Friday, October 03, 2008

My Thesis: Part One

Okay, here you go! This is the first 10 pages of the thesis... and the first 4 pages are really freebies like my dedication and table of contents, so you're only really looking at about 6 pages of serious reading. It covers my introduction, where I explain my project, and then my condensed biography of Stephen King himself.

And for the record, I haven't touched this document in four years... I thought about going back and tweaking things (like where I used the word "great" twice in my very first sentence... forehead slap) but figured it should stay how it was when I submitted it.

And for the second record, I wasn't even a Stephen King fan before I started this project. I had read a few of his things and of course like most everyone else I loved the movies based on his stories - The Shining, Shawshank Redemption, Stand By Me. But I was fascinated, and still am, by the vast divide between the "literary" - the academic, high-brow, whatever - and the popular. It is not an issue specific to the written word, and can be seen rearing its ugly head in art, in music, and I'm sure a myriad of other pursuits. So I came into my project with that in mind, and found Stephen King as this really cool piece of the puzzle.

And for the third record, I am now an official big fan of Stephen King.

If you are not, I'll direct you to his volume of four novellas entitled Different Seasons. It is the perfect place to dip your toe into his work, and I assure you there is nary a rabid dog, deranged killer clown, or apocalyptic showdown to be found. Just fascinating, richly told human stories including the ones that inspired the aforementioned movies The Shawshank Redemption and Stand By Me.

Now, without further ado, click here to get the file. I'm working on a way to hotlink the PDF but for now you will have to click and download from the file hosting site. It's a pretty small file so it should be a snap to download.

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