{"id":127984,"date":"2018-07-31T13:00:52","date_gmt":"2018-07-31T17:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=127984"},"modified":"2018-08-01T17:35:22","modified_gmt":"2018-08-01T21:35:22","slug":"redux-on-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/07\/31\/redux-on-trial\/","title":{"rendered":"Redux: On Trial"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every week, the editors of\u00a0<\/em>The Paris Review\u00a0lift the paywall on a selection of interviews, stories, poems, and more from the magazine\u2019s archive. You can have these unlocked\u00a0pieces delivered straight to your inbox every\u00a0Sunday by\u00a0signing up for the Redux newsletter<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This week, we bring you\u00a0Janet Malcolm\u2019s 2011 Writers at Work interview<\/a>,\u00a0Dante Troisi\u2019s short story \u201cDiary of a Judge<\/a>,\u201d and\u00a0Devin Johnston\u2019s poem \u201cMeans of Escape<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Janet Malcolm, The Art of Nonfiction No. 4<\/a>
\nIssue no. 196 (Spring 2011)<\/em><\/p>\n

Trials offer exceptional opportunities for the exercise of journalistic heartlessness. The antagonists in trials lend themselves to the kind of cold scrutiny that few people can withstand. Trial transcripts are cruel documents. The court stenographer dutifully records everything she hears and what appears on the page often reads like something from the theater of the absurd. The court scenes in The Journalist and the Murderer and The Crime of Sheila McGough<\/em> are based entirely on transcripts. I wrote about the trials after they were over. It is only in my new book, Iphigenia in Forest Hills, that I wrote about a trial I actually attended. But I also relied heavily on the transcript. One of the most interesting parts of a trial are the sotto voce sidebars or bench conferences in which the attorneys and judge take off the masks they have put on for the jury and spectators. These conferences are recorded by the court stenographer and appear in the transcript, to which they often contribute a note of high comedy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Diary of a Judge<\/a>
\nBy Dante Troisi
\nIssue no. 30 (Summer\u2013Fall 1963)<\/em><\/p>\n

The H-Bomb exploded today, young man, but we condemn you just the same, even though you say you stole the wood to warm yourself. You might have been more easily acquitted if your case had not been called up last. Now it is late and we have little will to debate and so concur with the president, who has great respect for private property. And then in the brain crammed with images of extermination which the explosion evokes, your fate is no landmark.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Means of Escape<\/a>
\nBy Devin Johnston
\nIssue no. 203 (Winter 2012)<\/em><\/p>\n

The courtroom, clad in wood veneer,
\ncould be a lesser pharaoh\u2019s tomb
\nequipped for immortality.
\nA civil servant drags her broom
\naround the bench and gallery
\nas jurors darken a questionnaire.<\/p>\n

One coughs against the courtroom chill.
\nOne drums her fingers atop the bar.
\nOne finds escape through Stephen King,
\nas through a window left ajar.
\nOne talks and talks, a reckoning
\nof who got sober, who took ill\u00a0\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you like what you read,\u00a0get a year of<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>The Paris Review\u2014four new issues, plus instant access to everything we\u2019ve ever published.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every week, the editors of\u00a0The Paris Review\u00a0lift the paywall on a selection of interviews, stories, poems, and more from the magazine\u2019s archive. You can have these unlocked\u00a0pieces delivered straight to your inbox every\u00a0Sunday by\u00a0signing up for the Redux newsletter.     This week, we bring you\u00a0Janet Malcolm\u2019s 2011 Writers at Work interview,\u00a0Dante Troisi\u2019s short story […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31006],"tags":[34851,15150,34852,42,34853],"class_list":["post-127984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-redux","tag-dante-troisi","tag-devin-johnston","tag-diary-of-a-judge","tag-janet-malcolm","tag-means-of-escape"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRedux: On Trial by The Paris Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Every week, the editors of \u2018The Paris Review\u2019 unlock a selection of pieces from our archive. 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