A Nice Surprise

The German paperbacks of Misery and It.

 What a nice surprise. A few day agos my better half brought home these Stephen King books she picked up at a school's library for free. Nobody wanted them, it seems. Nobody knew the treasures they left behind is my view on it. I already read 'IT', of course, considering it one of King's best books. 'Misery', however, is new to me. So I'm looking forward to read through it.

But it will have to wait for quite some time as I finally began reading Frank Herbert's 'Dune' series. I'm now around 200 pages deep in the first volume 'Der Wüstenplanet' or whatever it is called in English. I am impressed by all the conspiracy between the different 'houses' (like in Game of Thrones or is that chronologically speaking inspired by Dune?), the length of the chapters, and the nice artworks scattered across the book. I feel that this book takes its time to introduce the characters until catastrophe appears as there's hints to an assassination of the Atreides family. But the first sand worm already appeared and it's super big, eating up a 'melange/spice' harvesting machine, which itself is described as hundred meters long. Also I really like it's 1960s Sci-Fi-approach to technology with these awesome desert suits that make you loose no water in the desert as even your excrements get recycled (damn...). So yes, finishing all six books might take until end of the year earliest.

Somehow I even managed to make the better half watch Game of Thrones. Surprisingly she really likes it. We're now close to finishing the first season and for me it's also a great re-watch as I now know the extended background story to each character and all the hidden alliances, being able to answer all her questions. We will then watch the fourth season together as I haven't seen it myself yet.

Gaming: Still wandering through the realms of Skyrim. But more oftenly I now find myself playing some matches of 'Magic: The Gathering' with a friend, such a great and fast game with unrivaled tactical depth. Looking forward to head to my first local Friday Night Magic event soon.

Reading The Regulators after Desperation

A few weeks earlier I finished Stephen King's Desperation, which has been one of his most addicting book I came across in a while. As I did a little research before, I found out Richard Bachman's The Regulators was published the exact same day, September 24th 1996. Both books are connected and so it was clear that I would do a complete reading of both. The Regulators, however, is not what I was expecting as it fundamentally differed from Desperation, in a way lacking all the epicness I was hoping for.

So this is what happens when you own hardcover editions of both books.

The stage of the play

Desperation played in Desperation, Nevada, a small mining town in the middle of nowhere. The Regulators is set in Wentworth, Ohio, in a more sub-urban environment. But Desperation, the town, is part of the story. Under mysterious circumstances Wentworth's Poplar Street becomes the desert of Desperation! Also Desperation hints already at The Regulators as there is written:

"But I'll tell you one thing, young man: it doesn't surprise me at all that the Land of the Dead should turn out to be located in the suburbs of Columbus, Ohio." (Desperation, pp. 497)

Characters: Old and new faces

It's a different book, but most interestingly it features the same characters in a different role. Our beloved heroes from Desperation like David, the former ten year old pray boy, is now a family man with his children named Ellen and Peter (in Desperation his parents - you see what King did there).  Peter Carver dies in both books, however. Entragian, the big bad cop Tak inhabited in Desperation is now a different person: He's just a fat old unemployed ex-cop neighbor from down the street and not the sadistic killing machine anymore we met first in Desperation. A special role is given to Audrey Wyler this time, who in Desperation was just one of Tak's puppets. In The Regulators she is the aunt of autistic Seth, who serves as Tak's place to hide and grow. Seth did not appear in Desperation.

The villain: Tak

Tak is King's spook of the desert, a demon, thousands of years old. In both books Tak was set free through mining works when the open air pit 'Rattle Snake II' hits on the old and forgotten shaft of Rattle Snake I, where 50 Chinese workers were burried in the 19th century. The nature of Tak, or his conditions, differ in the two books. While Tak in Desperation wastes his host body in a few days at most - turning them into little more than bloody piles in the process - is he capable of living into Seth's body for well over two years. But only in Seth's body as we learn. In Desperation it is said that Tak is not 'god like' but a kind of demon. This leaves us to the conclusion that Tak is not one of The Great Ones like IT, the one that reigns from the Thinnies and from between the levels of the Dark Tower. It is arguable whether Tak is part of our world or sent from someplace else as both books do not answer this question - it's just been lurking to set free for a damn long time. Tak's character is memorable because it is an extremely sadistic being that enjoys brutally killing its victims. In The Regulators it actually shifts whole Poplar Street to another dimension and re-creates cartoon cars and old western stars that kill those unfortunate enough to be captured there.

