Gerald's Game by Stephen King

So, I finally found a copy of Gerald's Game!  Like Dolores Claiborne, it's very different from his other books--it's much more alarming and serious in some parts, realistically creepy (think Ed Gein) at others, and 2 spooky in quite a few.
Like I mentioned a couple of posts ago, this book is about the girl that Dolores sees during the eclipse, and thinks later (at Vera's death) that the girl is in trouble.  Similarly to the book, as Selena was molested, Jessie, the main character, was not molested--but there was a sexual run-in that she describes as a "scratch" more than anything else.  It was bad but not the worst, but still, that's like saying a bullet to the appendix isn't as bad as to the head--it will probably still kill you or mess you up pretty badly.
Anyways, the connections to the other book pretty much end there.  Jessie mentions that her visions of Dolores are like a radio picking up a signal (King 167), but... That's about it.  Nothing major about it.  It's almost disappointing even, because Jessie describes Dolores which sort of ruined my image of her.


So!  Anyways.  The book starts out with the "terrible trouble" Dolores senses on the day Vera dies.  Jessie and her husband, Gerald, are at their summer home for an autumn weekend.  The only way Gerald can get excited lately is by handcuffing Jessie to the bed.  Jessie balks this time (later she claims it's because of the spit on her husband's chin reminds her of a certain bit of cum, but we'll get there--it might be added that she asks her husband to stop and he willfully ignores her and indeed continues crawling up on her) and eventually kicks her husband off the bed when he refuses to unhook her.  He then has a major heart attack and she is left chained up to the bed.

First, the book starts with the same "path of the eclipse" map as in Dolores Claiborne--duh!  But I was still surprised to see it.

Jessie faints after Gerald falls to the floor and clearly dies.  Anyways, my next note doesn't have to do with the book specifically--just this edition.  Someone stuck a temporary butterfly tattoo in the page break before where chapter two starts.  It's pretty shocking, and kind of eerie considering there is a painting (or some kind of wall art) in the bedroom of a butterfly described later on.

Like Dolores, Jessie hears voices in her head--but not Vera, as clear as she's next to her speaking--it's her roommate from college, Ruth.  She also hears a voice she has always heard that she refers to as the "goodwife" and a voice she associates with her young self, though it's not quite her, I don't think, it only looks like her in her visions.

Oh, and a stray dog gets into the house--the front door wasn't shut all the way--and begins to eat Gerald's corpse.  The dog is kind of major in the book until she imagines a man/ghost that she names the "Space Cowboy" (yes, like the Steve Miller Band song)--actually, there seem to be some weird hints (or weird hints I thought I'd saw) until the end that the dog and Jessie are in for some weird Disney happily-ever-after ending--like, the dog was, for a while, the pet of a young girl, but her father didn't feel like paying for its license.  Stephen King describes a couple of times how it played fetch with the young girl.  So, when Jessie drops the little jar of Vaseline, I thought, you know, that the dog would instinctively grab it and bring it back despite everything and she'd use it and they'd go skipping off into the sunset.  Or at the end, I thought it would protect Jessie from the Space Cowboy, despite being terrified of him... And then they'd drive off together in Jessie's car, happy as clams, happily ever after.  You know.  Just like how Stephen King usually does things.

When Jessie first imagines she can see her younger self (in stocks), she refers to herself as a "daughter of Eve" (King 71).  Again, I suppose it's not that weird of a way to refer to a female, but, a little Chronicles of Narnia much?  Peculiar.

Ruth's voice tells Jessie that "us high-riding bitches have to stick together" (King 99)--if you'll recall, one of Vera and Dolores's favourite little phrases.
Anyways, a major point in the book is Jessie admitting to herself and coming to terms with what happened that night of the eclipse--the real-life Ruth knew something bad happened to Jessie at some point, but Jessie never said it all and when Ruth started asking about it, Jessie moved out.  So, with nothing really much else to do, she begins remembering.
A horrible nightmare comes first, she's playing croquet, the sun goes out, she's naked--and Gerald approaches her, but he open his mouth and the dog 's head pokes out, and then the dog's head opens and out appears his father's head (or vice versa, I can't seem to find the exact page.)  I'm... not really sure how to approach that one, but it's worth pointing out for its similarities to the can tahs (taks?) in Desperation (the can tahs in The Dark Tower are a little different).  The can tahs are these stone carvings of animals, some of whom have open mouths with tongues that are a different animal and such--they cause intensified sexual and violent reactions in those who touch them (for the most part), eventually driving you insane if you're in contact with them for too long.  Can tahs are referred to as "little gods" in King's Desperation, can taks are "big gods"--I guess if they've been more or less controlling Jessie's behaviour and dictating a lot of her life, this weird, Freudian demon would be an acceptable "big"/"little god".

Sooo as for the eclipse itself, the family was going to a woman in the area's home to view it (might I add that Jessie's family had a summer home too).  Jessie decides she wants to spend the day alone with her father--and her father agrees to that.  In convincing his wife to allow that, they get into a huge fight--his wife accuses him of acting as though Jessie is more like his girlfriend than daughter.  ...Well, foreshadowing alert...
What follows next is honestly one of the most disturbing things (in my opinion) that Stephen King has ever written.  She sits in her father's lap to watch the eclipse--she's about twelve at the time, by the way, developed a little--but she sits in her lap, thinking nothing of it, even though it is "strangely full of angles this afternoon" (King 152).  She wiggles around, trying to get comfortable and he does not push her off--he gasps, but says nothing, tells her he's fine and shifts a little on his own.  What a scum.
He does not... eh, put it in, but he comes on the back of her panties.  Jessie runs in to wash it (her father sends her in rather than apologizing or anything right away).
He eventually comes up after her.  He apologizes, tells her she can never tell anyone, and--UGH!  In Dolores Claiborne, Joe tells Selena that a wife has certain duties, a man has certain needs, and Dolores was just not doing any of it.  Also she hit him in the face with the creamer.  Surprise surprise, Jessie's father says the same thing--and at first says he must tell his wife.  Jessie is terribly ashamed (but lucid enough to know that she shouldn't be feeling bad like that, her father should be) and begs him not to--she believes that her mother will say it's her (Jessie's) fault.  I could punch Jessie's father for his reaction to this fear: "'Oh no--I don't think so,' Tom said, but his tone was surprised, considering... and to Jessie, as dreadful as a death sentence.  'No-ooo... I'm sure--well, fairly sure--that she...'" (King 182).  What an awful, manipulative bastard.  He saw his angle and moved right in on it.  And he uses scare tactics to keep her mouth shut.  What a scumbag.  He tells her that her way is best, too, so if she should have to keep quiet about it, if it should torment her--well, it was her choice.  Her own fault.  That was what she chose and wanted.  What a dick.
I seem to have lost another note regarding something in this situation--she notices, when reliving the memory, that when her father says he loves her and he's sorry when it's all through, he looks away--she becomes enraged because the whole time, as he lied to her and terrorized her, he looked her right in the eye, but he couldn't look her in the eye to tell the truth.  I thought it was the other way when I read it though--he was scaring her on purpose, and then when he apologizes he looks away because he's not really sorry--not about that itself at least, he got his rocks off.  This is because it's supposedly common knowledge that liars will look away from you when they lie unless if they're really good at it.  Maybe he feels bad because of possible repercussions, but not that he did what he did.  He undoubtedly rationalized it by saying to himself, well, at least I didn't go all the way... And, as Ruth's voice points out, he probably planned it.  He does feel Jessie's breasts a couple of times before he comes.  And I can't help but notice that he didn't exactly kick Jessie off his lap to go and take a cold shower or anything.

