The May King: Crossroads

The Shell hanging scene is a good example. Early on, the scene was this; Shell, after work, cleaning up and getting the place perfect at last. He finishes up and sets a bass string up to hang himself with. Spoiler by the way. Now, writing it, this question struck me: would a bass string actually hold? The Author’s intent of having it be a bass string was not arbitrary; Kid played bass, and by extension Shell as well. Also there’s the whole low notes thing and the whole feeling low, and linking the way he dies with his past life all made sense. But from a purely physical perspective; would a bass string hold? I knew from personal experience these suckers can and do break, usually when you least expect them to. But what what else would work? An image sprung up; the ground wire. That would hold, no question. And just like that, we were at a crossroads. Most people would at the very least understand what a bass string is. The ground wire would require more explanation. So the choice here was ease of comprehension versus symbolic punch. In the end, the winner had nothing to do with either reason; we chose the ground wire because the Author simply could not let the guy weasel his way out of this one.