The heroes: David the Prayboy vs. Seth the autist

I made it clear in my last review that even while I greatly enjoyed Desperation it was a little too much on the Christian side for my taste. I would've preferred the concept of purpose and random King introduced in Insomnia. Well, Desperation's David was nonetheless an acceptable hero, especially as he had a pragmatic approach to religion. Seth is of a different kind. I'm not exactly sure whether to call him a hero is to put it right, but he is the one that eventually battles Tak, in his mind, his consciousness, which both of them share:

Then he turned away, found one of the secret passages he had made for himself during Tak's reign, and disappeared quietly into it. Deeper into his own mind he went, the passage taking him ever downward. He walked at first, then began to jog. He didn't understand much more of this world than he did the one outside, but now it was the only world he had. (The Regulators, page 260) 

It's actually Harakiri he does to stop Tak in The Regulators, in my opinion. While this part is described by Bachman/King as a poker match I honestly found it a little lame, especially as the last letter (letters and diary entries are a constant narrative element in The Regulators) was written by an unkown, not previously appeared person, and was also set ten years earlier. Maybe it was just me, but I didn't get it. Seth, who possesses The Shining, as he is able to telepathically communicate with his aunt from time to time, is overall an interesting character and the sadder it is that he ends up with a bullet shot through his skull. I would've loved to see him 'win' and be alive, but it's Bachman after all.

Reading The Regulators after Desperation

I found that reading The Regulators after Desperation was a kind of let down. While both feature to great parts the same characters (that was a surprise to me) Desperation, which also is easily 300 pages longer, naturally evolves them, more believably also. In Desperation they just serve as cannon fodder. Entragian stays one dimensional as Bachmann hints at his troubled past only to put a bullet through his brain. There was tension and thrill to Desperation that I just could not rediscover in The Regulators. I hate to say it, but I had to force myself through The Regulators. While Tak is a memorable villain I just enjoyed him way more in Desperation when he yodellingly drives over fleeing townsfolk or wastes a body to bloody rags while pursuing fleeing victims. My advise would be to read Desperation (first) and probably try The Regulators if you feel that you can't get enough of Tak. Otherwise skip it.

Stephen King's Most Brutal Book? Desperation

Stephen King's Desperation has been an intense read. There's some among his books that just grab you instantly and you can't put them down anymore. Not until you finished them. So that's what happened to me with Desperation, certainly, as I read day after day as much as I could.

The cover of Stephen King's Desperation already shows what to expect.

Unlike many of his works Desperation is a straight forward book. It begins with the Carver family stopped by a police car in the middle of Nevada's desert. A huling police officer asks them to join him as a 'very dangerous man' is out there and lurking bypassers. Turns out that's him. Likewise 'the cop' as it is referred to catches some more victims which he either kills on the spot or locks into a jail cell in 'Desperation' a seemingly empty mining town in Nevada's desert. That's how the group of characters is gathered together in Desperation - the Carver family with mom Ellen, dad Ralph, son David and daugther Pie (killed by the cop), Mary Jackson and her husband Peter Jackson (killed by the cop), writer Johnny Marinville, and local old guy Tom Billingsley.

As it turns out the diggings in Desperation woke something evil, an ancient demon with the name of Tak. Tak for me is one of King's most memorable foes as it is not only a body changing parasite, an outspoken enemy of god but also one with a loose mouth and always good for some defty one liners.

Religion is a central concept in Desperation as young boy David Carver soon establishes a more or less direct connection to 'god' through praying. David then acts as god's puppet to stop and banish Tak. Personally that was a little too much on the Christian side of things for me. I'd preferred if King had used his concept of Purpose and Random in Desperation instead of the Christian god. Nonetheless I had a very good time with Desperation and that's what counts.

And one more word to the level of violence in Desperation. It is outstandingly gruesome, even for King standards. Not only sets Tak a breakdown of its host body in progress until merely a pile of blood and flesh is left over once it possesses it, but there's also massacre, killing of women and children, golf clubs rammed down throats and dead bodies everywhere. Enough to wonder if this might not be King's most brutal book written.

