Stephen King's The Stand - An epic flop?

[GatsbyTheGreat]

IMO - Decipher that, in my opinion, you don't have to feel the same way - The Stand tried way too hard to be epic literature. For one, the characters were weak. The only one I found myself caring about was Harold Lauder, and he was painted to be a modern Judas. He was the only one that was remotely human! Stu, the undeniable main character, was pretty much infallible and boring. The story started off with a really interesting post-apocalyptic premise and dwindled down to pretentious dialogue meant to justify self-righteous, half baked political and theological theory. It picked up in the end but about 700 pages too late... by that time I had stopped caring about the characters and kind of hoped, in a demented way, that Trashcan Man, one of the only exciting characters, would destroy the entire world and become the hero of the Dark Tower series, since King tries so desperately to tie all of his loose ends together.

Agree or disagree?

[crazefest456]

I don't understand what you mean by "pretentious dialogue". Sure, I too thought the ideologies addressed were half-baked but, Stephen King has a knack for developing characters masterfully through the appropriate dialogue. How is "M-O-O-N, that spells moon" so pretentious? But of course, we all have our own opinion on things...

[Dark Muse]

I personally loved The Stand

[GatsbyTheGreat]

" I never said this to anybody because it sounds so goddamned pretentious, but I wanted to do The Lord of the Rings with an American background. It didn't come out that way, but I thought it would be fun to do an epic fantasy with an American backdrop. So many fantasies take place in some make-believe land. You have to learn a new language to even read the book. You see, I began to see the energy crisis as just one domino in a complex economic structure that was going to go down completely. The more I thought about this particular Gordian Knot, the more I thought, "Suppose you cut right through the middle of it. Suppose everybody died except maybe a certain percentage of the world's population - then there'd be enough oil!" I began to embroider on the idea - the empty towns, the sand dunes."

After I posted my statement I came across this on wikipedia. It seems to me to say, "Yes, I wanted to write Lord of the Rings and I failed." His desire to write it in an already created world seems to be more laziness than originality... there have been many apocalyptic novels set in our own world but here he seems to want to write Tolkien's mythology without going through the effort of thinking up his own. The statement about oil and sand dunes seems to be a veiled reference to Dune, another attempt to connect his half baked ideas with those of men who really put deep thought into what they were writing.

I can, though, agree with you on the dialogue to an extent. Tom Cullen was one of the few endearing characters throughout the book, because his thoughts seemed more spontaneous and original. Think about the discussions of the free zone committee, though. Were they not just a bunch of amateurs playing politicians? It strikes me that this statement epitomizes the attitude of Stephen King as he wrote the novel.

King is good at weaving multiple stories into one coherent plot, but here I think he tried way too hard and fell flat on his face. To each there own, I just think the book was a lot of a hype and little delivery.

[daisyday]

The Stand was the first King book I read, some years ago, and I've since read the 'author's cut' edition too. In my opinion it's one of his strongest; much better than some of the stuff that came later.
Just my opinion of course...

[The Intended]

I personally loved The Stand

I have to agree. I thought he portrayed the ravages of 'Captain Tripps' amazingly, and the response of the people and government were frighteningly accurate to what would happen in reality, in my opinion.

[capek]

I loved reading Stephen King as a kid. I tried going back to some of his stufflast year (24), actually the audio files for his Dark Tower series, over the course of some long road trips I was taking last summer. Suffice to say, I should have left King in my childhood. Lets just say, not quite up to my standards as an adult reader. YMMV of course.

[novelsryou]

I personally loved The Stand

Me too, I couldn't put it down. If I remember right, I read it in the late 70s.
Maybe I'll dig up a copy and reread it.

[crazefest456]

" I never said this to anybody because it sounds so goddamned pretentious, but I wanted to do The Lord of the Rings with an American background. It didn't come out that way, but I thought it would be fun to do an epic fantasy with an American backdrop. So many fantasies take place in some make-believe land. You have to learn a new language to even read the book. You see, I began to see the energy crisis as just one domino in a complex economic structure that was going to go down completely. The more I thought about this particular Gordian Knot, the more I thought, "Suppose you cut right through the middle of it. Suppose everybody died except maybe a certain percentage of the world's population - then there'd be enough oil!" I began to embroider on the idea - the empty towns, the sand dunes."

