Good time to read 'The Stand'?

[Stetto, man...]

Every winter the flu goes around and if I catch it, which isn't every year, I'll read Stephen Kings book or watch the '90s miniseries to help me "feel better".

I'm painting a house yesterday and listening to Limbaugh prattle on about the Ebola epidemic that's coming to neighborhoods near us and has "maybe" a 90% fatality rate. Our government as it is is not remotely capable NOR intent on stemming anything lethal coming after Americans be it viral or subhuman. The southern border has a big welcome mat stretched across it, and I just read where the US is letting sick people enter from Africa.

I think I'm going to start reading early this year--I like to be able to finish what I start.

[Grug - American Neanderthal]

Heheh, I am thinking maybe the anarchists cook book may be a more worthwhile read.

[HiTemp]

Stephen King is banned from my bookshelves. It began years ago when he started writing those futuristic sci-fi books like the Dark Tower and I forget the other one. At that time I was very much a King fan and it disappointed me that he'd write two books of a trilogy then just abandon the effort for nearly a decade. I felt that if he cared so little about his readers that he'd lead them to buy two books and never bother to finish the story (until years later) then I don't need to shell out the premium prices his books demanded.

I almost allowed him back, but then he gave that ridiculous interview in which he claimed he wasn't being taxed enough. To anyone who claims this my response is always, "What kept you from sending in more on your own?" The US Treasury will accept donations on behalf of the government, so if you feel deprived of taxation, go get an envelope and let 'er rip! Once he confirmed himself as a complete idiot, I've no more use for him.

The Stand was not a bad story, just WAY too long telling it. It's a story that's been told many times before. A supernatural evil upsets things and can only be conquered through self-sacrifice and the intervention of a supernatural good. I liked Christine better.

[Stetto, man...]

Well Bob, my reading is mostly focused on the Captain Trips scenario. I lose a lot of interest once Randall Flagg enters the scene.

Yes, King is a bugeyed "enthusiastic supporter" without the sense of a regalar 'Merican. I'm always amazed by the utter ignorance of the supposed intellectual. But there's the rub, eh? Book genius has nothing to do with sense in a real world, hence a glut of those types vulnerable to the first bug-eyed ideology impressed upon them, usually by some overpaid communist professor in some high-dollar progressive school. King became a leftist because his first lay was a leftist activist, and he wound up marrying her.

But I've read the dark tower series several times, and will again and again. What King may not realize is that ideology can be read other than intended, 'Under the Dome' another example, although a really lousy book. The man became formulaic and lost his touch.

[HiTemp]

Never read past that second book in the series. If I remember correctly, they were on some kind of sandy beach being attacked every so often by some sort of killer sand crabs while they were drinking something like Pepsi Cola and marveling at how sugary the solution was. By the time book III came out, I had already lost interest in King and moved over to Clancy. Talk about formulaic - Clancy. Clancy's books are good if you can buy the idea that some one person in the military discovers some important and vital fact and in less than a day the information is at the highest level of decision making and everyone gives full credence to the submarine CO or the pilot who noticed something amiss.

In the real world it don't work like that. Anyone discovering some vital piece of data would have to report it via their chain, and it would stop there. Some submarine CO sending a message to SUBLANT that they just found a new Russian superboat would go no further until that group commander could confirm it, and that could take weeks or months. Were the information to move any faster, that alone would be reason for the high mucky-mucks of the Pentagon to disbelieve it. Then, assuming it got to the top, the Clancy version always has some clear direction going straight from the top to the local commander (the sub CO). In reality it would be weeks of traveling back down with every level putting some spin on it until by the time it got to the sub CO it didn't look much like what the President really wanted.

But, I reckon truth doesn't sell books and generate movie rights like fiction does.

[Stetto, man...]

I read a neat quote by Allen West the other day:

"Why is it that folks who make a living playing make-believe think they understand foreign policy?"

This quote in broader context should put the Cone of Shame around the necks of those who give credence to the likes of King and the bulk of Hollywood.