Stephen King’s novel Thinner, which was published under his Richard Bachman pen-name, was made into a movie back in the 1990s.
It’s a disturbing film.
One reason is that our “hero” isn’t a likeable man. He’s a minor type of slimeball surrounded by other dirtbags. Yet by the end of it, you can almost grudgingly hope for him to overcome the grisly fate assigned him.
Is there a lesson here? Who knows.
For sure it is easier to like and respect a man who can learn his lesson and repent from his vices of character.
Choices have consequences. Many choices bring about unexpected results. Bad choices — bad as in bad judgment, and bad as in wicked — tend to produce negative outcomes.
There is a reason we respond to stories of forgiveness and redemption.
The curse of the old gypsy man sends a different message. At first it’s like a gift.
Imagine being able to eat 20,000 calories of food every day and watch the flab melt away.
It might sound like a dream, but consider that any good thing in excess becomes a bad thing.
Personally I’d get sick of gorging myself. I don’t have that kind of relationship with food that it rules me through my appetites. Some do, though, so a “total weight loss solution” might seem like a dream.
Not so. The gift soon becomes a life-threatening danger, which is itself a symbolic message about the risk of all magical cures.
Prevention is hard and demands forethought. Who cares about that nerd-stuff when there’s short-term distractions to pursue?
Long-term thinking and low time-preference are arts that few practice today. Diet pills outsell exercise books and gym membership by a factor of several zeroes.
Everybody wants magic.
Magic might even get you what you want–and burn you anyway.
The real problem with magic is that it’s an unearned shortcut. If you don’t earn your way to the goal, what makes you think you can handle being there?
Matt Perryman
https://matts.email