Up From Genre City

Just Another Area

I wanted to take a moment to give you all the heads up on your two best friends; The Castle Rock Memorial Read-A-Thon and the trusty fan favorite: Wednesday's Inbox. No doubt my regular readers have mourned their absence this week.

As far as the T.C.R.M.R.A.T. goes, I've realized that unless I want the entire book spoiled for me, I'm going to have to spend the next month re-reading Books I-VI. "That doesn't make sense, Benjermin," I can hear you say (you have an odd speech inflection). "How will that keep you from getting spoiled?"

Here's the deal. We all know TheDarkTower.Net. And there is a forum, and in that forum is a section devoted solely to Dark Tower Book VII hard core spoilers. And these spoilers are out there my friends, because the ARCs are out there. And even though I'd been dutifully reading through my T.C.R.M.R.A.T. regimen (I'm 1/4th of the way through Firestarter, The Dead Zone made me cry, if you're keeping score, so far every single Stephen King novel has featured a character whose face goes "cheesy".) I could not keep away from these spoilers. The Chapter List, incriminating but vague statements about the end of the book, all swirling together in a vortex of pure book-ruinination. It had stop. But I was completely powerless to stop it as long as my fundamental DT DT's were not sated. So I'm spending the next 30 or so days until 9.20 reading the first six volumes of the Dark Tower Saga. If I finish early, I'll probably just start rereading them again or pore over the Companion (maybe pick up Tyler Hall's Towerpent?). It's for the good of everyone, and it seems to be working. Starting over with The Gunslinger is definitely securing in my mind the image of this series as one very long and very heavy book. And I've never been the type of person who skips ahead to the last page.

As far as Wednesday's Inbox goes, I've been toying with the idea of doing something later in the week after I've actually read all of the books I've bought. I went to a great seminar on Humor Writing and the topic turned, naturally, to blogs, and one very topical suggestion was made to actually spend time on blog entries. Edit, rewrite, etc. I'm still very much a fan of writing a weekly examination of the comics I've bought, but I'd like to sort of stew about it for a few days and come up with something really worth reading about them.

I have a feeling I might keep on with the Wednesday's and then post something else on Friday's or Monday's that are a bit more focused, talking about one or two things any of those comics may have piqued in my mind. For example, I'm working on a Frank Quitely article that I'm really loving, which arose from my stunned reading of a preview of We3 #1. Surely every week won't inspire me to post a multi-tiered examination of a particular artist, but it should at least give me enough juice to craft an interesting post about comics that people can read every Monday morning.

Since that seminar I've toyed with the idea of having an informal Your Week In Benjamin set-up as far as my internet based output goes, as such:

Monday: Comic Recap Thing Mentioned Above
Tuesday: New Genre City Page
Wednesday: Wednesday's Inbox
Thursday: New Genre City Page
Friday: Some Other Thing

I've never done well with this kind of completely all encompassing week-long schedule in the past, but it would give me a lot of outputs for whatever's rolling around in my head. I wouldn't put this in your palm pilot just yet, but I'd like it if there was at least something new for people to read by me here or at Modern Tales (Official Home Of Genre City).

So to sum up:
-Tune in later today for another exciting installment of Wednesday's Inbox.
-T.C.R.M.R.A.T. is on temporary hiatus.
-New Genre City pages appear on Modern Tales (and can also be read here) every Tuesday and Thursday. But you should know that by now, for God's sake.
-Friday is Pot Luck Day at Up From Genre City (I ought to cook up a logo).

Toodles!

The Zone Diet

Carrie Done
'Salem's Lot Done
Rage Done
The Shining Done
Night Shift Done
The Stand: Original Recipe Done
The Long Walk Done
The Dead Zone p. 234

2,411 Pages Down, 23,243 Pages To Go

As you can see by the gap between this T.C.R.M.R.A.T. post and the last T.C.R.M.R.A.T. post, it's been a long friggin' time. Thus I've scrapped the idea of keeping track of the days since I started and the days until The Dark Tower VII. In fact, I'm so laughably behind that I briefly toyed with the idea of just going straight to the "Dark Tower Related" booklist and just reading all those (and the DT books themselves) in time for September 20 (yes, you read that right. I'm getting it a day early at A STEPHEN KING SIGNING IN CT, DOGG!!). But that would totally derail the entire project. Would I read those books again when I got up to them chronologically? Hell freakin' no! I got other books to read, son! Naturally I will be completely inhaling DT7 the very moment it is handed to me, obviously jumping the track of this project temporarily. Then I will go back to wherever it is that I was and DT7 will be the perfect capper to this project, whenever it is that I god damned finish the thing.

