Thanks, Wissa—that’s interesting.
Diana, that is *extremely* interesting. Makes you wonder what on earth the Methodists did to him. They’re such a milquetoast bunch at best, and uber-lefties at worst. [To any FReeper Methodists who read this, I’m again assuming it was the United Methodists. I’m sure there are still some fine conservative Methodists, but they’re in the minority]. Things like that drive my curiosity wild. A religious ax to grind doesn’t materialize out of thin air. I wonder what happened to King?
BUT - to give the guy credit (where it is due) he may have just been following the same-old-same-old that writers always have.
I mean, ‘Carrie’ was every bit as much a ‘coming of age’ (with special powers) story as any other. Or a persecuted person (through no fault of His/her own) who rose above it all (aka Jesus Christ).
It could go either way - because Carrie IS triumphant in the end.
Or it could just be a story of teenage angst, LOL!
Now my head hurts... *SMIRK*
I think the mother in Carrie was always heavy into religion all her life... along the strains of the Puritans. Repent ye sinners! My little understanding of the Puritans' faith was that it was along the lines that any enjoyment of life is most likely a sin and must be avoided. Lust is the first of the seven deadly sins. All you should use your mind for is praise of God. That sort of thing.
I've never felt that King had a general animosity toward any religion, including Christianity, but I think he was critical of religion when it would be used as a tool to drive a woman clinically insane with guilt and lead to her ruining her daughter's life.
King is a story-teller. I'm guessing he thought that readers could relate to hearing of people, or even having acquaintences, that seem to be just a leetle too into their religion.