In the Dead Zone

is apparently where I put all my memories of this book. Not a slow read at all! Perhaps I got the book confused with the movie - which was very slow (and what were they thinking when they cast Christopher Walken?!?).

My general rule, when starting any new book, is to read the first 30-40 pages without interruption. To me, this insures that I will continue with the book, because I am invested in reading it. Whereas, in the rare cases that I have sat down and started a book and only read 10 pages, I ended up not finishing it. This is all to illustrate the fact that I found The Dead Zone so engaging that I read 65 pages the first night.

The other thing that has struck me about this book is that The Dead Zone is a Richard Bachman book - or Stephen King trying to unite the halves of himself as an author. King's first three books, Carrie, 'Salems's Lot, and The Shining, were horror novels, no doubt about it. Carrie, is not really that scary, but it is disturbing. Then he publishes Rage under the name Richard Bachman - a purely fiction work, with no terrifying elements, at all. TDZ, seems to be a work that encorporates his love of the supernatural with fiction.

When people talk to me about Stephen King and how they do not read his work because they do not like horror novels, I often point out that King is an author that is interested in the exploration of the supernatural, not horror. Sometimes horror and the supernatural dovetail nicely, but I do not think it is his intent to frighten. I then go on to point out how the person talking to me already enjoys Stephen King, they just don't know it. I list off The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, Stand by Me, and they nod about how they really enjoyed those movies. To that list, I will now add The Dead Zone, as a novel they should read.

It All Started

in 1990. My mom was pregnant with my sister. I had gone over to my older brother's place, to visit, but I was probably snooping too. I found an orange book, called the Bachman Books with Stephen King's name in big bold letters. I obviously knew who King was (maybe from watching Pet Semetary with my best friend) and so I grabbed the book. My younger brother and I went to New York and I brought the book with me. By the I finished The Long Walk there was no doubt that I would spend my time reading all of his works. Now, I don't know the exact order that I read his books in, but I do know that IT was the next book I read. 12 years old, sitting in Mrs. Jackson's class reading an 1142 page novel. I was a strange kid.

What is it about Stephen King that I find so fascinating?

Well, you could say that I have a fascination with the darker aspects of life. I am not obsessed with death, or anything like that. Simply put, there is this whole other side of life, where terrible things happen and no one really wants to explore that side. We might feel comfortable watching the news, but journalism is just to report the facts and not opinions. I want to know the mind of the person that commits an atrocity. I want to know what they were thinking, what happened in their past to make them do that. I want to explore the relationships between the attacker and the victim. This is not morbid curiosity, this is just a curiosity about life - all aspects of life.
Now, this does not make me unhappy, it does not make a weirdo in a dark room with frightening pictures on the wall, listening to Death Metal. Most people are probably surprised to find out that I love reading something as "dark and disturbing" as Stephen King, because I am happy, smiley, and I enjoy life. Perhaps the reason that I enjoy life is because I have explored the deeper and darker sides of life.

Why do you, dear reader, enjoy Stephen King?

The Dead Zone

It has been a long time, and as I recall, I was not that impressed with this story. I mean, I did want to be able to do what Johnny can do. But other than that, I remember it being a slow read.

I watched the movie, from 1983, after reading it. Christopher Walken plays Johnny. I forgot that! But now I am kind of excited to read the novel with Walken in mind :)

Synopsis from stephenking.com:

Waking up from a five-year coma after a car accident, former schoolteacher Johnny Smith discovers that he can see people's futures and pasts when he touches them. Many consider his talent a gift; Johnny feels cursed. His fiance married another man during his coma and people clamor for him to solve their problems. When Johnny has a disturbing vision after he shakes the hand of an ambitious and amoral politician, he must decide if he should take drastic action to change the future.

406 Miles...

is how many miles walked by the winner of The Long Walk. By the end, they can't eat, and they are emaciated. They have also probably all gone a little insane. With a story like this, I love that King leaves the ending a little ambivilent - I wont ruin it for you, because this is a story that is well worth the read. If I were in the state that Ray is in at the end of the walk, I might find it difficult to stop walking. I would be worried that I would get shot, even if I knew that I had won.

I think that this story is about the lengths that we go to, to avoid dealing with the difficult aspects of our lives. Escaping a failed relationship, a broken home, grief, happiness, life in general. One character on the walk points out that the walkers are there because they want to die. A valid point, since death is the ultimate escape. More than that, I think they want to escape the parts of their lives that don't work for them. I understand that, life is hard or better yet, life is suffering. In some way, taking this challenge on is taking control of life, by taking control of death. Perhaps that is why I am so fascinated by this story. Not all stories stick with me, but in the 20 years between reading this for the first time, and reading it this time, I had not forgotten much of the story.