Oh! Right! The Dead Zone!

I never saw the movie version of this one so, it's all completely fresh. Well sort of, which brings me to one of the many points I was hoping to cover during the course of this madcap journey. Everyone (everyone) has at one point or another seen some kind of riff on the fundamental concept behind The Dead Zone. Guy shakes hands with someone and gets a sudden telepathic flash about them and/or their future. I doubt that King was the first guy to ever come up with an idea like this, but it is his particular strain of it that has dominated the cultural landscape. It seems to me that throughout his canon, he has so many "definitive" takes on things like this. "Cujo," "Christine," "Shawshank," "Firestarter," "The Shining"; these have all become shorthand in our culture. Sure a lot of it has to do with the popular movies that the novels spawned, but fundamentally there was something about the story itself that stuck itself to the way people think.

The reason why is anybody's guess, really, but I think this property of his stories is what makes something like The Dark Tower so exciting and interesting. Not only is it a fantastic yarn on its own, as the saga goes on (and hurtles toward its so close yet so fucking far away conclusion), it's becoming increasingly clear that King's canon, and the culture itself that it has affected so deeply, is all interwined with Roland's quest to save reality.

I've gotten into many discussions about comics and why some are popular and some are not, and I tend to always bring up the basic reasons why someone like Peter Parker is so popular. It's because he is so close to all of our experience. As much as Jack Ryan or James Bond are (presumably) exciting protagonists, there is no one "Hero" to follow around in King's work. Rather, it is the average Joe or Jane, in so many permutations throughout his career it borders on nigh-infinite, that we follow, and that draws us so close to the story. That's always been King's greatest gift, painting the ordinary in such rich and detailed strokes that when it all spins out of control, when reality shifts beyond repair, the effect on the reader is incalculable.

Speaking of those rich and detailed strokes, this is the first novel he'd written since The Stand, and it's nice to settle down on just a handful of characters after the previous cast of billions. There's plenty of great stuff in here, particularly the way King handles John's mother, painting her as a religious hysteric, but steering clear of grotesque caricature.

I'm sort of worn out after all that general pontificating, so I can't think of much else to talk about as far as "The Zone" goes. More later?

Loadwork

Carrie Done
'Salem's Lot Done
Rage Done
The Shining Done
Night Shift Done
The Stand: Original Recipe Done
The Long Walk p. 155 (BB: p. 326)

1,948 Pages In 38 Days. Avg: 51.2 pp/day
Approximately 23,706 Pages And 67 Days To Go

Wow. Just a little over two months to go until DTVII.

It's weird, but even though The Long Walk is probably the Stephen King work least likely to ever ever be made into a film (well, maybe Rage is a longer shot), the idea of such a film keeps squirming into my head. Chad Michael Murray is Ray Garraty, Topher Grace is McVries. Can't you see it? Man, though, all that shooting would just make it nigh-unwatchable for my delicately wussy ears.

One thing, though, if you had been walking, say, all day, non-stop, and you somehow managed to blow a load in your pants (without even, aparrently, any manual help from either hand), how could you possibly be able to keep walking at a steady pace? Not even a warning? The only thing he's worried about is a noticable stain? And that's the last time it's mentioned? Oooooookay, Steve.

Other than that bizarre turn of ejaculatory events, this book is exhausting, as it should be. No breaks, no breathers, just non-stop prose exertion.

