#TheStandChallenge #StephenKing Chapters 1-24

So this is part 1 of the Jason Sechrest arranged readalong of ‘The Stand’, by Stephen King-the edition being read is the Complete and Uncut, 1990 version of the book.

Check out the podcast with special guests, as we readalong with the ultimate dystopian novel, as powerful and resonant now, as it ever was.

Yep, as usual I am playing catch up as work has been crazy and it’s been night shifts for a while now-maybe forever?- and concentration is a bit of an issue.

It’s like that Twilight Zone episode with Burgess Meredith in, people think you would have all the time in the world to read the books which have been piling up forever, but wouldn’t you know it,having your first year as a nurse coincide with a pandemic has really busted my reading chops.

Anyway, back to ‘The Stand’

Has anyone read it or listened to the podcast?

What did you think?

Chapters 1-24

In which Stephen King places most of his principle characters onto his chessboard, touches his Zippo to the edge of it and sits back to watch the world burn…

Beginning with a frantic escape from a government facility, then proceeding to span the North American landscape, typical SK themes are immediately noticeable-you have the ‘everyman’ in Stu Redman, a stoic man who only speaks when he has something to say.

He and the other men chewing the fat , drinking beer and putting the world to rights is something immediately recognisable and transferable so the reader is pulled intot he story

Ironically, if he hadn’t noticed Charles Campion’s car veering towards Bill Hapscomb’s petrol station, and turned the pumps off, the entire story would have been a very different one. Fire cleanses, purifies and kills yet this narrowly avoided blaze means all the men present that night were exposed to a virus named Captain Trips-a government strain of the flu with 99.4% mortality, which hitched a ride with Charles, his daughter and wife as they escaped the army facility with seconds to spare. The lockdown procedure had not allowed for that constant throughout history-human error.

Next up is Frannie Goldsmith, erstwhile student and about to be single parent. Her meeting with her boyfriend, Jess Ryder, to break the news of the impending arrival is fraught , tense and so sad as you realise, even after the decades are swept away, this is a universal tale. As it has been , so shall it ever be thus-contraception fails and the woman is left to carry the can. Her frustration and anger at being the responsible adult is marred with the potential disappointment her own father might express. Her mother’s disapproval is a given, but breaking this to her father is another matter altogether and as she stands on the coast of Maine, her symbolic and literal isolation is poignant and very real.

Larry Underwood, to quote one of his conquests, ‘ain’t no good guy’. He is on the other side of the coast, in L.A trying to figure out how his life has gone so horribly wrong, His singing career has taken off, his song is being played everywhere so why does he feel so emoty? Returning home to New York after an intervention which he really didn’t deserve , to his aging,hotel cleaning mother, he continues to act in sucha selfish, destructive manner that you really don’t know which way he will jump….his arc is open to either good or bad at this point and he provides a neat contrast to Stu.

Next up is Nick Andros,a deaf mute man who falls foul of a gang of toughs and ends up in Shoyo prison -not sure where this is if anyone can help? Nick has been the victim of circumstance and a social welfare system that has abandoned him . If not for the intervention of a well meaning social worker, you, the reader, get the feeling that things would have turned out very differently for Nick. As it is, he has determination, ambition and a ‘won’t quit’ attitude that you know he will need to pull on heavily in days to come.

Lloyd ‘The Kid’ Henreid serial killer and anarchist is a flat out bad guy who dispatches people at whim with his road companion ,Andrew ‘Poke’ Fereeman who are blazing a bloody trail in stolen cars and vans. His comeuppance at a garage hold up which goes horribly wrong renders him incarcerated-where he will end up remains to be seen but he is completely set as a diametric opposite to Stu, and even makes Larry look good.

Randall Flagg-the Walkin’ Dude, the dark man, strolls into the story without a care in the world. A conduit-or perhaps the essence of-pure evil, he reminds me of the Rolling Stones song, ‘ Sympathy For The Devil’,he doesn’t actually do anything wrong, people do that themselves, but he somehow manages to the one who pushes pamphlets and notions into the minds of those susceptible to his dubious ‘charms’. His appearance belies his nature yet everyone who meets him recognises his malign purpose on a deeper, subcinscious level yet he strolls into the story in his worn down cowboy boots, looking like an everyman wiating to hitch a ride. That is what makes him so terrifying, he literally saunters in and as the reader, you know he is going to be drawing accolytes to him before long.

In the background are the constant themes of individual versus collective responsibility-there are mentions of sneezes and coughs which ordinarily would not alarm you but in this corona riddled world even an innocent sneeze can indicate something much more sinister…

The government representatives left shutting the door after the plague horse has bolted puts a very human face on the catastrophic error which has occurred. The lethal game of tag which is unstoppable thanks to Charles Campion, is detailed in the seemingly innocent connections that humans make daily-paying for food, opening doors, hugging family members, boarding a plane-and given the days we are living in, week 1098 (feels like)of lockdown, this seems like a place where we, the reader, or at least me, are screaming at the page for people to open their eyes. These everyday interactions are now fraught with potential death, a fear which is very prescient for today’s reader, whereas you can imagine the sense of impending disaster for the late 70’s reader maybe seeing this as a representative of the virus riddled ideas spreading through society, contagion as a notion of civil unrest in the wake of the end of the hippy movement, the end of the Vietnam war and the brave new world of technology approaching in the 80’s.

As a 90’s reader, with the complete and uncut edition being published around my 15th birthday, the Iraq war -the first one-was raging, the world just waking up to the spread of AIDS, alongside east versus west conflict, gave the book a very modern feel. The virus was symbolic again of division and rebellion. It made for a unique reading experience and a very well realised one-the appearance of a Randall Flagg and the releasing of a virus seemed eminently plausible.

Now, reading this as world weary mother, grandmother, mid pandemic, the dramatic resonance is astounding. The projected terror of the reader who now wears face masks and gloves, is seperated from the their family, who no longer ‘pops’ anywhere and has to queue everywhere, daily blasted with the impossibly high death figures is a terrifying experience. And yet…toatlly wonderful,. Because even as you start slotting in the memories of what is coming in the story, the monster-shouter of Times Square is in your own head …..

‘Monsters coming! Monsters on the way! They’re in the suburbs!’

They are already here. And they are running things. Badly. All around the world.

The monstrous blame game of science versus political parties has left us, the people, as sitting ducks, literally and figuratively, for a virus which is changing so quickly no one can pin what body systems it won’t attack. As someone who has cared for coronarvirus patients, and quite honestly does not know what they will find themselves facing on a day by day basis, I can honestly state that this is not normal, and our perception of it will not change for a very long time. And on my breaks, where I can sit for half an hour without masks, visor , gloves or any other barrier, reading ‘The Stand’ as a respite from reality is, for me, a necessity. And that is the scary thing.

And on that note….even for me that was a digression and a half, we stand posed for everyone’s next move. Images are sneaking into everyone’s dreams but what do they mean? How will Stu escape from the government facility he is contained in? What step will Larry take next after burning through every friend he has? Hope will Frannie cope after her bombshell news has dropped? How long will it be before Randall and Flagg meet?

Only one thing to do….and that is to read on…

Twitter @jasonsechrest  @TananariveDue @Breznican @flanaganfilm @StephenKing

Links-https://thestandpodcast.com/

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/aug/03/rereading-stephen-king-the-stand

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj6y6tohW_0