what a long, strange captain trips: |
What A Long, Strange Captain Trips: The Stand Turns Thirty In 1978, the Cold War raged, Jim Jones’ compound in Jonestown, Guyana became the site of one of the largest mass suicides in modern history, serial killer Ted Bundy was arrested in Florida, Pope Paul VI died in Castel Gandolfo, Italy … and the world ended. The late ‘70s were a time of cultural revolution, but unlike a decade earlier, not one of peace and unity. Punk rock and disco warred for the airwaves. The Godfather and Star Wars fought it out at the box office. The generational gap between those who wore I Like Ike campaign buttons and those with safety pins through their earlobes was widening. It was a tense time. Americans looked wearily at the approaching end of the century, and in their fears couldn’t see a future waiting. The freefalling 1970’s had readers primed for The Stand. It is no coincidence that the first line of dialogue in the book is about inflation. Stephen King’s imagined-apocalypse resonated with horrible plausibility in a blur of real-life headlines brimming with death, famine, and disease. In a way, readers stood alongside Stu Redman, Fran Goldsmith, Larry Underwood, and the rest of King’s characters as their world transformed into something they didn’t recognize. In the three decades since it was first published by Doubleday, The Stand’s influence has spread much like King’s fictitious super-virus Captain Trips. Apocalyptic fiction has been popular in the horror genre since Mary Shelly’s The Last Man but the scope of King’s epic novel, in addition to his believable, deeply human characters, elevates The Stand to previous unseen heights. Earlier novels detailing the end of the world, including George R. Stewart’s Earth Abides and Nevil Shute’s On The Beach, although classics in their own right, take a back seat to this new vision. For many readers, the definitive literary doomsday begins with a car rolling into a Texas gas station and unleashing hell on Earth. And what follows the apocalypse? A dark, modern fable emerges in the novel’s second half, a classic tale of good versus evil inspired by the Bible’s Book of Revelations and J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. A band of survivors trek across a deserted, devastated American heartland to confront Randall Flagg. Flagg is a quintessential American Mephistopheles, a hitch-hiking, long haired devil in a jean jacket whistling the chorus of Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap. No fire and Brimstone here, not when a pack of Kools would do. A generation of readers—and writers—grew up with The Stand embedded deep in their consciousness. The testimonials that follow only begin to hint at the massive impact of this groundbreaking novel. For these writers, The Stand didn’t destroy the world, instead it opened up whole new worlds of possibility. *** "You know what I like about The Stand? The brilliant way King shows the contagion spreading right from the beginning. Right away, he taps into the fear of our fellow man, the reality that we are really a threat to each other, the way we are powerless over some things … and yet at the same time he concentrates on character, on that very same "fellow man" that we fear, as if the only consolation against each other is … each other. The stand is a case study in character, and the book taught me a lot about writing. King showed me that horror stories can be epic in scope, so long as the characters are real, and in some cases, beyond human. The Stand tells this huge story about humanity's fate in the world, but it filters this universe through each character's specific world, and it's the cast that makes it so damned believable. There's no other book like it." -- Michael A. Arnzen, author of Proverbs for Monsters *** "After reading Salem's Lot, I was absolutely desperate to get my hands on a copy of The Stand. Think I got it from a book club. It seemed enormous. I remember taking it to the mall one afternoon, and cracking it open while my fiancée went shopping. The scene at the gas station replays itself in my mind to this day—a sense of utter inevitability and gloom as the infected car weaves closer and closer. It's an amazing achievement, sprawling and complex yet undeniably intimate at the same time. What surprised me was how spiritual a book it turned out to be. I knew it would creep me out, but it also touched a deep nerve left from my small-town Christian upbringing. I re-read the novel a couple of years later, but even though I eventually purchased the unedited version, I've yet to try again. Part of me wants to leave the book where it is in my memory; vital, seminal and very much a part of my first urges to become an author." -- Harry Shannon, author of Daemon *** "I jumped into the book and enjoyed every page, every line. Until about halfway through. When I caught the flu. That's right. Sneezing, coughing, fever, you name it. I spent a week popping cold tablets during the day and chugging Nyquil at night. At the time, nothing seemed strange about this. After all, I went to school in upstate New York, just south of Buffalo, where they strung ropes between the buildings so you could pull yourself along during the storms we had practically every week. But life goes on. I recovered. Then one of those funny things happened. It was probably two years later, in the summer, and I had nothing to read. So I pulled out The Stand. Can you guess what happened? You betcha. Nasty summer cold, before I finished reading the book. That's when I started getting suspicious. Had Mr. King found a way to spread Captain Trips—or at least his less-than-lethal real life version—through his books? Was this his evil way of putting together a sequel? Or was it purely coincidence? My question was answered a couple of years after that—I re-read the book again and sure enough, I got sick. Since then, I've read The Stand four more times, and it was only the last time, about three years ago, that I made it through without catching a cold.” -- JG