Being Able To Think

Carrie Done
'Salem's Lot Done
Rage Done
The Shining Done
Night Shift Done
The Stand: Original Recipe Done
The Long Walk p.62 (BB: p. 233)

1,855 Pages In 34 Days. Avg: 54.5 pp/day
Approximately 23,799 Pages And 71 Days To Go

(That's the corresponding page in the paperback edition of The Bachman Books [BB, dur] in parentheses in case you're curious)

Plenty of shame in this game, but I'll freely admit, I was pretty much in full on tears through the last 40 of The Stand. Watching Tom Cullen's slow burn realization that Nick was dead over the last two hundo was bad enough but when he drops that bombshell on Stu about Heaven, "Nick can talk, and I'll be able to think," well, that was it for this young lad.

It's pretty remarkable the way sums up everything in those last few scenes, talking about the Free Zone disbanding, about wanderlust and social grouping, about how a sherriff can become a Minister Of Defense with very little elbow grease, about A Season Of Rest. It's a remarkably satisfying ending, and a whole hell of a lot different than the endings of the novels above it on the list, which mainly resolved the plot, gave everyone a nice coda, and that was that. Not that I'm complaining about those books, either. But The Stand is, obviously, a completely different animal, and if he had just resolved everything plot-wise and left it at that, well, cue disappointment. But he totally, non-preachingly, sells the whole damn book in the closing pages.

I can only imagine how astonishing the end of The Dark Tower is going to be.

Also, I'm eager to see how the really well-constructed rhythm and pacing of the book stands up in the Cajun Style version.

The Long Walk, now, after all the sumptuous prosody of the book I just finished, was like a brick to the face. Total no-bullshit sentences flying out at you like huge splinters from a tree getting chopped down. You just have to move out of the way as he hacks through this story. It was pretty obviously written way before The Stand, but the story is an unquestionably good one. One thing you really get a sense of is the scenery around this one road and the consequences of their change. Like when the sun sets on the first day of the walk, it dawns on you how long, already, these kids have been walking. And he very effectively has them talk about both distances to towns further down the road, and records that have been set for all 100 Walkers to make a certain distance without a ticket getting punched, so that after they impressively break an 8 mile record, you're suitably impressed. Until Garraty tells everyone the next town is almost TWENTY MILES away. That's when you start unconsciously stretching out your own legs as you're reading this book. The characters aren't as well developed (against The Stand, though, which books' are?), but the physical sensation of the book is hugely impressive.

My favorite description so far is when the Walkers make their way into a small town at night and there's a bunch of newscasters waiting for them, huge halogens set up to light the footage. The way the approach is described is so effing vivid.

Whew!

The Place Where You Live

Carrie Done
'Salem's Lot Done
Rage Done
The Shining Done
Night Shift Done
The Stand: Original Recipe p. 703

1,679 Pages In 31 Days. Avg: 54.1 pp/day
Approximately 23,975 Pages And 74 Days To Go

God damn this is such a fucking riveting book.

I'm a bit concerned that there's only a little more than a hundo pages left and it's just now getting to the hot beef injection of conflict. I can't complain very loudly, though, since every god damned character is so incredibly illuminated by this story. Even the one-offs that Lloyd Henried talks to over the phone feel fleshed out. I'm really just blown away by the level of detail, both character-based and situational, in this book. I know I keep saying that but I really don't know what else to say. There aren't any missteps to complain about, it's hard to pick out a particular scene or character, since they all seem equally well-drawn and appropriate. That's what keeps me reading, the level of quality, even more so than the plot (although since I did rememeber the bomb from the first reading, once I got to the scene where Harold is building it I absolutely could not stop reading until it had gone off). I want to see if the next scene will be as good as the last, if the next little sliver of characterization is as deeply felt as the last one. I honestly can't see myself being disappointed in any of the rest of the books I'll be reading by him, simply because The Stand tells you exactly what to look for in the quality of his writing.

Side Note: I watched about 20 minutes of Kingdom Hospital last night and I realized why it wasn't gelling with me. If I closed my eyes, I could see that it was well constructed and well written, that if it was a novel, I would definitely be enjoying it, but the execution, sadly, leaves a whole lot to be desired. I think that, for the most part, that's why a lot of his film projects never connect with me, especially the ones on TV. They just don't deliver what he can.

I'll be finishing this book, without a doubt, this weekend. I will miss it terribly, and look forward to reading it again, Cajun Style, further on down the path of the beam.

