I finally convinced my kid to read Stephen King's "The Stand"...

[PCIntern]

after many years of trying. It's a wonderful metaphor which has real meaning today.

Among other things, what I hope is realized is that after the ultimate catastrophe, after the Foe has been vanquished, after everything which everyone's gone thru, the crap associated with Society begins anew, and our protagonists plan to leave Boulder, CO, and return to Maine, since all those things which eventually led to the bio warfare lab mistake were starting, albeit slowly, to evolve again - the arming of civilians, the political deterioration of the body politic, etc.

We never ever learn; we are seriously flawed; we are doomed to repeat every mistake from generation to generation; we shall not learn a lesson. It's the truth, it's a shame, and we just have to endure as a species - if we can.

[Donnachaidh]

1. my absolute King favorite. 2nd fave was the Dark Half.

:thumbsup:

[PCIntern]

2. I had not read that...thanks for the suggestion! n/t

[Zephie]

3. I bought the special "directors cut" edition of the book a few weeks ago...

I've always loved Stephen King's work (I'm a hopeless Dark Tower fan), but I've just had the hardest time getting into The Stand. I should take another crack at it...

[PCIntern]

6. when I read the original,

I was impressed, but thought that The Shining was by far superior. After they re-released it with the 'missing' chapters, I revised my position....

[Jamastiene]

7. Just remember the first several chapters are character familiarization

and character development. After the story really starts going, you'll be glad you paid attention to the first hard-to-read chapters. It's a good story and good book once you get into it. It just takes a while.

[peacefreak]

4. I re-read it last summer.

Good reminder to us all. Just watch out for the Walkin' Dude.

[proteus_lives]

5. Love that book.

Huge King fan here.

[Jamastiene]

8. Thanks for the idea.

I have a bunch of his books and like to re-read them every once in a while. Recently, his latest novel went by fast and I didn't get a copy fast enough. So, I figured I would re-read one of his books until I see the new one again in the store.

Usually, I re-read The Talisman every chance I get, but I don't want to make myself tired of my most favorite King book.

I think I'll read The Stand again this go-round.

[stillwaiting]

9. If you liked The Stand, try Swan Song by Robert McCammon.

I think I might have liked it even better. Haven't read it in a long time and I might just have to read it again.

Love the characters he created in this one.

[walldude]

16. Yep.. two of my favorites...

I loved Swan Song almost as much as the Stand.

[Donnachaidh]

24. oh man! GREAT book!

Gotta dig out my copy again!

[Frank Cannon]

27. Ah, hell, yes. Another awesome apocalyptic story.

I wish Bob McCammon would go back to writing horror.

[proteus_lives]

44. I love McCammon.

So pulpy and good.

Have you read Wolf's Hour and Stinger?

[stillwaiting]

46. Both of 'em. Probably 15 or so years ago. He's fantastic!

I even read a few of his earlier works which were decidedly less good, but still a guilty pleasure.

[asdjrocky]

48. HUGE Swan Song fan here.

I like all of his books. Another favorite is Boy's Life. One of my all time favorite books.

[Tesha]

51. "A last key for a last lock..." (NT)

[DailyGrind51]

10. "The Stand" was the only novel that King refused to sell for a 2-hour film.

He relented, however, for an 8-hour,4 part mini-series providing enough time to avoid severe editing.

[PCIntern]

11. It should have been 32 hours

Casting wasn't bad...lost much of the story line due to necessary paring down of characters...

Putting "The Kid" back into the book was a master stroke...showed the extreme psychopathology of an individual juxtaposed with a plain somewhat feeble-minded criminal who became, if not heroic, a sympathetic character. Fascinating

[DailyGrind51]

13. "M-O-O-N, that spells..." one great mini-series that could have occupied an entire season!

As I recall from the novel, Randall Flagg was one of 6 of his kind operating in every habitable continent?

[Swede]

12. If it happens,society will fall quickly.

You will need your guns to keep your food. The Postman is a well told story of after the fall,also.

[onpatrol98]

14. Hmmm...

I used to be a real Stephen King fan, but I must admit that was one of his books that I hated. He's gotten into this whole mini series thing.

His books were always better than the movies.

[crazyjoe]

15. I hope he likes to read, that is one long ass book.

He has a new book called "under the dome" that looks pretty daunting also.
For you Steven King fans, I recommend "bag of bones", I just read it while on vacation and though it one of his best.

[walldude]

17. Nah.. both The Stand and Under The Dome are long but fly by when you are reading

them. I liked Under The Dome, it was a return to King's old style. King was always my favorite author but we kind of fell out after Pet Semetary. Not a huge fan of his newer stuff, although I liked "Dome" and "Cell" and "Insomnia".

[spin]

49. Under the Dome was a great read. (n/t)

[pintobean]

18. I had my daughter read The Stand

when she was 12. She still loves it at 20.
Another favorite of ours:

[rug]

19. Why did they try to go to Maine from Manhattan via the Lincoln Tunnel?

[PCIntern]

20. They didn't...

they went west into NJ...and then to Boulder...

[rug]

23. Didn't they first plan to go to some kind of lab in Maine, before the visions started?

[PCIntern]

25. The characters who went thru the tunnel

in the earlier part of the book were the singer and the (now-termed) cougar he met...later Trashcan Man went thru the Eisenhower Tunnel...