I guess I haven't really talked about the space cowboy yet, have I?  Jessie sees him in what seems to be a dream, a Nosferatu-esque figure with a house doctor's old timey clutch bag made from human parts and filled with jewels.  It's hard to tell if he's real or not, even at the end, though he leaves behind a muddy footprint and a pearl earring the first night.  But who knows, it's Stephen King.  It feels a little awkward and tacked on, and overall, 2 spooky.  Like, okay.  I don't now how many of you readers watch Nostalgia Critic, but a while ago he did Lilo and Stitch, and he said the relationship of the sisters is so good... But then there's Stitch.  Does it have to be there?  It kind of gets in the way of that already pretty powerful story.  Same here.  The Space Cowboy, for me, is the Stitch of this.  I'm not sure if he needed to be here as a physical being.
Anyways, she gets out, she starts running because he's at the door--but then when she turns around before she gets to the car he's not there.  Was it all in her head?  I don't know.  This is 2 spooky 4 me.

The book ends with Jessie writing a letter to her old friend Ruth--telling her every single thing that happened, including what she couldn't tell the cops.  It's weird, and awkward, but it is kind of interesting.  Turns out her space cowboy was an escaped serial killer--that's right, despite every awkward plot device and detail, he was real--named Raymond Andrew Joubert.  Excuse me while I sigh forever and roll my eyes.  I'd be lying if I didn't find this grossly interesting, the way someone might be reading about Ed Gein, but it just seems so awkward here.  It doesn't need to be.  I don't know how it could have ended without this afterward, but it's just so... Why?  Why bother, there doesn't need to be this.  Just make him some kind of mind-phantom visiting from the Dark Tower books or something.  I don't know.
A story about Joubert would be its own interesting story--except that history has already done that.  May I introduce you to Wikipedia.  Interesting, even if it is 2 spooky and plays on some kind of cliche stuff.  For example, some of the reasons why Jessie wasn't sure if he was real or not is because he appears to be very, eh, Nosferatu-like.  Oh hey, turns out he has a genetic disorder!  He really does look like that.  And again, the serial killer angle is interesting... but hey, here's Wikipedia, you'll get the same kind of story there.  Things are interesting, but I guess maybe you could say it isn't as equipped to survive in this time.  I don't know.  But I'm not in love with that awkward "This is how it happened" stuff--especially so late in the book.

She even confronts Joubert--he was captured and put on trial for something else--and I guess that confrontation has its own kind-of power.  She yells at him, in one of her nightmarish reality-dreams that he's nothing but moonlight--when Joubert notices her he slowly raises his arms next to his head (like he was chained up) and repeats her words--"'I don't think you're anyone!... You're only made of moonlight!'" (King 329).  Actually, this scene felt the most real to me, of the whole book.  For some reason it was very easy to imagine Joubert's voice as King described it, and it is alarming.

Oh,. and there is a reference to Needful Things--Jessie mentions how there was a "big fire in Castle Rock about a year ago--it burned most of the downtown" (King 316-317).  I'm pretty sure she mentions Alan Pangborn by name (last name only) as well, but I can't seem to actually find it.  Well, either way, Alan Pangborn is the one who pretty much defeats or chases away Leland Gaunt in Needful Things.


My last note isn't so much a note on the book... didn't really have a place up there I guess, but I think I mentioned how although Jessie is chained and topless, she still has panties on.  She does eventually pee herself, but for the first 24 hours or so, she is in dry panties.  I feel like King did this not so much because Gerald didn't get to it yet--but because it was just too undignified (for her) to leave her completely nude and unprotected.  I don't know.  That's how it seemed to me, anyways.


So, overall?  The book has its moments.  In some ways it is one of King's most powerful books, in others it falls way short of the mark.  It wasn't bad to read, but I doubt I'll ever pick this one up again--or if I do, I'll only read up to Jessie's epilogue in letters--or just that part.  It's an okay sister to Dolores Claiborne, but pretending up a reason for Dolores's visions ended up doing the same amount of satisfying as this book--heck, Jessie never even addresses that after, when she is in the right frame of mind.  That seems especially odd, that that's not even wondered about.  I guess in comparison to everything else it's not that important, but...

Oh well.  Onto the next thing when we can, I'm heading back to school soon so there probably won't be anything for a while--but see you whenever!



Works Cited:  King, Stephen.  Gerald's Game.  Viking: United States of America, 1992.  

Perelandra by CS Lewis

This book is the second in the space trilogy series, the sequel to Out of the Silent Planet.  Perelandra is the name of Venus.  In this book, Ransom goes again to space, though this time he goes there.  On Venus there is a new garden of Eden forming, complete with the first man and woman, though they have been separated at the time that Ransom lands.  The book is, to some extent, a remake of the attempt told in Genesis: though Ransom has been summoned to Venus in order to thwart the devil/his subject, who is using Weston's body as a host.  So, Ransom is a Christ-like figure.  He's sacrificing himself to defeat evil, but he's stopping it before it starts so he only gets injured and doesn't have to die.  This book is also told after the fact, as was the last one.  Let's go.

First of all, I think that I figured out what the Oyarsa are.  If you'll recall, I had some trouble getting the eldil and Oyarsa and all together.  The Oyarsa is the name of the 'patron saint' (if you will) of each planet--so the planet Mars's patron saint would be the Greco-Roman god Mars/Ares, but a pure version, having almost nothing to do with what humans made up for them.  From here, they act as archangels, I would imagine.

I got straight-up excited when Ransom refers to the partial-narrator who is recording this story for us as 'Lewis'.  Hmm, wonder who that could be?  And I wonder who Ransom is supposed to be?  CS Lewis does make a point of reminding the audience that Ransom is a philologist.  (Even though he denied that Ransom what supposed to be a caricature of Tolkien, I'm one hundred percent certain that that's who he's supposed to be.  You "borrowed characteristics"?  Yeah, all of them.  Ooh, buuuuurn.)

Oh, and apparently a common figure of speech was being 'knocked up' in the thirties-forties-sometime before today.  I've deduced that it meant looking haggard or something like that, but it's still kind of funny when someone exclaims it.  No, Tolkien, I don't think Clive is... knocked up.  ("You slut! How long has this been going on!?")  In fact, I'm going to go ahead and say that he lacks the necessary parts for that.

When Tolkien Ransom first sees the 'Eve' of Venus, she is nude and green.  In fact, she remains nude and green for the whole novel, except for a brief scene, where 'Weston' tricks her into wearing a robe.  Anyways, he panics--after he meets her he says he is too in awe to feel sexual desire, and never actually does.  (Later, when he sees her in the robe he comes to the conclusion that clothes are what created desire and perversion, because they hide something, and like children, a person tends to desire what they cannot reach, and thus... I cannot remember if I marked that page or not.  But again, he didn't actually feel sexual desire for her at that time, he was horrified, because if you'll recall, that's the first thing Adam and Eve did after they ate the apple--make clothes because they realized they were naked and felt ashamed.)  Anyyyyywaaaays... When he first sees her he gets scared, and wonders if she is not a "Circe or Alcina" (54).  Circe transformed men into creatures (most notably Odysseus's crew after they gorged themselves on the feast she set up for them) and enjoyed sleeping with men and then stealing their "manhood".  Alcina is the one I didn't know--she is apparently a sorceress from an opera by Handel (named Alcina).  Alcina seduces men and has sex with them for a while, but then gets bored and will turn them into animals or rocks.

