The Stand

The first time I read The Stand I was home sick from school with some illness, the German measles I think. Maybe not a good time to be reading a book about a super flu, but I was young and not so bright.

This had to have been in 1981 or so, because that’s the year MTV debuted, back then they played music videos on Music Television and probably had about ten or so they kept playing over and over. Well, I’m on the pull out couch in the family room with MTV playing (it made me feel better to see the guys from Journey), and reading The Stand, half listening to MTV when this (very 80's)video I hadn't seen before comes on.

The Stand

This was very surreal. I was feverish and the words I was reading like “The walkin’ dude” and “Trashcan Man” were coming out of the TV machine. It was very strange……as strange as The Alarms hair. Did you notice the painting of the flower he did looks just like the hair. Amazing…….I kind of like the painting.

I loved the book and it has been one my favorites list ever since. I always wanted to re-read it, but it was so darn long, and there are so many books out there to read. Thirty years later they release the audio version and I was excited, not only to revisit the book but to hear it on audio,(yay) and I was not disappointed. The Stand still remains on my favorites list. But since it had been so long since I first read it, I forgot most of it. It was like a whole new book.

The government develops a biological weapon, a super flu (project Blue) , nick named Captain Tripps, that is inadvertently released and kills 99% of the human population along with most of the dogs and horses. The cats survive (they always do). Here I have to ask the question, why would a government develop such a weapon when It kills most everybody…….even the guys on your side, and you?

The people who survive start to have crazy dreams. One is about a very old African American women, Mother Abigail, in Nebraska who calls on the people to come see her and then to travel to Boulder Colorado. The other is a nightmare about a mysterious fella named Randell Flagg, aka The Walkin’ Dude or the Dark Man who draws them to Los Vegas. Randell is not just bad; he is pure evil, while Mother Abigail is the instrument of God. The survivors pick their side, and there is a good old fashion show down between good and evil. What could go wrong?

King develops strong, memorable characters in this book. He also writes horrifyingly memorable scenes like a trip through the Lincoln Tunnel in New York, dark and stuffed to the brim with rotting corpses. That is not one of the things I forgot.

A few minor things bugged me in this version. Stephen went back later on and added pages to the book that were cut by the publishers, which I am happy with. But, in an attempt to update the book, he moved the time period up from 1980 to 1990. This made a few things awkward, such as a scene about the shootings at Kent State University. The reasons for the shooting were changed from being about war protest to protesting the detainment they were under because of the flu. This worked in the original version because it was closer in time period of the shootings at KSU. Being set in the 90’s it made no sense.

Also, King was in love with the word “pillion”, it means to ride behind the driver of a motorcycle. He used it as much as he could. He also described people’s knee joints popping when squatting, or getting up from a squat, many times. One time would have been just fine.

Love the book. Now I’m off to buy hand sanitizer.

Laws yes, laws yes, M-O-O-N, that spells 2 stars. Stephen King wrote in his ‘Preface Part 2: To Be Read After Purchase’ that he added 400 pages to this unedited 1990 copyright of The Stand. I believe it was 500 pages too much. He says he added the extra pages at the behest of a majority of fans that considered The Stand one of his best books—though, personally, he doesn’t regard it as his best fiction. I’ve given King several other chances to capture my imagination, with only one success, The Long Walk. I figured I’d try King one last time, and so I went with what’s ostensibly the fan favorite. But once again, Stephen King came up short in the following areas.

