| The Stand | |
|---|---|
First edition cover |
|
| Author(s) | Stephen King |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Post-apocalyptic novel |
| Publisher | Doubleday |
| Publication date | November 1978 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 823 |
| ISBN | 978-0385121682 |
| Preceded by | The Shining |
| Followed by | The Dead Zone |
The Stand is a post-apocalyptic horror/fantasy novel by American author Stephen King. It demonstrates the scenario in his earlier short story, Night Surf. The novel was originally published in 1978 and was later re-released in 1990 as The Stand: The Complete & Uncut Edition; King restored some text originally cut for brevity, added and revised sections, changed the setting of the story from 1980 (which in turn was changed to 1985 for the original paperback release in 1980) to 1990, and updated a few pop culture references accordingly. The Stand was nominated for the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 1979, and was adapted into both a television miniseries for ABC and a graphic novel published by Marvel Comics.[1][2]
The book is dedicated to King's wife, Tabitha: "For my wife Tabitha: This dark chest of wonders."
Contents |
The novel is divided into three parts, or books. The first is titled "Captain Trips" and takes place over nineteen days, with the escape and spread of a human-made biological weapon, a superflu (influenza) virus known formally as "Project Blue" but most commonly as "Captain Trips" (among some other colloquialisms). The virus is developed at a U.S. Army base, where it is released. While the base tries to shut down before any infected person can escape, a security malfunction allows a guard and his family to sneak out. Unfortunately, they are already infected, and release an epidemic, which quickly turns into a pandemic, that leads directly to the death of an estimated 99.4% of the world's human population, as well as that of domesticated animals, such as horses and dogs.
King outlines the total breakdown and destruction of society through widespread violence, the failure of martial law to contain the outbreak, and eventually the death of virtually the entire population. The human toll is also dealt with, as the few survivors must care for their families and friends, dealing with confusion and grief as their loved ones succumb to the flu.
The expanded edition opens with a prologue titled "The Circle Opens" that offers greater detail into the circumstances surrounding the development of the virus and the security breach that allowed its escape from the secret laboratory compound where it was created.
Intertwining cross-country odysseys are undertaken by a small number of survivors in 3 parties (8 people in "Stu's", 7 in "Nick's" and 5 in "Larry's") which are drawn together by both circumstances and their shared dreams of a 108-year-old woman from Hemingford, Nebraska[3] whom they see as a refuge and a representation of good in the struggle of good versus evil. This woman, Abagail Freemantle (known as "Mother Abagail"), becomes the spiritual leader of this group of survivors, directing them to Boulder, Colorado, referred to as "the Free Zone", where they begin to reestablish a democratic society. Much of this section of the book involves the struggles to create an orderly society reinstating the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights as a basis (with modifications). Boulder is found to be hosting considerably fewer dead bodies of plague victims than other cities, due to an exodus following a false rumor in the early stages of the plague that the outbreak originated in the Boulder Air Test Center.
Meanwhile, another group of survivors (party of 10, but with more interesting nicknames like "The Trashcan Man" and "Ace High" along with normal ones like "Carl Hough") are drawn to Las Vegas, Nevada by Randall Flagg (known as "the Dark Man", among other nefarious names), who is an evil being with supernatural powers; he exists in the story to represent the opposite influence of Mother Abagail. Flagg’s governance is tyrannical and brutal, using crucifixion, dismemberment and other forms of torture as punishment for those who are disloyal and disobedient. His group is able to quickly reorganize their society, restore power to Las Vegas, and rebuild the city as many technical professionals have migrated to the city. The book notes that at Las Vegas, Flagg's group is constantly working and has organized a strong but harsh structure while at the Free Zone, some survivors lounge idly and do not work as hard. Flagg's group also has started a school system and weapons program with survivor Carl Hough as a helicopter pilot and the Trashcan Man searching the country for weapons.
The Free Zone's democratic society is not without its problems: Mother Abagail, feeling that she has become prideful and sinned due to her pleasure at being a public figure, disappears into the wilderness on a journey of spiritual reconciliation, while one of the members of "Stu's party" builds a dynamite bomb in response to feelings of disconnection and unrequited love. However, two other members confiscate the explosive and crudely rig it to kill and wound the committee members of the Free Zone's democracy. Shortly before the explosion Mother Abigail returns (in poor shape) and the majority of the colony rushes to see her.
