When reading modern literature, one comes across the car brand Tesla quite a lot. Thriller authors seem to have some crush with Elon Musk’s electric cars. I asked best seller author Karin Slaughter why she decided to turn bad guy Paul Scott from her novel Pretty Girls into a Tesla Model S-driver.
Karin Slaughter might not be the only author chosing Tesla for her protagonist, she surely is the biggest one, having sold over 35 million books in 27 languages. In her 2015-thriller Pretty Girls, bad guy Paul Scott drives a Tesla Model S, and the brand name turns into a sort of antonomasia for car. Why Tesla? Slaughter explains:
“Okay, so first I should say that my dad owned a car dealership and sold cars my entire childhood, so I am way more into cars than a normal person should be. The funny thing about cars is that they mean different things in different countries. For instance, in the US, assholes drive Mercedes and cool people drive BMWs. It’s the opposite in the UK. When I wrote Pretty Girls, Teslas were universally cool and unattainable but for the wealthy. And then Elon Musk turned into a joke and a tool and they lost their cache. And then Tesla hit production benchmarks, the lower-priced version sold like gangbusters, Musk stopped being stupid, and they were cool again. What I was doing with Paul’s Tesla was using it as an extension of his personality. Let’s be honest, paying $150,000 for a car to help “save” the environment is a rich man’s luxury.”
Is it some sort of product placement, or is it functional to describe Paul’s personality?
“It’s definitely not product placement (but if you want to throw a few cars my way, Tesla, I won’t turn you down). The types of cars that my characters drive say something about their personalities and/or state of mind. In my Will Trent series, Sara drives a BMW, Will drives a Porsche 911, and Faith drives a Mini. Each of these cars says something about the person. Sara: reliable and sophisticated. Will: edgy and capable of bending his knees far enough to get into the car. Faith: fun but practical. In Pretty Girls, Paul drives the Tesla because it is a status symbol and because he is a control freak. Did you see the inside of that guy’s garage? Not a spot of oil shall touch that floor. The Tesla is more practical for that type of personality.”
If so: what does the ownership of a Tesla say about a personality?
“Well, it depends on the person, right? And also the country, because in places like the Netherlands, there are all sorts of tax incentives that can make Tesla a very smart buy. We don’t have those incentives in the US (especially now, when Trump seems determined to burn down the world) but I am writing novels set in the United States during a particular time, so I have to write from that perspective while also giving cues to readers in other countries as to what message I am sending. So, if I as a woman living in the Southern part of the United States owned a Tesla it would mean that I like nice things but I care about the environment and sustainability. But Paul doesn’t give a damn about the environment. He does care that people admire his things. Also, owning a Tesla makes him seem important while he stands on virtue. There are lots of ways to look at it, ultimately. I mean, come on—you could drive a Prius if you really cared. Or take a bike to work!”
How do you see Tesla imagewise?
“Tesla is innovating in the electric car/battery storage space better than anyone else right now—and as you likely know, the battery storage is the most important part as far as vertical integration into the power grid, which could make the largest impact on reversing (or at least slowing down) climate change. That being said, I think we can all agree that having a cult of personality around Musk is a very bad idea. Lee Iacocca never smoked pot on a podcast (though I’m sure he threw back some scotch in his time). The fact is that Tesla as a brand is inexorably linked to Musk in the way that Ford was linked to Henry Ford. Now, during Ford’s time, he was an awful human being. He was antisemitic, racist, sexist, paranoid, intrusive and a financial supporter of the Eugenics research that helped the Nazis prop up the pseudo-science behind the Holocaust. Only a few of those things were controversial positions during his lifetime; however, there was no internet or CNN, and the world was programmed to worship the genius captains of industry who revolutionized our economy and forgive their myriad sins because of progress. Now, we know that mostly those guys are as full of shit as they are full of themselves. Unfortunately, they will only be better when we demand better. (And as an aside, a woman who’d done all the crazy things Musk did would’ve been sidelined by now no matter how genius she was).”
In the acknowledgement, once again you mention Tesla, even suggesting you would love to get one yourself. Where does your love for the brand derive from?
“I just love cars—and in that way I am brand agnostic. Nevertheless, Tesla has a really good chance of winning over my love from all other cars, especially if they throw a few free cars my way.”
Will we see Tesla’s again in your next novel?
“I don’t have a Tesla in my next book, but I won’t rule out having one in the future. The question is, will Tesla be around in the coming years? The best innovators aren’t always the winners. Cadillac was eclipsed when Ford left and created the assembly line. In the early 1900s, Daimler’s biggest competitor was Oldsmobile. The latter was one of the oldest brands in the automobile world and sold over 35 million units before it was shuttered in 2004. So now driving an Olds means something totally different than it did in 1920, 1960, and 1990. In that way, writers have to be careful about the brands they write about. In the context of Pretty Girls, I think Paul paying that much money for a status symbol is universal. That guy exists in every decade. He is timeless in his assholery.”