Storyline. A post-apocalyptic world is a fertile context in which to reveal a fascinating, phenomenal environment, and takes the imagination of a superstar to make it believable. King has the requisite imagination, but the story missed spectrums of opportunities to describe the process of the extermination of the human population. What we get instead is a relentless elaboration of all the vehicular accidents that occurred as people panicked and barreled straight into each other. There really was no description of the exodus, the run on supplies, the vigilanteism, the ad-hoc, grass-roots organization that must have banded together as societies’ institutions failed. There was no description of media’s spin and government’s intervention to fix the crisis, which the reader is aware happens all too often in catastrophes. King is happy to dedicate 400 pages to character development, and in the process isolates his characters from the carnage that is happening, transporting them cleanly to the other side of the apocalypse where everybody is already dead—in their cars apparently. How about increasingly desperate newscasts; some immunological forecasting where the charts and infection vectors are cobbled together by tired scientists; some scenes as the power dies, water pressure fails, hospitals surrender. Instead we get the National Guard deployed to cordon off cities, and machine gun nests manned by soldiers who were willing to accomplish their duties, despite that they would more realistically have abandoned guns and returned home to family. I think King missed a fecund opportunity to comment on human nature, the dark side of human nature, as they packed together like rats.

Characters. They were two-dimensional. With 400 additional pages and 20 main characters, one calculates that each person in this unabridged version would get 20 extra pages of detailed character development. That’s probably true, but King didn’t mature the characters. He used those extra pages merely to place them into more action. Consequently, none of the characters grew—none made profound statements of the human condition. The emotional breakdowns were weak. The fright was hollow. The good guys and bad were stereotyped and their development was heavy-handed; in other words, the characters were not leading independent lives, they were doing exactly as Stephen King’s pen dictated. The evil man overacted his part, and was thereby flat and unbelievable.

Denouement. To say the ending was anticlimactic is an understatement. The different threads of the story came to the same stitch, but it was messy and rushed. We come about 1030 pages not knowing how it’s going to end, we’re given a big clue, then it pans out exactly how you would have guessed 98 times out of a 100. There are 2 pages of what the world-to-come may look like from the different character perspectives, and yet King fails again to make resounding, sweeping, vitriolic summaries of the human condition. No warnings to mankind. No predictions. No lessons to the reader.

What gristle, then, are you supposed to take away from this book? I don’t know. I was never spooked, chilled, frightened, or even discomforted. I learned nothing about the dimension and capacity of humans in the land of post-apocalypse. I never empathized with any of the characters. Now, for 1153 pages, that’s not worth it.

New words: drumlin, nonce, caul, jocund, yatter, treacly, gymkhana, rugose, intaglio, blatting.

Reading for the Second time!!!

Haunting read!
It's a scary good and well written book. (paperback!)

Considering the popularity of this book, there'll be no need for me to make this long, so, just my feelings and impressions while reading this.

The first half of this reads like a classic Stephen King novel. All hell has broken loose and he has generously provided great exposition akin to a front row seating for anyone curious in observing how the world might end in a meticulously written high definition detail. A true class act indeed, nevertheless, I did find myself getting bored and/or transfixed with the world-building and character development in equal measures.

The second half deals with how the various remaining forces of good and evil have choosen to remake the wasteland of the world in their respective images. I think my problem with this read was that I went into it with expectations of mythic proportions. I'll still recommend this for both Stephen King die hards yet to pick this up and general post-apocalyptic fans out there that'll love a very interesting and immersive experience of world-building and character development of truly macabre tints.

2022 Read

Full Video Review Here: https://youtu.be/cnCPVKr2VHw

Many argue that this is Stephen King's greatest book...and it's hard to argue against them. The most incredible thing about The Stand is that King doesn't depend on scaring you to make this memorable like a lot of his early works, but shows that he was always capable of writing a great American novel.

What King is able to do over 1152 pages (complete & uncut 1990 version hardcover) with over 30 main and secondary characters is just an amazing feat of literary skill. None of these characters feel like a throw away nor do you get them confused with anyone else. Each has their own personality and style and you learn to love, or hate, every single one of them. The hate being in that you're supposed to because they're detestable human beings.

I don't hand out 5-star reviews lightly and this is one of the few that I would give 6 if I could. A stunning achievement that has aged beautifully and is a masterpiece in every sense of the word. Don't let the size of the novel scare you away; this is one journey absolutely worth taking.

