I said that next I was going to read something different, something not my usual fare, something I had never read before. I think this qualifies. Some time ago, at a student's insistence, I read a novel by Stephen King. It left me uneasy for months. I concluded that King's gift is that he brings horror so close to the mundane that you can't help wondering, just a little bit ...
If I understand correctly, the Bachman books are early works that King published after he was a successful author. That makes sense with what I saw here. It is distopic, and horrific - but not in the way that his more usual books are horror. The events and their world are hideous and dreadful, but not supernatural or perverse.
A colleague wants me to use it as the novel for my English class next semester. I had been thinking of The Hunger Games - and this is in some respects similar. I think it is unfortunate that King used year references in the story - because he wrote it a long time ago and the dates are all in the second half of the twentieth century. I've read enough SF and such that it doesn't bother me, but I'm not sure if kids would cope as well, especially ones who are not particularly strong readers.
It would be fun to let students chose between the two - I can imagine some interesting discussions.
No comments:
Post a Comment