Faherty, author of “Bones” *** "I've read The Stand twice, once when it came out and again when the revised version was released. What's stayed with me through the years is the scope of the work. There's an urgency and grandeur to the story that's different from prior horror novels; while remaining personal and psychological, it also exploded on to a broad landscape filled with characters that were like little armies of light and dark. The book opened up what a horror novel could be about, taking on the big themes and perspectives of a fantasy novel while remaining rooted in the recognizably "real" world, for all the post-apocalyptic and supernatural goodness." -- Gerard Houarner, author of The Beast That Was Max *** "I read The Stand in high school, and much to my English teacher's dismay, used Larry Underwood as an example of a character who changed over the length of a work, earning me a less than stellar grade. It was worth it. The novel was part of the apocalyptic genre of its era, and in theme very similar to Romero's The Crazies. I loved the characterizations, but for me, the quality that elevated it above its peers was the underlying rage that propelled the story. More than 99% of the population dies, and the military is still killing survivors to keep the world's worst-kept secret. Those who suffer most, including my dear Harold Lauder (I loved him so!), have only themselves to blame. They've made deals with the figurative and literal devil, instead of following their hearts, and doing what is right. They chased the all-mighty dollar to Las Vegas, just as we now, in 2008, follow the dollar instead of our hearts, a decision that can only lead to our own destruction." -- Sarah Langan, author of The Keeper *** "I'd become a King fan with Salem's Lot, and so I snatched up The Stand as soon as it appeared. But here was a different Stephen King—he'd widened his lens and was shooting in Cinemascope now. I was captured by the sweep of the story, but stopped cold when he first described Randall Flagg, the dark man, the distillation of human evil, walking south on US 51. Usually if I'm taken out of a story it's because of bad writing; but this was so good I had to stop and reread it. I've never forgotten that chapter." -- F. Paul Wilson, author of The Keep *** “The Stand redefined the 'Epic Story'. I got a greater sense of sweep and grandeur from it than I did from anything else I'd read in years. It unfolded at a deliberate pace, which allowed me to become familiar with the people in the story—and I say 'people' rather than 'characters' because they were so finely drawn as to possess a vital reality. The Stand also fills in all of the shades of gray so long absent from apocalyptic tales, allowing us to see degrees of evil as well as degrees of good and degrees of heroism. It's a landmark book and one that I return to every few years.” -- Jonathon Mayberry, author of Ghost Road Blues *** “I've read The Stand more than once, most recently just a few years ago, and every time I come to the line "Your blood is in my fists" I jump. I know it's coming, but still … I jump. That's powerful writing. The Stand also prompted one of the very few fan letters I've ever written, gushing to Stephen King about how much I loved the Tom Cullen character (I still do). And he wrote back! A pleasant and personally-signed postcard, which thrilled me to no end.” -- Kathe Koja, author of Bad Brains *** “Stephen King's The Stand showed me that horror needn't be located in the small towns and rural areas that so many genre stories before had been located in. In The Stand King worked with a very large canvas and a paintbrush the size of Nebraska, yet still giving us those solid honest characters he was so good at creating. The good vs. evil, god vs. devil showdown he created drew in elements and echoes of the Holy Bible's book of Exodus, Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath and Gary Cooper's High Noon. N-o-o-n, that spells noon.” -- Steve Vernon, author of Long Horn, Big Shaggy *** "The Stand is, in my opinion, the quintessential American horror novel. It touches on so many modern fears, and so many American cultural touchstones, and does so with such energy and honesty. We cared about the characters in The Stand because we knew them. They were us—or our neighbors, families, and friends." -- Brian Keene, author of The Rising *** “Back before it was first published, Steve let me read the original uncut, unedited manuscript, typos and all. He did not know how to spell Chevy and, as I recall, had it Chevvy with two Vs, throughout the ms. For one thing, he had typed it with an electric typewriter—no computers back then—on this hideousorange paper. Maybe they called the color "melon" or "pumpkin." After reading it for any length of time (and it took a while to read because, as I recall, the original was close to 1,000 pages!), my vision developed a curious strobe light effect. The ms. was kept, rather carelessly, in a brown paper grocery bag. I didn't return the manuscript for a long time. Steve never asked for it back, and I didn't want to relinquish it. I felt a little guilty, like someone who had stolen a Van Gogh masterpiece from a museum and could never display it, but it was cool to flip through the pages every now and then ... and to show it to a few close friends. But then one day, when I was talking to Steve, I mentioned how cool it was how the University of Maine library was archiving his original manuscripts. He said something about how upset he was because the only original manuscript he couldn't find was the one of The Stand ... the one typed on hideous orange paper. Being the honest and upright person I am (or try to be), I immediately reminded him that he had loaned it to me ages ago, and I still had it safe and sound in its paper grocery bag in my office. So I returned the original to him, wishing to God at the time that I had the money to photocopy it first ... which I did not, so don't you collectors or critics come asking me to see it. Go see it for yourself at the