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Pistol_Pete posted:I'm paraphrasing a post I read elsewhere but you can tell King was very young when he wrote The Stand by the way he has Harold Lauder sitting on the Boulder governing committee at the age of 17, Larry Underwood having a mid-life crisis in his 20's and Stu being a wise old man of 30 or so. Him being on the governing committee at 17 reminds me of the Trial of Billy Jack for some reason.
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Mar 10, 2016 16:17
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Pistol_Pete posted:I'm paraphrasing a post I read elsewhere but you can tell King was very young when he wrote The Stand by the way he has Harold Lauder sitting on the Boulder governing committee at the age of 17, Larry Underwood having a mid-life crisis in his 20's and Stu being a wise old man of 30 or so. He date marks his books, so someone can open up the original and do the math. I think he was around 25 when it was published.
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Mar 10, 2016 19:05
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I enjoyed reading 11/22/63 but I'm glad I'm not the only one that thought it really dragged for a while around the middle or 2/3 mark or so. I usually don't skip or even skim stories once I'm invested in them, but I found my myself skipping 10-20 pages at a clip at a certain part of that book. What's the general consensus on the TV series? Doesn't seem like there's much buzz.
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Mar 10, 2016 19:14
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MrSlam posted:Him being on the governing committee at 17 reminds me of the Trial of Billy Jack for some reason. He er doesn't get on the governing committee, the closest he gets is running those search parties which he planned to use as an excuse to murder Stu. Him not getting on the committee is the reason he has an axe to grind against the whole group instead of just hating Redman for stealing his `one true love`.
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Mar 10, 2016 20:05
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Baka-nin posted:He er doesn't get on the governing committee, the closest he gets is running those search parties which he planned to use as an excuse to murder Stu. Him not getting on the committee is the reason he has an axe to grind against the whole group instead of just hating Redman for stealing his `one true love`. But he gets to gently caress Nadine in the rear end constantly while she goes insane. Which you'd think would mellow him out.
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Mar 10, 2016 20:13
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I had a thought about 11/22/63 the other day. It's been a while since I read it, so I might be mis-remembering though. When Al goes through the time bubble to go after LHO, he comes back early because of cancer. I had the thought that the reason he developed such an aggressive cancer was maybe from meddling with the timeline? Sort of a more permanent version of Jake's stomach trouble. I can't remember if Al mentioned what caused his cancer, but it sounded like a good possibility to me. I also liked the bits about the card-carrying time guardian guys. I'd like to read more about them and how they're chosen for the job. Seemed like an interesting bit that didn't get fleshed out much. The Zombie Guy fucked around with this message at 21:23 on Mar 10, 2016 |
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Mar 10, 2016 21:21
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Franchescanado posted:But he gets to gently caress Nadine in the rear end constantly while she goes insane. Which you'd think would mellow him out. Nah, Nadine maybe the equivalent of a Succubus but she makes it perfectly clear that she also belongs to another, and he knows she's only using him to get what she wants just like Frannie did from his twisted POV. From his sexual fantasies its clear he's still a moody teenager with weird control issues, if anything his relationship with Nadine would just twist the knife even more. This is the closest he's gotten to an adult relationship and its because she needs him to get her out of town and into the arms of another man. Its just a repetition of Redman and Frannie, only this time the other guy really is as jealous and conniving has Harold thought Stu was. And he has magic powers. Harold's pretty smart but his emotional immaturity is what sabotages him over and over.
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Mar 10, 2016 21:31
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Good point. Also of note, is that Harold's "relationship" with Nadine isn't really between them. It's an agreement between Harold and Flagg, with Nadine as the...surrogate?
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Mar 10, 2016 21:37
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Oxxidation posted:Been reading Bazaar of Bad Dreams. This bespectacled rear end in a top hat's still got it. Thought he lost it, but nope, just misplaced it for a while at worst. I mean look at this poo poo: I love it. I picture Stephen King dressed as the Merchant from Resident Evil 3 or 4 whenever I get to his introludes in the book. If he didn't have such a goofy rear end voice in real life, I could see a lot of these stories as half-hour shows like Tales From the Crypt or the Alfred Hitchcock show, with King hosting.
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Mar 10, 2016 21:53
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So I've reached the midpoint of 11/22/63 and drat, you guys were right. I was enjoying the Jodie parts - it helps that I'm just starting out as an English teacher, so it was like competency porn for me - but once he moved into the trailer park it's been tough to will myself to read. Doesn't help that I'm working on 2 other books at the moment though. Still, very good overall so far. People always say King's style changed significantly after his accident but I never see it too much, although his stories definitely get "weirder" (though this one, at the moment, seems straightforward).
