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Question about the final Dark Tower book: Why does Roland give up Insomnia? It seemed like reading it was pretty important to his quest and he just sort of passes it off to Irene with a vague 'Meh, feels wrong'.
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Jul 2, 2014 14:11
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| # ? May 29, 2024 02:52 |
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Hey guys, I thought you might find this interesting: http://external.bangordailynews.com/projects/2014/06/charlie/?utm_campaign=refer#.U7P5lfldUd8 That is THE BRIDGE at the beginning, from the book It. For those who don't know, Charlie Howard was a young gay man thrown off a bridge and killed in a hate-crime, and as many of us know, he was very much the Real Life model for Adrian Mellon. I should add that reading this article to me, as a gay man who was born and raised in Maine and lived most of his life here, was really upsetting and depressing. I have to say though, Looking at that cam footage is really eerie because it is totally how I imagined the Kissing Bridge looking in my mind. And yes, that really is the real-life Kenduskeag there. Also, I am just going to quote the following because it really sums up why I still feel loving pissed about this: quote:“There wasn’t the outrage of, ‘Why did this happen?’” recalls Pat Blanchette, a former state legislator and current Bangor city councilor. “It was people saying it was Charlie Howard’s fault because he didn’t hide it.” edit: Also I had never seen a picture of Charlie Howard before and I am struck by how INCREDIBY young he looks  I mean, man, he looks 15 years old in that picture.
kaworu fucked around with this message at 14:38 on Jul 2, 2014 |
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Jul 2, 2014 14:13
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OldTennisCourt posted:Question about the final Dark Tower book: Why does Roland give up Insomnia? It seemed like reading it was pretty important to his quest and he just sort of passes it off to Irene with a vague 'Meh, feels wrong'. It was a way for Stephen King to say, "I changed the idea and scope of what I planned to do with this series, so this is my way of tossing all of that away and picking and choosing what I want to leave in."
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Jul 2, 2014 18:06
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So I just finished 'The Stand' because it topped some list somewhere and while I liked it, I couldn't help but feel let down. Why? Because the cover looked super sweet: But I'll be damned if that actually happened in the book. Did I miss it? Or was the final battle just that dipshit demon blowing hisself up? Other than that, the book was okay.
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Jul 5, 2014 09:33
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no that doesn't happen and yeah the end kind of sucks but it wasn't about the ending it was about the journey ~LOST~
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Jul 5, 2014 17:56
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I finished 11/22/63 this morning. Such a bittersweet end. Absolutely loved it.
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Jul 5, 2014 20:51
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rear end Catchcum posted:no that doesn't happen and yeah the end kind of sucks but it wasn't about the ending it was about the journey ~LOST~ So this was my first King novel, and from what I've heard, this is not an uncommon complaint, that the endings are such letdowns. But I just didn't understand why he kept including the outline of those dudes fighting and then just didn't use it. Oh well. Also I feel real bad because one of my friends has really golden-white hair, so I kept picturing him as Tom Cullen.
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Jul 5, 2014 22:48
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bollig posted:So I just finished 'The Stand' because it topped some list somewhere and while I liked it, I couldn't help but feel let down. Why? Because the cover looked super sweet: Man I was loving waiting for that scene all book. I kept wondering how Stu or Larry were going to get a sword and when the goblins would show up. Guess it was an allegory for good fighting evil or humans fighting a virus, or something, I dunno. Sweet cover art though.
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Jul 6, 2014 04:06
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bollig posted:So this was my first King novel, and from what I've heard, this is not an uncommon complaint, that the endings are such letdowns. But I just didn't understand why he kept including the outline of those dudes fighting and then just didn't use it. Oh well. M-O-O-N spells read Insomnia next.
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Jul 6, 2014 14:26
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I started a re-read of The Stand, so of course I have a cold now. One thing I'm noticing is that there's a gap. People get sick, some scary things happen, and then civilization is just gone and people are jerking off in Yankee Stadium. We get a brief flash of the collapse from Frannie, but it's really sort it. I'm really into collapse stories, and so many apocalyptic stories skip over that part.