After I posted my statement I came across this on wikipedia. It seems to me to say, "Yes, I wanted to write Lord of the Rings and I failed." His desire to write it in an already created world seems to be more laziness than originality... there have been many apocalyptic novels set in our own world but here he seems to want to write Tolkien's mythology without going through the effort of thinking up his own. The statement about oil and sand dunes seems to be a veiled reference to Dune, another attempt to connect his half baked ideas with those of men who really put deep thought into what they were writing.

I can, though, agree with you on the dialogue to an extent. Tom Cullen was one of the few endearing characters throughout the book, because his thoughts seemed more spontaneous and original. Think about the discussions of the free zone committee, though. Were they not just a bunch of amateurs playing politicians? It strikes me that this statement epitomizes the attitude of Stephen King as he wrote the novel.

King is good at weaving multiple stories into one coherent plot, but here I think he tried way too hard and fell flat on his face. To each there own, I just think the book was a lot of a hype and little delivery.

oh, now I get it. The Stand wasn't even close to being an epic like LOTR...The energy crisis would be a good theme to toy around with in the story. I guess the actual book was not thought out in such matters. The free-zone committee members had the childish blind-faith morality, which did annoy me quite a bit. But everything else, the setting, the characters, the actual plot, really made the Stand an enjoyable read. I guess I missed the hype (usually I steer away from books that have too much hype and get to them later when it dies down), and it was really interesting (though his other ones, Needful Things, Misery...etc had a better chemistry with all mini stories) but I agree that it could've been better. But it was a very different epic...I could see no correlation between the Stand and LOTR. I saw it as a unique post-apocalyptic novel, that was different for the current times. That's why I like it.

[manolia]

I am currently reading "The Stand". I have read about 180 pages so far. I like it but not to the extent to consider it "epic literature", to use your own words. I am ejoying King's attempt to critisize politics etc ;) . It's not his stongest point, though :lol: .
Regarding the characters..there isn't much depth in many of them since they suffer miserable deaths in a few pages after they are introduced :lol: . As for Stu, since you mention him, so far he is very likeable and i think well developed ;)
On the whole a nice read, perhaps one of King's best novels and i can't wait to see the mini series again after i finish the book :)

[papayahed]

I've read it twice but that was years ago. I really didn't look at it as anything other then an interesting story. Definately not "epic literature".

I have to disagree with the character depth though, Stephen King has never had a problem in that respect.

[Granny5]

I've read The Stand several times and have enjoyed it each time. When I find something that can teach me something about mankind, I tend to read it over and over. The Stand is one of my favorite books. I found the characters compelling and didn't find them weak at all. Stephen King usually does a pretty darn good job fleshing out his characters, IMHO.

[Kent Edwins]

I've never read The Stand, though I've read a little King. I can't compare The Stand to LOTR, but let's give LOTR its due.



His desire to write it in an already created world seems to be more laziness than originality... there have been many apocalyptic novels set in our own world but here he seems to want to write Tolkien's mythology without going through the effort of thinking up his own.

Tolkien's Middle-Earth isn't really an original creation. It's full of ideas borrowed from already existing medieval texts, older fantasy stories, and the likes of Richard Wagner. Out of all the Tolkien races, I think Tolkien only really invented Dwarves- and they were already made up to some extent. Where Middle-Earth is unique not in the plot of LOTR or its one dimensional characters, but in its languages and lineages- something which LOTR barely touches on.

I'm not trying to take away from Tolkien, and I am not trying to say that the LOTR was not a tremendous effort on JRR's part. I do love the works and I would not be an avid reader now if it weren't for them when I was a young teenager. However, Tolkien's real specialty was linguistics and anglo-saxon studies. There are plenty of better story tellers in the world. And, as far as epics go, Tolkien was not really original. He wasn't trying to be. He was trying to reproduce ancient anglo-saxon epics in a way that was more accessible to modern day British readers and fans of fairy tales.

[spookymulder93]

This thread was an epic flop.

[Dark Passenger]

This is one of King's best. I actually missed the characters a week after finishing it.