The Stand by Stephen King- DISCUSSION

[Mistermoonlight]

How about one more Stephen King story from real life?

Over a decade ago I found myself having to undergo bypass surgery. It's not as dangerous as it used to be. The odds of survival are incredibly high now. But still, it's surgery on your heart, so that's pretty scary.

My friends were great. They brought me all of the stuff I wanted to read, including comic books and the latest collection of Stephen King short stories Everything's Eventual. In that collection was a story called "Autopsy Room Number Four," which I started reading before surgery.

It was the tale of a man who wakes up to find himself on the autopsy table in a hospital. He has been bitten, while out playing golf, by a rare snake whose venom mimics death, and he's laying there not able to even blink an eyelid while they are about to begin cutting on him.

It disturbed me greatly, and I told my doctor, who was a friend of mine about it. He said 'you might want to hold off on reading that one for a while.'

He was right. It took me six months to finally get up the guts to finish it.

[Watchtower]

I'm gonna call it a night, I'm very tired.

But the way I see how Larry's mother treated him, I think you guys are right, but she's always going to be his mother.

And on that note, goodnight.

[gilmorefanalways]

One thing i love about Stephen king novels is I always find great quotes for my quote books

[gilmorefanalways]

Mar 23, 2013 19:51:23 GMT -5 Mistermoonlight said:

How about one more Stephen King story from real life?

Over a decade ago I found myself having to undergo bypass surgery. It's not as dangerous as it used to be. The odds of survival are incredibly high now. But still, it's surgery on your heart, so that's pretty scary.

My friends were great. They brought me all of the stuff I wanted to read, including comic books and the latest collection of Stephen King short stories Everything's Eventual. In that collection was a story called "Autopsy Room Number Four," which I started reading before surgery.

It was the tale of a man who wakes up to find himself on the autopsy table in a hospital. He has been bitten, while out playing golf, by a rare snake whose venom mimics death, and he's laying there not able to even blink an eyelid while they are about to begin cutting on him.

It disturbed me greatly, and I told my doctor, who was a friend of mine about it. He said 'you might want to hold off on reading that one for a while.'

He was right. It took me six months to finally get up the guts to finish it. [/quothat is scary! I cant believe you did finish it! That would have been in my drawer too

[gilmorefanalways]

Mar 23, 2013 19:52:19 GMT -5 Watchtower said:

I'm gonna call it a night, I'm very tired.

But the way I see how Larry's mother treated him, I think you guys are right, but she's always going to be his mother.

And on that note, goodnight.

Thanks for the chat chloe
moon to you

[gilmorefanalways]

Moon ive always been curious to know and since you've read all his novels which is the best

[Mistermoonlight]

Mar 23, 2013 20:04:55 GMT -5 gilmorefanalways said:

Moon ive always been curious to know and since you've read all his novels which is the best

The Stand is my favorite novel. But I also love some of his shorter works, like the novella Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, the short story I mentioned before, "Autopsy Room Number Four," and another from his 1985 short story collection Skeleton Crew, about a disgraced surgeon with a huge amount of drugs and a surgical kit, marooned on a desert island, who realized that he has to eat parts of his own body to survive. It's called "Survivor Type," and is probably one of the most harrowing stories I've ever read.

[gilmorefanalways]

How many times have you read the stand and how long did it take you when you first read this novel

[gilmorefanalways]

And didn't you think it was odd how so many of the main character that Stephen king kept returning to, frannie, Larry and a few others have lost close loved ones? I wonder if that has an impact on the story somehow

[Mistermoonlight]

Mar 23, 2013 20:28:55 GMT -5 gilmorefanalways said:

How many times have you read the stand and how long did it take you when you first read this novel

Took a long time the first time, but it's like the Harry Potter and Game of Thrones books--once you get that far in you don't want it to end. I can't remember the exact length of time it took.

I thought I'd read the uncut version a good while ago, but I don't seem to remember a lot of the stuff I'm reading now, so who knows? Thirteen years can be a long time.

[Mistermoonlight]

Mar 23, 2013 20:32:42 GMT -5 gilmorefanalways said:

And didn't you think it was odd how so many of the main character that Stephen king kept returning to, frannie, Larry and a few others have lost close loved ones? I wonder if that has an impact on the story somehow

99.4% of the human population will die from the super-flu according to the projections from the CDC, so that's definitely gonna play a part.

Larry and Frannie seem to have an immunity against it.

As we wind down, what do you think for next week? Another 100 pages would bring us up to the end of chapter 25.

[gilmorefanalways]

I say another 100 it is!