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Mar 10, 2016 21:53
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BiggerBoat posted:I enjoyed reading 11/22/63 but I'm glad I'm not the only one that thought it really dragged for a while around the middle or 2/3 mark or so. I usually don't skip or even skim stories once I'm invested in them, but I found my myself skipping 10-20 pages at a clip at a certain part of that book. I love it. And I liked the book, even the romantic sub-plot. They added a companion character to Jake who finds out about the time travel And James Franco was perfectly cast as Jake. I think we're three episodes in and it's fast paced and really feels like the 60s. Some hokey stuff but for the most part really well done.
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Mar 11, 2016 02:31
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More Dark Tower adaptation news, they've cast Jake, mostly unknown child actor Tom Taylor and Aaron Paul has said/joked that he was cast. Which most likely means Eddie.
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Mar 11, 2016 03:43
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muscles like this? posted:More Dark Tower adaptation news, they've cast Jake, mostly unknown child actor Tom Taylor and Aaron Paul has said/joked that he was cast. Which most likely means Eddie. I hope that isn't a joke. Aaron Paul would be a great Eddie and I really look forward to seeing him fighting naked and get compliments from Idris Elba. Not joking. Not that I want to see his butt or anything but c'mon.
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Mar 11, 2016 06:36
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The Zombie Guy posted:I had a thought about 11/22/63 the other day. It's been a while since I read it, so I might be mis-remembering though. Can't remember how obvious the book was about it but that was at least my assumption as well. The TV show is fresher in my memory and it has the character say to Franco something like "You gently caress with time and it'll gently caress you right back."
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Mar 11, 2016 13:27
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muscles like this? posted:More Dark Tower adaptation news, they've cast Jake, mostly unknown child actor Tom Taylor and Aaron Paul has said/joked that he was cast. Which most likely means Eddie. I think Aaron Paul was always most people's choice for Eddie, so that's good news. Please let this movie be good.
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Mar 11, 2016 13:55
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The Time Dissolver posted:Can't remember how obvious the book was about it but that was at least my assumption as well. The TV show is fresher in my memory and it has the character say to Franco something like "You gently caress with time and it'll gently caress you right back." I think Jake explicitly thinks it to himself during one of his reiterative rants. Harmonizes.
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Mar 11, 2016 16:24
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I guess if Aaron Paul doesn't mind playing a drug addict in a redemption arc again, then hey, I'm all about it. I hope it's legit.
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Mar 12, 2016 21:01
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Discombobulator posted:I guess if Aaron Paul doesn't mind playing a drug addict in a redemption arc again, then hey, I'm all about it. I hope it's legit. I hope this guy  plays Henry Dean.
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Mar 12, 2016 21:03
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I see they're making a movie of IN THE TALL GRASS, though it would absolutely work better as a short. I imagine they'll be broadening out the cast a little bit to make it work, but as it is the story is a fun lean and mean time.
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Mar 14, 2016 14:00
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Just bought The Stand (the long-winded pre-purchase explanation version) and Drawing of the Three 'Ere we go
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Mar 14, 2016 15:14
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A lot of the time I really envy his ability to depict inner-monologue, but I gotta say sometimes it's really grating on the nerves. Especially when it's a smooth-talking jive-speaking hepcat who knows all the lingo the kids are slinging these days.
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Mar 15, 2016 23:33
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Discombobulator posted:I guess if Aaron Paul doesn't mind playing a drug addict in a redemption arc again, then hey, I'm all about it. I hope it's legit. He's running out of time to parlay the Breaking Bad role into some kind of lasting career in show business, so he's probably not being as picky now as he was a few years ago.
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Mar 16, 2016 20:34
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Basebf555 posted:He's running out of time to parlay the Breaking Bad role into some kind of lasting career in show business, so he's probably not being as picky now as he was a few years ago. It's only voice acting but Bojack Horseman is really well done. Also he doesn't have to play a junkie/addict in it.
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Mar 16, 2016 22:54
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He's got a show on Hulu called The Path that comes out next month. It looks great.
