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Friday, September 24, 2010

They love Stephen King

With three exceptions, the rest--47 students--outdid themselves in long reader reactions in praise of Stephen King's "The Man in the Black Coat".

I was struck on how much Stephen King's "The Man in the Black Coat" was like the "Cyclops" episode from Homer we'd read earlier in the semester:

1.  Good guy vs. bad guy/ good vs. evil
Homer: Odyseeus vs. Cyclops
King:  kid gone fishin' vs. the devil

2.  Situation of great danger for fishin' boy and Odyseeus, engendering suspense and possible fear not only in the character but the reader

3. Cyclops and the devil having supernatural powers

4. escape of fishin' boy and Odyseeus, defeat of supernatural and the bad

Maybe four thousand years of history from Homer to King, but the same loved fictional pattern.

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