[gilmorefanalways]

Mar 23, 2013 20:39:09 GMT -5 Mistermoonlight said:

Mar 23, 2013 20:28:55 GMT -5 gilmorefanalways said:

How many times have you read the stand and how long did it take you when you first read this novel

Took a long time the first time, but it's like the Harry Potter and Game of Thrones books--once you get that far in you don't want it to end. I can't remember the exact length of time it took.

I thought I'd read the uncut version a good while ago, but I don't seem to remember a lot of the stuff I'm reading now, so who knows? Thirteen years can be a long time.

its like that for me when I reread books I often discover things I missed the first time around

[Watchtower]

Mar 23, 2013 19:51:23 GMT -5 Mistermoonlight said:

How about one more Stephen King story from real life?

Over a decade ago I found myself having to undergo bypass surgery. It's not as dangerous as it used to be. The odds of survival are incredibly high now. But still, it's surgery on your heart, so that's pretty scary.

My friends were great. They brought me all of the stuff I wanted to read, including comic books and the latest collection of Stephen King short stories Everything's Eventual. In that collection was a story called "Autopsy Room Number Four," which I started reading before surgery.

It was the tale of a man who wakes up to find himself on the autopsy table in a hospital. He has been bitten, while out playing golf, by a rare snake whose venom mimics death, and he's laying there not able to even blink an eyelid while they are about to begin cutting on him.

It disturbed me greatly, and I told my doctor, who was a friend of mine about it. He said 'you might want to hold off on reading that one for a while.'

He was right. It took me six months to finally get up the guts to finish it.

I don't think I'd be able to read it at all. If I did start reading, it'd probably be like a year or so before I could start reading. Like Jen, I'd be hiding that one as well.

[Watchtower]

Mar 23, 2013 20:42:34 GMT -5 Mistermoonlight said:

Mar 23, 2013 20:32:42 GMT -5 gilmorefanalways said:

And didn't you think it was odd how so many of the main character that Stephen king kept returning to, frannie, Larry and a few others have lost close loved ones? I wonder if that has an impact on the story somehow

99.4% of the human population will die from the super-flu according to the projections from the CDC, so that's definitely gonna play a part.

Larry and Frannie seem to have an immunity against it.

As we wind down, what do you think for next week? Another 100 pages would bring us up to the end of chapter 25.

So, we read until Chapter 26? I ask because I finally got my digital copy for my Kindle and one thing I don't like is that there are no page numbers.

[AntiArbitrator]

Mar 23, 2013 19:46:30 GMT -5 gilmorefanalways said:

I liked how king explained Larry having something hard in him I think that will be significant later in the story

Enjoyed reading the discussion and I am just popping in to make a comment about Larry. I think Larry might be a character who is neither totally good nor totally evil. He might be the man in the middle that both sides will play to win. Which side has the stronger pull - good or evil?

[Mistermoonlight]

Ok, gang, I am here and just getting my thoughts together to post for tonight.

[gilmorefanalways]

Hello everyone i just got home so sorry for the late entrance

[gilmorefanalways]

I only got to chapter 23 and there's a good reason why lol i was reading the last few chapters last night and chapter 23 starts out with Randall flag and I just couldn't read about him at night I'm sorry I still have some chicken tendencies lol

[gilmorefanalways]

Plenty to talk about over the chapters we have read, what did you guys make of starkeys decision and the things he saw in the cafeteria

[Mistermoonlight]

Mar 30, 2013 17:11:48 GMT -5 gilmorefanalways said:

I only got to chapter 23 and there's a good reason why lol i was reading the last few chapters last night and chapter 23 starts out with Randall flag and I just couldn't read about him at night I'm sorry I still have some chicken tendencies lol

That is the most important chapter, Jen. I know it's hard to read, just because of all the evil in it. But it is so frakkin' precise it's beautiful.

In that chapter we learn that there is a Big Bad out there. Perhaps the biggest bad there is. His name is Randall Flag, and from what we can tell he has been there for almost every evil thing that has happened in recent history.

King pretty much says he is the Boogeyman. He is the devil incarnate, although he may not recognize it himself, because he seems to undergo something like reincarnation--a new birth.

[gilmorefanalways]

For me I could feel his regret and sorrow reaching out from the pages, he knew the ball had been dropped and that there was no hope. As for the things he saw in the cafeteria each scene seems to have a deeper meaning he goes from trying to wipe the soup from bruces face trying to restore dignity afterwards he sees the two naked individuals on the floor clearly without dignity Starkey realizes dignity has been lost and the final scene with the man with the sign NOW YOU KNOW IT WORKS ANY QUESTIONS? We see the combination of the loss of dignity that is combined with regret, guilt floods Starkey and we see the final outcome of said guilt/regret

[gilmorefanalways]

Mar 30, 2013 17:24:24 GMT -5 Mistermoonlight said:

Mar 30, 2013 17:11:48 GMT -5 gilmorefanalways said:

I only got to chapter 23 and there's a good reason why lol i was reading the last few chapters last night and chapter 23 starts out with Randall flag and I just couldn't read about him at night I'm sorry I still have some chicken tendencies lol

That is the most important chapter, Jen. I know it's hard to read, just because of all the evil in it. But it is so frakkin' precise it's beautiful.