library at the University of Maine in Orono. Hell, the orange paper probably would not have photocopied well, anyway.” -- Rick Hautala, author of Little Brothers *** “The Stand was the first Stephen King book I ever read. It's still one of my favorites. I read it before I started writing seriously, and it planted in me a lifelong love for end-of-the-world stories. I calculated once that I've since wiped out almost thirty billion people in my fiction ... and it's all Stephen King's fault. Probably his longest book, it's also the one that I've re-read the most ... maybe four times so far, and counting.” -- Tim Lebbon, author of Dusk *** “I read The Stand when it first came out in 1978. I was in a time of personal transition. A young teacher, a young mother, and a re-emerging writer, I had put off storytelling for a few years as I tried to figure out who I was and what I was doing. Yet I’d never ceased reading. I read for the characters—for the good guys and the bad guys, the confused guys and the confident guys, the wounded, the scarred, the lonely, and the brave. I read to learn about the human condition in hopes it would make me a better writer and a better person. The Stand more than fit the bill. I hurt and cheered for Stu and Fran, Nick and Tom, Larry and Ralph as they struggled and suffered and rose to meet their inevitable, dreadful challenge. My blood ran cold as Flagg coerced, tricked, and tormented people into following him. In short, the novel genuinely moved me, sensitized me, touched me. I’d come to know the characters and they had shared their myriad lessons with me. As a writer now, I can honestly say The Stand gave me much to admire and much to strive toward with my own fiction. Thanks, Stephen. -- Elizabeth Massie, author of Wire Mesh Mothers *** “Whilst reading The Stand, I caught the flu, one of the few times I had it in my life. That's a powerful book, can give you a disease like that. I was still young, still starting, but it was about here when I started to realize that I didn't have to write stories that might be happening next door, things hidden enough to still be part of the "real world". It was about here when I realized I, as a writer, could be more far-reaching than that, and stories could have global implications. King's The Stand opened another door (in an endless series of doors) for me as a writer.” -- John Urbancik, author of House of Shadow and Ash *** “Only occasionally have I found myself trembling in awe of a book that combines an outstanding concept, a particularly strong plot and superior writing. The Stand is one of them. I first read this novel the year it was published and felt then that it was innovative, ahead of its time, and that the decades would prove me right: The Stand would surely end up being the Stephen King book that would be remembered in the next century, should humanity survive. We’re in the next century, we’re still here, and lo my prediction is coming to pass.” *** “The Stand is the book that made me love long books. I wouldn't ever have expected to reach the end of a 1,000+ page novel and think ‘It's over already? Not fair! I'm not ready to part ways with these characters yet!’ but that's exactly what happened. Though I'd been blown away by other Stephen King books before, the epic scope, depth of character, and sheer aura of ‘I can't believe how freakin' cool this book is!’ was unprecedented. King wrote this at a time when he was cranking out one masterpiece after another, and The Stand is one of his all-time best.” -- Jeff Strand, author of Pressure *** “What struck me about The Stand was the cultural breadth of the novel. Stewart's Earth Abides, Shelley's The Last Man, Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids, and other, previous, post-apocalyptic novels presented the end of the world through very limited points of view, often a single character's. King not only revealed both sides of the good and evil fight, but also examined a number of diverse socio-economic and cultural backgrounds in the process. This diversity gave King the latitude to observe the world (and its near-death experience) through the eyes of characters from across the social spectrum, thereby enriching the post-apocalyptic conceit in ways limited points of view could not.” -- Lee Thomas, author of The Dust of Wonderland *** “The Stand was, for me, one of those books you don’t remember merely for its inner details … you also remember the outer experience of reading it. The characters were all on journeys, and so was I, as a student on spring break. Even now I can picture reading it on the road to and from Florida, and in motel rooms on rainy days when I didn’t mind the rain, since I was with close friends and the novel was a better escape than any beach. Because it was such a doorstop of a book, there was still some left after I was home again. I legged it with Stu Redman, Tom Cullen, and Kojak on their final journey back to Boulder, CO—having no clue I would migrate there for real one day—after a dinner I couldn’t wait to choke down, on the same basement couch where I did most of my earliest writing, by longhand in notebooks. And yet, as enthralled as I was with The Stand, reading it was also a bittersweet experience. The seed of my own end-of-the-world novel, Dark Advent, was already germinating, a longish story that grew out of a dream about a depopulated St. Louis, a Busch Stadium in ruins, a girl, her father, and the malevolent survivors who meant us harm. I was itching to do more with it, but after discovering The Stand, the main question wasn’t what, but why bother. A few years, a couple diplomas, and a handful of story sales later, it was back to why not. Dark Advent flat-out insisted on being written, no matter what. If anything, The Stand made it better than it might’ve otherwise been, because King’s novel didn’t just establish a standard to shoot for, however much in vain; it was also the Big Bang of horror novels, hugely expanding the scope and sprawl of what they could be.” -- Brian Hodge, author of Wild Dogs |
 |