The stage is now set for the final confrontation as the two camps become aware of one another, and each recognizes the other as a threat to its survival, leading to the "stand" of good against evil. There is no pitched battle, however. Instead, at Mother Abagail's dying behest, Stu, Larry, Ralph and Glen set off on foot towards Las Vegas on an expedition to confront Randall Flagg. Stu breaks his leg en route and drops out. He encourages the others to leave without him, telling them that God will provide for him. Glen, Ralph, and Larry soon encounter Flagg's men, who take them prisoner. When Glen rejects an opportunity to be spared if he kneels and begs Flagg for his life, he is shot on Flagg's order by one of his men. Flagg gathers his entire collective to witness the execution of the other two, but before it can take place, Trashcan Man arrives with a nuclear warhead and a giant glowing hand—"The Hand of God"—detonates the bomb, destroying Flagg's followers and the two remaining prisoners.
Stu, with the aid of Glen Bateman's dog "Kojak" (formerly "Big Steve") and Tom Cullen, survives injury, illness, and a harsh Rocky Mountain winter. The three of them arrive back in Boulder soon after the birth of Fran’s baby. Although the baby falls ill with the superflu, he is able to fight it off. In the end, Stu and Fran decide to return to Maine, and the original edition of the novel ends with the two of them questioning whether the human race can learn from its mistakes. The answer, given in the last line, is ambiguous: "I don’t know."
The expanded edition follows this with a brief coda called "The Circle Closes", which leaves a darker impression and fits in with King’s ongoing "wheel of ka" theme. Randall Flagg, using the alias "Russell Faraday", wakes up on a beach somewhere in the South Pacific, having escaped the atomic blast in Vegas by using his dark magic (although Flagg does not remember how he got to the beach or what his real name is, and it is suggested that he does not even remember the events in America), and begins recruiting adherents among a preliterate, dark-skinned people, who worship him as some sort of god.
In his non-fiction book Danse Macabre, Stephen King writes about the origins of The Stand at some length. One source was Patty Hearst's case. The original idea was to create a novel about the episode because "it seemed that only a novel might really succeed in explaining all the contradictions".
The author also mentions George R. Stewart's novel Earth Abides, which describes the odyssey of one of the last human survivors after the population is decimated by a plague, as one of the main inspirations:
With my Patty Hearst book, I never found the right way in . . . and during that entire six-week period, something else was nagging very quietly at the back of my mind. It was a news story I had read about an accidental CBW spill in Utah. (. . . ) This article called up memories of a novel called Earth Abides, by George R. Stewart.
(. . .) and one day while sitting at my typewriter, (. . . ) I wrote—just to write something: The world comes to an end but everybody in the SLA is somehow immune. Snake bit them. I looked at that for a while and then typed: No more gas shortages. That was sort of cheerful, in a horrible sort of way. [4]
The Stand was also planned by King as an epic The Lord of the Rings-type story in a contemporary American setting:
For a long time—ten years, at least—I had wanted to write a fantasy epic like The Lord of the Rings, only with an American setting. I just couldn't figure out how to do it. Then . . . after my wife and kids and I moved to Boulder, Colorado, I saw a 60 Minutes segment on CBW (chemical-biological warfare). I never forgot the gruesome footage of the test mice shuddering, convulsing, and dying, all in twenty seconds or less. That got me remembering a chemical spill in Utah, that killed a bunch of sheep (these were canisters on their way to some burial ground; they fell off the truck and ruptured). I remembered a news reporter saying, 'If the winds had been blowing the other way, there was Salt Lake City.' This incident later served as the basis of a movie called Rage, starring George C. Scott, but before it was released, I was deep into The Stand, finally writing my American fantasy epic, set in a plague-decimated USA. Only instead of a hobbit, my hero was a Texan named Stu Redman, and instead of a Dark Lord, my villain was a ruthless drifter and supernatural madman named Randall Flagg. The land of Mordor ('where the shadows lie,' according to Tolkien) was played by Las Vegas. [5]
King nearly abandoned The Stand due to writers' block.[6] Eventually, he reached the conclusion that the heroes were becoming too complacent, and were beginning to repeat all the same mistakes of their old society. In an attempt to resolve this, he added the part of the storyline where Harold and Nadine construct a bomb which explodes in a Free Zone committee meeting, killing Nick Andros, Chad Norris, and Susan Stern. Later, Mother Abagail explains on her deathbed that God permitted the bombing because He was dissatisfied with the heroes’ focus on petty politics, and not on the ultimate quest of destroying Flagg. When telling this story, King sardonically observed that the bomb saved the book, and that he only had to kill half of the core cast in order to do this.
