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The Stand

post #1 of 18
10/14/05 at 11:32pm
Thread Starter 
considering the Bird Flu in the news lately to where Bush was talking about using the Army to quarantine places, I went back and read the 1990 revised edition of King's the Stand. I like the beginning parts about the plague...

Also got the DVD of Mick Garris' ABC 1994 366minute The Stand, screenplay by King feat Rob Low Gary Sinese Molly Ringworm Miguel Ferrer... it's better than I remember, especially with no commercials. lookin forward to the commentery with Garris & King as well-- Garris is starting to seem a little bit like an emerging John Carpenter to me
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post #2 of 18
10/15/05 at 12:11am
You know, that one is different. I read the book when it first came out and enjoyed it immensely. I thought it was interesting how he broadened the scope of his story from the intensely personal to something that happened on a huge scale. I later read the "writer's cut" (newer/re-edited version) and appreciated the additional backstory stuff, but felt the original version was a little stronger.

Of all the King books, it's not my favorite. But I think it's the best. For some reason I just have a little more of an affinity for "It" and "The Shining" myself.

And I enjoyed the mini-series when it came out on video.
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post #3 of 18
10/15/05 at 12:14am
That mini-series is one I can watch from beginning to end and not feel like I just spent forever watching it. One of my favorites.
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post #4 of 18
10/15/05 at 1:36am
I find it funny that the Stand gets a new thread every few weeks.

No offense meant btw, one of my favorite books and movies.
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post #5 of 18
10/15/05 at 1:50am
Does anyone else think that King's (Horror) endings are always a cop-out? When I was younger, I always thought his books were pretty kick-ass, but my dad always talked about how he hated the endings. As I grew older, I started to see his logic. Especially on "It". At the end, they just make up something ("This is battery acid!") that will stop the monster, and it magically works. Kind of disappointing. The hand of God at the end of The Stand is kind of a let-down, too. His books always start out great but...
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post #6 of 18
10/15/05 at 12:02pm
Thread Starter 
I agree that Kings endings are often lame. The Stand, even, by the time they get to nebraska it starts to go lame for me. it's the plague stuff that really works

BTW I look in here every day for years--though it seems like hardly anybody posts here at the CHUD creature board anymore-- and I don't recall seeing anything on the Stand. nothing comes up in Title search. if you have links to other interesting threads, please link em
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post #7 of 18
10/15/05 at 12:47pm
Thread Starter 
the stand is best when King is anecdotal about the tapestry of the plague unfolding. Same with It when he describes what It did all through the years. When he goes on about God he's tedious, like Koontz in The Taking. I was reading Kings Unpublished http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...books&n=507846 and it has some great stuff from his teenage years where he's just telling EC comic style stories one after the next bare bones here's what happened plot outlines and they are so great because that's all you need when it's a great story. Of course he fills such great stories out very well, but when he just starts running like a toilet about philosophizing, no thanks, there are better sources in the world for THAT lol
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post #8 of 18
10/15/05 at 5:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Turd Ferguson
Does anyone else think that King's (Horror) endings are always a cop-out? When I was younger, I always thought his books were pretty kick-ass, but my dad always talked about how he hated the endings. As I grew older, I started to see his logic. Especially on "It". At the end, they just make up something ("This is battery acid!") that will stop the monster, and it magically works. Kind of disappointing. The hand of God at the end of The Stand is kind of a let-down, too. His books always start out great but...
Man, do I hate some of his endings. "It" was particularly disappointing. King's characters are almost always saved by some divine intervention, and a rather dopey sort of divine intervention at that.

The Dark Tower was shaping up to be a letdown on a massive, never-before-experienced scale right up til King breaks into the story and presents the "real ending." If he hadn't hit upon that, I would have probably torn the book to pieces. The Crimson King as a character was a joke, and so was Pennywise.

Maybe his difficulty is that, in creating such powerful evil forces, he lacks the opposing skill to construct something just as powerful to defeat them. He writes horror, after all. Maybe he's just better at describing the terror than he is at imagining its solution.
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post #9 of 18
10/15/05 at 5:31pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jesse Custer
The Dark Tower was shaping up to be a letdown on a massive, never-before-experienced scale right up til King breaks into the story and presents the "real ending." If he hadn't hit upon that, I would have probably torn the book to pieces.
I'm glad to read this becuase I was having the same feelings about bringing myself to read the last two and half odd books of this.
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post #10 of 18
10/15/05 at 6:25pm
The film is like the book. The moment it turns from plague chiller to Shaggy God Story it all falls apart.
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post #11 of 18
10/15/05 at 8:56pm

no title

the stand was great as a mini series i also very much enjoyed "it". i have not read alot of king but i have read 'salem's lot and it has a great ending that i would not consider to be a cop out
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post #12 of 18
10/15/05 at 10:35pm
I love King's endings. Maybe I'm an apologist, I don't know. I also love the digressions beyond the bare bones of the plot. I think he carries the torch of storytellers like Mark Twain and Charles Dickens. His books reach so far beyond he basic plotline. It's why they're so difficult to adapt, but if you hit exactly the right bits from the books (one of the most perfect adaptations, to me, is Hearts in Atlantis), it's magic.

