What We Hope For
What Writers Dream Of Hatching
Returning to Rosemary’s Baby . . . Never forget that the novel’s wise character, Edward “Hutch” Hutchins, is a writer: The author of pulp adventure novels for young boys. A writer so prolific that he keeps two desks, with a typewriter at each. He works on two novels at the same time, and as he hits a snag in one he simply resumes work on the other. Not to mince words, but Hutch is a hack writer.1
For more about hack writers…
Keep in mind that Ira Levin, the author of Rosemary’s Baby, allows Hutch to be the classic Cassandra. Hutch gives the unheeded warning, and more-or-less predicts what’s to come. Hutch reappears to issue the same warnings2 before he falls ill, off screen, and eventually dies. In short, Levin gets the plot rolling and then must kill himself off.3