Writing Homework Help

Read both Stephen’s King’s story “The Reach” and the short handout on the characteristics of near-death experiences available under “Content–>Readings.” After you’ve done this reading, identify at least three of the characteristics of near-death experiences that occur in the story, using quotes or other specific references to the text to support your response. Remember, per usual, to respond to one of your classmates’ posts as well.

Non-required watching: If you want some material to fill out the King story in an interesting way, and have time to kill, here’s a very trippy video interview on near-death experiences, reincarnation, and related topics conducted with the faculty of the University of Virginia Medical School–Division of Perceptual Studies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RGizqsLumo

That video really underscores a few major things to consider when it comes to some examples of supernatural horror: a) like glitch experiences, a lot of it is based on “unthinkable” experiences that people claim to have actually had(!) and b) this type of literature isn’t necessarily just escapist but it also does important intellectual and cultural work (aka: it investigates things we otherwise have a hard time talking about–from weird science to technological breakthroughs, metaphysical and religious ideas, and new ways of conceptualizing the world and our place in it.