Students in previous classes have made dioramas or three-dimensional set designs, but in this year’s 3-week class, I had two students take really unique and ambitious approaches to the diorama style, with large scale replica of the church from “Jerusalem’s Lot” (in King’s 1978 Night Shift collection) and a sculpted clay cross-section of the lake in “The Raft” (in King’s 1985 collection Skeleton Crew). 

Gracie von Thun’s clay sculpted diorama of “The Raft” provides a really unique vision of this memorable short story, particularly through her representation of the horrors both above and below the water. Gracie achieved this through taking a cross-section approach in her representation of this scene, revealing details and perspectives that even the characters themselves are unable to view or access. This representation of “The Raft” highlights dichotomies and divisions, including the shore vs. the raft and what’s above the water vs. what lies beneath. 

Gracie used a range of materials to craft the diorama, which includes the lake, the raft, and the shore, including trees, rocks, grass, and vegetation. Her attention to detail (like the loon floating on the lake’s surface and Deke’s ring left behind on the raft) is thoughtful and intricate. It is also delightfully grotesque, with the melting flesh of the struggling victim very effectively capturing the destructive power and body horror featured in the story. The skull and bones on the lakebed below are similarly detailed, while the shadowy and indistinct form of the being itself is tucked away and just visible toward the back of this cross-section, again reflecting the story’s horror of a threat that can be seen but not defined, not contained. 

Gracie drew inspiration from both King’s story and “The Raft” segment of Creepshow 2 (1987), particularly with the overgrown “No Swimming” sign glimpsed at the end of the Creepshow 2 segment. One of my favorite things about Gracie’s diorama is that it is a real 360-degree representation: we can see the cross-section of the lake as the “front” of the diorama, because that gives us the clearest and most expansive sense of the narrative it captures, but it really has to be viewed from all sides to take in the complexity and entirety of the scene.