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Jul 6, 2014 16:57
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rypakal posted:I started a re-read of The Stand, so of course I have a cold now. There's a whole chapter of little vignettes where people die randomly. "No Great Loss" is the best chapter in the book, probably the best chapter King has ever written, and it's meant not just to show those peoples' fates but to show that people everywhere suffered from similar circumstances.
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Jul 6, 2014 17:00
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ConfusedUs posted:There's a whole chapter of little vignettes where people die randomly. "No Great Loss" is the best chapter in the book, probably the best chapter King has ever written, and it's meant not just to show those peoples' fates but to show that people everywhere suffered from similar circumstances. Yes, and that all takes place after the collapse.
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Jul 6, 2014 17:01
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rypakal posted:
To be fair, the Stand is not about the collapse per se, but about what happens after it. But I agree, I like reading stories about the collapse itself, and most of what I get my hands on is post-apocalytpic stories.
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Jul 6, 2014 19:02
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The Stand (and Cujo, maybe some other things too) is streamable on Netflix now.
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Jul 6, 2014 19:10
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juliuspringle posted:The Stand (and Cujo, maybe some other things too) is streamable on Netflix now. Does it stand up to the book? Are you being ironic about Insomnia? Or is it good, with a good ending? Is that the book that that movie is based off of? rypakal posted:I started a re-read of The Stand, so of course I have a cold now. Yeah that happened to me too. I had a cold and I was reading about the Ebola outbreak. Oh well. So, I didn't mind the gap. If you think about how this disease spreads, the vast majority of the people probably all died on one day. IF this was real and not a work of fiction it would probably go like: some people sniffing, a few weird deaths and more people sniffing, a bunch of deaths and everyone's sniffling, and then we're all dead. The only 'sciency' thing that bugged me was that all of a sudden there were more animals. In a year or two, sure, but not after a couple months. bollig fucked around with this message at 06:55 on Jul 7, 2014 |
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Jul 7, 2014 06:45
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Pheeets posted:I like reading stories about the collapse itself, and most of what I get my hands on is post-apocalytpic stories. Yeah, but that part's boring, man, most authors just want to write about the Lord Humungus riding around the inevitable wastelands with his posse of armour-wearing assailants, not chart out the logistic collapse of society.
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Jul 7, 2014 13:21
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World War Z is actually the only book I can think of that tracks collapse pretty well.
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Jul 7, 2014 14:52
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What exactly do you all like about stories of civilization/society/everything collapsing? What specifically makes those appeal to you? I'm not asking in an aggressive or insulting way, just a curious one.
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Jul 7, 2014 16:52
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For me, mostly just that's a lot of stories out there that focus on the lead up to the collapse, and a ton more that focus on the aftermath, but surprisingly few good ones that deal with the collapse itself.
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Jul 7, 2014 17:06
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Nintendo Kid posted:For me, mostly just that's a lot of stories out there that focus on the lead up to the collapse, and a ton more that focus on the aftermath, but surprisingly few good ones that deal with the collapse itself. I don't get this. The collapse isn't this discrete moment in time, it's an ongoing decay as the whole supporting infrastructure grinds to a halt and the things that keep civilization from collapsing stop holding it up, and The Stand shows us a bunch of this. The security guards for the refinery are dead, so Trash can go in there and blow the thing up and now the whole city burns down because the firefighters are dead from flu. What is it about "the collapse itself" that you think is getting short shrift in post-Apocalyptic fiction?
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Jul 7, 2014 17:13
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Phanatic posted:I don't get this. The collapse isn't this discrete moment in time, it's an ongoing decay as the whole supporting infrastructure grinds to a halt and the things that keep civilization from collapsing stop holding it up, and The Stand shows us a bunch of this. The security guards for the refinery are dead, so Trash can go in there and blow the thing up and now the whole city burns down because the firefighters are dead from flu. What is it about "the collapse itself" that you think is getting short shrift in post-Apocalyptic fiction? Well that's the thing, The Stand is one of the few books that actually covers the collapse, at least in my opinion, and is why I like it. Most post apocalyptic fiction is set months, years, even centuries after the collapse happened with maybe a little flashing back and there's a small genre of books that are set right before something's about to collapse. But there's relatively little that really covers the middle part.