The Stand miniseries was really good and Mick Garris is doing an episode of Masters of Horror, which can't get here soon enough. I didn't love The Shining mini simply because Kubrick's version is so powerful it blows everything else out of the water.

As for the ending of It, I just loved being with those characters during the time of It, and if their childhood faith is the only thing that can kill It, so be it. Works for me. The only part of that novel that appalls me is the gang bang in the sewers. Other than that, it's my all time favorite King book.
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post #13 of 18
10/16/05 at 1:11am
Quote:
Originally Posted by yt
I love King's endings. Maybe I'm an apologist, I don't know. I also love the digressions beyond the bare bones of the plot. I think he carries the torch of storytellers like Mark Twain and Charles Dickens. His books reach so far beyond he basic plotline. It's why they're so difficult to adapt, but if you hit exactly the right bits from the books (one of the most perfect adaptations, to me, is Hearts in Atlantis), it's magic.

The Stand miniseries was really good and Mick Garris is doing an episode of Masters of Horror, which can't get here soon enough. I didn't love The Shining mini simply because Kubrick's version is so powerful it blows everything else out of the water.

As for the ending of It, I just loved being with those characters during the time of It, and if their childhood faith is the only thing that can kill It, so be it. Works for me. The only part of that novel that appalls me is the gang bang in the sewers. Other than that, it's my all time favorite King book.
I hate that liking something has come to be equated with apologism here. If you like it, you like it. No apologies necessary.

And I agree with you about appreciating his digressions. I think he's matured as a storyteller in a lot of great, interesting ways. But his endings do tend toward the "and then there was a flash of light, and some mysterious force decimated the monster in two sentences" ending a bit too often for my personal tastes. This doesn't diminish my appreciation for him very much, but it does stick out.

And Salem's Lot was an example of a very effective ending. So was Carrie, Pet Semetary, The Talisman, The Green Mile.
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post #14 of 18
10/16/05 at 3:16am
One of my favorite King endings is Thinner. It's perfect. That's a very tight book.

I agree that he has definitely matured. His bete noir has always been women characters and I think he's getting closer. And in terms of literary merit, what he seems to be chasing (needlessly, in my op.), his New Yorker story of a couple of years ago, All That You Love Will Be Carried Away, I think it was called, is one of the best short stories I've ever read.
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post #15 of 18
10/16/05 at 4:16am
Quote:
Originally Posted by yt
One of my favorite King endings is Thinner. It's perfect. That's a very tight book.

I agree that he has definitely matured. His bete noir has always been women characters and I think he's getting closer. And in terms of literary merit, what he seems to be chasing (needlessly, in my op.), his New Yorker story of a couple of years ago, All That You Love Will Be Carried Away, I think it was called, is one of the best short stories I've ever read.
"Save Russian Jews. Collect valuable prizes."

I can't explain why I liked FROM A BUICK EIGHT, even though everyone I knew who read it thought it sucked. I think it was the way he worked in the everyday lives of his characters, just getting on with their shit despite having to deal with things they just didn't understand - something we can all dig, on some level, despite not having the experience with the inexplicable that they do.
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post #16 of 18
10/16/05 at 12:47pm
Pet Sematary does *not* cop out at the end. One of the finest, darkest, simultaneously human and dismaying horror novels ever.
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post #17 of 18
10/17/05 at 12:02am
im gonna read the book sooner or later

but i need a suggestion

which copy should i get? the original? or (as someone earlier put it) the newer "writer's cut?"
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post #18 of 18
10/17/05 at 3:43pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by JakeWasHere
"Save Russian Jews. Collect valuable prizes."
Genius.

Quote:
I can't explain why I liked FROM A BUICK EIGHT, even though everyone I knew who read it thought it sucked. I think it was the way he worked in the everyday lives of his characters, just getting on with their shit despite having to deal with things they just didn't understand - something we can all dig, on some level, despite not having the experience with the inexplicable that they do.
I liked it too. The only books of his I haven't loved are Gerald's Game (though it did have one amazing sequence in it) and Eyes of the Dragon, which I've never been able to get through. Did you know he was doing so much blow in the 80s he doesn't remember writing Cujo? I thought The Colorado Kid was great - reminds me a little of that short story "Mrs. Todd's Shortcut." Can't wait for Cell.
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