Now, naivety is often considered cute or pure.  And although it can be beneficial, it often does more harm than good--unknowing and naive (a fool, to say harshly), the green lady would never think of wearing clothes or admiring her own reflection or murder or gluttony on her own.  When 'Weston' appears and starts entreating her to disobey orders set by God/Venus, she at first objects, but 'Weston' is a smooth talker, and she doesn't know any better.  In a few ways her naivety does protect, because she doesn't really get the point of clothing and what mirrors are, but other times it is grating.
One thing that does bother me is when 'Weston' introduces the green lady to stories and poems--descriptions of things that aren't real, but could be, or would be nice.  The lady has never heard of such a thing.  CS Lewis's point is probably that life in her Eden is so great she doesn't need any stories or diversions like that--but that paints a rather frightening picture of heaven, for me at least.  Very Brave New World-ish, if you ask me (though I'm sure Lewis didn't intend it that way at all, and probably would be disgusted if he heard that take on things...  And now I'm wondering what CS Lewis's thoughts on Aldous Huxley were.  Also, I'm starting to really like the name Aldous.)

Of course, 'Weston' and Ransom interact.  In attempting to discredit 'Weston', Ransom looks rather bad himself, and more often than not, do more harm than good.  They are rather like two siblings who are constantly trying to get the other in trouble.  This goes on until an explosive final chase and wrestle (and because this is a trilogy, I think you can figure out for yourself who wins the final fight)... But!  Eventually Ransom comes upon 'Weston' strangling a bird so that he may pluck its feathers.  ('Weston' is never seen eating, and it would be more evil just to kill for the sake of killing--plus earlier in the book 'Weston' would just rip frogs apart for the heck of it.)  'Weston' attempts to shake Ransom's faith by telling him that God will not aid Weston, and lists all the others who waited too long for God to help them and ended up dying because of it--victims of the Holocaust, madmen, Jesus--"'Could He help Himself?'" (153).  This is obviously a reference to the crucifixion, though it is twisted--it was necessary for Jesus to sacrifice himself so everyone else would be saved.  God could have helped himself/his son/however that works, but in doing so he would have abandoned his people.  He goes on to quote Jesus's wailing at the cross (in Aramic): "God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"  As you can see from what I've just said (and if you actually read the book, Ransom tells you) that he's used something for his own means, twisting it perfectly.  What is chilling about is that Ransom has the idea that when 'Weston' is quoting the words perfectly--he's not just quoting because he saw them written by some scribe.  He is remembering.
Also, back to "'Could He help Himself?'" (153).  In the Stephen King book Desperation, a monster-demon named Tak attempts to mock David, an eleven-year-old boy whose overwhelming and practically unbelievable faith in God is the only thing that can save him and the people he's with.  Tak tries to make David lose his faith by saying, "'Your God isn't here, any more than he was with Jesus when Jesus hung dying on the cross with flies in his eyes'" (pages aren't listed in this online edition, but the full text appears to be online here, so I guess they aren't really needed.  I urge you to read it.  It is actually a very good book).  It's a tad grislier than Lewis's statement, but essentially the same.

Ransom and 'Weston', like I said, eventually do have a standoff, deep inside the caves of the 'fixed land' (every other piece of land is basically a literal seafoam island)... Ransom and the fake Weston beat the hell out of each other, and eventually they both collapse from exhaustion.  This makes me the maddest--not because they beat each other, although that was very unexpected and disturbing from CS Lewis, it was necessary--but because what had possessed Weston let him go so it wouldn't have to suffer.  All of a sudden Weston is in the middle of nowhere, memories from any time after Mars nonexistent, beaten to a pulp, with a broken leg.  He's crying, whimpering--he begs Ransom not to leave him, and finally explains why he is the way he is: as a child, he saw his large, strong grandmother dead and it frightened him, and he became obsessed with living, for as long as possible, no matter the cost.  During this, his speech gets twisted, and one is able to follow the same pattern that led Weston to be so open for possession.  The thing in Weston slowly returns again and attempts to drown Weston but fails and instead drowns himself.
What Ransom realizes is that fear and evil make you completely one with the devil/evil--he can work through you as if he is you and there is little to no difference, because it came on so gradually and naturally.  "What Pantheists falsely hoped of Heaven bad men really received in Hell.  They were melted down into their Master, as a lead soldier slips down and loses his shape in the ladle held over the gas ring.  The question whether Satan, or one whom Satan has digested, is acting on any given occasion, has in the long run no clear significance.  In the meantime, the great thing was not to be tricked again" (173).  This would be a reference to the ultimate goal of Hinduism, where your goal would be to attain a complete oneness with the rest of the universe.

My last note is towards the end of the book--Ransom recovers in the caves, finds food and a way out... Finalizing Ransom's position as a Christ-like figure is what he sees when he finally gets out of the cave and starts walking around: "There was something white near the water's edge.  An altar?  A patch of white lilies among the red?  A tomb?  But whose tomb?   No, it was not a tomb but a coffin, open and empty, and its lid lying beside it" (193).  What this actually is is the ship he is to return home in--it alternately represents the opened tomb left when Christ was resurrected (because Ransom was basically raised from the dead) and the tomb open yet waiting, because Ransom has yet to go back to earth and be reborn, so to speak.

The book ends with everyone reunited (including the green lady's mate), the true Venus and Mars greet everyone, and Ransom is sent back home, and we're back to the beginning.  I really hope I find the third book soon.  Although this series isn't stellar, it's pretty good.


MLA Citation Information: Lewis, CS.  Perelandra.  Collier Books: New York, 1962.

Dreamcatcher by Stephen King

Whoo! Last post before I'm off to college! Yayyyy.

Let's get down to this. First off, I admit at first glance this book looked like it was going to be a cross between Tommyknockers and It, which are pretty much my two least favorite Stephen King books. It doesn't end up that way, thank goodness--it's actually more like... well, aliens are involved, but it has more of a feel like The Thing (the eighties remake) or Alien than anything else. Kind of like a Derry version of The Thing I guess, with some of the Yeerks thrown in. He lucked out actually, because that's probably my favorite sort of horror movie--they're there, but where and anyone could be them--a little less of that, but still it had that nice flavor to it.

Quick summary: Four friends, best buds through middle and high school. One day they meet and befriend a boy with Down's syndrome, Duddits (Douglas), and have a really great rest of school experience. Fast forward twenty or so years. All of the boys have gone their separate ways, all of them face separate problems. However, once a weekend in November they go on a hunting trip together. So this time is no different except a stranger with severe gas and strange mannerisms comes into the cabin they stay in. All is kind of fine till an alien creature claws its way out of his body via his butt and kills Beaver (one of the four friends). A different alien takes over another friend's body--Jonesy's--much like a Yeerk would, that is, drives him like you would a car, only a car that is still alive and functioning but trapped. (However, Jonesy has more freedom than a human-controller would.) And Duddits is the key to making everything right again too--that is, stop the alien in Jonesy's body from spreading his parasitic aliens across the tri-state area! I mean, the world. He is the dreamcatcher of the title, because he drew all four even closer and kind of made those years with him their greatest. I... guess. I'd be lying if I said I ever completely understand whatever Stephen King is trying to make me understand.

"To say that Beaver's marriage didn't work would be like saying that the launch of the Challenger space shuttle went a little bit wrong" (15).

