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Richard Bachman's aka Stephen King's "Rage"

post #1 of 20
4/30/02 at 1:20pm
Thread Starter 
I've been thinking about and referencing this story a lot lately. Any fans of it?
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post #2 of 20
4/30/02 at 1:31pm
Strangely, yes. I really like this story and in high school, it meant a lot to me. I still like the original title best, though.
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post #3 of 20
4/30/02 at 1:33pm
Thread Starter 
Yeah, the original title was real cool. Great story, great character. King at his literary best. And yeah, meant a lot to a highschooler.
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post #4 of 20
4/30/02 at 2:13pm
Quote:
Kirby Drummond:
King at his literary best.
I like Rage, but I disagree with you on that Kirby.
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post #5 of 20
4/30/02 at 2:59pm
I really like Rage. It's the Bachman book I revisit the most.

One of King's strong points is his ability to nail the emotion of childhood and teenage experiences. (Ex. Rage, It, The Body)
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post #6 of 20
4/30/02 at 3:57pm
To this day, every time I narrowly avoid some catastrophe, like swerving to avoid another car while driving or dropping something heavy and *just* getting my foot out of the way, I silently thank Titus the Helpful Padlock.
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post #7 of 20
4/30/02 at 6:42pm
It helped me out a lot. I was pissed at everything during high school and this book helped me get over it, if only because of the introduction (that is, the introduction in The Bachman Books), where King says something like, "don't be an asshole and pick up a gun; pick up a pen instead." So, since I don't have it in me to kill my school, I did it on paper. Very theraputic.

And what is this mystery original title, by the way?
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post #8 of 20
4/30/02 at 6:45pm
Getting It On
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post #9 of 20
4/30/02 at 8:09pm
Holy shit, I really need to pick this up.

Is there any way I could find Rage online, since it's a short story?

I too have hated mostly everything in High School, this would have helped me probably.
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post #10 of 20
4/30/02 at 8:11pm
It's not a short-story, Verbal. It's a novel. The first one King wrote, while he was in high-school.

And I doubt you'll find it online. You can pick up The Bachman Books collection at the bookstore and give it a spin.

Or you could pay me a lot of money for my first edition copy of the original paperback release (I also have The Long Walk and The Running Man in first edition copies).
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post #11 of 20
4/30/02 at 8:41pm
Oh, it isn't a short story?

Some asshole must have had his information screwed up on Amazon, then.

Now I really want to read it. I definitely need that book.
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post #12 of 20
4/30/02 at 9:42pm
Thread Starter 
I'd call it a novella.
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post #13 of 20
5/2/02 at 4:51pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Blofeld (aka No Name Given):
Quote:
Kirby Drummond:
King at his literary best.
I like Rage, but I disagree with you on that Kirby.
I wanted to get back to this, Blo. Ask you to elaborate. Another one of his most literary stories for me is Survivor Type. That story is BAD-ASS.
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post #14 of 20
5/5/02 at 10:29am
My first screenplay was an adaptation of this.
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post #15 of 20
5/5/02 at 2:20pm
I translate "literary best" as "the best writing Stephen King has ever done." With this definition, I disagree -- apart from the fact that King has become a better writer since he was a high school student (when Rage was written) -- I think King was really cooking during his Salem's Lot through Cujo days. His work since then has been hit & miss, but he's been returning to some really fine writing of late.

For his "literary best" I'd suggest looking to the Dark Tower sage, or some of his novella work.
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post #16 of 20
5/5/02 at 2:23pm
The Stand is his best, IMHO.

I'm extremely fond of The Green Mile though.
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post #17 of 20
5/5/02 at 4:59pm
On the literary side of it, I'd nominate The Green Mile as his best. But for just pure kick-ass fun, I go with Salem's Lot.
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post #18 of 20
5/7/02 at 1:09am
Thread Starter 
Literary best for me would be the triple threat of language, emotion, and story/idea, with that idea rooted in a recognizable reality. Not surprised that for King this came in high school, in first novel territory.
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post #19 of 20
5/10/02 at 3:38pm
I've always liked King as Bachman more than his other works -- not that I don't like those a lot (except I didn't care for The Regulators -- the posthumously written wink Bachman book).

To me the Bachman books have a certain visceralness and punch to them that is different from King's other books. There are usually few characters in the Bachman books whereas King usually has a community -- which I like but the effect is different (The Long Walk obviously had a bunch of characters).
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post #20 of 20
5/10/02 at 3:42pm
The general difference, to me, between the two works is that the Bachman books are fairly hopeless, whereas King's books tend to have a glimmer of good victorious over evil (with the exception of Pet Sematary, a book intended to be a Bachman book anyway...)
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