24,440, Let's Fight

Carrie Done
'Salem's Lot Done
Rage Done
The Shining Done
Night Shift Done
The Stand: Original Recipe p. 238

1,214 Pages In 21 Days. Avg: 57.8 pp/day
Approximately 24,440 Pages And 84 Days To Go

Okay, at this point I'm going to come right out and say that there is no possible way someone can write a novel like this so early in one's career. The leap in quality from The Shining to this book is just mind-boggling.

That's all I've got to say about this book so far, as I'd much rather just be reading it.

Gesundheit

Carrie Done
'Salem's Lot Done
Rage Done
The Shining Done
Night Shift Done
The Stand: Original Recipe p. 59

1,035 Pages In 16 Days. Avg: 64.6 pp/day
Approximately 24,619 Pages And 89 Days To Go

Well, I thoroughly enjoyed the closing stories of Night Shift. Not only were they mostly non-horrocentric ("The Woman In The Room" was particularly subdued but no less gutwrenching than any scarefest, and this time on a deeply emotional level), but the stand out scary story, "One For The Road", was a kick ass sequel to 'Salem's Lot. I was not expecting that.

But all Short Story Collections must come to an end, and this one did at last.

I first read The Stand, with typical Skim-Hungry vigor, when it was rereleased, I believe, in 1990. As was the case with so many of the books I read in adolesence, it was the sheer heft of this hardcover volume that drew me in. I had always wanted to read the original, though, as I'm always keen on judging what changes were made where and cetera, and cetera. So, I was quite relieved to find an "Original Recipe" version of the book in paperback (for like four bucks!) in San Francisco.

I can't remember shit about the version of The Stand that I read, lo those many years ago, so all of this marvelous exposition in the first chapters feels completely new to me. Much like in The Shining, these are the sections I'm enjoying the most. I love Fran Goldsmith's opening chapters especially, from her confrontation with an Oh-So-Russel-From-Six-Feet-Under Jess to her conversation with her father, all centering around her impending pregnancy. It's a pretty even handed account of a woman's active period of choosing, with all sides of this portentous debate getting a bit of screen time. But, thankfully, it never pinwheels into diatribe. It's all about Fran and her developing status in the book as a loveable and tall glass of snark. Definitely my favorite character so far.

I don't know what I was thinking the first time around, but I completely forgot about Larry Underwood being a nascent rock star. His whole section is also nicely done.

It's pretty remarkable that King is able to expand the sense of emotional and physical detail for character that was so effectively illustrated in The Shining to nearly every one of the dozens of charcters already introduced. Only the Army guys and a few of the Texas hicks come off as a bit flat. Everyone in orbit around Fran and Larry, however, are fleshed out to an overwhelmingly rich (yet concise) degree. The Army guys and various Texas hicks are a few hacking coughs away from Worm Brunch anyway.

This is also, from the get-go, the most compulsively readable book of his that I've gotten to so far. Not so much because I'm eager to watch Captain Trips' progress, but rather because the detail and character is so rich, I can't wait to either a) see who's next to be introduced or b) get back to Larry and/or Fran (or see some real juice given to our own Stuart Redman).

Fantastic so far. I'm curious to see how this reads when I get to the "Cajun Style" version of the book down the road.

Outlandah! We Have Your Woman Outlandah!

Carrie Done
'Salem's Lot Done
Rage Done
The Shining Done
Night Shift p. 279

929 Pages In 14 Days. Avg: 66.3 pp/day
Approximately 24,725 Pages And 91 Days To Go

As you can see, not much to say about this first collection of short stories. Perfectly servicable scary concepts but a bit lacking in the characterization and detail that I so enjoyed in The Shining. The best are the ones without a particular monster hook, like "Quitters, Inc" and "The Ledge", both of which are more Twilight Zone than Tales Of The Darkside. Although props to "Children Of The Corn" for including a monster but still making me genuinely squirm in my LIRR plush.

(Although I don't know how I read that without hearing Cartman's "OUTLANDAH! WE HAVE YOUR WOMAN, OUTLANDAH!" the entire time).

