The Stand

[Menolly]

You may want to try giving the original, shorter version I try later, Z. Just to see if it reads better for you.
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[Avatar]

I've always hated King's tendency to foreshadow.

--A
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It's easy to judge. It's more difficult to understand.

[Zarathustra]

I liked his "foreshadowing" the first few times I encountered it. I thought it was a ballsy and original thing to do, just flat out tell the readers who was going to die, etc. But it's not really foreshadowing, is it? It's more like a spoiler. I do like how it shifts the tension from "what's going to happen?" to "how's it going to happen?" Used wisely it can increase the tension. But used over and over, it starts to seem like King just doesn't know how to write a true, subtle foreshadow.

Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying the hell out of this book. I just can't help studying it--what works and what doesn't--as I read.
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Meaning is created internally by each individual in each specific life: any attempt at *meaning* which relies on some kind of external superstructure (God, Satan, the Creator, the Worm, whatever) for its substance misses the point (I mean the point of my story). -SRD

Remain faithful to the earth, my brothers, with the power of your virtue. Let your gift-giving love and your knowledge serve the meaning of the earth ... Do not let them fly away from earthly things and beat with their wings against eternal walls. Alas, there has always been so much virtue that has flown away. Lead back to the earth the virtue that flew away, as I do-back to the body, back to life, that it may give the earth a meaning, a human meaning. -Nietzsche

[Avatar]

Yes, more like a spoiler than a hint, agreed. And I've always liked his willingness to kill off his characters. But I don't like knowing that he's going to do it.

--A
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It's easy to judge. It's more difficult to understand.

[Zarathustra]

Well, the end saved it. With about 50 pages to go, I was ready to call this book mediocre. It had been a decent ride, but the end of the Walking Dude seemed pointless to me. The good guys didn't need to die. They did absolutely nothing to make the atomic bomb go off. But then Stu (after journeying home to Boulder) said they were the sacrifice which God demanded. So they weren't supposed to do anything. Okay. I don't like it, but at least that was intentional.

But the journey back to civilization to see the baby--and all that represents in terms of the future--was a refreshing, welcome addition to all the darkness. I like how it went big at the end, summing up the importance of everything that had gone before in terms of society, violence, good, evil, etc.

I think that King is absolutely wrong in his judgment of men. But he told a fairly good story with that judgment. The idea that civilization is the root of all evil is laughably, demonstrably false. It's the flip-side of the Noble Savage myth. Disappointing that an author of this stature is promulgating such outdated, easily disproven myths. But it has made him rich, so who am I to judge? Good thing he had civilization to print, market, and sell his books!
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Meaning is created internally by each individual in each specific life: any attempt at *meaning* which relies on some kind of external superstructure (God, Satan, the Creator, the Worm, whatever) for its substance misses the point (I mean the point of my story). -SRD

Remain faithful to the earth, my brothers, with the power of your virtue. Let your gift-giving love and your knowledge serve the meaning of the earth ... Do not let them fly away from earthly things and beat with their wings against eternal walls. Alas, there has always been so much virtue that has flown away. Lead back to the earth the virtue that flew away, as I do-back to the body, back to life, that it may give the earth a meaning, a human meaning. -Nietzsche

[Shuram Gudatetris]

I've really liked every Stephen King book I have read, and loved most of them. I've read somewhere around a dozen or so--counting DT and GM as one each. But until last year, I'd never read The Stand.

I saw a copy of The Stand at the thrift store; I grab every King book I haven't read when I see one at the thrift store (in fact, I'm working on Under the Dome right now, recently acquired). I read the preface, and became super excited: apparently this book is most people's favorite Stephen King book!

I thought I was in for a treat.

Boy, was I wrong.

Not only is this my least favorite Stephen King book, it is one of my least favorite books that I actually finished. I found it boring, and the ending was unsatisfying. If I wasn't unemployed, I doubt I would've committed the time to read it.

I read the extended version.

No offense intended to the people who like this thing. I wish I could have had a good experience with it. Maybe if hadn't known it to be most people's favorite, I wouldn't have had my hopes so high. But, man, was it boring.

I liked Nick Andros.
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[Avatar]

No offence taken. I like the huge, sweeping, post-apocalyptic scope of it.

--A
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It's easy to judge. It's more difficult to understand.

[Akasri]

I agree with you about the extended version. The original released version, I like for the most part - I'm just not 100% behind the ending, but it's a great story.

The extended version (like most "extended version" movies) contains stuff that was cut for a reason.

[Avatar]

I preferred the extended one myself.

--A
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It's easy to judge. It's more difficult to understand.

[lucimay]

[wayfriend]

[lucimay]

[Rawedge Rim]

I found the Stand underneath a step on the ship I was serving on back in '78, back when no one had heard of Steven King. Read it and thought the book was great.

Read the extended version years later; not as good. Extra material not all that interesting, and he also updated material to reflect events that happened later.

Original edit was much better IMOHO.
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"Whenever you dream, you're holding the key, it opens the the door to let you be free" ..RJD

[Cail]

It's my goal to re-read both versions after I'm done with school and I have some free time. I read the original in '79 or '80, and the expanded version the day it came out. I've done at least 2 re-reads since (the last being at least 10 years ago), but only of the expanded version. I like the additions, if only to spend more time in that world. But I've become much more critical since then.

King is a much better short story-teller than he is a novelist, but every once in a while he hits a homer with his novels (It, Wizard & Glass, Carrie, Christine, and a few others). I feel like The Stand was something he really felt, rather than one of his stories that he phoned in (pretty much anything from the cocaine days, and a lot of his post-accident novels). I stick with him, because every once in a while the magic is back (Duma Key, Mr. Mercedes, Hearts in Atlantis).
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"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." - PJ O'Rourke
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"Men and women range themselves into three classes or orders of intelligence; you can tell the lowest class by their habit of always talking about persons; the next by the fact that their habit is always to converse about things; the highest by their preference for the discussion of ideas." - Charles Stewart
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"I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." - James Madison
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[Avatar]

Hmmm, still haven't read Mr. Mercedes.

Must pick it up.

--A
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It's easy to judge. It's more difficult to understand.

[Rawedge Rim]

[Cail]

Oh yeah, The Raft is great. Hell, I don't think there's a bad story in Skeleton Crew or Night Shift.
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"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." - PJ O'Rourke
_____________
"Men and women range themselves into three classes or orders of intelligence; you can tell the lowest class by their habit of always talking about persons; the next by the fact that their habit is always to converse about things; the highest by their preference for the discussion of ideas." - Charles Stewart
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"I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." - James Madison
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[Avatar]

Hated the one about the monkey doll thing. And the dead grandma.

Tommyknockers wasn't just too long, it was flat out awful.

--A
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[Rigel]

So I picked up The Stand recently (the extended one), and so far I'm about a normal book's length into it and it's really just the introduction Not reading the rest of this thread yet because I don't want spoilers, but I'm enjoying it so far.
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[Avatar]

In that case I will say nothing yet, but I do like it. One of my favourite SK books.

--A
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It's easy to judge. It's more difficult to understand.