Random Encounters

Be Warned: This is more of a rambling mixture of thoughts on The Stand then a review:

This isn’t my first read through of The Stand. Yet I love rereading favorite books; I often find that the way you view a book changes as your life ebbs and flows. In this way I can view The Stand in a little bit different light.

When I read now, often I am not just reading the story but viewing the language and how the writing is constructed. Mr. King has a way of enthralling the reader; pulling him in by his collar and not letting go. I am not sure if he would be considered the best writer of words out there, but he is a really good story teller. As I read through this book I wondered which I would rather be: A great writer or a great story teller.

I think I’d rather be able to tell a good story then write sentences that only academics might conclude are worthy to be called “Good writing.”

But I digress: The Stand is a good book full of harsh visuals and a realistic world. I’d say some of the language used by the characters is outdated, even by the time of the re-release of The stand, I hear people talk like that in every day life.

I like Randall Flagg as an enemy in this book. As I read this, it strikes me that his death in the Dark Tower series was rather anticlimactic: I don’t think he lived up to the characterization portrayed in The Stand.

Then again I’ve never thought the Randall Flagg of the Dark Tower series really resembled the one in The Stand…

I remember liking The stand when I first read it in high school. yet I never cared for the way the book ended. (I read the re-released version, like I did now, not the original.) Not the journey back from Nevada with Stu and Tom Cullen (M O O N, that spells Tom…) but the coda at the end where Flagg is reborn? ON the island with the savages…

I don’t know. That always struck me as a typical “Horror” ending. You know what I mean: After the bloodied group of teens kill the serial killer and are walking away, he pops out of the water, ready for a sequel.

That is what the ending feels like. Something tagged on “Just in Case.” Maybe it is to try to tie The Stand further in to the whole Dark Tower omniverse of the rest of his novels but… Just felt cheap to me.

It still does actually. But I am not the author, Mr. King is and he probably had his reasons.

I also noticed that, despite using God (Through Mother Abigail) as the main “Good Guy” of the piece, there are very few people that actually believe in God in the book. I noticed that when you do have characters that do, they are often portrayed as something more akin to zealots: They believe but they seem to believe because they need something to believe in, not because it is true. Even Mother Abigail , the one person that has a genuine faith in God, seems to waffle a time or two.

I know much of this is done for story and pacing, but I also realize that you cannot write something as long as the Stand without putting some of your own beliefs in it. I wonder if King ever grew up around the tough Christians I have: The ones that believe in God even if a storm just tore down the house. The ones that, even if they don’t believe in premarital sex, wouldn’t shun a pregnant girl just because she wasn’t married. Those that help people just to help them, because it is the right thing to do.

Of course that type of person could be dead in this world: You deal with what you deal with when a plague hits. And these are only thoughts that crossed my mind as I read this tome. It seems to be a major subtext in this book is “Where was God when this all went down?”

And maybe it is hard for Mr, King to write about something as pure as God because he is merely human: Instead it is easier for him to concentrate on Flagg and the destruction he causes.

I say all this because I really do like the book. It is one I have read multiple times and will read again in the future. Although King’s writing style has change some what in the last ten years, this book will always stand up as one of his better accomplishments.

Even if I wonder about the motivation of everyone within and without…