Now I'm reading Richard Bachman's The Regulators, the inofficial sister book to Desperation. The backpage of my copy of the Desperation hard cover edition already hints at this. I will write my impressions on this in lenght once I finished it. The first impression is that it's weird to see seemingly the same (but not the same) characters in a different context and I'm not sure if it can be as good as 'Desperation'. But I'll judge once I did the reading, not before.

The back of the book already hints to Bachman's The Regulators.

Oh, and I found out there's a movie to Desperation, which I will have to see as soon as possible:

Thoughts on Under The Dome Novel/TV Differences

I read the book, I watched the show. The fellow Constant Reader might already guess what I'm hinting at. Indeed, I'm talking about Under The Dome, Stephen King's biggest book of the past years that has received a TV show treatment. I liked the book a lot as it had a wide variety of believable characters (I'm strongly drawn to King's epic dramas with huge casts), which is a surprise due to the fact that it plays in a single small town, Chester's Mill, and its surroundings, an area sealed off from the outside world by a mysterious dome - "unbreakable and inescapable" as the intro to the show proclaims. As long as the experience is still fresh I would like to blog about my opinion on the massive changes from book to show.

The book. Among King's longest works and starting point for the tv series.

 As a friend remarked weren't it for the dome "Under the Dome" the show would have nothing in common with the book. This is on purpose as Stephen King himself declared that those who dislike the changes in the show can still go back to the book: "Nothing between the covers has changed a bit." And the dome truly is the only common denominator in what can be seen as an alternative playthrough of the Chester's Mill drama:

"There’s only one element of my novel that absolutely had to be the same in the novel and the show, and that’s the Dome itself. It’s best to think of that novel and what you’re seeing week-to-week on CBS as a case of fraternal twins. Both started in the same creative womb, but you will be able to tell them apart. Or, if you’re of a sci-fi bent, think of them as alternate versions of the same reality."

Being a books-first kind of guy I read Under The Dome before beginning to watch the show. As I have a favor for King's long works I was excited for this one a long time. 1000+ pages, a real achievement of endurance to finish a brick of a book like this one. One you put on your shelf and afterwards think 'I finished that, yes, I did. Tak!'. Okay, forget about the Tak that slipped in, that's due to my current readthrough of Desperation about which I will blog soon as I'm on the brink of finishing it.

Big Jim, Julia Shumway, Angie, Barbie.

Under The Dome is a drama with a huge cast like The Stand and It, King's longest works beside the Dark Tower series. Due to the dome which suddenly materialized (you get the idea that it fell down from the sky, actually, compare "The airplane and the wood chuck" or the cow in the show) Under the Dome plays on a limited territory, a limit in playground which neither It nor The Stand have (even though It plays mostly in Derry, there are certain parts of the book leading to Derry). The story in its epicness is unharmed by this, probably there's even more room to character development to this as lengthy descriptions of the landscape are rare. Another point strengthening this argument surely is that in the book the source of the dome and the mysterious 'leather heads' play marginal roles and just towards the end get some more play time. That's why months after finishing Under The Dome I still have vivid memories of characteres like Dale 'Barbie' Barbara, Rusty Everett, Julia Shumway, Reverends Coggins and Libby, 'Chef' Phil Bushey and his poor wife Doodee Sanders. And of course the one to rule them all James 'Big Jim' Rennie, arguably King's most charismatic dictator. As I feel like I knew these characters once I finished the book I of course was very sensitive and at first even offended by all the changes made in the show. There's no Rusty, an important side kick in the book, there's no Libby, no Sanders. 'Chef' turned from a crystal meth smoking Christian fundamentalist hill billy into an African-American disc jockey. Thankfully they got Big Jim right as he is brilliantly played by Dean Norris, know to most as Hank from Breaking Bad. He is every bit as cunning, sinister and power lusting as in the literature. And it actually is exciting to see him react to situations that are as well unknown and unexpected to the Constant Reader. Barbie, our hero, on the other hand has a completely new background. He's still an Iraq veteran, but he's also some kind of insurance repo man. Even though he never was that kind of professional killer in the books, the producers still found an excellent actor for Barbie which is Mike Vogel.

Oh, Rusty, where are thou? Locked out in the show.

