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CRC Blog Analysis on
Luminol
Theory by Laura Ellen Joyce
“A Constellation Point:
The State of Colorado As
the Perpetrator”
Punctum
Books published Laura Ellen Joyce’s (Bottom Far Left) analysis Luminol Theory on August
23, 2017; copy editing by Athena Tan; and book design by Vincent W.J. van
Gervan Oei (Bottom Far Right).
Joyce has also written the crime fiction novel Museum
of Atheism by Salt Publishing; the novella The Luminous Reels by Calamari
Press; and edited the anthology textbook Domestic Noir- The New Face of 21st
Century Crime Fiction by Palgrave Macmillan.
Below the new
headlines and saturated images are weirder, ghostly traces of the state of
Colorado as a constellation point for horror of all kinds. The crimes I discuss here were influenced by,
and have influenced, a whole range of mystic, religious, and otherworldly
practices.
--Luminol Theory, page 98
Joyce describes the victims of these crimes: Jonbenet Ramsey of Boulder, Colorado; victims
of serial killer Ted Bundy; the fictional Torrance Family from Stephen King’s The
Shining and Stanley Kubrick’s movie version The Shining in Colorado’s
Rocky Mountains; the Donner Party; the indigenous people in Sand Creek,
Colorado Massacre of 1864; the Branch Dravidians standoff led by David Koresh in
Waco, Texas; the victims of the Oklahoma City bombing perpetrated by Timothy
McVeigh; and the victims of the Columbine Massacre in Littleton, Colorado
perpetrated by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.
Joyce argues that the basement in the
Jonbenet Ramsey is a disciplinary institution used as control by the male
members of the households in Colorado – in this case John Ramsey of Boulder,
Colorado. The basements also have human like
characteristics of being unconscious and an indicator of someone’s economic
status.
In conjunction with
the central crime of murder, the Ramsey basement can be read palimpsestically
as a space for capitalist accumulation of wealth and colonization of land –
both staples of the American Gothic narrative.
Page 20.
In the CRC Blog’s perspective the basements
also provide a safe and secret place for the perpetrator to commit these
crimes. The basements are cold,
emotionally set apart from the house, not really a part of the dwelling places
for the living. Basements could also describe
the Colorado’s basement of snowy terrain – a basement that is seasonal – thus
giving Ted Bundy the perfect secret and hiding place to commit these crimes
against women, and to hide their bodies in the snowy basements of the state of
Colorado.
“By April he had
murdered three young women: Caryn
Campbell, Julie Cunningham, and Denise Oliverson. Though he perpetrated his crimes through the
US, the crimes in Colorado have taken on a grimy valence –particularly the
murder of Cunningham, in Vail, Colorado. She was brutally murdered by Bundy after, he testified, he tricked her
into carrying his ski boots for him by feigning injury. This particular ruse has been popularized in
several culture representations of Bundy and is part of serial-killer
folklore. In this case the
Colorado landscape participated in the crime with the snow-covered Vail
Mountain (Below) offering an alibi both for the heavy ski boots and the injury. When excavated with the Luminol Theory, the
murder of Cunningham reveals the mythic narrative that haunts and occupies
Bundy’s other crimes. It shines through
the snow scene to reveal not only the individual crimes of abduction, murder,
rape, and necrophilia but also the systemic patriarchal crimes perpetrated
against both women in reality and in cultural representation.”
Another CRC
Blog perspective is that Stephen King’s novel and the Rob Reiner film Misery
are also applicable to Laura Ellen Joyce’s analysis Luminol Theory. Paul Sheldon is a bestselling novelist of
Victorian romance novels featuring the serial character Misery Chastain. He is trying to break away from the Misery
Chastain mold of writing and travels to the Hotel Boulderado in Boulder, Colorado
where he writes his new crime novel Fast Cars. The Hotel Boulderado is Paul’s one place
where he finishes the first draft of every novel he has written and upon
completion of Fast Cars decides to drive to Los Angeles.
Colorado’s terrain and snowy landscape
are the contributing factors in Paul Sheldon driving his car off a snowy
embankment in Colorado. He is rescued by
psychotic fan Annie Wilkes who is under the same writing muse as Paul, except
Annie cannot separate reality from fiction.
Annie takes Paul to her home in the fictional town of Sidewinder,
Colorado. Here the guest bedroom where
Annie houses Paul becomes the basement – a place for her to victimize Paul and
to do it in secret until she gets what she wants – a burning of the book Fast Cars
and Paul writing a new book reviving Misery Chastain back to life from
the dead. All of these elements
exemplify Laura Ellen Joyce’s analysis and conclusion of Colorado as a
perpetrator.
Joyce further states that Colorado is the
perpetrator in cases that specifically did not originate in the region of
Colorado. She gives an example of the
Stanley Kubrick movie The Shining where the subject of The
Donner Party is discussed between Jack and Wendy on their way to the Overlook
Hotel. Through this conversation, the
Donner Party (Donner trail below) is fictionally moved from California to perpetrator Colorado.
Other crimes that did not originate in Colorado
but had lasting affects in the state of Colorado are the Branch Dravidians standoff
led by David Koresh in Waco, Texas, (Right) which was viewed by Timothy McVeigh who out
of anger bombed the Oklahoma City bombing of 168 victims and who was later
tried, convicted, and sentenced to death in Denver, Colorado.
Joyce’s theory that crimes occurring
outside the geographical location of Colorado have a lasting affect in
purporting Colorado as perpetrator is supported by journalist and Colorado
native Dave Cullen (Above Right) who reported on the Columbine mass shootings:
Joyce (Right) insists Luminol Theory is not
limited to the science of luminol theory, the social sciences, or literary
theory but is a consummation of all of these things with the one goal: “It relates to the lived---and
dead---experience of those who have been subject to extreme violence.” (Joyce's writing space is below left)
Joyce further explains that Luminol
Theory’s main idea is to show that “literature serves a social function
by encoding within a safe space, desires which must not be enacted in the
world.”
******
The Best Land Under Heaven: The Donner Party in the Age of Manifest Destiny.
Louie Croft Boyd
Calamari Press
Columbine
Dave Cullen
Domestic
Noir-The New Face of 21st Century Crime Fiction
Laura Ellen Joyce
Stephen King
Stanley Kubrick
Luminol Reels
Misery movie
Misery novel
Museum of
Atheism
Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei
Palgrave
Macmillan
Punctum Books
Salt Publishing
The
Shining
movie
The Shining novel
Michael Wallis
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