A few more stories to go and then we juice up on The Stand.

Unsettling Dark Tower Echo (U.D.T.E.) Watch: The eponymous Children Of The Corn were only allowed to live until the age of 19.

One Down

Carrie Done
'Salem's Lot Done
Rage Done
The Shining Done
Night Shift p. vii

657 Pages In 8 Days. Avg: 82.1 pp/day
Approximately 25,003 Pages and 97 Days To Go

(!!!HEY I FINISHED THE SHINING HURRY COME QUICK PLEASE!!!)

Can we just get how different the Kubrick film is from the novel out of the way first? It's most telling the final couple hundred pages of the book, naturally, since the end of the film is probably the most memorable part of it. I have no interest in going into specifics, just take my word for it. Also, no axes.

That being said, duh, the book is about a zillion times better. It's tough (and a bit unfortunate that this is the case) to completely pitch the film version of the events out of one's head while reading the book, but it gets easier in the closing moments. There's a lot of harrowing and not at all supernatural violence in the last couple of chapters; Jack brutally beating Wendy with the roque mallet, Wendy defending herself with razorblades, the topiary lion pitching poor Halloran around like a rag doll (okay, that might be classified as supernatural). But it's really not jump out of your chair scary. It's just deeply deeply unsettling.

Most likely the most memorable/my favorite sequence in the book is Danny's last visit with Tony (and I love how they finally revealed the significance of Tony's name), when he finally sees his true face. Touching and sad, and right on the heels of that, Danny has what King describes as "his first adult thought".

Illustrating what I love the most about his books, this transformation is the lynchpin of this book and probably all of them. It's about how life is inevitably going to throw enormous amounts of shit at you and at some point you're going to have to stand up, or stand true as Roland would say. Growing up sucks, it's hard finding out things about your parents or the world or yourself. In The Shining, all of this is just externalized, turned into a haunted hotel and the ancient evil of its management.

There are plenty of scares and ghouls and rabid topiary, but the most compelling thing in this book is the arc of that transformation, as Jack experiences it, as Danny experiences it, as Wendy experiences it, even as Dick experiences it.

I olny wish we could've seen Ullman's face on May 12 (or, rather, way earlier than that as he undoubtedly would've torn ass all the way up from Florida to pore over the charred remains of his beloved hotel). That would've been sweet.

Onward and upward. Short stories next.

The Wet Dead

Carrie Done
'Salem's Lot Done
Rage Done
The Shining p. 377

337 Pages In 5 Days. Avg: 67.4 pp/day
Approximately 25,339 Pages And 100 Days To Go

Again, I'm not going to finish on time. And that's just that.

Now that we're in the closing stretches dramatically (even though we're only a little over halfway through the book) Jack and Wendy are slowly being replaced in my head by their Hollywood counterparts. It's just hard not to picture them as JN and SD during the post-Danny-in-217 scene. How can anyone ever get that scene out of their head?

It's a much slower burn in the book, however, which served to rescue Jack and Wendy, albiet temporarily, from completely becoming their film versions in my head. Cool heads prevail for a little while at least, and for a moment Jack becomes a bit normal again. I'm also glad that Danny admitted everything to his parents before things got really way fucked up, thus a) avoiding that painful Buffy trope where all the necessary information is being held by people who for whatever reason don't feel comfortable sharing it and we have to sit through ever so many episodes of people looking fraught when all they need to do is OPEN THEIR FUCKING MOUTHS and b) making the inevitable coming tragedy all the more tragic.

Reading the 217 stuff with Danny, though, makes it clear that rereading scary parts suck out a bit of their urgency and effectiveness. I'm a lot more interested in the subtleties of character that King illustrates, especially in the passages about Jack's father, which are particularly brutal and filled with eerie detail (the gravy on the glasses, for instance).

Also, a quick mention of the really beautiful moment in the doctor's office when Jack learns that his brutal attack on Danny (where he broke the boy's arm) has left little to no emotional damage. He says, simply, "We don't deserve this boy." Probably the most authentic moment in the book. The doctor replies, succinctly and wonderfully, "Well, you've got him."

It's definitely reading faster now, much as I expected it would.