| The Stand: The Complete & Uncut Edition | |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Doubleday |
| Publication date | May 1990 |
| Pages | 1152 |
| ISBN | 978-0385199575 |
In 1990, a new unabridged edition of The Stand was published, billed as "The Complete & Uncut Edition". Published in hardcover by Doubleday in May 1990, this became the longest book in Stephen King's oeuvre at 1152 pages. When the novel was originally published in 1978, Doubleday believed the readers would be averse to such a long book, and The Stand would be a bigger seller if it was much shorter, and Stephen King cut approximately 500 pages (around 150,00 words) from the original manuscript. This edition reinstates the deleted pages, as well as updates the setting from the 1980s to the 1990s. This new edition features a new preface by Stephen King, and illustrations by Bernie Wrightson. Additionally, Doubleday published a deluxe edition of The Stand: The Complete & Uncut Edition, limited to 1,250 numbered copies and 52 lettered copies. This edition, known as the "Coffin Box" edition due to the book being housed in a wooden case, was signed by Stephen King and Bernie Wrightson. [7][8][9]
A movie adaptation of The Stand was in development hell for 10 years. During the '80s Stephen King had planned a theatrical film, with George A. Romero directing and himself writing, not trusting somebody else with the project. However writing a workable screenplay proved difficult, due to the novel's length. King talked about adapting it for television but was informed that the television networks did not "want to see the end of the world, particularly in prime time." Eventually King allowed screenwriter Rospo Pallenberg, who was a fan of The Stand, to write his own adaptation on the novel. Pallenberg's script would clock the film in at close to three hours while still staying true to the novel. Everyone liked the script; however, just as it was about to finally come together, Warner Brothers backed out of the project.[10]
ABC eventually offered Stephen King the chance to make The Stand into a 6-hour miniseries for television. King wrote a new screenplay (toned down for television). The miniseries was broadcast in 1994, directed by Mick Garris and starring such actors as Gary Sinise, Molly Ringwald, Rob Lowe, Miguel Ferrer, Laura San Giacomo, Ossie Davis, Shawnee Smith and Ed Harris.
In January 2011, it was announced that Warner Bros. and CBS Films will be developing a feature length film adaptation of The Stand.[11] There is currently no official release date. In July 2011 it was reported that the film may be a trilogy, and that David Yates is considering directing.[12] On August 10, Warner Bros. has finalized the deal for Yates and Harry Potter screenwriter Steve Kloves to re-team for a multi-movie version of The Stand.[13] However, in October 2011, it was reported that both Yates and Kloves had left the project due to Yates feeling the project would work better as a miniseries and that actor/director Ben Affleck was Warner Bros. new choice for the project.[14]
Marvel Comics is adapting The Stand into a series of six, five issue comic book miniseries.[1] The series is written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and illustrated by Mike Perkins. Colorist Laura Martin, letterer Chris Eliopoulos and cover artist Lee Bermejo are also confirmed to be on the staff. The first issue of The Stand: Captain Trips was released on September 10, 2008.[15]
Progressive rock band Shadow Circus has created a series of songs about the main events in The Stand, and in whole the tracks come to a full 33-minute progressive rock epic titled "Project Blue". The tracks can be found on their latest CD Whispers and Screams and the track listing can be found in the audio portion of their website.[16]
A more concise nod to The Stand has been recorded as the title track on the album Among The Living by Anthrax, a thrash/speed metal band whose love of King's work has been well documented.
A soundtrack to the mini-series was released at the same time of the ABC special four night broadcast. It contains the instrumental guitar music and orchestrations of "Snuffy" Walden and other artists.
In 1983, the alternative rock band The Alarm released the song, "The Stand," with lyrics directly inspired by the novel. The lyrics follow the travels of Randall Flagg, in much the same way The Rolling Stones had "Sympathy For The Devil."
|
|||||||