“With The Institute, King leans into the theme of ‘great events’ happening with the smallest of decisions as well as the world-changing power of togetherness. And in that case, it’s a frequent lesson he extols that never gets old.” —USA Today
“A tale delineating a troubling separation between children and the adult world…vibrant…nuanced webs of action and consequence…comprise this engaging narrative.” —Los Angeles Review of Books
Two possible references come to mind upon reading these squibs from the front pages of King’s novel. The first is Franz Kafka’s famous parable “Before the Law,” which Wikipedia describes as “an allegory for the corruption of bureaucracy and the ways in which authority wields symbolic power over its citizens. More broadly, the story can also be read as a critique of the idea of justice and the law itself, which Kafka portrays as an unobtainable ideal.” Written in 1915, the story is prescient about the institutional corruption that led to two brutal world wars. It is a sad irony that the legal profession, dedicated to justice, often involves such deep and damaging corruption.
The other is a bit odd. It was a “B” movie called Crazy Eights, a 2004 production that dealt with adults realizing they had been tortured in a scientific experiment when eight years old. I haven’t seen it in a long time but thought it was a powerful statement about child abuse. One of its stars was an adult and slightly hardened Traci Lords, who famously starred in pornography before the legal age of consent. Apparently she lied about her age to filmmakers who were happy to film her budding body.