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In a Town of 11 People, Mysterious Disappearance Turns Neighbor Against Neighbor

nytimes.com

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Re: In a Town of 11 People, Mysterious Disappearance Turns Neighbor Against Neighbor

#41

Post by elygre »

carapace wrote: post #38

I once knew a fellow who had grown up on a small island in Alaska. He told me there was one man in particular who lived there who was a real piece of work, just a miserable SOB. One day someone shot him and killed him in his home. The guy gave me to understand that everybody on the island knew it was his son but didn't feel that a prosecution would serve any useful purpose. The boy had enough problems. Can you imagin…

> Who’s fit to judge such things?

One answer would be “a jury of his peers”, and perhaps the islanders decided that would be them?

(Also, I don’t think it was the right solution)

Re: In a Town of 11 People, Mysterious Disappearance Turns Neighbor Against Neighbor

#42

Post by gt_ »

mlthoughts2018 wrote: post #23
ggm wrote: post #11

This obviously made news here in Australia as well, and it has qualities which I think anyone who has read 'hillbilly elegy' can relate to: in small communities, sometimes there is a cone of silence which is really strong, and quite at odds with what we think of as "the law" Obviously, people know things. But, as a small community, there is a 'hang together, or hang separately' quality here. They are very isolated, a…

> “anyone who has read 'hillbilly elegy' can relate to: in small communities, sometimes there is a cone of silence which is really strong, and quite at odds with what we think of as "the law"” I both read Hillbilly Elegy and also grew up in a small rural Ohio town near Kentucky, very much in the epicenter of the book’s described culture. I don’t think the book or rural culture has any type of “cone of silence” like t…

That book is so full of nonsense. It’s a string of desperate theories that strive to explain present-day tensions in such a way that ignores the context of present-day. The milieus of turbo consumerism and associated economic strife are in conflict with certain less-compatible self-identities, and not others. This underwrites everything the book aims to address with far more cohesion (as is often the case with successful realism) and is an infinitely more fascinating theme at that (also often the case with successful realism). It’s too bad the author was so desperate to avoid it. For whatever reason, the author goes digging where’s simply nothing to dig. The result is boring, hardheaded exoticism.

I know he claims the subjects are his own family, but I’m not buying it. The subjects are his agenda.

Re: In a Town of 11 People, Mysterious Disappearance Turns Neighbor Against Neighbor

#43

Post by samplatt »

mythz wrote: post #36

Seems the only time my home state makes international news is because of some weird death or disappearance: - Murder of Peter Falconio [1] - Rod Ansell, inspiration for Crocodile Dundee dies in a police shoot out [2] - Croc river murders of Darwin sex workers [3] - Death of Azaria Chamberlain (Dingo ate my baby) [4] - German backpacker who escaped the Bali bomb blast killed by a crocodile in Kakadu [5] [1] https://en…

* home territory

(I get corrected on that all the time.)

Re: In a Town of 11 People, Mysterious Disappearance Turns Neighbor Against Neighbor

#44

Post by kumarharsh »

js2 wrote: post #33

Reminds me a bit of the Bobby Dunbar story: > In 1912 a four-year-old boy named Bobby Dunbar went missing in a swamp in Louisiana. Eight months later, he was found in the hands of a wandering handyman in Mississippi. In 2004, Bobby Dunbar's granddaughter discovered a secret beneath the legend of her grandfather's kidnapping, a secret whose revelation would divide her own family, bring redemption to another, and becom…

What a story that was. Thanks!

Re: In a Town of 11 People, Mysterious Disappearance Turns Neighbor Against Neighbor

#45

Post by kirubakaran »

mygo wrote: post #34
kirubakaran wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I decided idyllic English villages aren't for me, after watching Hot Fuzz and Midsomer Murders.

recommend any other such films? I'm all over that small town lawless stuff

I liked "U Turn" https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0120399/ (set in small town Arizona)

I've heard good things about Shetland and Broadchurch, but I'm yet to watch them.

