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with the group.

Take away the mutant psychic aspect of the novel and Carrie would remain an uncomfortably realistic story of difference, intolerance and the way society can treat an individual who will not (or cannot) conform. It would be an illustration of the sort of thing social workers and school counsellors are up against all the time.

However, Carrie was also written at a time when western society's interest in psychic matters and the occult was at a high point. The Exorcist had already hit cinema screens in 1973, and was a huge international sensation. People who had (or purported to have) psychic powers, like Uri Geller, Peter Hurkos and Ted Serios, were becoming well-known, and phenomena such as telekinesis and Kirlian photography were being investigated and written about. Carrie the book and Carrie the movie both tapped into (and contributed to, in turn) this upsurge of interest.

As an aside, I note that the psychic child theme - continued by Stephen King in The Shining and Firestarter - has resurfaced in the recent TV series Lost, where Carrie, as of the start of Season 3, became one of the many books containing possible clues to the mystery.

There is probably an alternative reality in which Tabitha never rescued her husband's fledgling manuscript from the trash and he never went on to become one of the world's most popular best-selling writers; being a lifelong fan of Stephen King, I'm just so very glad that I live in this dimension instead.

Learn more about this author, Alex Cull.
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