King Rat

King Rat was actually a pretty frustrating book for me. I think that it just withheld too much information from the reader. Some of the positive things of King Rat was that it was at least interesting. I liked that the author chose to use urban myths and treat them like reality. King Rat himself was a fun character because he had absolutely no glamour about him. He ate trash, he spoke in a thick poorman's accent, and he was lean and creepy looking. Which is pretty fun because kings are supposed to be regal and  expensive, it's seems only right that the king of rats would be complete trash. The characterization of the birdman was also fun. I like the way the flute was a part of his introduction.

But ultimately it was too little information with too many words. I'm a Computer Animation student so I couldn't help but think that if I translated the 60 pages I read into the screen it would take maybe 5 minutes to deliver all the information given. I understand that the writing is part of the personality of the book. Some moments really caught me as a reader. When Saul took his first bite of trash and the writer explained in such detail I almost felt like is was chew cold soggy meat. Disgusting but memorable, it was a really good moment of writing. But for the most part I did just want to get to the point. I think I could've like King Rat more if it was edited down a bit.

I will say one excellent use of a myth in story telling was in the movie Candyman. The historical myth and urban myth came together in one character, the Candyman, in a really entertaining effective way. Candyman is probably one of my favorite American ghosts if not my favorite.