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Jul 7, 2014 17:37
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bollig posted:Does it stand up to the book? Are you being ironic about Insomnia? Or is it good, with a good ending? Is that the book that that movie is based off of? I forget the exact way it's portrayed but could it just be the animals are out and about more since no more human presence?
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Jul 7, 2014 17:47
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api call girl posted:I forget the exact way it's portrayed but could it just be the animals are out and about more since no more human presence? If I recall correctly, there was actually a notable lack of certain animals, although I forget which specific ones. As far as reading a collapse-secnario - yes, The Stand had one of the better portrayals of the unfolding of the last crisis, but it was still mostly a series of snapshots followed by the "real" story - after the collapse. I'd like to read something that focuses on people dealing with the slow unraveling of society in their little corner of the world, as well as the "big picture" of the winding down on a global scale, but i haven't really found that.
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Jul 7, 2014 18:09
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Pheeets posted:If I recall correctly, there was actually a notable lack of certain animals, although I forget which specific ones. Most of the dogs and horses died with the flu. I think it was Glen who opined that the more domesticated the animal, the more likely it was to also die from Captain Trips.
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Jul 7, 2014 18:56
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bollig posted:Does it stand up to the book? Are you being ironic about Insomnia? Or is it good, with a good ending? Is that the book that that movie is based off of? Hadn't seen this until now so sorry about that. I have never actually finished The Stand but apparently (I read the graphic novel series so far) they changed some stuff from the book for the movie version. As far as Insomnia goes it is one of my favorite Stephen King books and it has nothing to do with the movie Insomnia.
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Jul 7, 2014 19:01
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bollig posted:Does it stand up to the book? Are you being ironic about Insomnia? Or is it good, with a good ending? Is that the book that that movie is based off of? Which one, The Stand or Cujo? Neither stand up to the books but I always thought Cujo (the book and the film) were underrated. The Stand TV series was pretty bleak and corny and wasted a good cast. I didn't care for Insomnia at all. It seemed to fall into a long string of books where everything just went crazy and unbelievable for some reason. I find King's at his best when he's relatively grounded in reality. Maybe that's why I like some of the books that seem to be universally loathed more enjoyable than other people do. A childhood friend of mine, who turned me on to King at a young age, and who I recently caught up with said the same thing. That his books are becoming less and less believable and, hence, less scary somehow. I finished Under the Dome and the only thing I disliked about it was the alien technology/computer box bullshit. Took me out of the story entirely.
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Jul 7, 2014 19:56
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Pheeets posted:If I recall correctly, there was actually a notable lack of certain animals, although I forget which specific ones. This might be a place to suggest Ben Winters' "The Last Policeman". If you can get past the narrators' tone (if heard it described as "an autist trying to do noir") it's got most of what you're looking for. The backstory is that an asteroid is heading towards Earth and will kill everyone in ~6 months, and civilization is collapsing. Doesn't focus a whole lot on the global scale (although there are mentions) but paints a pretty vivid picture of what's going on at the local level.
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Jul 7, 2014 20:02
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cheerfullydrab posted:What exactly do you all like about stories of civilization/society/everything collapsing? What specifically makes those appeal to you? I'm not asking in an aggressive or insulting way, just a curious one. When it's well written, it's the little things. The stuff you take take for granted that's suddenly gone, how it effects your life and the small details that we take for granted and the things we do out of habit that are no longer there. The day to day habits you wouldn't ordinarily think about when you picture an entire societal collapse. It's a bit like when you experience a power outage and still habitually run around flicking light switches, trying to turn on the TV and attempting to get online. When it's well written, Armageddon shows us how thin the line between a functioning society and utter collapse really is. That's one of the things that's so great about The Stand. It wasn't a nuclear war or a natural disaster with explosions and fire everywhere. Everyone just got sick and Robutussin wasn't cutting it.
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Jul 7, 2014 20:06
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JohnnyCanuck posted:Most of the dogs and horses died with the flu. I think it was Glen who opined that the more domesticated the animal, the more likely it was to also die from Captain Trips. Exactly. But then when people were out and about all of a sudden there was deer and buffalo everywhere. Again, this is a minor detail. Deer would probably be wandering around a lot more, but it wouldn't be enough for a country boy like Stu to go 'drat there's deer everywhere'. In 2-3 years, absolutely.