A semi-interesting note: Stephen King apparently wrote this book while being laid up as a result of a car crash. Jonesy, very early on, before the start of the story really, is hit by a car and breaks his hip. Yeeeep.

The animals in the forest instinctively try to get away from the aliens and they go walking through the woods a la Fantasia during the Rite of Spring segment to do so. Beaver tries to scare off one of the deer by telling it to get "'Make like an amoeba and split!'" (111), which is a phrase I'm totally going to use more often. By the way, I totally pictured Beaver as Jeff Goldblum. They described him as a nerdy looking guy who you think would be a math whiz, has shoulder-length hair, kind of dorky, even the way he talks... I refuse to believe that Stephen King was doing anything other than taking a poke at Jeff Goldblum when he was writing about Beaver.

"Henry put his head down and jogged a little faster" (136). Oh shit, Henry--the mummy's after us.

A lot of the things in the book that would remind me of something else are discussed later on--Peter and Henry run into a lady while Beaver and Jonesy are dealing with their gassy guest who looks at the sky and yells "They're back, they're back!" Of course I thought of Poltergeist. This connection is made later on. The aliens that are parasites aren't dissimilar to the aliens from the Alien series either--at least when they've just broken from their human hosts--and the fungus that the aliens spread (think of Creepshow!) is referred to as the 'Ripley' after Sigourney Weaver's character from that series.

Duddits is a huge fan of Scooby-Doo. He has the little lunchbox, and when Henry first sees it his only comment is: "'I hate that f---in show... They never change their clothes, did you ever notice that? Wear the same f---in thing, show in and show out'" (140). I don't know... I just thought it was sort of funny....

So the little parasites--well, Beaver traps the thing in a toilet, but it breaks loose. It kills him, and before it can attack Jonesy he slams the bathroom door on it. Immediately he gets worried about if it can figure out the mechanics of the doorknob and it says "as if it had read his mind" (179) it starts trying to turn the doorknob. Of course, it's revealed later that the creatures are telepathic, but still... They can open doors. That is bad news.

Stephen King makes a Pokemon joke, too. I really think there's no better way but an 'lol' to express my amusement at this fact.

"Did they think that maybe he wouldn't be interested, that maybe he'd just go Ho-hum, been there, done that, got the tee-shirt?" (275). This is probably a very common saying, but I'd like to think that Stephen King is making a reference to Space Jam.

Stephen King name drops War of the Worlds--no huge surprise, it's another book about an alien invasion. But, I should just say that these aliens spread via a fungus that if ingested are what cause the parasites to form and be incubated. In War of the Worlds, HG Wells kind of has this foreshadowing about a 'red weed' that withers and dies, meant to be a hint that the martians eventually fall. (Actually, to be honest, it works so well that I always get a little confused when I read that part and think the martians have been killed already.) The fungus the aliens in Dreamcatcher spread is red--ohhhh! You see what Stephen King might have possibly done there?

Jonesy compares the alien controlling his body to what Gollum said of Bilbo--oh, forget it. This is worth a quote. "'...Reminding himself to be wary... because, as Gollum had said of Bilbo Baggins, it was tricksy, precious, aye, very tricksy" (382). Hahaha what. Talk about unexpected.

Because this book is set in the same fictional town as It, it would be a surprise if there are no references to It... Of course there are. Jonesy--the alien in Jonesy--goes to the standpipe in the hopes of releasing a parasite into the water, however, the book is set after the events in It--so the standpipe is destroyed. There is a memorial dedicated by the 'Losers' Club' in its place (they were the kids who eventually defeated It) and across it "PENNYWISE LIVES" (386) is spray-painted on it. Interesting, mostly because it implies at the end of It that even though It has been destroyed, It laid eggs shortly before its destruction, that the 'Losers' club' don't know about. (Fight to the death between Pennywise and the Ripley!?)

Oh, and while I'm thinking of it--remember the HP Lovecraft story, 'The Colour Out of Space'? Well, there was a well in the farm it was set on, and the area was to be opened for a reservoir. If that was done, the disease or whatever the alien matter was would be integrated into the water--it already was--and whomever drank it would be infected as well. Like if the parasite in this book.... Hey, it's not impossible. We know King is a huge Lovecraft fan...

Stephen King name drops another book of his, The Dead Zone. I don't remember much about it, other than that I didn't really understand it and that it appeared to be a post apocalyptic sort of deal.

One last note on the book itself--I have the hardcover version, and the author's photo looks suspiciously similar to the set from Creepshow. (The one involving the meteorite; see the HP Lovecraft post for more information regarding this.) In that story, the alien matter made a horrendous fungus grow over and eat away at everything, kind of like the Ripley. (The fungus didn't cause any alien impregnation, however.)

As for my feelings regarding the book: I really enjoyed this. It feels very different from a lot of his other books, less... less shaped, I guess, kind of like he just spit it out, but not in a bad way. Parts of it are confusing--like I said, I understand about 1/10th of why Duddits was so important, exactly and how he fit into it at the end especially--but Stephen King has his own logic that I've learned to just accept instead of try to figure it out rationally. It's better wrought than Pet Sematary, and I'm okay with the fact that I read this instead of that even though I was really in the mood to reread that*. But okay.

While we're talking about Stephen King books, apparently he's thinking of making a sequel to The Shining. That's pretty cool, I guess. And, let's see.... They might remake the Pet Sematary movie, and the It movie. Cool. And a movie adaptation of this book exists as well, though I've yet to see it.

MLA citation information: King, Stephen. Dreamcatcher. New York: Scribner, 2001. Print.

Answer to last post's cryptic song lyrics for Emma: Live to Tell the Tale by Passion Pit

This post's cryptic song lyrics for Emma: Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids... In fact, it's cold as hell

*The local library doesn't have much, but they do have quite a bountiful collection of Stephen King books--yup, just about everything but Pet Sematary. That's cool, I guess. So I took out A Man Without A Country instead and went back home to this.

The Regulators by Stephen Ki--I mean, Richard Bachman

This book was not written by Stephen King under a pen name. Stephen King didn't even know this guy, or bear a suspicious resemblance to him. Not related at all.


LOL JK SAME GUY. Stephen King wrote four or five books 'as' Bachman, I own Thinner, which was actually a pretty good book, and now The Regulators. This book, unlike my copy of Thinner however, was published before Stephen King revealed the pseudonym apparently. (Looking back on it, it's cute how Stephen King name-drops himself in both books...) But, anyway, the book was written to be a companion to a book published under Stephen King's true name and persona, Desperation, which happens to be my favorite Stephen King book. Characters are reused, some situations are reused, even the covers of the jackets of the hardcover editions connect (too bad I tossed my jacket from Desperation out; this I'd like to get a closer look at). Also, if you look on the back of those jackets they have tiny versions of the partner's cover on it. (I think The Regulators's cover looks a little dorky.)


Anyway, the difference with this book is that... well, let me give you a brief summary of Desperation: Desperation is a small nothing town based off a mine in Nevada. In the 1800's, Chinese workers discovered a strange pit full of strange artifacts that made the men go mad--and a strange smoke that poured from the deepest recesses of the mine... The mine then was forced into collapse by two workers who saw the madness and knew they had to escape. No one ever attempted to reopen it until over 100 years later, when technology had improved and economic reasons made it kind of necessary. Of course, they reopen this chamber, and the smoke--really Tak, not quite a god or devil but some evil spirit comes out and begins possessing victims, eventually massacring most of the town. He, in the body of Collie Entragian, also pulls people off the road on false charges and imprisons them (to use as hosts later on) but this proves to be his downfall, as he picks up David Carver, who is guided by God and thus eventually destroys Tak, or at the very least sends him back to the ini (the pit originally found by the Chinese workers).



