February/March - The Stand "The Circle Opens and Captain Trips"

Okay, this thread for the The Circle opens (if you're reading the uncut version) and Captain Trips. We'll have a second thread for On the Border and then one for The Stand and The Circle Closes.

Frannie has buried her father and we first encounter Harold.

Larry has met Rita and they're trying to get out of NYC. That tunnel was pretty intense.

Stu has escaped Elder and is now on the road to...somewhere.

Lloyd has successfully gotten the leg off the cot in his cell, but hasn't yet eaten the rat he has stashed away.

Flagg is in posession of the Byoo-ick.

The scene in the tunnel will always be one of my all-time favorites from any of King's works. I can't drive through any kind of tunnel without thinking about it.

Just finished the first section. I love how Stu and Glen meet (and of course Kojak aka Big Steve). It reminds me of how Wireman and Edgar meet in Duma Key. Natural and easy. Stu handles Harold very well. A natural diplomat.

Irony abounds in the meeting of Tom Cullen and Nick.

Poor Rita. Yeah, Larry is not a nice guy, but she just couldn't take the brave new world.

Lloyd is released into a new kind of bondage.

Trashy is on the move.

The dreams are beginning.

I've only read the first four(?) chapters so far. Larry Underwood (his last name always makes me think of a typewriter) just talked to his mom.

I love the writing. Stephen King could write the directions to a DVD player and it would be worth reading.

One thing that has surprised me was the casual racism in the book. The n-bomb has been dropped more times in the first fifty pages than it had been used in all of his previous books. I don't mean to imply that SK was racist at this point. I know it has more to do with the attitudes towards popular music at the time (I believe all the uses are in some way related to Larry's song). It's just surprising, especially since even 'likable' characters (like Larry's mom) seem to have no problem referring to blacks as 'niggers'. Even typing it makes me feel creepy. I guess that's a positive sign of how we've advanced in the last twenty+ years?

Actually it's only some white people that hate the word. Just listen to modern hip hop and rap. They say that the word has been turned, but just say it in a black crowd as a white person and you know how hollow that is. I still find it ugly, but many disagree.

So I've just met Nick Andros (I should be farther along, but it's been a hectic week). I remember thinking he was annoyingly Christ-like in his perfection the first time I read the book. I'll have to see how it goes this time.

I did want to give credit to two passages that really struck me as I read them. The first is when Nick is first jumped: He struggled wildly and got one hand free just as a fist looped down into his face like a runaway moon… The other was when Nick lands in front of the skidding car: He could see a small white rock embedded between two of the treads like a coin held between a pair of knuckles.

It's a shame the way King is dismissed because he's a popular writer.

Okay, I've just finished 'Captain Trips'.

The Stand just isn't my favorite SK book, but it is so well written. I've been reading it during my fifteen minute breaks at work and during my lunch hour (and other times as well of course) and it is one of those magical books that just makes the time fly by. I constantly find myself peeking ahead looking for the next chapter break, hoping to read one more chapter before my time is up.

The portrayal of the flu spreading across the country was handled really well here. Without belaboring his point you can clearly see time passing and the population dwindling as carriers pick up and pass on the flu. That's important in one of these 'plague sweeps the world' type stories. In other ones I've read (Dead City, Monster Island and One Rainy Night for instance) the 'plague' usually seems to jump from a few cases to worldwide (or citywide) pandemic in a jerky and unbelievable way. I think any writer attempting such a story in the future would do well to study 'Captain Trips' before writing their epic.

As for individual stand out scenes, I think Trashcan Man blowing up those oil tanks and Larry's trip through the Lincoln Tunnel were the best bits of the book.

I like Stu quite a bit. I think King has so far portrayed him as a fairly realistic character.

Larry gets on my nerves. With his crappy attitude, I'm expecting him to head to Vegas (though I know he doesn't). I don't like him but I think he is a very well written and believable character.

Nick comes off as too perfect. He is kind of an annoying character because it seems like King forgot to give him any real flaws. Is it just me that sees it that way?

I liked the portrayal of Flagg. We are given such sketchy information about the character. Even he doesn't seem entirely sure of what's going on or why he now has power.