So much for the characters, or some of them at least, but what about the story? As said the only common denominator between book and TV show is the dome itself. There's a new source to it, there's no more armageddon like in the book and the whole plot is planned for a longer span of time. The astounding thing with the book was how fast - during the course of a few days - the dome (or Big Jim) altered everything from normal life to the solid establishment of a dictatorship. The show on the other hand plays in a time frame of weeks, probably months to come, what explains the sudden inner-dome eco system versus the scarcity of ressources in the book. Even though the first season ends with a prophetic Jim Rennie commanding hordes of town folks he doesn't have it as easy in the books as there are a couple of new characters competing with him: Some farmer sitting on Chester's Mill water ressources and a mysterious woman namend Maxime who - even by Big Jim - is refered to as the devil. The show gives her a few episodes to consolidate some kind of underground fight club in an abandoned factory before Big Jim shoots her in the head and blames it on Barbie. Also Junior Rennie plays a different role in the show. He's still loyal to his father but instead of getting mad by brain tumor he now is part of a group of chosen, a ka-tet if you will, who receives visions by the beings who brought the dome down on Chester's Mill. This forces him in the show to cooperate more with other characters like Scarecrow Joe, Norrie Calvert (let's not begin to talk about her change from skater girl (or 'riot grrrl' as called in the book) to some suburban interracial lesbian mothers' child) and Angy. The first mistery of 'The pink stars are falling' which was due to air pollution in the book is made into a cliffhanger on the end of the first season (the dome first blackens, blocking every light out and is then redeemed by mysterious pink stars coming from the remains of the 'mini dome'). On top of that the show adds another plot spin unknown to its literary archetype: 'The monarch will be crowned'. This is the message the ka-tet receives when collectively touching the mini-dome. The first assumption is that Barbie is the monarch and that the monarch is vital to bringing the dome down. Also there's a monarch butterfly hatching inside the mini dome, but once it hatches and gets out it is drawn to Julia Shumway, suggesting the she is the monarch. The last episode also features a short communication with the creator beings of the dome, who chose the physical appearence of Norrie's dead mother to not scare the stupid humans away (showing themselves as dead people, oh well). There it is revealed that Chester's Mill was sealed off to save it. The question to save it from what is postponed to the next seasons. Along with many others.

The TV invention of Under The Dome's Ka-Tet.

So what do I as Constant Reader make of all these changes? I'm one who always bashes 'Game of Thrones' for its many changes to the 'A Song of Ice and Fire' books, despising the sacrifizing decisions that take out a lot of complexity from the tv adaptation. Adaptation is the keyword here, I guess, as 'Under The Dome' the show is not a literary adaptation to the screen but rather something completely new. Other than with 'Game of Thrones' this re-vision, not re-telling, of  a book also changes my frame of perception for the TV show of 'Under The Dome'. Even though I miss a lot of the characters that should be under this dome, I still find it exciting to experience this new approach to a known King story I travelled through already in my mind, to live through a new reality, an alternate dimension, a contingency of Chester's Mill. Theres's one thing a Constant Reader should know and there's no better approach to the TV-Chester's Mill: "Go then, there are other worlds than these."

So yes, I'm certainly looking forward for season 2 of Under The Dome which starts very soon already, June 30th 2014.

What I read in April 2014

In April I've been on vacation for quite some time, but I tried to read whenever possible. Just very briefly, to not let the blog die down, here's what I read:

Jonas Jonasson: Der Hundertjährige, der aus dem Fenster stieg und verschwand

A nice little novel about the fascinating life of a hundred year old who broke out of his retirement home on his 100th birthday. Funny and written in a welcome easy style, so that it took only three days to finish the book.

Zygmunt Bauman: Dialektik der Ordnung

This was some academic reading I did. A more or less "shocking" class of the social sciences "Modernity and the Holocaust" (as the English title should be) argues that the Holocaust was not something extraordinarly unique but more of the "dark side of modernity" which theoretically could happen again. Enlightening.

Richard Bachman: Amok

This was my first (and his first) Richard Bachman novel. I read it in German as the original version "Rage" is banned in the US and UK (I suspect). Two hundred pages, nothing too special by King standards. It's about a teenager who shoots two of his teachers and locks himself in with his classmates. Interestingly most of them begin to symphasize with him and another co-student becomes the target of his classes' rage.