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Jul 7, 2014 21:15
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bollig posted:Exactly. But then when people were out and about all of a sudden there was deer and buffalo everywhere. Again, this is a minor detail. Deer would probably be wandering around a lot more, but it wouldn't be enough for a country boy like Stu to go 'drat there's deer everywhere'. In 2-3 years, absolutely. Deer overpopulation is a thing. I can absolutely see them coming out of the woodwork in just a few months. Especially in more wild areas with lots of undeveloped land, like Colorado. Buffalo though? That's weird. They're bouncing back but they are hardly going to overrun anything.
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Jul 7, 2014 21:38
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ConfusedUs posted:Deer overpopulation is a thing. I can absolutely see them coming out of the woodwork in just a few months. Especially in more wild areas with lots of undeveloped land, like Colorado. Deer would definitely be everywhere.
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Jul 8, 2014 08:11
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Is it possible to get a list of his books in order from most to least realistic?
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Jul 8, 2014 09:50
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Sure. At the least realistic is The Body, because none of the children have any terrifying mental powers nor are they fighting an ageless evil. At most realistic is Song of Susannah, because Stephen King gets run over by a van in it.
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Jul 8, 2014 20:03
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Blade_of_tyshalle posted:Sure. At the least realistic is The Body, because none of the children have any terrifying mental powers nor are they fighting an ageless evil. Oddly enough, very close to the best and the worst as well.  bollig posted:Exactly. But then when people were out and about all of a sudden there was deer and buffalo everywhere. Again, this is a minor detail. Deer would probably be wandering around a lot more, but it wouldn't be enough for a country boy like Stu to go 'drat there's deer everywhere'. In 2-3 years, absolutely. I don't remember where you're getting this from. I just got past the point where Glen tells Stu this is what will happen to the deer population in a few years, so it seems weird he'd later suggest it has already happened.
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Jul 8, 2014 20:35
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juliuspringle posted:Is it possible to get a list of his books in order from most to least realistic? Off the top of my head, most realistic are Delores Clairborne, The Body (Stand by Me), Cujo, Secret Window, Gerald's Game, Joyland, Misery, The Long Walk, Blaze and The Stand. Maybe The Dead Zone, Rose Madder and Dr. Sleep which never get too far out there. Some of the others depend on your capacity for suspension of disbelief relating to ghosts and the supernatural (The Shining, Pet Sematary, Duma Key, Carrie, Christine, Firestarter) UFO's (Under the Dome, Dreamcatcher), monsters (Salem's Lot, Cycle of the Werewolf, Cell) time travel (11/22/63), demons (IT, Desperation), etc. so take it all with a grain. Like others have said, the collections of short stories are probably the best except for Everything's Eventual which I would skip.
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Jul 8, 2014 20:39
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ConfusedUs posted:Deer overpopulation is a thing. I can absolutely see them coming out of the woodwork in just a few months. Especially in more wild areas with lots of undeveloped land, like Colorado.
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Jul 8, 2014 21:56
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Deer populations would explode, then collapse somewhat as they finish off every edible plant left behind by people. They would still stay pretty high until wolves and other large predators make a comeback.
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Jul 8, 2014 22:01
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cheerfullydrab posted:Already happened. The giant buffalo herds on the great plains we associate with the old west in America were a direct result of the 90-something percent of indigenous peoples that were killed by sicknesses in the 16th century. They were a recent feature of the post-apocalyptic landscape. And going back farther, there is evidence that they hung out in far smaller herds until humans wandered over from Asia and made big herds much more of a survival trait than before.
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Jul 8, 2014 22:04
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BiggerBoat posted:Which one, The Stand or Cujo? Neither stand up to the books but I always thought Cujo (the book and the film) were underrated. The Stand TV series was pretty bleak and corny and wasted a good cast. Yeah that is so typically King, I was half expecting it the whole book. I actually stopped reading Cell after you find out about the sound waves and the brainwashing etc. I immediately lost all interest as soon as I started reading that part. Total clustermug, ayuh. 54 40 or fuck fucked around with this message at 17:10 on Jul 12, 2014 |
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Jul 12, 2014 17:05
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The Under the Dome tv show did make me appreciate the book so much more, so it has that going for it.
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Jul 13, 2014 16:31
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