IR Interview: Patricia Cornwell For "Identity Unknown" [Hachette] - Part II - video Dailymotion

The Inside Reel

Author Patricia Cornwell talks to The Inside Reel about context, structure and human behavior in regards to her newest Kay Scarpetta novel: "Identity Unknown" from Hachette Books.

Transcript

00:00Well, it has to do with tone and obviously, you know, your books have been translated

00:23into film and obviously will be done again.

00:26So you know, the idea is, you know, tonality is very important, but it's also what you

00:31see the characters do, like the characters of Lucy here, characters of Ben, I mean, Marino

00:36is a whole other thing.

00:37But I mean, it's basically what's said and what's not said that shorthand, but then also

00:42the mystery of why are these people doing this, even though they're supposed to be so

00:46close to me?

00:48Could you talk about that?

00:49Because I think that dynamic and watching these characters sort of revolve around Scarpetta

00:55revolve around them really is sort of the yin and yang and the real meat of what we're

01:00seeing.

01:02I used to say a long time ago that that I would create a crime story because it's really

01:07just an excuse to get all the characters together, because that's, you know, the characters

01:12are the most important thing.

01:14If they aren't people that you want to spend time with, I don't care how intriguing the

01:20case is or the mystery or how dramatic the scenes are, what cool stuff you might show

01:25somebody, if you don't care about them, you're not going to care about the rest of it.

01:29For example, when I have the scene in Identity Unknown where Scarpetta has to go scuba

01:35dive in the Chesapeake Bay because of an aircraft that's crashed and there's a body to be

01:40recovered and it's all related to everything else that's going on, she and Lucy go put

01:46on their wetsuits and their gear because they're scuba divers par excellence and we

01:52watch them work together.

01:54And meanwhile, Scarpetta is dealing with all kinds of stuff.

01:57And so is Lucy that's going on in their own lives.

02:00And I kind of love the scene when they're floating on top of the water waiting for the

02:05boat to come pick them up.

02:06And they've got the body in this body bag that's, you know, that they're sort of floating

02:11with to get it back on the ship.

02:14And they're waiting and they're waiting.

02:17And the water's kind of lapping up over their faces.

02:21And it's the aunt and the niece, you know, they're there together.

02:26And what is that like when they're.

02:28And so I think people, you are so correct that if you don't have something with these

02:34people that make you want to be part of them.

02:36I mean, that's why we watch shows like Friends, for example.

02:39We want to be part of it.

02:40We want that to be our family and Scarpetta and Marino and Benton and Lucy and Dorothy,

02:45they are family for everyone.

03:04You go out, you go scuba dive, you go try to do all these things and you put yourself

03:08in their shoes.

03:09But this one, how do you try to do that?

03:12I mean, you can read a lot of declassified stuff.

03:14You obviously have great context, too.

03:17Can you talk about looking at this concept and bringing it to bear for you?

03:22Well, you know, it's reading a lot of things that people are seeing, looking at videos

03:27of these UAPs or UFOs, you know, and listening to what the whistleblowers are saying about,

03:34you know, crash retrievals and reverse engineering.

03:37And and their belief that, yes, yes, yes, there is non-human intelligence.

03:41There are there is something besides us.

03:44And I believe that's true.

03:45I mean, there's something in mathematics called the Drake equation, which basically

03:49shows you that statistically it's almost impossible that we are the only life in the

03:55universe, the only intelligent life in the universe.

03:57And so, you know, so I explore that.

04:01And then it's a big what if what if you had something that looks like that's what

04:05happened. But is that really what happened?

04:08I mean, someone's really dead.

04:09And all those things are true that I've just described in a UAP was spotted.

04:12But remember, a UAP just means you don't know what it is.

04:16It doesn't mean it's from outer space or that an extraterrestrial made it.

04:23Now, it doesn't mean it was.

04:25That's not the case either.

04:26But it could be either or.

04:27And why my last question, because it comes back, interestingly enough, to human

04:31behavior, human greed, human motivation, all these things, you know, and that keys

04:37into it as well.

04:38Could you talk about looking at human behavior?

04:41Human behavior is the same as it was five hundred thousand years ago.

04:45We just have more toys to play with now.

04:47So I know.

04:49I mean, it's yeah.

04:51Human behavior is I will just say it is a problem.

04:55I mean, it gives me job security and it certainly gives SCARPETTA job security.

05:00But what SCARPETTA will tell you is that, I mean, she's not afraid of extraterrestrials

05:04and I'm not either. I mean, if they want to zap us, they could already done it.

05:08But what I but what I do know, and so does she.

05:11And she says it. It's people.

05:13It's humans who bring death to her door every day.

05:18It's not people from the extraterrestrial community that are being shot with

05:23shooting people with ray guns or something.

05:24It's humans. We're you know, and it's just like you said, it's it's greed.

05:29It's revenge. It's power struggles.

05:33Or it's just a violent psychopath who takes pleasure in causing pain.

05:38It's it all boils down to the same thing.

05:40The root of all evil is the abuse of power.

05:43And whatever that may form that may take, that's what keeps SCARPETTA in business.

05:47And it's the one thing she won't do.

05:50She will never abuse power.

05:52And that is one of the things that makes her such an important role model,

05:56I think, because she does things the way they ought to be done.

IR Interview: Patricia Cornwell For "Identity Unknown" [Hachette] - Part II

Category

Transcript

Recommended