What's next? Currently I've begun to read Stephen King's Desperation and the first 50 or so pages were highly (cruel) and entertaining. I'm interested to see how the larger picture will look like. After that I'm reading its "twin novel" Richard Bachman's The Regulators. And yesterday I happened to buy the Dune saga books and Stephen King and Peter Straub's Black House, a novel I never knew existed, at the local night time flea market.

My Favorite The Dark Tower Covers

These one are from my own collection and will always have a special place in my heart. The first three books are from NEL - New English Library, the Dark Tower IV to VII are from Hodder. My copy of "A Wind Through the Keyhole" was also published by Hodder but is from a different volume as you can see (most likely it's newer than my Dark Towers and that's why there doesn't exist a paperback version that matches mine other seven books). Most unforunately some of these covers are scratched and scarred, but they have been through a lot of travelling and I didn't find these covers in another place. In any case, enjoy these beautiful covers. My favorite is "Wizard and Glass".

Thoughts on Stephen King's "The Breathing Method" Short Story

Finally finished the "Different Seasons" short story collection of Sai King today. Last story, novella or what ever one wants to call it was "The Breathing Method". It revolves around a man in the 1970s who is invited by his co-worker to The Club, a venue where senior folks meet to tell each other stories. Emlyn McCarrol, an eighty year old medical doctor takes it on him to tell the annual christmas story. He gives insight into a disturbing event of his professional carreer where a young single mother, at the times unheard of, was learning a special breathing method to ease the pains of giving childbirth. As she sits in a cab to the hospital to give a birth a traffic accident happens. She gets decapitated but her body nonetheless uses the breathing method to give birth and the child actually survives. A most disturbing fantasy. Remarkable was that this last short story had a link to King's opus magnum, The Dark Tower:

[...] and when the wind rose in another wild whoop, I felt momentarily sure that the front door would blow open, revealing not 35gh Street but an insane Clark Ashton Smith landscape where the bitter shapes of twisted trees stoos silhouetted on a sterile horizon below which double suns were setting in a gruesome red glare. [...] I opened my mouth. And the question that came out was: 'Are there many more rooms upstairs?' 'Oh, yes, sir,' he said, his eyes never leaving mine. 'A great many. A man could become lost. In fact, men have become lost. Sometimes it seems to me that they go on for miles. Rooms and corridors.' 'And entrances and exits?' His eyebrows went up slightly. 'Oh yes. Entrances and exits.'

I always find it most fascinating to stumble upon one of these subtle hints to the Dark Tower series in other King books. I'll also take Stephen King's advise from his afterword:

Okay. Gotta split. Until we see each other again, keep your head together, read some good books, be useful, and don't take any shit from anybody. Love and good wishes, Stephen King Januardy 4th, 1982 Bangor, Maine

We'll see each other (me and his books) again soon as I will go into some well earned holiday and vacation for the rest of the month and read some non-King-novels and academic stuff in the mean time. Then let's see where I will pick up again from as I still have some Richard Bachman and Desperation readily waiting to be read standing on my book shelf.

Thoughts on Stephen King's "The Body" short story

Fall from Innocence: "The Body" is part of Stephen King's 1982 short story collection "Different Seasons"

Let's keep this blog rolling. I used a few spare minutes this afternoon to finish Stephen King's "The Body" short story which I started already two or three weeks ago. It's not particularly long, remind yourself, it's a short story, I've just been quite busy with finishing up my MA thesis. But that is not part of this realm.

"The Body" focusses on a group of four twelve, thirteen year olds: Gordie, Vern, Chris and Teddy. Due to some circumstances they learn about where to find the corpse of a missing child, Ray Browers. As they live in a small town in some American rural area "the body" is located deep in a seemingly endless forest area. The story, which is told by an adult narrator (a writer, surprise) reminding himself about this unusual event in his childhood, then is all about the adventures the group experiences on their way to their goal: dangerous guard dogs, walking train bridges, sleeping a night in a forest far from civilization for example. The journey becomes a kind of rite de passage as they leave their childhood behind, face off their fears and eventually make enemies with some older bullies.

I found this to be a nice little short story, not too remindable though. Compared with "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption" or "An apt pupil"in the same collection it lacks characters that live on in your mind for long. At least that was my impression as I always found myself wondering "who's who again?". But I liked the "let's go and explore" spin that it had, which reminded me a little of the wonderful inside story of "A Wind through the Key Hole".

Next, and last, short story in this volume is "The Breathing Method". Let's see what that is about.