Policeman as a Writer I decided to begin the term’s work with the short story since that form would be the easiest for the police officers, not only because most of their reading up to then had probably been in that genre, but also because a study of the reaction of people to various situations was something they relied on in their daily work. For instance, they had to be able to predict how others would react to their directives and interventions before deciding on their own form of action;they had to be able to take in the details of a situation quickly and correctly before intervening. No matter how factual and sparse police reports may seem to us, they must make use of a selection of vital detail, similar to which a writer of a short story has to make. This was taught to me by one of my students, a captain, at the end of the term. I had begun the study of the short story by stressing the differences between a factual report, such as a scientist’s or a policeman’s report, and the presentation of a creative writer. While a selection of necessary details is involved in both, the officer must remain neutral and clearly try to present a picture of the facts, while the artist usually begins with a preconceived message or attitude which is then transmitted through the use of carefully selected details of action described in words intended to provoke associations and emotional reactions in the reader. Only at the end of the term did the captain point out to me that he and his men also try to evaluate the events they describe and that their description of a sequence of events must of necessity be structured and colored by their understanding of what has taken place. The policemen’s reactions to events and characters in the stories were surprisingly unprejudiced... They did not object to writers whose stories had to do with their protagonist’s rebellion against society’s accepted values. Nor did stories in which the strong father becomes the villain and in which our usual ideals of manhood are turned around offend them. The many hunters among my students readily granted the message in those hunting tales in which sensitivity triumphs over male aggressiveness, stories that show the boy becoming a man because he fails to shoot the deer,goose, or catbird. The only characters they did object to were those they thought unrealistic. As the previous class had done, this one also excelled in interpreting the ways in which characters reveal themselves, subtly manipulate and influence each other;they, too, understood how the story usually saves its insight, its revelation, for the end. This almost instinctive grasp of the writing of fiction was revealed when the policemen volunteered to write their own short stories. They not only took great pains with plot and character,but with style and language. The stories were surprisingly well written,revealing an understanding of what a solid short story must contain: the revelation of character, the use of background description and language to create atmosphere and mood,the need to sustain suspense and get make each event as it occurs seem natural,the insight achieved either by the characters in the story or the reader or both. They tended to favor surprise endings. Some stories were sheer fantasies, or derived from previous reading,films, or television shows. Most wrote stories, obviously based on their own experiences, which revealed the amazing distance they must put between their personal lives and their work, which is part of the training for being a good cop. These stories, as well as their discussions of them, showed how coolly they judged their own weaknesses as well as the humor with which they accepted some of the difficulties or injustices of existence. Despite their authors’ unmistakable sense of irony and awareness of corruption, these stories demonstrated how clearly, almost naively, these policemen wanted to continue to believe in some of the so - called American virtues--that courage is worth the effort and will be admired;that hard work will be rewarded;that life is somehow good;and that, despite the weariness, boredom, and occasional ugliness and danger, despite all their dislike of most of their routine and despite their own occasional grousing and complaints,they somehow did like being cops;that life, even in a chaotic and violent world, is worth it after all.
I decided to begin the term’s work with the short story since that form would be the easiest for the police officers, not only because most of their reading up to then had probably been in that genre, but also because a study of the reaction of people to various situations was something they relied on in their daily work. For instance, they had to be able to predict how others would react to their directives and interventions before deciding on their own form of action;they had to be able to take in the details of a situation quickly and correctly before intervening. No matter how factual and sparse police reports may seem to us, they must make use of a selection of vital detail, similar to which a writer of a short story has to make.
This was taught to me by one of my students, a captain, at the end of the term. I had begun the study of the short story by stressing the differences between a factual report, such as a scientist’s or a policeman’s report, and the presentation of a creative writer. While a selection of necessary details is involved in both, the officer must remain neutral and clearly try to present a picture of the facts, while the artist usually begins with a preconceived message or attitude which is then transmitted through the use of carefully selected details of action described in words intended to provoke associations and emotional reactions in the reader. Only at the end of the term did the captain point out to me that he and his men also try to evaluate the events they describe and that their description of a sequence of events must of necessity be structured and colored by their understanding of what has taken place.
The policemen’s reactions to events and characters in the stories were surprisingly unprejudiced... They did not object to writers whose stories had to do with their protagonist’s rebellion against society’s accepted values. Nor did stories in which the strong father becomes the villain and in which our usual ideals of manhood are turned around offend them. The many hunters among my students readily granted the message in those hunting tales in which sensitivity triumphs over male aggressiveness, stories that show the boy becoming a man because he fails to shoot the deer,goose, or catbird. The only characters they did object to were those they thought unrealistic. As the previous class had done, this one also excelled in interpreting the ways in which characters reveal themselves, subtly manipulate and influence each other;they, too, understood how the story usually saves its insight, its revelation, for the end.
This almost instinctive grasp of the writing of fiction was revealed when the policemen volunteered to write their own short stories. They not only took great pains with plot and character,but with style and language. The stories were surprisingly well written,revealing an understanding of what a solid short story must contain: the revelation of character, the use of background description and language to create atmosphere and mood,the need to sustain suspense and get make each event as it occurs seem natural,the insight achieved either by the characters in the story or the reader or both. They tended to favor surprise endings. Some stories were sheer fantasies, or derived from previous reading,films, or television shows. Most wrote stories, obviously based on their own experiences, which revealed the amazing distance they must put between their personal lives and their work, which is part of the training for being a good cop. These stories, as well as their discussions of them, showed how coolly they judged their own weaknesses as well as the humor with which they accepted some of the difficulties or injustices of existence. Despite their authors’ unmistakable sense of irony and awareness of corruption, these stories demonstrated how clearly, almost naively, these policemen wanted to continue to believe in some of the so - called American virtues--that courage is worth the effort and will be admired;that hard work will be rewarded;that life is somehow good;and that, despite the weariness, boredom, and occasional ugliness and danger, despite all their dislike of most of their routine and despite their own occasional grousing and complaints,they somehow did like being cops;that life, even in a chaotic and violent world, is worth it after all.
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