Okay, now The Regulators--the events in the other book never happened (not even the bit with the trapped workers, I don't think) and characters are assigned different positions and ages, but Tak, the ini, the mine and the actual town of Desperation still exist. This book, however, is set in Ohio, where young Seth lives. He is an autistic boy who on vacation happened to wander to close to Tak's home and Tak entered into him, though unlike in Desperation he did not increase Seth's size (in Desperation Tak entering into the body made it grow up and out to accommodate the powerful thing) and also unlike said book his existence in the body did not destroy Seth's personality or wring it out, or kill him after a short period of time (Tak in a body is similar to a cancer in the body.) Seth, obsessed with cowboys and an eighties cartoon inspires Tak to turn the Ohio town into an old Western town whose birth is announced in bloodshed by characters of the eighties cartoon killing several of the town before the transformation begins.


Okay, well, here we go--just a warning, this probably won't be more than a catalogue of similar people/events/et cetera between the two. But, here...


One of the first few characters we meet is Cary Ripton, the local paperboy--also the first to die, which is kind of ironic because in Desperation he is Tak's first host and thus first to die at Tak's hand when he reappears. (Cary's first dialogue in the book is a short back-and-forth to Brad Josephson, who was Tak's second host.) In that first introduction we also meet Marinville, who in Desperation was jaded and hateful, though he redeems himself at the very end--in this, he had a bad period, but has since recovered and is still a pretty happy guy. (And in this, his bad period is delved into a little more deeply--it is mentioned that he came at his ex-wife with a knife at one point, albeit a butter knife... while I'm thinking of it, his children are never mentioned either, though they are older.)


David and Kirsten Carver are no longer brother and sister, but husband and wife (though David still calls Kirsten 'Pie') and their children are Ralph and Ellen, his parents in Desperation. Might I mention that in the first, Ralph and Ellen are both killed by Tak's doing, and in this book they both live, while David, the most important character of Desperation is killed. (A somewhat loose rule seems to be, if they died in Desperation they live in this one and vice versa. Again, Peter is the first death you actually see in Desperation, but in this he lives while his wife dies.)

In Desperation, Marinville says or thinks that God died for him--or he died inside--during Vietnam while 'Purple Haze' was playing over the radio. During this book, after the initial carnage while he's watching Peter freak out over his wife's corpse he thinks: "All we need... is Hendrix on the soundtrack, playing 'Purple Haze'" (101). Later on--a page I don't believe I marked--he thinks about how people die hard and briefly mentions 'Nam--but in Desperation almost a whole page is dedicated to it, and a much gorier page it is--he actually goes into detail of men sitting up with their intestines falling out and in their laps, and so on.

Audrey Wyler redeems herself in this book (in the first she, sullied by the can tahs attempts to kill David Carver) by being the protector of young Seth, and remains unaffected by Tak's complete control--he can force her to do things for short periods of time, but he cannot possess her or change her will as in Desperation. Anyway, she mentions an invisible friend Melissa Sweetheart--Pie's beloved doll that's left by the side of the road in Desperation.

Steve Ames appears as a stranger to the town when all goes to hell, in Desperation he is Marinville's protector and enters the town to save him. On the way he picks up a hitchhiker, Cynthia. In this, he meets her in the convenience store she works at--they share almost the same exchange, though: "'No problem cookie'... 'Don't call me cookie and I won't call you cake,' she said in a prim little no-nonsense voice" (153). I got all excited, like yayyyy! Because... because it was the same... though there wasn't really an implied relationship of any sort between them, as it kind of did at the end of Desperation (well, I though it did).

In Desperation, when Collie first meets Marinville, coyotes all around howl, and Collie (possessed by Tak, remember) quotes Bela Lugosi from the original Dracula movie--"Children of the night, what music they make"... In The Regulators Steve hears them howl and thinks of "My children of the night... Bela Lugosi, a spook in black and white, spreading his cloak" (274).


One of the twins--Dave, not David Carver--attempts to strangle Marinville. He is thwarted by Marinville himself, who hits him in his unguarded stomach, and then a mountain lion created by Tak/Seth attacks Steve. The lion has her paws up on his shoulders--it describes them as having "tangoed drunkenly" (324). This scene is a flipflopped parody of that in Desperation--in that, I believe it is the mountain lion who attacks first, and she attacks a retired alcoholic (what he used to be was a veterinarian), and in the same fashion--though her attack then was fatal. This attack is not fatal; Steve lives to the end. While everyone is distracted by the lion, Audrey goes to strangle David, her mind already destroyed by the can tahs.


I think one of the most interesting things about this book is that Tak kind of merges with Seth--or at least adopts a childlike personality. He gets distracted by the TV for hours on end, the way you'd expect an eight-year-old child to get--not an eons old demon spirit thing. He is looking at Seth's toy cars and starts wishing it belonged to a cowboy from Seth's--and Tak's--favorite movie instead of the character of the TV show (MotoKops 2200) who owns it and starts imagining how it would be if they lived in town and all became friends--like a child's fantasy, no? In the first, Tak absorbs parts of the people--this person's love of The Tractors, one person's memory of Marinville's books, someone's knowledge of pop culture--but his personality never seems to really merge with them. Through and through he's the same cunning cruel madman. In this, his mind is clearly affected and influenced by Seth's workings. (And, before I forget about it, in Desperation Pie is wearing a MotoKops shirt when she is killed.)

"Because time is short, and the time is now" (424).


Each part is ended with old diary entries or letters--the conclusion before the final of these is after (spoilers!) Seth is killed, because Tak in this could not take another host--Seth is shot by the insane by this point Cammie. (Cammie is killed moments after by Tak himself.) Anyway, Marinville, deeply shaken, starts singing softly the ballad of Jesse James--as to say, who was the real hero or not (Well, I believe that's what he was driving at, in regards to Seth possibly). Because--history lesson--Jesse James was a notorious robber in his day, and for a while a fellow named Robert Ford travelled with him, for a few years I believe. Anyway, Ford just wanted the bounty and when he saw his chance he killed Jesse in a really really cowardly way (Jesse James was polishing a mirror or a photograph hanging upon the wall), but I mean, they were like brothers, so surely he felt guilty afterwards. I guess that could kind of work for Seth, because he loved his family but he killed them via Tak? Or, he killed Tak in the end but what about the aftermath...? But Seth dies, so... So no, I'm not sure if I understand the point of it. Well.


In the final letter portion, Stephen King name drops himself and The Shining (bad book; I'd stick to the movie if I were you). He is so adorable.





It was a pretty okay book, I guess. It felt kind of like a first draft manuscript, kind of bare, but the concept was interesting enough and it was kind of cool to see the characters from Desperation reused, especially Steve and Cynthia, and then Marinville--I'm glad things went better for him in this book at least. I'd read Desperation and then The Regulators if you do think of reading either, not only because you'll actually be able to find copies of Desperation in existence (I had to go to New York to get this!) but because The Regulators may seem a little disappointing if you read it on its own, first. Tak is also much more chilling in Desperation, too, so if you want to be creeped out I'd rely on that moreso as well.



Note on my copy: there's the receipt for a Miss Felicia Robin Herman from the Ramada hotel of Ontario stuffed in the back. The bill, too. Gee, I hope she didn't get into any trouble for not signing that...



