The story out of Penn State is so epic, so tragic, the Philadelphia Inquirer wanted to know what scholars of Greek tragedy and Shakespeare had to say about it. Jason Karlawish, MD, professor of Medicine and Medical Ethics, and author of Open Wound, a novel based on the case of a 19th century American doctor, William Beaumont, who both treated and used one of his patients as an experimental subject: "The events seem lifted from the pages of a Greek tragedy. A great and wildly successful man falls as a result of his own blindness to the truth set before him and his willful denial of the power he holds. Now, the Furies are released into his city. The people demand retribution and radical atonement. That Paterno's life story is one of rising up from humble origins to achieve greatness not only for himself but a devoted community only adds to that community's insatiable grief and rage."
Philadelphia Inquirer