Στο πλαίσιο της πανδημίας του Covid-19 και των απανταχού προτάσεων για βιβλία ή ταινίες που πραγματεύονται δυστοπικές καταστάσεις ανάλογες με εκείνη που βιώνουμε (λιγότερο, ίσως, εμείς και περισσότερο άλλοι λαοί), η ανάγνωση του μετα-αποκαλυπτικού έπους που ο Κινγκ έγραψε και δημοσίευσε κάπου σαράντα χρόνια πριν έμοιαζε πλέον λογική επιλογή. Χρόνος για εννιακόσιες πενήντα σελίδες (φλυαρίας ή όχι) υπήρχε, κι από διάθεση άλλο τίποτα - πόσο χειρότερα μπορεί να σε κάνει να νιώσεις ένα βιβλίο; Καλύτερο τάιμινγκ αποκλείεται να ξαναέβρισκα, οπότε για το ογκώδες μαύρο βιβλίο που εδώ και αρκετά χρόνια σκονιζόταν στην βιβλιοθήκη μου είχε πια σημάνει η ώρα της ανάγνωσής του.

Μερικές ημέρες μετά, χωρίς να είμαι σε θέση να συμφωνήσω ή οχι με τους αναγνώστες του Rolling Stone που εν έτει 2014 το ανέδειξαν με την ψήφο τους ως το καλύτερο από τα βιβλία του Βασιλιά, αν με ρωτούσε κανείς ποια μόνη λέξη θα μπορούσε να αποδώσει πειστικά ό,τι διάβασα, θα χρησιμοποιούσα το επίθετο "μνημειώδες". Και ως προς τις επιβλητικές διαστάσεις του, αλλά και ως προς το αξιομνημόνευτο (για το είδος του) περιεχόμενο.

Στο Κοράκι όλοι οι εφιάλτες μας παίρνουν σάρκα και οστά: ένας εξαιρετικά φονικός ιός ("Captain Trips") λαμβάνει διαστάσεις πανδημίας και αποδεκατίζει το ανθρώπινο γένος, κι ένας σκοτεινός άνθρωπος ("...μια σκιά περνούσε από τα καλαμπόκια το μεσημέρι, ένα κρύο ρεύμα αέρα, ένα κοράκι που σε κάρφωνε με το βλέμμα του από τα καλώδια στις κολόνες του τηλεφώνου. Η φωνή του την καλούσε, μια φωνή που ηχούσε σιγανή, σαν το τικ-τακ του σκαθαριού του θανατά κάτω από τις σκάλες που μηνούσε ότι κάποιο προσφιλές πρόσωπο σύντομα θα άφηνε χρόνους• μια φωνή ηχηρή, σαν τον απογευματινό κεραυνο που βροντούσε στα σύννεφα που κατέφθαναν από τα δυτικά σαν ένας κοχλάζων Αρμαγεδδών...") αναλαμβάνει να αποτελειώσει ό,τι απόμεινε, επενδύοντας στον φόβο, την υποταγή και τα πιο ταπεινά ανθρώπινα ένστικτα.

Μοναδικό εντρύφημα στα σκοτάδια της φαντασίας και του τρόμου που κάποτε φάνταζε ανείπωτος.

"Tonight all is silence in the world/As we take our stand/Down in the Jungleland."

This was an epic and great story. The story started with the leak of a weaponized virus from a Department of Defense laboratory in northern California. One of the security personnel unknowingly became infected and casually sneaks off the Army base with his family before lockdown procedures are activated. Eventually the contagious virus spread throughout the rest of the world and ended in a post-apocalyptic setting.

The story started with this suspenseful opening, moved to various characters, and how the virus spread to devastate the world. There were multiple keys players and backstories. They can seem overwhelming initially and sometimes left me asking 'Where is this going?' but it they all are connected.

The aftermath brings about themes of good vs evil in the people and their interactions. These opposing forces collide throughout the book and make for a pretty cool story. Stephen King did a good job of weaving human character and emotion, horror, suspense, all kinds of violence, tragedy, and dark fantasy. I would recommend it but you have to be patient with it. Thanks!