often appeal to the young and the politically conservative, yet, if his overall argument is sound, people of all ages and all political bents should need the release they bring. Age and politics should be irrelevant if nearly every human subconscious includes ravenous alligators. Horror had always been a popular genre, even before the invention of motion pictures allowed large numbers of people to share a group scare. King's breezy essay offers some plausible arguments about why this is so. King also makes use of parenthetical asides designed to be funny, sarcastic throwaways. Commenting on the insanity of Jack the Ripper and the Cleveland Torso Murderer, he says, "Neither of those two amateur-night surgeons was ever caught, heh-heh-heh" (2), echoing the n |
