Summary Of Outside The Manson Pinkberry

“Outside the Manson Pinkberry: Manson Bloggers and the World of Murder Fandom” by author Rachel Monroe details Monroe’s findings while doing in depth research of infamous cult leader and serial killer Charles Manson. She discusses how her obsession with the Manson family began while she was in high school, and how her morbid interest eventually led her down a path of intrigue and sometimes horror when she fell in with a crowd of internet bloggers whose obsession with the Manson family surpassed her own and spent five days alongside them and learning about the road she nearly went down as a teenager. Not only does she discuss her own misadventures with this group of people, she also discusses her own point of view on the Manson family’s still

While she could have simply began her story of her time with the Manson Bloggers in a more mundane fashion (ex. “I spent five days with the Manson Bloggers, and on the second day we spent together, they wanted to find the tree that Charles Manson used to sit in and play the guitar, but instead we found a tongue hanging from a tree branch.”) but that simply would not have held the same weight as describing the ten-foot cross looming in “right-angled judgment,” making the reader feel a sort of impending doom. This cluster of sentences are a perfect example of the high style, and because it is in the high style, that weight of the sentence is as heavy as it is. Monroe utilizes high style in her piece not to sway the reader into taking action, but to entertain. Everyone knows the story of Charles Manson, has some knowledge of the infamous crimes his cult committed, but it is unlikely that the public knows much about the intense following Manson accrued even after he was arrested, and for how long after his arrest did people keep their obsession of him and his “family.” It is not every day that one gets to spend ample time with those who have dedicated their lives to researching Manson, his followers, and his day to day life with no other purpose other than to entertain their dark

It is more shocking to downplay the things she witnessed as well as actual facts about the Family than to make them seem outrageously out of the ordinary. If Monroe had opted to use hyperbole instead of litotes, the piece would have felt too much like other stories about Manson and followers of his exploits and the exploits of his family, and thus, be less compelling. The first example of Monroe’s use of litotes occurs right in the opening line of the article: “On the second day I spent with the Manson Bloggers, we found a tongue hanging from a tree.” This dismissal of what anyone would find to be a horrifying discovery is jarring, but it also alludes to the style of frankness and morbidity Monroe uses throughout the entire piece. Litotes occur frequently throughout the piece, and the following are just a few examples of