(Ian Mcewan, Enduring Love, 2004)
Over the top or justifiable reaction from a man pushed to the brink by a stalker?
What possesses us to follow the object of our desire to the point of criminal stalking? Is it normal human behaviour that we have suppressed by social norms of acceptable behaviour or is it a gene gone out of control?
What made Mark Chapman any different from any other obsessive Beatle fan? Some people would be happy to steal John Lennon's underpants or used tissues, what drove Chapman to kill him?
This is the wikipedia page for Mark Chapman, for anyone who wants any more information.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_David_Chapman
As a 14 year old girl I happily stalked the 'love of my life' with my best mate for 2 weeks. He didn't know I was there and he also didn't know I checked the Thompson local for address! Does that make me like Kathy Bates obsessed fan who nobbles Jame Caan in Misery (1990) or just a teenager with a crush? It never entered my head to break his legs or shoot him but after a fortnight I was bored with stolen glimpses of my love through the cracks in his curtains, so I moved on to a six former!
Enduring Love is a chilling example of how such an obsession can destroy lives. Following a hot air balloon accident, Rhys Ifans develops an obsessive crush on Daniel Craig (who wouldn't) with devastating consequences. This film shows just how vulnerable we are from stalkers. They stop at nothing and do not care about anything else except their target. They are driven in a way which cannot be deterred by threats of police and legal action and a sad statistic is that many stalkees die at the hands of their stalker! Despite numberours appeals and more public awareness there seems to be little the police can do until the stalker starts to make threats.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjS6zwUx1hA
Here some advice for you unlucky people who are adored by a 14 year old with a Thompson local.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/yorkslincs/series7/stalking_advice.shtml
1 comment:
After reading your comment on stalking it triggered a memory of mine that i too, at the age of 14 had a crush on my older brother's friend. Me and my best friend used to walk up and down his street everyday and walked extra slowly when we were passing his house!! This i would put down too childish behaviour and a crush that wore off quickly. It does depend on your age group to consider whether its offensive, for example if i was to behave in that way now, i would be worried about myself and seek help. (plus i don't have a crush on him now!!) In conclusion i would not class our behaviour as worrying behaviour, however i would if i had continued walking past the house for months, and progressed too much interest in him without him knowing this would definatly be cause for concern.
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