrote it to share her experiences, as there were often similarities with the experiences of other rape survivors, and I think she wants to destigmatize the experience, and believes talking about it openly can accomplish that end. The title of the book refers to the fact that Alice was more fortunate than most women who experienced similar situations, she was surrounded by a few good friends, had a good family, and there was enough evidence that a successful prosecution could follow-up and lead to a maximum sentence (25 years, so 1982-2007 I guess). From the official synopsis: Sebold was raped as a college freshman, but the police said she was "lucky." At least she wasn't murdered and dismembered like the girl before her.
The book begins with Alice being raped in an isolated area on her way home by a black strange, where the description of the rape lasts ~15 pages and is fully graphic in description. Alice fights back, is defeated by her attacked, and then succumbs, her rapist lets her go when he's done and in some weird text seems to feel sorry for her, before taking the pocket change she was carrying. Alice then returns to her dormitory, bloodied up and clearly a victim of violence with everyone staring at her. She tells one of her best friends who subsequently faints immediately, she then tells the resident adviser who calls the police for her. She's picked up in an ambulance.
The book follows with her going home to her family for a few months, including her father's believable cluelessness, the way she and everyone else around her struggled to deal with the situation, how she struggled to get to know boys better afterwards, the other are survivors she got to know (I think three are mentioned in the book, thus communicating that rape is common), the police investigation, the extended trial, and what happened in the years following. It's at times separately heart-breaking and heart-warming, I don't recall crying this much from a book well ... ever.
I was struck by Alice Sebold's intelligence upon reading her memoir... it takes significant ability to be able to detail all these events so precisely, some 20 years after the fact. Aside from that, there's an impressive scene near the end where the defense attorney cross-examines her. He is asking her myriad questions about where the event took place, its geography, its lighting, et cetera in an attempt to exhaust her ... I was exhausted just reading it, it's hard to imagine facing that on the stand, harder still facing that as an 19 year-old in a rape trial and successfully fighting back by holding on. Sebold didn't trip, she writes about figuring out what the attorney was trying to do at various points and pre-empting him, when she leaves the stand one of her attorneys, Gail Uebelhoer, tells her that she made a hell of a witness.
Which all serves to remind of the difficulties of these trials. Sebold had a slam-dunk case, she had multiple markers of physical violence, hair samples from her attacker, she had been a virgin, she wasn't drunk, she didn't do drugs, she was white whereas her attacker was black, she was a "good girl"... and it was still a difficult trial and experience where success wasn't guaranteed. Aside from her "luck" from all these "circumstantials" (that's apparently a legal term), she also needed impressive resolve, intelligence to see the process through. Her "luck" via her intelligence shines through decades later in the writing of this memoir ... Alice Sebold majored in English/Poetry, she's an effective writer and communicator, complete with clear sentences, proper narrative pacing, characterisation, reveals to mysteries placed at the right points, an appropriate vocabulary, and even a non-linear narrative. Most rape victims, even if they had the will to sit down and write a memoir, would not be able to communicate their experiences so clearly.
Though her attacker was placed in prison for the maximum sentence, Alice Sebold got to move forrwad from her rape but never move on. Her roommate got raped in the years following, which resulted in their friendship eventually severing... her roommate was not so lucky, there was less evidence, and she did not move forward with the trial. Sebold suffered from extensive post-traumatic stress disorder, and discusses relating to Vietnam veterans and their symptoms. She lived in fear in New York in the 1980s, and writes about doing heroin frequently, which she preferred to alcohol.
Just writing this review brings me to tears. I want to try and help, but really I have no idea. I'm not a legislator. So my only prescription is ... I hope as many people as possible read this. I suspect if this was taught in high schools, the world might be a marginally better place. Here's the Amazon link to purchase a copy:
Lucky Paperback – September 1, 2002
by Alice Sebold (Author)
- David
A memoir from a rape victim
Grade: A life-changing read
In a recent critique of the portrayal of rape in a Game of Thrones episode, one of my favourite internet film critics, Film Critic Hulk (a pseudonym used to conceal the blogger's identity), pointed out that Hollywood portrays rape using one of 4 tropes nearly 100% of the time:
1) "texture of horror", as a cheap shock tactic to let us know which characters are evil, a form of behavioural exposition;
2) The standard rape-revenge plot, where the trauma of rape is used as a shortcut for ready-made violence and rote catharsis;
3) A variation of the rape-revenge plot where a male figure does the revenging and then usually gets the girl at the end as a reward, to quote HULK, "YOU WOULDN'T BELIEVE HOW MANY WRITERS LIKE TO DRESS THIS UP AS SOMETHING "INTERESTING" WHEN IT'S THE SAME GROSS **** AS ALWAYS. "
4) The attempt for the gray scale, where the narrative in the mind of the attacker is grayed;
More here:
http://badassdigest.com/2014/04/29/c...ape-scene-yet/
and also here:
http://badassdigest.com/2013/11/14/w...lk-about-rape/
Two exceptions were listed to these tropes, the written memoir "Lucky" by Alice Sebold (who has also written the apparently famous "The Lovely Bones") and the movie "Irreversible by the Argentine filmmaker Gaspar Noé. I ordered both from Amazon in curiosity. I read Lucky this weekend.