Re: In a Town of 11 People, Mysterious Disappearance Turns Neighbor Against Neighbor

#46

Post by scarejunba »

carapace wrote: post #38

I once knew a fellow who had grown up on a small island in Alaska. He told me there was one man in particular who lived there who was a real piece of work, just a miserable SOB. One day someone shot him and killed him in his home. The guy gave me to understand that everybody on the island knew it was his son but didn't feel that a prosecution would serve any useful purpose. The boy had enough problems. Can you imagin…

Reminds me of that famous story:

...the Eskimos have a word, kunlangeta, which means "his mind knows what to do but he does not do it." This is an abstract term for the breaking of many rules when awareness of the rules is not in question. It might be applied to a man who, for example, repeatedly lies and cheats and steals things and does not go hunting and, when the other men are out of the village, takes sexual advantage of many women-someone who does not pay attention to reprimands and who is always being brought to the elders for punishment. One Eskimo among the 499 was called kunlangeta. When asked what would have happened to such a person traditionally, an Eskimo said that probably "somebody would have pushed him off the ice when nobody else was looking." ... It is of considerable interest that kunlan- geta and arankan are not behaviors that the shamans and healers are believed to be able to cure or change.

Re: In a Town of 11 People, Mysterious Disappearance Turns Neighbor Against Neighbor

#47

Post by jakobegger »

carapace wrote: post #38

I once knew a fellow who had grown up on a small island in Alaska. He told me there was one man in particular who lived there who was a real piece of work, just a miserable SOB. One day someone shot him and killed him in his home. The guy gave me to understand that everybody on the island knew it was his son but didn't feel that a prosecution would serve any useful purpose. The boy had enough problems. Can you imagin…

Is that a typo? frater = brother, I assume you meant patricide?

Re: In a Town of 11 People, Mysterious Disappearance Turns Neighbor Against Neighbor

#48

Post by dragonsky67 »

ggm wrote: post #12
moltar wrote: post #9

I’m more amazed that a town of 11 people has a bar and a hotel. But also that so much drama exists in such small community.

An Australian outback community needs three things to sustain and survive: a doctor (GP) a bank and a pub. Well.. in the final analysis, a pub will do. BTW, colloquially a "hotel" is a pub. Its not impossible town has two watering holes... not one. This is not that dissimilar to a situation I've seen in small Italian rural communities: one drinking hole which the left wing sit at, and one the right wing sit at. (or g…

And in many cases in Australia, they might be lucky to have a nurse and a fortnightly visit from the Flying Doctor. In many areas of Australia, without the Flying Doctor, medial treatment is a 2+ hour trip down a dirt road that is regularly cut for weeks on end during the wet season.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Flying_Doctor_Service_of...

Re: In a Town of 11 People, Mysterious Disappearance Turns Neighbor Against Neighbor

#49

Post by wukerplank »

duxup wrote: post #28

>A three-day search by foot, on four-wheel-drives and from the air ruled out death by misadventure. To date, the police have found no trace of Mr. Moriarty or his dog. I'm kinda surprised that this ruled out something. Particularly in a rural area. I grew up in rural areas and there are often stories of massive searches, and the body didn't turn up until it was stumbled upon surprisingly close to civilization.

Yes, especially with drownings, where the body would not re-appear for weeks and months.

Re: In a Town of 11 People, Mysterious Disappearance Turns Neighbor Against Neighbor

#50

Post by ggm »

gt_ wrote: post #42
mlthoughts2018 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> “anyone who has read 'hillbilly elegy' can relate to: in small communities, sometimes there is a cone of silence which is really strong, and quite at odds with what we think of as "the law"” I both read Hillbilly Elegy and also grew up in a small rural Ohio town near Kentucky, very much in the epicenter of the book’s described culture. I don’t think the book or rural culture has any type of “cone of silence” like t…

That book is so full of nonsense. It’s a string of desperate theories that strive to explain present-day tensions in such a way that ignores the context of present-day. The milieus of turbo consumerism and associated economic strife are in conflict with certain less-compatible self-identities, and not others. This underwrites everything the book aims to address with far more cohesion (as is often the case with succes…

wow. this is so po-mo it's beyond criticism, into conspiracy theory.

are you literally saying he "made it up" or are you projecting something else here?

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