Answer to last post's cryptic song lyrics for Emma: Shiksa (Girlfriend) by Say Anything

This post's cryptic song lyrics for Emma: Well, I might look like Robert Ford but I feel just like Jesse James



Current events: I found Holes--it was in my Stephen King/Michael Crichton shelf? Oh, of course. And, I bought a copy of Kavalier and Clay! And what I believe to be a complete collection of Oscar Wilde's poetry. Yeeeeeeees.

This song is called, "It's a metaphor, fool"

Trying like mad to catch up on my week. For this post? The oft-talked about Desperation by Stephen King! Yaaaay! (No, I haven't seen the movie. The one time it was on TV it was a Thursday night. Who even does that?) Anyways, like you've heard a million times, it's my favorite Stephen King book, and it also was my first. Guess what? It's still my favorite Stephen King book, and it's still my first. (I'm pretty sure). So you know I like it and I'm going to be licking its shoes. So, let's continue...

Oh, as a general warning, this book is a little gory. Gory meaning violence--it's intense, but he doesn't go too badly over the top. It is very gross though. Smashed bugs and rather 'ripe' corpses. Language, of course. Not overly sexual, though there are a few moments where Stephen King can't help it.

A little overview, which I forgot to do for the last two books (sorry, but so I forgot. This is the Internet. You can Wikipedia this stuff. Welcome to the twenty-first century, huh?) The book starts with a man and wife driving through Nevada when they're stopped by a very odd police man. He seems kind at first, but quickly reverts from good cop to bad cop and drives them to the station in his town of Desperation. Before bringing the couple into the cell, he shoots the husband to death and then throws the wife in jail. Beside her are fellows already collected by this seemingly insane man. Very quickly it appears things are much deeper and much worse than just an insane cop. (Ugh, I fail.)

Was that good? Okay. Well, when the cop, Entragian, meets a character named John Edward Marinville (an author) he physically accosts him (phrase of the week?) and screams at him, saying something like "Your true failing is that you've never written a truly spiritual novel". After reading this for the ninetieth time, I think this book is supposed to be Stephen King's spiritual novel. And he does a good job of it, too. To this day I get a cold shiver when I read or someone says "gosh", too, which really doesn't have anything to do with what I just said, but damn Stephen King you so scaaarrry.

Ah, the very first hints we have that the cop is mad is this: "'If you do not choose to remain silent, anything that you say may be used against you in the court of law. You have the right to an attorney. I'm going to kill you. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you?'" Catch that? Gives me the shivers, I don't know about you. And Mary constantly hears it echoing in her mind, too...
When he meets Marinville he throws in another little bit that gives me a rather unpleasant frisson as well: "'Why, do you realize what the ratio of drivers-to-accidents on motorcycles is? Computed on a road-hours basis? I can tell you because I'm a wolf and we get a circular every month from the National Safety Council.'"

"'A bad guy,' the cop said. 'That's all you need to know for now, son. A very bad guy. Tak!'" Of course, Entragian being possessed by Tak can't resist speaking in the tongue of the unformed, but at the same time, he actually is letting David know who the 'very bad guy' is, without meaning it. Heh.

"'My children of the desert!' the cop said. 'The can toi! What music they make!'" For those of you not obsessed with horror movies that are right on the cusp of being eighty years old, it's a parody of a line from the original Dracula film: "Children of the night... What music they make." (He was referring to a pack of howling wolves, and in Desperation, Entragian is referring to howling coyotes in the distance.) When I caught it this time around I cracked up. Then I felt a little sick that it was this character that had made me laugh but hey, if you can't laugh at a Dracula parody, what can you laugh at? I don't know. I laughed at the parody...
Though this makes me wonder: Tak, the unformed, is trapped in the ini in a mineshaft. So when he parodies a movie, or quotes a movie, or becomes enraged because he believes Marinville is insulting Steinbeck... How does he know about those things!? I mean, it's not like people just toss books and movies into the freaky glowing red pit at the bottom of a mine shaft. And even if they did, good luck watching the movies. My theory is that he takes a little bit of each person he possesses with him--So someone was a Steinbeck fan, someone liked old movies, et cetera. Just like a yeerk! Woah! I kind of like how everything in my life can be boiled down to an Animorphs reference...

Page 123 (haha) you meet Cynthia. I don't remember if she was in Rose Madder (I don't remember much about Rose Madder except for the part with the foxes that I didn't understand) but her whole spheal is basically the second half of that book. Just pointing that out is all.

"'The obsessive Bible-reading was bad enough, but this... why didn't you tell me about this praying business?'" David's mother asks him this. David is basically who you'd have to consider the hero of the novel--or maybe Marinville?--but this and the scene that follows pisses me off. Okay, the lady's near hysterical--Entragian killed her daughter and beat up her husband. But this... Ugh, this scene made me not feel bad for the mom when she's taken away. Hectoring her son because he believes in God and prays? Making him feel guilty for it? There's a name for a jerk like that, but I would not write it here. Well, the one that's worse than jerk. You know.

Often Marinville talks about having sex with an actress with 'emeralds'. Sometimes "All the emeralds." I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT THIS IS A EUPHEMISM MORE AND I NEVER WILL.

Remember when I talked about Stephen King had this thing about birds, hearing sparrows in his head and such? (See the Needful Things post: YOG SOTHOTH RULES!) In this book it's "My head is full of blackbirds". Oh, you and your birds Stephen King. In Bag of Bones he has some important subplot with owls, but damned if I can remember it. I got rid of it too, so sorry. It was great until the very end, then it was kind of like... Stephen King, are you back on your crack addiction? Seriously.

One thing that weirds me out is that David sees what happened in the days the shaft was opened and Tak escaped into a man and attacked the town. Well, that fact itself doesn't weird me out--but one guy, Ripton, was possessed by Tak and at this point, no one knows of course. And he tells the man he's planning on possessing next that one of the mine workers or overseers are down in Reno. Now, the massacre of the town basically happened in what, a week? Two weeks? I doubt it was more than one week. So the man in Reno is probably still out there when the town's destruction goes on and while the story plays out... Or, I'd like to believe he was spared... but the shock on his out when he goes back home and finds this--this war zone--will probably put too much strain on his heart and kill him anyway. (He leaves town because his great grandkid is being born.) But still, can you imagine coming back to that... man...

Again in this book Stephen King brings up Simple Simon. He has a serious issue with Simple Simon, I'm thinking.

"'Do you really know how cruel your God can be, David. How fantastically cruel?' David waited, saying nothing. Maybe listening, maybe not. Johnny couldn't tell. 'Sometimes he makes us live.'"


So it's good times. If you've happened to see this movie, drop me a line because I'd like to know if it's worth even watching and I'm too cheap to even spend fourteen dollars to by it at Target.


What else? Let's see, Emma, I think I already told you, but Robby D still hasn't given back Everything is Illuminated yet. I don't think he actually wrote it down on a to-do list... Come onnnn Robbyyyyyy. It's my most favorite boooooooooookkkkk everrrrrr. Actually, considering how pushy I've been about this, he'll probably cut a hole in his floor and cover it with leaves, then hang the book over it... Pfft, I'd just land in Cronkasaurus Rex's room. My legs would be broken, sure, but I could hang out with a different teacher, who... also... doesn't... give... back... books. Man. You guys.