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Mar 17, 2016 13:46
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For those of you working on your dissertations "Hideous Forms: Stephen King and Representations of Obesity"  I have compiled a list of horrible characters who are fat and whose size is described with the intention to repulse readers:Harold Lauder (The Stand) Mrs Carmody (The Mist) Will Darnell (Christine) Female storekeeper (Cycle of the Werewolf) Mrs Dodd (The Dead Zone) Annie Wilkes (Misery), not exactly fat but presented as overweight and physically repulsive (though clearly from Paul’s POV) Myra and Mrs Kaspbrak (It) counterpoint: Ben as a Good Fat Person Aren’t Bobbi’s sister (Tommyknockers) and the evil sheriff (Under the Dome) overweight? Not sure about Billy Halleck (Thinner). He’s a fairly complex and ambiguous character but his early fatness is portrayed very negatively and equated with sloth and gluttony. Can anyone think of ones I've missed? I haven't read a few of the later novels and none of DT. Can anyone think of a good fat main character/protagonist apart from Ben? Sheriff Bannerman in TDZ is definitely a goody but only a minor character.
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Mar 21, 2016 18:17
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I wouldn't even count Ben, since he loses weight as part of his hero's journey. 
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Mar 21, 2016 18:26
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Lovecraft and Mark Twain think I'm an idiot, and now Stephen King thinks I'm hideous  At least I'll always have GRRM
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Mar 21, 2016 18:47
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Actually Harold looses weight the more evil he becomes, when he's really fat he's just a sulky and jealous teenager.
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Mar 21, 2016 18:59
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Pretty sure that Anne (Bobbi's sister in Tommyknockers) is described as rail thin and bony.
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Mar 21, 2016 19:15
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ConfusedUs posted:Pretty sure that Anne (Bobbi's sister in Tommyknockers) is described as rail thin and bony. ya and the cool bikers in black house are pretty fat I think.
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Mar 21, 2016 19:34
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Baka-nin posted:Actually Harold looses weight the more evil he becomes, when he's really fat he's just a sulky and jealous teenager. And if I recall correctly, Harold is called out to be like 6ft and 200 lbs, so hardly the epitome of gross American obesity
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Mar 21, 2016 20:01
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Does Lardass count?
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Mar 21, 2016 21:11
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navyjack posted:And if I recall correctly, Harold is called out to be like 6ft and 200 lbs, so hardly the epitome of gross American obesity I guess but if you remember the lawn-cutting scene you get the impression he is grotesque and fat if not *technically* grotesquely fat. Guess I need to re-read Tommyknockers. It's been too long.
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Mar 21, 2016 21:12
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The first Dark Tower book has the crazy preacher woman who was obese. Haven't read it in a while, but I think King describes her thighs as being like fleshy pillars.
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Mar 21, 2016 21:21
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Josef K. Sourdust posted:I guess but if you remember the lawn-cutting scene you get the impression he is grotesque and fat if not *technically* grotesquely fat. You may of got that impression but I certainly didn't. That scene is there to show that Harold is actually effected by the horrific trauma of watching every one he knew die slowly and horribly. It's a fat bloke having a breakdown, and Frannie witnessing motivates her to feel genuine sympathy for him. Unless King also thinks those who succumb to mental pressures are also disgusting creatures worthy of ridicule I don't see it.
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Mar 21, 2016 22:11
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Baka-nin posted:You may of got that impression but I certainly didn't. That scene is there to show that Harold is actually effected by the horrific trauma of watching every one he knew die slowly and horribly. It's a fat bloke having a breakdown, and Frannie witnessing motivates her to feel genuine sympathy for him. Unless King also thinks those who succumb to mental pressures are also disgusting creatures worthy of ridicule I don't see it. I recall that King described Harold in a way that conveyed Frannie mixed feelings: Harold is by turns affected, leering, pathetic, broken, detached, absurd, griefstricken, heartbroken. But I think when he described Harold physically I think he describes his appearance as comic and grotesque and he did comment on Harold's weight. It may be that I'm transferring all the times Frannie describes Harold as "fat" (and generally repulsive) in her (at times petulant and petty) diary. If so, I apologise. Does anyone have the text to hand? Could someone list a few of the phrases and adjectives King used in that scene. I'm genuinely curious to see if I have misremembered! Harold's one of the most complex and interesting characters in King's writing - not least for how he changes and yet also refuses to change over the course of the story - and I think we (and King) come to consider him a damaged, brave but misguided person.
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Mar 21, 2016 23:11
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Well , Harold is seduced by Nadine who is under the influence of Flagg. He had a choice I'm sure but he's sympathetic because he's a teenage virgin operating on hormones and of course he'd do anything to keep getting laid. Didn't have a very good moral compass, sure. But his brain hadn't finished developing at that age and welp.
