Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Ever read The Stand?

I haven't read a Stephen King novel in 25 years. He has been on my "he is a Leftist jerk so he is not getting anymore of my $ " list for a long time. I had already bought this so I started rereading it yesterday.

Here is a summary if you are not familiar:

THE STAND
BY STEPHEN KING ‧ RELEASE DATE: NOV. 3, 1978

Striking a far less hysterical tone than in The Shining, King has written his most sweeping horror novel in The Stand, though it may lack the spinal jingles of Salem's Lot. In part this is because The Stand, with its flow of hundreds of brand-name products, is a kind of inventory of American culture. "Superflu" has hit the U.S. and the world, rapidly wiping out the whole of civilization—excepting the one-half of one percent who are immune. Superflu is a virus with a shifting antigen base; that is, it can kill every type of antibody the human organism can muster against it. Immunity seems to be a gift from God—or the Devil. The Devil himself has become embodied in a clairvoyant called Randall Flagg, a phantom-y fellow who walks highways and is known variously as "the dark man" or "the Walking Dude" and who has set up a new empire in Las Vegas where he rules by fear, his hair giving off sparks while he floats in the lotus position. He is very angry because the immune folks in the Free Zone up at Boulder have sent a small force against him; they get their message from Him (God) through a dying black crone named Abigail, who is also clairvoyant. There are only four in this Boulder crew, led by Stu Redman from East Texas, who is in love with pregnant Fran back in the Free Zone. Good and Evil come to an atomic clash at the climax, the Book of Revelations working itself out rather too explicitly. But more importantly, there are memorable scenes of the superflu spreading hideously, Fifth Avenue choked with dead cars, Flagg's minions putting up fresh lightbulbs all over Vegas. . . . Some King fans will be put off by the pretensions here; most will embrace them along with the earthier chilis.



Back in his younger days King could build a plot and his character development was very good. Captain Trips (what the super bug was called) was 99.5% fatal. The 0.5% that were immune were drawn into good vs evil tribes... it makes me think about current events. When times get hard the basically good people look out for each other, the not good people only care about power.....

Thoughts?

Read it twice, back in the day. It used to get passed around amongst the troops out in the field.

Pretty much know it by heart. Probably his best book ... but I too quit reading his books for the same reasons some years ago.

A friend of mine gave me the book after she finished it. I guess that was in 1978 (damn I'm getting old). It's a thick book and I let it sit on the shelf for a bit then I started to feel like I was getting sick. I went to bed and figured I'd read for an hour or so.

The next thing I knew it was getting light outside, I'd read straight through the night. I can't remember if I got the flu or just a bad cold but either way it made the reading experience extra vivid .

Yes...good book

🦫

Wait ill you get to the giant lobsters on the beach part.

I'm a fan of early Stephan King. Dude was prolific and wrote some gripping stories.

Laws Yes, MOON spells GFY.

😂🤪😂

Stephen King can eat a bag of dïcks.

So in the 2021 pandemic who do you nominate for the Randall Flagg role? It sure isn't Joe the zombie Biden. IMO he is minor minion in the bigger picture.

When I read the Stand, they were only single servings of dicks being sold.

Flave was in front of the line, of course...#TrendSetter

LMAO

🦫

George Soros.

I saw the mini series on tv. About 6, two hour shows starring Gary Sinise. Very good mini series.
I loved how, in the battle of the Good People vs the Minions of Satan, they had Satan living in hell in Las Vegas. Las Vegas has always been my idea of hell.

I saw that too and now I see those actors in my head while I reread the book . I put it down around 3:00 AM last night. It's a beautiful day here need to go on a long walk with my wife and take care of some chores before I pick it up again.

I read Christine, and half of The Shining...... That's it for SK!

Not really a Stephen King fan, but probably the best book I’d ever read at the time.

Probably did.

Read the 1100+ page "Complete and Uncut Edition" 1990 hardcover in a marathon sitting over 2 days of being snowed in. Threw it across the room in disgust when I finished. After such an epic tale, the ending was f u c k i n g retarded.

Looks like the full mini series is free on You Tube... Not sure how King would get paid for people watching this? Could be a not support the leftist dirt bag way for some pretty good entertainment....

drew it from the library in February 2020 for a reread.

..

My guess is that he fell off the wagon cause he sounds unhinged in his public statements and I can't believe that he allowed Hollistan to turn his lifetime project (Gunslinger / Darktower series ) into such a garbage movie

Thank you. My sentiments exactly.

I read it - it’s one of the longest books I’ve ever read

"The center can not hold..." "The rats are in the corn..." seems kind of prophetic.

The man can write a novel, but the endings really stink on most everything he wrote.