I don't think there was an error of geography....Stu Redman and that group came from Maine and went west...

[Tesha]

53. Stu escaped from Stovington, VT and met Glen Bateman somewhere in souther VT.

Frannie Goldsmith and Harold Lauder met up with Stu and Glenn at
Glenn's place in southern VT, then went back to Stovington and then
on to Boulder.

Tesha

[Tesha]

52. "They" didn't.

Larry Underwood was in Manhattan where he met Nadine Cross (mini-series)/
Rita Blakemoor (book)*, and they needed to go west. So it was either one of the
tunnels or the George Washington Bridge.

Tesha


* Rita Blakemoor didn't make the cut for the mini-series' limited number
of characters so her role was folded into that of the Nadine Cross character.

[patrice]

21. A little too fatalistic for me. Individuals can and do learn and learning includes change.

[PCIntern]

22. OK, good...

individuals do learn I agree; the human race, however,seems unable to, IMHO. (Too many commas but you get the point!)

[CrispyQ]

33. Our species has some outstanding individuals, but as a collective, we suck.

I call it the human condition & I'll give you fair warning - never ask me about the human condition if I've been drinking tequila.

[DailyGrind51]

28. "Individuals" can, "societies" don't, unfortunately!

Which is why our attempts to implement "change" in Afghanistan are futile. "We" can't even convince a lot of Americans that ending unemployment insurance when there really are no jobs available or not providing health coverage for the uninsured is morally despicable!

[patrice]

31. That's why us learning/changing individuals got to get together!!! nt

[PCIntern]

32. Here we are! n/t

[patrice]

40. What's next?

I vote for: We need folk who can teach us how to live in our own self-designed cooperatives.

[CrispyQ]

34. It's our only hope.

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.
~Albert Einstein

[DailyGrind51]

41. Until someone uses the sticks to make a bow and arrow shaft and a shapened stone

to make an arrow head.

[End Of The Road]

26. "We're damned, Harold." nt

[pipi_k]

29. On the other hand...

while I did read "The Stand" (as well as most of his other books), my very favorite Stephen King contribution is still "The Revenge of Lardass Hogan" from "Stand By Me"

:7

[lumberjack_jeff]

30. Trashcan man. Best character ever. n/t

[CrispyQ]

35. It's a great book. I devoured it in two days.

The only book to actually scare me is "It." I'm still fearful to walk close to a sewer grate. Damn that Pennywise the Clown.

[MotorCityMan]

36. "Salem's Lot" scared the crap out of me when I was a kid

I will never forget the part that started "The town knew darkness...".

"The Stand" is my favorite by him, with "It" a close second.

[mzteris]

42. i wasn't even a kid, and it scared the crap

outta me!

It got to the point I could only read it at work on my lunch hour. Forget reading at home. Alone. At night. In the dark. . . . :scared:

[proteus_lives]

45. 'Salem's lot is another great one.

One of the great American vampire stories.

[Greyhound]

37. K&R. Excellent choice.

[SidDithers]

38. I love how King weaves characters and events from The Stand...

into the books of the Dark Tower series.

It may not be high literature, but the man knows how to write a good story.

Sid

[tom_paine]

39. Yes, indeed. Perhaps the greatest, true-est truth that we are capable of knowing

The last 12 years have hammered it home in ways too numerous to list. NOTHING has changed in human beings in the alst 10,000 years except technology and energy budget.

Once one understands that, one understands as much as we limited hominids can understand, at least as it relates to The Big Picture.

When the 0.01% of the Aristocracy needs slaves again, if the energy budget falls below a certain point wher even the ELite start losing their "coal, oil, and electricity slaves", then slavery will make a massive comeback.

It really is as simple as that. Still, that kind of constriction of our energy budget isn't liekyl for 50 years or more, so it's unlikely that any of us will be alive to see the wholesale reimplementation of slavery. (Thank God)

But, unless technology finds a way to keep our species' energy budget at high levels, it will happen as sure as the sun rises.

P.S. One day being fat will again be "sexy" - unless technology can continue to counteract environmental collapse and Peak Oil to keep our global food consumption levels high enough.

[GCP]

43. Another great apocalyptic book is 'A Canticle for Leibowitz'

From Amazon:
Walter M. Miller's acclaimed SF classic A Canticle for Leibowitz opens with the accidental excavation of a holy artifact: a creased, brittle memo scrawled by the hand of the blessed Saint Leibowitz, that reads: "Pound pastrami, can kraut, six bagels--bring home for Emma." To the Brothers of Saint Leibowitz, this sacred shopping list penned by an obscure, 20th-century engineer is a symbol of hope from the distant past, from before the Simplification, the fiery atomic holocaust that plunged the earth into darkness and ignorance. As 1984 cautioned against Stalinism, so 1959's A Canticle for Leibowitz warns of the threat and implications of nuclear annihilation. Following a cloister of monks in their Utah abbey over some six or seven hundred years, the funny but bleak Canticle tackles the sociological and religious implications of the cyclical rise and fall of civilization, questioning whether humanity can hope for more than repeating its own history.

[Biker13]

47. Great book GCP!

Read it years ago, and have a copy still!

Biker's Old Lady

[asdjrocky]

50. On my top ten list.

Wonderful book and one of the best of the "end of the world as we know it" books.