Perspectives
Literary genre
Stephen King's short story "The Music Room" is mainly a horror story, despite the superficially pleasant setting of the music room. Though the story initially describes what looks like a perfectly normal scene in the lives of a 1930s couple, the thumps from the closet quickly reveal that something sinister is going on. All through the story, the contrast between the couple's matter-of-fact conversation and the imprisoned man dying in horrible pain in their closet create a grotesque atmosphere which is common in King's works.
"The Music Room" also has some postmodern characteristics. For example, it makes great use of intertextuality, as King includes numerous references to 1930s media, and the entire story is even written on the basis of a 1930s painting.