Next up, The Dead Zone

Sleeping in my Walk

100 pages left and the Walkers have traveled 200 miles at 4mph, without stopping. When you stop, you die. You do get 3 warnings before the soldiers shoot you, but those 3 warnings happen in the span of 2 minutes. Just enough time to squat and use the bathroom, or have a charley horse.

The Walkers are sleeping on their feet. Try to imagine walking to the point where your feet are raw and aching, you have blisters that keep popping, your toenails are rubbing off, you are eating concentrated food, there are non-stop spectators yelling, and you are trying to sleep while you are walking. Just the thought of my feet swollen and screaming at me makes my skin crawl.

The Long Walk

I LOVE this story. It is the second story that I ever read by Stephen King (writing as Richard Bachman) and it has just always stuck with me. The story is about a group of 100 boys that begin a long walk. They must maintain a pace of 4mph, without stopping. If they lose the pace, or stop, they get a warning. Rack up 3 warnings and you are out - as in shot dead. The last one walking wins a prize - whatever they want for the rest of their life.

I think about this story whenever I walk anywhere.

The other thing that I remember intensely about this book is that the main character has to take a crap as he is walking. I have always been obsessed about how people use the bathroom in certain situations and it bugs me that in many cases you never see it. Like what innovations are made in the bathroom on Star Trek? Or, in 24, did Jack Bower ever take a break to go to the bathroom? Seriously, I never watched that show, but in a span of 24 hours, you need to go to the bathroom, so did they show it? I just have a lot of respect for that disscussion and I was glad to see it in this story.
Stephen King's Inspiration:

In the early '60s radio and TV stations throughout the country organized 50-mile hikes. Stephen says: "I had that in mind. I didn't have a car when I wrote that book. I was hitchhiking everywhere. I didn't finish my 50-mile hike, though. I fell out after 20 miles."

Good has prevailed...

so far...

Like any good Stephen King novel, I was up until 2am, because I could not put it down. That has happened too many times to count. The Stand is one of my ultimate favorites - but I much prefer the unabridged version. There were many places where a hazy memory of 'something more' arose. The joy of this project is that I am going to get to read this book again. If I am lucky it will be in the next 6 months.

One final comparison to Lord of the Rings:
Most people have seen The Return of the King, the end of the journey. It is fitting point out that Bilbo Baggins is writing "There and Back Again, a Hobbit's Tale." This title tells us that we get to read the journey back home - which takes 30 minutes or so in the movie (I secretly laughed a bunch when people kept trying to get up at the end of the movie, thinking it was over).
The Stand has a similar ending [spoiler alert]

After Las Vegas goes up in a nuclear explosion, we are left with Stu in a ditch 300 miles or so from home. The eagles don't come for him, but Tom and Kojak do. The last 60 pages are devoted to Stu's journey home. There is of course the struggle for his life - he has pnemonia and a broken leg - there are high passes, wolves and snow, but he makes it home.

But in the end those last 60 pages are worth it.

Next up: The Long Walk

Halfway through The Stand - or Standing on One Leg

Well, I have reached Boulder, CO - the halfway point of The Stand. My intention when I started reading this version was to see if I could notice the discrepancies between the two versions. I have noticed a few, but more than that, I feel like I have missed things, like maybe I was not paying attention when I was reading. But, I know that is not the case.

Instead, my focus has been to notice the similarities between The Stand and Lord of the Rings. I would not have thought about it if not for reading King's inspiration. LOTR is such an iconic work, such an epic, that it is difficult to not pay homage to it. Yes, you can argue that it is the Hero's Journey and Tolkein was not writing an original story - that's fine. Either way, I love the little ways, overt and covert, that LOTR shows up in this book.
Let's start with the simple fact that both novels are happening in a time when things have collapsed - in both books, people are walking through cities that were once bright and shining. In this 'time after' there comes the epic battle between good and evil. Who will prevail? Mother Abigal, 108 years old, blessed with forsight, is Gandalf, the wizard, ancient and seemingly blessed with forsight. The bad guy, Randall Flagg, uses a black stone with a red flaw that often looks like an eye (the palantir frim LOTR). Not to mention the fact that people feel Flagg as a red eye that sees them from afar. There are many more instances, and I think that I love each and everyone!

A couple of other things to share:

• There is one mention of swine flu. I would not have caught this before, but last year when H1N1 was quite the subject, there was some discussion of the swine flu scare in the 70s.
• Page 122 is the first mention of Oswald (as in Lee Harvey) in a King novel. Interesting, because his latest book (at this writing) is 11/22/63 in which Oswald is featured heavily.
• Larry wonders at how clear the air seems and what "they had been doing to the planet." Notable because in September of 2001, there was an increase in temperature difference between night and day, due to all planes being grounded. Amazing how nature bounces back, after just a couple of days.
• I have a lot of irritation for the mini series that was created, because in my mind, Stu Redman is Gary Sinese and Frannie Goldsmith is Molly Ringwald. I wish that was not so.