“And with that, the story ends,” the professor concluded. “Are there any questions?”
Roger threw his hand into the air. “Our human character didn’t seem to pay any price for his hubris.”
“Nope,” said the professor. “A good chunk of America is pro-hubris.”
Carrie cocked her head. “Our main character doesn’t want anything. Usually when people make Faustian deals, they have some sort of goal.”
“Yep,” the professor concurred. “In this instance, the devil approaches our protagonist seemingly at random.”
Mary began, “It makes it sound like the devil’s back was against the wall. I guess my question is: huh?”
“As near as I can figure out,” the professor said, “either the devil has a boss who is holding his feet to the fire about his soul collection or this song takes place close to Armageddon and it’s really crunch time to bring up those numbers.”
Steve spoke next, “I don’t get it. The devil is desperate enough to challenge some yokel to an arbitrary competition with no judges and no rubric upon which to base scoring. And he immediately concedes despite playing a cool song whereas Johnny just started spitting out random references like a hastily written episode of ‘Family Guy.’”
“Pretty much,” the professor agreed. “There is the possibility that the golden fiddle is cursed, but this theory is contradicted by the 1993 sequel.” She concluded that day’s session of Studies in 1970’s Pop Music by reminding the class of their upcoming midterm on Don McLean’s “American Pie.”