In that chapter we learn that there is a Big Bad out there. Perhaps the biggest bad there is. His name is Randall Flag, and from what we can tell he has been there for almost every evil thing that has happened in recent history.

King pretty much says he is the Boogeyman. He is the devil incarnate, although he may not recognize it himself, because he seems to undergo something like reincarnation--a new birth.

I will push through I assure you! This novel is beautifully written I feel every emotion as my own and the illustrations are showing me more than what is merely happening at the time for instance on page 153 where Larry is putting his sick mother to bed in that illustration I see more than that I see that darkened figure leaning over the ailing in bed as a metaphor for the dark man with his sickness dominating most of mankind, I see that figure as a representative of the captain trips as it looms over man reducing it to nothing more than a sickened human in bed the ultimate bed...death

[gilmorefanalways]

I felt that presence of that bad from the dreams they were having

[gilmorefanalways]

Didn't you find it ironic that fran likened the guilt/responsibility to a pie when hilly s pie had come from being guilty of being an awful person

[Mistermoonlight]

Mar 30, 2013 17:30:27 GMT -5 gilmorefanalways said:

For me I could feel his regret and sorrow reaching out from the pages, he knew the ball had been dropped and that there was no hope. As for the things he saw in the cafeteria each scene seems to have a deeper meaning he goes from trying to wipe the soup from bruces face trying to restore dignity afterwards he sees the two naked individuals on the floor clearly without dignity Starkey realizes dignity has been lost and the final scene with the man with the sign NOW YOU KNOW IT WORKS ANY QUESTIONS? We see the combination of the loss of dignity that is combined with regret, guilt floods Starkey and we see the final outcome of said guilt/regret

The choice he makes is his only path to redemption, as he sees it, as he is ultimately responsible for what has been unleashed. Some might say it's the coward's way out, but I'd side with the oriental view that it is a way of dealing with disgrace.

[gilmorefanalways]

Mar 24, 2013 13:19:01 GMT -5 AntiArbitrator said:

Mar 23, 2013 19:46:30 GMT -5 gilmorefanalways said:

I liked how king explained Larry having something hard in him I think that will be significant later in the story

Enjoyed reading the discussion and I am just popping in to make a comment about Larry. I think Larry might be a character who is neither totally good nor totally evil. He might be the man in the middle that both sides will play to win. Which side has the stronger pull - good or evil?

Glad to see you are interested in the discussion anti and i think that insight is right on and very intriguing i will be wondering which side will win

[Mistermoonlight]

Mar 30, 2013 18:07:56 GMT -5 gilmorefanalways said:

Didn't you find it ironic that fran likened the guilt/responsibility to a pie when hilly s pie had come from being guilty of being an awful person

That's a great point.

You're right.

[Mistermoonlight]

Mar 30, 2013 17:51:00 GMT -5 gilmorefanalways said:

I felt that presence of that bad from the dreams they were having

Yes, and the dreams will become even more important as the days go on. Pay attention to what folks are seeing in those dreams and you'll get a hint as to what their purpose and choices are in the larger story.

[Mistermoonlight]

Mar 30, 2013 17:39:40 GMT -5 gilmorefanalways said:

Mar 30, 2013 17:24:24 GMT -5 Mistermoonlight said:

That is the most important chapter, Jen. I know it's hard to read, just because of all the evil in it. But it is so frakkin' precise it's beautiful.

In that chapter we learn that there is a Big Bad out there. Perhaps the biggest bad there is. His name is Randall Flag, and from what we can tell he has been there for almost every evil thing that has happened in recent history.

King pretty much says he is the Boogeyman. He is the devil incarnate, although he may not recognize it himself, because he seems to undergo something like reincarnation--a new birth.

I will push through I assure you! This novel is beautifully written I feel every emotion as my own and the illustrations are showing me more than what is merely happening at the time for instance on page 153 where Larry is putting his sick mother to bed in that illustration I see more than that I see that darkened figure leaning over the ailing in bed as a metaphor for the dark man with his sickness dominating most of mankind, I see that figure as a representative of the captain trips as it looms over man reducing it to nothing more than a sickened human in bed the ultimate bed...death

Bernie Wrightson, who is one of my favorite comic book illustrators did those, and the way he works with just shadow and light in these illustrations is masterful. If you'll look, on that page you see the that the shadow of the light through the blinds produces a stairway leading up from the bed where his mother lays suffering.