***************************
"Lucky" is Alice Sebold's memoir of her rape by a stranger as a college freshmen at Syracuse University in the 1981 and the resulting aftermath including successful prosecution that lasted approximately one year. She wrote it to share her experiences, as there were often similarities with the experiences of other rape survivors, and I think she wants to destigmatize the experience, and believes talking about it openly can accomplish that end. The title of the book refers to the fact that Alice was more fortunate than most women who experienced similar situations, she was surrounded by a few good friends, had a good family, and there was enough evidence that a successful prosecution could follow-up and lead to a maximum sentence (25 years, so 1982-2007 I guess). From the official synopsis: Sebold was raped as a college freshman, but the police said she was "lucky." At least she wasn't murdered and dismembered like the girl before her.
The book begins with Alice being raped in an isolated area on her way home by a black strange, where the description of the rape lasts ~15 pages and is fully graphic in description. Alice fights back, is defeated by her attacked, and then succumbs, her rapist lets her go when he's done and in some weird text seems to feel sorry for her, before taking the pocket change she was carrying. Alice then returns to her dormitory, bloodied up and clearly a victim of violence with everyone staring at her. She tells one of her best friends who subsequently faints immediately, she then tells the resident adviser who calls the police for her. She's picked up in an ambulance.
The book follows with her going home to her family for a few months, including her father's believable cluelessness, the way she and everyone else around her struggled to deal with the situation, how she struggled to get to know boys better afterwards, the other are survivors she got to know (I think three are mentioned in the book, thus communicating that rape is common), the police investigation, the extended trial, and what happened in the years following. It's at times separately heart-breaking and heart-warming, I don't recall crying this much from a book well ... ever.
I was struck by Alice Sebold's intelligence upon reading her memoir... it takes significant ability to be able to detail all these events so precisely, some 20 years after the fact. Aside from that, there's an impressive scene near the end where the defense attorney cross-examines her. He is asking her myriad questions about where the event took place, its geography, its lighting, et cetera in an attempt to exhaust her ... I was exhausted just reading it, it's hard to imagine facing that on the stand, harder still facing that as an 19 year-old in a rape trial and successfully fighting back by holding on. Sebold didn't trip, she writes about figuring out what the attorney was trying to do at various points and pre-empting him, when she leaves the stand one of her attorneys, Gail Uebelhoer, tells her that she made a hell of a witness.
Which all serves to remind of the difficulties of these trials. Sebold had a slam-dunk case, she had multiple markers of physical violence, hair samples from her attacker, she had been a virgin, she wasn't drunk, she didn't do drugs, she was white whereas her attacker was black, she was a "good girl"... and it was still a difficult trial and experience where success wasn't guaranteed. Aside from her "luck" from all these "circumstantials" (that's apparently a legal term), she also needed impressive resolve, intelligence to see the process through. Her "luck" via her intelligence shines through decades later in the writing of this memoir ... Alice Sebold majored in English/Poetry, she's an effective writer and communicator, complete with clear sentences, proper narrative pacing, characterisation, reveals to mysteries placed at the right points, an appropriate vocabulary, and even a non-linear narrative. Most rape victims, even if they had the will to sit down and write a memoir, would not be able to communicate their experiences so clearly.
Though her attacker was placed in prison for the maximum sentence, Alice Sebold got to move forrwad from her rape but never move on. Her roommate got raped in the years following, which resulted in their friendship eventually severing... her roommate was not so lucky, there was less evidence, and she did not move forward with the trial. Sebold suffered from extensive post-traumatic stress disorder, and discusses relating to Vietnam veterans and their symptoms. She lived in fear in New York in the 1980s, and writes about doing heroin frequently, which she preferred to alcohol.
Just writing this review brings me to tears. I want to try and help, but really I have no idea. I'm not a legislator. So my only prescription is ... I hope as many people as possible read this. I suspect if this was taught in high schools, the world might be a marginally better place. Here's the Amazon link to purchase a copy:
Lucky Paperback – September 1, 2002
by Alice Sebold (Author)
- David
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