It would be incredibly easy to kill me. "Oh, look what's in that bear trap, Angela! It's a copy of Slapstick by Kurt Vonnegut!" "Really!?" *CRUNCH* This could go on and on. I should stop now so as not to give my archenemies or the Daguar any ideas.

YOG-SOTHOTH RULES

Well, I was going to reread Desperation by Stephen King, but my copy appears to have disappeared, which is a Thad Beaumont annoying, considering it's my favorite and all. (Get it? Thad Beaumont? Thad? Tad? Ohohoho. Comedy gold.) But I ended up rereading Needful Things, which is a close second, so it's all good. Unless I can't find my copy of Desperation ever, cause then I'm gonna be angry.
Needful Things is the 'last Castle Rock story' because EVERYTHING EXPLODES. But, it starts out with familiar setting of Castle Rock, with a new shop opening called 'Needful Things'. The shop has the greatest desires of each individual heart, for a relatively cheap... fiscal price. And an incredibly expensive different price, as well. Pretty soon chaos erupts and blah blah blah. Look, it's good!

First: There's a story Stephen King wrote that could be considered the introduction to this called 'The Sun Dog', which was the very first Stephen King thing I read after finishing this the first time. I don't remember the anthology it was in. (Four Past Midnight, maybe?)

Very early in the book, a character named Brian refers to some famous face as a 'stud-muffin'. HAHA. I'm sorry, it was too funny not to mention.

The dead baby (trust me, you'll get this if you read the book) is named Kelton. I--I was wondering where that name came from when I named a character in a story of mine that. I--I forgot. Jeez. That is one thing you don't want a name to be associated with... (Which is unfortunate, because it is a really cool name.)

If I recall, in the book that The Secret Window was based on, Thad often heard or thought he saw sparrows right before his alter ego or whatever it was (it's been two or three years since I've read it, so cut me some slack) would appear. Alan appears to occasionally view sparrows when anxiety about his dead wife overtakes him, and Entragian (or just Tak in general, I guess) seems to have a thing about birds: "My mind is full of blackbirds", or something like that because I haven't found my copy of Desperation yet. (pout) Anyways, what I'm trying to say is, birds recur a lot. Maybe they're Stephen King's version of favored symbolism? If that's the case, it's the kind of symbolism that doesn't suck, Nathaniel Hawthorne. Just sayin', is all.

You're probably wondering about the title, I guess. At one point a junky goes out to this (almost) abandoned shack, and someone (cough, Mr Gaunt, cough cough) has spray-painted it onto the wall. High five, Stephen King. For some reason, before I read this, I never thought, well, anyone else was a fan of HP Lovecraft (everyone knows Cthulhu the Internet sensation, but what about his creator? Poor Lovecraft) but it makes sense. Sooo because he actually knows who HP Lovecraft is and enough to make a reference to his lesser-known creation.... high five!?

"'I'm afraid I've got some bad news about your double-murder.' 'Oh, so all at once it's my double murder.'" I'm pretty sure I died laughing at this. Can't you just hear Alan Pangborn getting all haughty about that? Like a girl on a soap opera? Hehe.

Stephen King also seems to have a fixation on Simple Simon, too. I've read a few where Simple Simon is mentioned, the only other times that stands alone really is in this story... I think it's in Four Past Midnight as well... There's like this librarian, who's really this larval entity that feeds off children--I'm pretty sure that story was the reason why I got rid of that book. At one point they find the larval she-beast as what she really is, still looking somewhat human, but altogether inhuman, with these wizened wrinkles in her face that are somehow only 2-D and a proboscis. Ick. But Simple Simon is in there too, and like the reaction Alan has to the poster of him in Needful Things, whoever it is in that story sees it and is absolutely terrified. Huh. Curious.

Ah, the one sentence in this book that I absolutely hate: "State police cars and news vehicles were thrown end over end through the air like Corgi toys". For some reason, this really annoys me, and I'm not entirely sure why--maybe it feels to personal to me. Like, he's the omnipotent narrator, but he's suddenly being personal and you're aware that you're not getting the story from an omnipotent narrator, it's Stephen King. Or maybe that's just me. (In case you didn't know, he's referring to a Pembroke Welsh Corgi, a kind of dog. My favorite kind, actually. Cowboy Bebop fans, it's the kind of dog Ein is. As of the writing of Everything's Eventual, he still had one--there's a picture of him and it in the back flap of the hardcover copy of Desperation.) But whatever it is, it just really bothers me.

The first time I read the ending with Alan Pangborn and such I absolutely hated it. However, every time I reread it (I think this #3) I like it more. It grows on you.

Okay, so I didn't really do much deep review and react to this, but cut me some slack, here. The book is good, and it's more than a cheap thrill. It's kind of like a mystery, except where you basically know the answers beforehand (unless this is your first Stephen King book, and even then, you'll probably pick it up pretty quickly). Dramatic irony! Delicious! (It's what killed Romeo and Juliet!) It looks large and threatening but it's about 500 pages shorter than It and reads about 500 times faster. It's gory, but not as nasty as Desperation, not by a long shot. Of course, it's got some awkwardly sexual moments, but again, not as bad as the scene in the junkyard in It. I wouldn't really call it horror or a thriller, either. It's not really scary, and I wasn't terrified after reading it. ('Salem's Lot, anyone?)

Anyways, over the past four days I also finished Everything's Eventual, Slaughterhouse-Five, and Invisible Monsters, and I've begun to reread The Dharma Bums. But, since I've just come back from Maine (from right next door to Bangor, actually) I feel it appropriate to respond to Everything's Eventual now and save the other two for tomorrow or something.

Everything's Eventual is a collection of fourteen of Stephen King's short...er stories. I quite enjoy it, and you can tell. My softcover Stephen King books always look like they've had the crap beaten out of them, and this is definitely the worst of the lot. Though soft covers bother me, the fact that it's only $7.99 is quite an amazing deal. (While in Maine I came upon a new copy in a bookstore and almost died--I forgot my copy had ever looked quite so not like a car ran over it.) I mean, the hardcover is probably like... $26? Damn. Anyways. Shall we continue?

Autopsy Room Four: The first story. It's half based off an old Hitchcock show and half King's life. It turns on the simple panic, and inadvertently makes you hate The Rolling Stones a little. It's a good one to read, but it's hardly meaty. One thing I wonder is that a note at the end, King mentions he dated Katie Arlen for four months from November 94-February 95. Uh... Wasn't he married?

The Man in the Black Suit: Favorite. Most def, my favorite. The ambiguous (kind of) ending scares me. Basically, an old man is recounting a memory of his early childhood, hardly yet ten or so, and it's a normal day of fishing for him... Until he meets the Devil in forest. Okay, I made it sound melodramatic, but it gives me the shivers. I think makes my skin crawl is more accurate actually, especially if you have a mind like me and it runs away before you can stop it at the end. In the note afterwards King says 'Young Goodman Brown' by Nathaniel Hawthorne is his favorite of Hawthorne's, and he wrote this story as a homage to it. THIS IS WAY BETTER! 'Young Goodman Brown' could have been amazing, but Hawthorne ended with the 'it was just a dream' ending. Screw you, Hawthorne.

All That You Love Will Be Carried Away: : ( That is the best way to sum up my reaction. It makes me sad. Which is no doubt what King intended. On a side note, I would like to try and find those graffiti websites... (Of course, I spent the entire trip mentally noting graffiti I saw)

The Death of Jack Hamilton: Effk this story. You lose, Stephen King, you stole fizzy lifting drinks! You bumped into the ceiling which now has to be washed and sterilized, so you get nothing! You lose! Good day, sir!