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Mar 21, 2016 23:22
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Josef K. Sourdust posted:I recall that King described Harold in a way that conveyed Frannie mixed feelings: Harold is by turns affected, leering, pathetic, broken, detached, absurd, griefstricken, heartbroken. But I think when he described Harold physically I think he describes his appearance as comic and grotesque and he did comment on Harold's weight. It may be that I'm transferring all the times Frannie describes Harold as "fat" (and generally repulsive) in her (at times petulant and petty) diary. If so, I apologise. Sure, From behind the Lauder house there came a steady ratcheting clickclickclick of a hand mower, and when Fran came around the corner, what she saw was so strange that only her complete surprise kept her from laughing out loud. Harold, clad only in a tight and skimpy blue bathing suit, was mowing the lawn. His white skin was sheened with sweat; his long hair flopped against his neck (although to do Harold credit it did appear to have been washed in the not- too-distant past). The rolls of fat above the waistband of his trunks and below the legbands jounced up and down wildly. His feet were green with cut grass to above the ankle. His back had gone reddish, although with exertion or incipient sunburn she couldn't tell. But Harold wasn't just mowing; he was running. The Lauders' back lawn- sloped down to a picturesque, rambling stone wall, and in the middle of it was an octagonal summerhouse. She and Amy used to hold their "teas" there when they were little girls, Frannie remembered with a sudden stab of nostalgia that was unexpectedly painful, back in the days when they could still cry over the ending of Charlotte's Web and moan happily over Chuckie Mayo, the cutest boy in school. The Lauders' lawn was somehow English in its greenness and peace, but now a dervish in a blue bathing suit had invaded this pastoral scene. She could hear Harold panting in a way that was alarming to listen to as he turned the northeast corner where the Lauders' back lawn was divided from the Wilsons' by a row of mulberry bushes. He roared down the slope of the lawn, bent over the mower's T-handle. The blades whirred. Grass flew in a green jet, coating Harold's lower legs. He had mowed perhaps half of the lawn; what was left was a diminishing square with the summerhouse in the middle. He turned the corner at the bottom of the hill and then roared back, for a moment obscured from view by the summerhouse, and then reappearing, bent over his machine like a Formula One race driver. About halfway up, he saw her. At exactly the same instant Frannie said timidly: "Harold?" And she saw that he was in tears. "Huh!" Harold said-squeaked, actually. She had startled him out of some private world, and for a moment she feared that the startle on top of his exertion would give him a heart attack. Then he ran for the house, his feet kicking through drifts of mown grass, and she was peripherally aware of the sweet smell it made on the hot summer air. She took a step after him. "Harold, what's wrong?" Then he was bounding up the porch steps. The back door opened, Harold ran inside, and it slammed behind him with a jarring crash. In the silence that descended afterward, a jay called stridently and some small animal made rattling noises in the bushes behind the stone wall. The mower, abandoned, stood with cut grass behind it and high grass before it a little way from the summerhouse where she and Amy had once drunk their Kool-Aid in Barbie's kitchen cups with their little fingers sticking elegantly off into the air. Frannie stood indecisive for a while and at last walked up to the door and knocked. There was no answer, but she could hear Harold crying somewhere inside. "Harold?" No answer. The weeping went on. She let herself into the Lauders' back hall, which was dark, cool, and fragrant-Mrs. Lauder's cold-pantry opened off the hall to the left, and for as long as Frannie could remember there had been the good smell of dried apples and cinnamon back here, like pies dreaming of creation. "Harold?" She walked up the hall to the kitchen and Harold was there, sitting at the table. His hands were clutched in his hair, and his green feet rested on the faded linoleum that Mrs. Lauder had kept so spotless. "Harold, what's wrong?" "Go away!" he yelled tearfully. "Go away, you don't like me!" "Yes I do. You're okay, Harold. Maybe not great, but okay." She paused. "In fact, considering the circumstances and all, I'd have to say that right now you're one of my favorite people in the whole world." This seemed to make Harold cry harder. "Do you have anything to drink?" "Kool-Aid," he said. He sniffed, wiped his nose, and still looking at the table, added: "It's warm." "Of course it is. Did you get the water at the town pump?" Like many small towns, Ogunquit still had a common pump in back of the town hall, although for the last forty years it had been more of an antiquity than a practical source of water. Tourists sometimes took pictures of it. This is the town pump in the little seaside town where we spent our vacation. Oh, isn't that quaint. "Yeah, that's where I got it." She poured them each a glass and