Yes St. Nick is annoying, but I liked his meeting and management of Tom. The irony is overplayed, but I like the way they eventually find a way to work together and overcome their communication issues. The tornado they live through is another good scene (cut out of the original I think).

#9 - St. Nick is annoying, but I liked his meeting and management of Tom.

I could see that. And from what I remember I like Tom (haven't 'met' him again in my current re-read). Glad I'm not the only one that thought Nick was almost too perfect for words (pun not intended, but funny to me so I'm gonna leave it in).

Incidentally, since I'm talking about the specific characters, I wanted to mention that, reading this book again, the mini-series version of The Stand did an excellent job of casting. Gary Sinise as Stu and Molly Ringwald as Frannie were near perfect. Max Headroom (Matt Frewer) as the Trashcan Man and Bill Fagerbakke (okay I had to look that one up) as Tom Cullen were inspired.

But what was the deal with The Walkin' Dude? Maybe it's just my personal taste, but in the mini-series, the guy seemed too... beefy... and Nordic to be Flagg. In the book, I always pictured him as being gaunt and dark. Sort of a Lou Reed type. In the movie the guy was just too Patrick Swayze to me.

Haven't seen it. Plenty of opportunities, no desire.

You should check out the mini-series. From what I remember, aside from the Walkin' Dude just never seeming quite right, it's actually very good. The special effects at the very end are super cheesy, but it shouldn't put you off from watching it. It's better than all the other Stephen King mini-series except maybe for Storm of the Century.

Only a few chapters in (of the old version), and I miss the The Circle Opens. Read the longer version years ago but remember it being pretty scary in a very real way.

I'm NOT missing the clunky attempts by SK to modernise it. The 90's pop culture references were hopelessly out of place and clashed badly with the rest of the writing (such as the words for Larry's Baby Can You Dig Your Man).

The characters are great, and hold up to a second reading as an older person. I've known a Larry or two, and although I haven't got to Harold yet, I've known someone just like him too. He is absolutely spot on with those two. SK manages to point out the little things that say a lot about the person, without being cliched, for instance when Campion's car crashes into the gas station. One of the men can't get over the fact that the lights on the car didn't blink once, while Stu quietly contemplates the linked hands of the dead woman and child. Says LOADS about Stu (haven't met a Stu in real life yet, am still waiting - him or Atticus Finch would do me... or COULD do me...)

I love Frannie but felt she was a real cow to Jessie, despite her realisation of his flaws. And then a few pages away she's told by her dad that her mother was just like her once. Again, very insightful writing, very true, whole characters. That hard edge can crystallise in the wrong situation and produce the ice-queen that is Frannie's mother. I've seen THAT happen too :(

I remember thinking that this was the reason the book is so well like by the fans, despite not being the strongest in terms of story (the supernatural elements to the story were slightly ridiculous, to my mind anyway, or at least they came across that way in the longer version - I may feel differently this time around).

OK, I'm finally just starting the book and am excited.

A few more thoughts:

None of the main characters have partners or children, and only one is a woman. One of the big horrors, in my mind anyway, of any end-of-the-world scenario is the helplessness of adults not being able to protect children from it - not just the illness but the panic. Without "The Circle Opens" (I'm reading the earlier version) you miss that original panic to protect family, and it took a lot of the terror out of the story. If I remember correctly, there was a little more in the longer version on what else was happening around the country, which was very scary. Leaving it out may have made the book shorter, but it was a more plodding story. The characters seemed bigger than the flu, and therefore less vulnerable.

Stu's leaving the hospital made more of an impression on me than Larry's trip through the tunnel. At one point Stu comes across a sign at another dead end which says "CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE - RANDALL". I liked that.

Trashy blowing up the gas cylinders was an amazing bit of writing. Very vivid. For instance "...it seemed that he must be standing directly under the roof of the world, and if he reached up he could scratch blue chalk from the bottom of the sky with his fingernails".

Don't know about anyone else, but my copy is quite badly edited, with spelling mistakes and a couple of mangled sentences.