In the Deathroom: It's not really my style at all, but I can't see any faults. A guy gets the crap interrogated out of him.

The Little Sisters of Eluria: Again, it's not really my style--I never really got interested enough in the Dark Tower series to bother with it, but because it's a sort of prelude to the series, I even knew what was going on, which was nice. I enjoyed reading it, and although it didn't spark an interest in the rest of the series, I can dig it. In the intro, King mentions The Talisman, a book of his which I guess semi-intertwines with that series as well. (Should I really be surprised?) That was a pretty good book.

Everything's Eventual: Awesome, awesome, awesome! (Fun fact: Sankofite is someone's user name on Xanga! Really! Google it!) This one is a bait-and-switch, or whatever the proper english term would be. You spent 2/3s of the story smiling and nodding with the main character, because of course you bond with your narrator and then you gt slapped. Oh, oh right! You're killing people! Boy is my face red. Anyways:
There's a reference to the 'shining' in this one! Well, I think it is. And, according to Wikipedia, there's a Dark Tower reference.

LT's Theory of Pets: I didn't really get this one the first few times through, but when I read it and it finally hit me I sat down and cried. Not a heavy cry, but you know, an oh god! sort of deal. That slaps you in the face at the end, too. I can imagine not many people being fond of this one, but I thought it was pretty okay.

The Road Virus Heads North: This is a story that scares me, too. I avoid reading this one before I walk Dante for the night, if possible. Man. Man. It's good, it's scary good, and this is the one you want to tell if you want to give someone the shivers. And while I'm in my creepy basement with the garage door I'd rather not think about it thank you. I'd say you weaker-stomached folk may want to avoid it, but scary is different for different people. But don't say I didn't warn you.

Lunch at the Gotham Cafe: The maitre d makes me think of the crazy chef in Ctrl-Alt-Del (the webcomic) so I find it hard to be scared of him. The soon to be ex husband makes me nervous--at the end, you just know there's going to be an unpretty sequel which only your imagination can carry away, if your mind is like mine and runs away with it at first ambiguous chance.
I don't get the 'snooti' joke. Someone please explain?
Oh god, just seeing that end typed out makes me nervous. You just know what'll happen next.
Oh, and you should be warned: This is the violent and gory one of the book. Very much so.

That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is in French: This is good, but it makes you want to claw your scalp off. Not only because of the freaky imagery, but because it's so repetitive (and I mean that in a good way, if you can believe that) and the very way it's designed just drives you nuts.

1408: I didn't see this movie, and I can't imagine how well this movie could possibly be. Does it have the same unsettling nature? I guess it would rely more on shocks and freaky stuff like that. Hmm, Joe gave it a 7/10. One of these days I'll get around to watching it, then, I guess, but not in this millenia. Well, I read a brief overview of the movie and I'm already hating the changes, haha.
But! I digress: It's a top here. It's also a mindeff in textual form, and some lines have stayed in my head and will pop up unexpectedly and give me the cold sweats. For example, today, when we crossed back into CT the line "My brother was actually eaten by wolves on the Connecticut Turnpike" popped into my head. Yikes. Stephen King's got a penchant for writing crazy people, definitely.
(Then again, maybe I will see the movie. Cusack in a Hawaiin shirt! Yes.)

Riding the Bullet: "Fun is fun and done is done." Maybe the best thing ever to take from a Stephen King story.
This is your basic campfire story. (I think King actually describes it as that in the intro) But, I'm sure you've heard the scary story of a man running into a ghoulie or ghostie or long-legged beastie and having to pretend everything's normal or else he gets scarfed. Or something worse. In this case, it's a dead man picking up a hitchhiker. (Trust me, I didn't ruin anything.) I liked this one because it actually has... well, at the risk of sounding like the loser 40-year-old english teacher who you know will never get married because she's such a damned loser... a 'message'. Or, at least, something worth taking away. I'm not sure if 'tender' is the best way to describe it, maybe 'deep', or something. But altogether, it really has a different flavor, and I like it.
The very last page, those bottommost two paragraphs (if you have the softcover, who knows what it's like in the hardcover) is the best example of that.... Oh, hell. If you read it, don't complain to me about a spoiler.
"'Why did you even bother? What was the goddamn point?' Still no answer, and why would there be? You wait in line, that's all. You wait in line beneath the moon and make your wishes by its infected light. You wait in line and listen to them screaming--they pay to be terrified, and on the Bullet they always get their money's worth. Maybe when it's your turn you ride; maybe you run. Either way it comes to the same, I think. There ought to be more to it, but there's really not--fun is fun and done is done. Take your button and get out of here."
It's better in the book.

Luckey Quarter: This story always makes me feel bad for hotel/motel cleaning ladies. Of course, in Maine, it was practically the exact same, down to the card's contents. You know, except for names and area and stuff, but the main things. So, I stuck an extra five in the card along with the two Jenna's mom stuck in. I don't know if that comes out to a good tip, but I hope so. Anyways. The wistful sad and dead end feeling--fantasy vs. reality... well. I don't know. It's another story that's not really meaty, but enjoyable.

Man, fun fact! This is my third day adding to this post! (Really!)

Fun Fact 2: We stopped in Salem on the way up and walked into an awesome bookstore. Observe: There's another picture too... I don't know how to rotate pictures on blogger, but enjoy it either way:
Hey, if you look closely there's a copy of Desperation! (Now I'm just being mocked here...)
Actually, you probably can't see it on so small a print. But still. They actually had a copy of The Regulators there, which is 'Richard Bachmann's' partner to Desperation. It's the only time I've ever seen the copy in my life, and I'm kicking myself for not getting it. But at the same time, look at all those books stacked up. Both copies were stacked under other Stephen King hardcovers. You know... It. Dreamcatcher. 'Salem's Lot (Crap, I should've bought that too. Dammit). Rose Madder. What I'm trying to say, if I had been fool enough to go after either copies, even the one that was only under four books, everyone would have died. Which is a shame, though I guess I never thought to look under 'Richard Bachmann' anywhere except at the library. (No dice, of course, but there was one that Stephen King had written the forward to, ha-ha.) But, I saw Thinner finally printed under his name, so... (I love the fact that in it the main character thinks his situation is like "something out of a Stephen King novel". That sort of thing just won't be the same.) Actually, my copy is "Stephen King writing as Richard Bachmann" so it must have been printed after Desperation at least, but it looks too... actually, that's still like 13 or so years, right? I guess it makes sense then. (Maybe I should just check the date in the book, huh?) I guess I'll be rereading Thinner next then.... anything to put off reading Wuthering Heights....
As for the store itself, I bought Big Sur there and it has the address of the place on a bookmark tucked inside. I'll give it to you when I finish that, alright? It really is a cool place, just... just be very careful. Tiptoe past the leaning tower of hardcover Stephen King or god help you. Be careful around the Crichton books, too. And James Patterson. Not because there's a stack of his books that will fall and kill you, he just sucks.

Anyways, remember that copy of War and Peace I so love? I finally took pictures: they don't really do the great quality justice, but still.
Look at that! Gorgeous. (That's my KNEE, Emma. Geez.) And, a pretty junky picture of the gold page protectors:
Awesome. It's no original or old copy, but the fact that there was actual work put into this book's quality is nice. I think even if I hated it, I would have kept it, just because.

Whooo. God, I'm glad I finally finished this thing. Now, to The Office!