sat down. We should be having it in the summerhouse, she thought. We could drink it with our little fingers sticking off into the air. "Harold, what's wrong?" Harold uttered a strange, hysterical laugh and fumbled his Kool-Aid to his mouth. He drained the glass and set it down. "Wrong? Now what could be wrong?" "I mean, is it something specific?" She tasted her KoolAid and fought down a grimace. It wasn't that warm, Harold must have drawn the water only a short time ago, but he had forgotten the sugar. He looked up at her finally, his face tear-streaked and still wanting to blubber. "I want my mother," he said simply. "Oh, Harold-" "I thought when it happened, when she died, `Now that wasn't so bad.' " He was gripping his glass, staring at her in an intense, haggard way that was a little frightening. "I know how terrible that must sound to you. But I never knew how I would take it when they passed away. I'm a very sensitive person. That's why I was so persecuted by the cretins at that house of horrors the town fathers saw fit to call a high school. I thought it might drive me mad with grief, their passing, or at least prostrate me for a year . . . my interior sun, so to speak, would . . . would . . . and when it happened, my mother . . . Amy . . . my father . . . I said to myself, `Now that wasn't so bad.' I . . . they . . ." He brought his fist down on the table, making her flinch. "Why can't I say what I mean?" he screamed. "I've always been able to say what I meant! It's a writer's job to carve with language, to hew close to the bone, so why can't I say what it feels like?" "Harold, don't. I know how you feel." He stared at her, dumbstruck. "You know . . . ?" He shook his head. "No. You couldn't." "Remember when you came to the house? And I was digging the grave? I was half out of my mind. Half the time I couldn't even remember what I was doing. I tried to cook some french fries and almost burned the house down. So if it makes you feel better to mow the grass, fine. You'll get a sunburn if you do it in your bathing trunks, though. You're already getting one," she added critically, looking at his shoulders. To be polite, she sipped a little more of the dreadful Kool-Aid. He wiped his hands across his mouth. "I never even liked them that well," he said, "but I thought grief was something you felt anyway. Like your bladder's full, you have to urinate. And if close relatives die, you have to be grief- stricken." She nodded, thinking that was strange but not inapt. "My mother was always taken with Amy. She was Amy's friend," he amplified with unconscious and nearly pitiful childishness. "And I horrified my father." Fran saw how that could be. Brad Lauder had been a huge, brawny man, a foreman at the woolen mill in Kennebunk. He would have had very little idea of what to make of the fat, peculiar son that his loins had produced. "He took me aside once," Harold resumed, "and asked me if I was a queerboy. That's just how he said it. I got so scared I cried, and he slapped my face and told me if I was going to be such a goddamned baby all the time, I'd best ride right out of town. And Amy . . . I think it would be safe to say that Amy just didn't give a poo poo. I was just an embarrassment when she brought her friends home. She treated me like I was a messy room." With an effort, Fran finished her Kool-Aid. "So when they were gone and I didn't feel too much one way or the other, I just thought I was wrong. `Grief is not a knee jerk reaction,' I said to myself. But I got fooled. I missed them more and more every day. Mostly my mother. If I could just see her . . . a lot of times she wasn't around when I wanted her . . . needed her . . . she was too busy doing things for Amy, or with Amy, but she was never mean to me. So this morning when I got thinking about it, I said to myself, `I'll mow the grass. Then I won't think about it.' But I did. And I started to mow faster and faster . . . as if I could outrun it . . . and I guess that's when you came in. Did I look as crazy as I felt, Fran?" She reached across the table and touched his hand. "There's nothing wrong with the way you feel, Harold." "Are you sure?" He was looking at her again in that wide-eyed, childish stare. "Yes." "Will you be my friend?" "Yes." "Thank God," Harold said. "Thank God for that." His hand was sweaty in hers, and as she thought it, he seemed to sense it, and pulled his hand reluctantly away. "Would you like some more Kool-Aid?" he asked her humbly. She smiled her best diplomatic smile. "Maybe later," she said.
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Mar 21, 2016 23:44
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Thanks for that! Apart from "rolls of fat" and "fat" as an adjective Harold's father would have used, there is a little description of his physique. Much less than I remembered. Funny how your memory can trick you like that. Stephen King, I apologise.
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Mar 22, 2016 13:15
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In Gerald's Game Gerald's obesity contributes to the fatal heart attack that kicks off the plot.
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Mar 22, 2016 13:32
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