The Stand

[HORIZONS]

I just started watching Stephen King's The Stand and was blown away when the flu-like plague that killed everyone was called the Swine Flu by the radio announcer! This show was made in 1994 and I'm not sure when he wrote the book - but I am relatively sure that there was no Swine Flu back then (?)

Your thoughts?

[Amenjo]

The swine flu propaganda has been around longer than you think!

Watch this from the 1970's

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RP_uTg_VzVQ

Love and Truth,

Amenjo

[Darla Ken Pearce]

Stephen King and all of his books are about as dark as you can get. It comes, I think, from being born and raised in an obscure part of Maine where it is dark and lacking light. Some of his characters display traits that he has demonstrated himself. He is also an angry man made angrier when someone purposely ran over him some years back when he was out for a simple stroll. If he was ill and twisted before, it's much worse now. The more we are attracted to this dark side of life as reflected in his best sellers, it's much like looking too close in the abyss, it's looking back at you, and it is all too easy to fall into it yourself.

The lighter, happier, side of life is where we want to dwell. But it's a choice and only you can make it. Nothing surprises me about Stephen King's work. By staying on the dark side, he's been of great assistance to the wrong side of our reality and his dream material really sucks.

[9eagle9]

I've been a fan of King for about thirty years. He's had a few incidents of making prophesy in his novels. Reference the book Insomnia, where a man with a political agenda decides to take his revenge out on his perceived enemies by running an airplane into a large building. Circa 1992. Well before 9/11

Also The DArk Tower Series that ties in with the Stand that represents...well.. a tower as an archetype and different dimensions of our existence and TIMELINES. Dark Tower was started in the 80's and was just recently concluded. People creating and halting time lines with their actions. People creating reality with their thoughts and words. Things we are hearing about now in the alt media but he was writing this stuff about before the internet was in common use by the general populace. king has made it clear he's not really into new agey sense only more as an artistic device and that nods that stuff like that exists but he's not directly involved in it.

At least not on a conscious level...lol.

I enjoyed the book "The Stand" more than I did the movie, which was good but I prefer books, which tends to be the case with me. You get more nuance out of it than the movie which usually tends to be the case.

[Lettherebelight]

I read 'The Stand' when it was first published back in the 70's. An epic tale of good versus evil. Interesting that it was an individual's choice of which side to align with that determined the fate of the world. Ahead of it's time as one of the first apocalyptic sagas.

True, Stephen Kings subsequent yarns were spun from darker shades, but 'The Stand' is a masterpiece of courage and hope in the face of overpowering evil.

Haven't seen the film version, but I would probably agree with 9eagle9. I think it
would be a pretty tall order to surpass the book.


http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kApto83SZK4/TUebd6uRRFI/AAAAAAAAL2U/bm5l2ajQVds/s400/_the_stand.jpg

[9eagle9]

His books are often times so thick and so filled with nuance and little side stories, and interesting if sometimes irrelevant side and back stories, that a movie that portrayed the Stand in its fullness would be a week long...lol. Not to mention so much is told in the internal dialog of any given character that it wouldn't translate well into film. His books are just too vivid for film to accurately portray that so they tend not to be as good as the books.

He's not a great writer in the technical sense, but his story telling ability tends to make his loose use of grammatical principles a strength rather than a weakness.

[HORIZONS]

Thanks for your post everyone :)

[HORIZONS]

Thanks for that!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RP_uTg_VzVQ

[bennycog]

hey 9eagle,
i am a fan of ol stephens too and the dark tower series is pretty relevent to things happening for sure.. i see that he trys to delicately put the mystical character with knowledge in most of his books too.. namely a man in suit overlooking everyone. whos part of a machine, or worker of the machine.. kind of like fringe..

[Heather2017]

Stephen King and all of his books are about as dark as you can get. It comes, I think, from being born and raised in an obscure part of Maine where it is dark and lacking light. Some of his characters display traits that he has demonstrated himself. He is also an angry man made angrier when someone purposely ran over him some years back when he was out for a simple stroll. If he was ill and twisted before, it's much worse now. The more we are attracted to this dark side of life as reflected in his best sellers, it's much like looking too close in the abyss, it's looking back at you, and it is all too easy to fall into it yourself.

The lighter, happier, side of life is where we want to dwell. But it's a choice and only you can make it. Nothing surprises me about Stephen King's work. By staying on the dark side, he's been of great assistance to the wrong side of our reality and his dream material really sucks.


I respectfully disagree, Darla. Yes, there's a lot of darkness and violence in his stories (and his villians are pretty over the top), but his protagonists are usually ethical, loving people. They have to make difficult choices and face their fears.

I also don't think he's an angry person or bitter about what happened to him.

Lisey's Story is one of his recent books that I enjoyed.

He's definitely tapping into some interesting information from somewhere...

[Cartomancer]

Steven King is an amazing author worthy of future literary adulation. I have read The Stand three times including the "uncut version" the third time. I especially enjoy his books of short stories. My favorite is called "The Jaunt." It is about wormhole travel and of course something goes terribly wrong! I have not read a new Steven King book in ten years. I am saving them for when I get older!

The Stand is definitely a warning of what could happen. It is a classic apocalyptic thriller.

[Teakai]

I read the Stand - gripping book - I haven't seen the movie, though.

I don't remember the book saying it was the swine-flu, though. I think it's still on my bookshelf so will have to take a look see.

[Flash]

Stephen King and all of his books are about as dark as you can get. It comes, I think, from being born and raised in an obscure part of Maine where it is dark and lacking light.

I cannot agree with you Darla on these lines. All Northern US and Canada is dark an lacking light in winter, yet, you find quite peaceful and nice people in the north. And I do find Maine quite pretty in general. And in winter, dark nights with white snow all around, real pretty. I would not draw my conclusion on Stephen King about him living in Maine. You must be from the South to dread long wintery nights.

As for Stephen King, although I like him somewhat, I do find him quite scary sometimes (may be to confront my own).

My question is not in likes or dislikes. I have for a long time been thinking that maybe we do create the whole of reality. May be authors like King are not seeing the futur but in fact creating it, giving his vision to million of people and therefore reinforcing it.

I have been somewhat amaze at PTB being in the open, telling what they will do prior to the events in movies etc. My thoughts are that maybe WE are giving them the idea throught OUR nightmarish creations. May be WE should stop giving ideas and see what happens.

Or maybe we are the creators of the horrors in the ether, starting with PTB thinking. WE may be feeding them the stories and potentials as well as the energy to materialize them. We may be feeding the PTB way of thinking itself.

May be taking ones own responsibilities is starting here, on individual and collective basis. Solve your own frights, you nightmarish creations and the world will be free, cause WE will stop feeding it, from all perspectives.

Just a thought.