Just got to Harold and Nadine 2 really creepy charters.... both seem somewhat OK at first but when they choose the dark side it gets really ugly

I still have not seen any nominations for the current events version of Randal Flag.... I remember someone asking Trump who was behind the election fraud. His reply was "people you have never heard of... ". Maybe someone in a board room watching the fall of society and cackling.

Hillary has a black enough heart for the role but seems to old and sick to play that part now. Harris cackles all the time but she strikes me as to stoned and stupid for the part....

Captain Trips makes Covid 19 look like a bee sting.

or the common cold....

Trash Can Man and Floyd remind me of useful idiots like BLM and Antifa... "Others have done you wrong follow me and we will pay them back together.." .

My mind has occasionally turned to King's The Stand since the start of this COVID crap. Never read it, but did watch the mini series when it was on TV.

Read it a LONG time ago. Read a lot of his books long ago, read IT when we were at sea in the mid to late 80's.

As Kingston said, he can eat a bag of DICKS.

I should have bought stock in Amazon... I've spent a bunch of $ on Audible and Kindle books over the last 15 or 20 years. I think I remember reading that public libraries now loan digital files for either of those formats.

Might be an option to check out any authors that you really don't want to financially support. I don't remember the last time I had a library card. Has anyone done the digital format loan thing?

lol im in it ...book on tape... so far at chaspter 8 were sounding like the cono vris ...45 hour listen btw...im in for 4hr so far

I guess I have the edited down edition. He said he'd gotten complaints that this book had to much detail.... this edition is only 30 something hours

The young woman pretending to be a store manikin who then snapped when Nick showed her the note saying "We don't need you"... was a perfect illustration of a woman with a borderline personality disorder. King is a jerk but he sure could do character development.

I'll liken so far ...29 hours to go

Fauci is Randall Flagg

Biden is Trashcan Man.

Fauci is Randall Flagg

Biden is Trashcan Man.

Exactly.

Like he just got tired of writing it and wanted to go to the beach or something, "Well wrap this up before lunch."

Have you gotten to the Randel Flag character yet? Satanists have been more overt lately in the news... Seems like I remember something about them filing legal action against TX for restricting abortions. In general they must be clicking their little heels together in celebration over how much animosity and fear is building up.

You know I can see Biden as Trash Can man.... I can also see Fauci as Randall Flagg. Creepy.

One of his best, his new stuff,i don't like,went along with finding out he's a leftist P.O.S.I don't bother with him any more.But " THE STAND" is a helluva book.

Politics aside, I have always enjoyed his books. Not the movies as much, though Christine was a good B flick. I grew up in Colorado and know Castle Rock very well. Many of his 'places' were based around Castle Rock and its community. Had a few chills run up my spine as I recognized locales from the text.

Tried - but got so bored with it that I gave up..

Read a lot as a kid which was further aided by consecutive summer injuries that laid me up. As an adolescent a friend gave me the Shining. Read that , the Stand and a few more SK. Admit I did like Salem's Lot- and might even watch the miniseries again some day for nostalgia- a pretty good cast.

I got older and exposed to classic literature and never went back. For masterful horror- read Dracula- or more modern Ann Rice ( yeah I know but first book was scary), for suspense Uncle Silas by Sheridan Le Fanu who I had not heard of but is evidently considered the father of Victorian ghost stories (precursor to Bram Stoker) and you won't ever bother with SK again. It is hard for me to appreciate most modern writers since Somerset Maugham. Dialogue is not an easy art, nor is crafted suspense.

As for his 'movies' I saw the Shining when it came out with all the hype. Was even feeling anxious about seeing it. Sat through it chuckling and rolling my eyes. I might be the only one that thought the Shining was bad, rather silly, and just not scary? Redrum? WTF.

Find yourself a copy of London’s The Scarlet Plague, written in 1912. More of a novelette, but good stuff. Need to re-read it myself, come to think of it.

I think King is a grade A asshat but The Stand is a great book

I read it as a teenager in the 70's, would be interesting to revisit.

Did anyone read The Stand, one night?

The book was way scarier than the movie.

Steven King always struck me as some sort of a closet pedophile - the main targets of his characters aggression, or the evil characters that developed (Pet Cemetery) were children. Never could stomach that. Just my HO.

46 hour listen for me... you ain't kidding this is the Biden flew all over in this book the ending was all right could have been better but I didn't really want to end cuz I was starting to get used to everybody ......use to everybody....that's spelled M-o-o-n.... used to everybody ... lol

I'm not even close to finishing listening to it all the way through again. I started a thread "So I bought a shortwave radio" where I just now posted a link to radio programing that is in the same level of strange as The Stand is....

https://www.coasttocoastam.com/

So if you start going through strange/weird content withdrawal.... you are welcome

Me and Art Bell spent many a night together when I was making long after hours commutes in the 90's.

I’ve read it too, can’t believe I did.