Stephen King Is Sorry You Feel Like You're Stuck In A Stephen King Novel

[left-of-center2012]

In his 1978 novel The Stand, author Stephen King wrote about a viral pandemic that decimated the world's population. And he gets it when fans say experiencing the COVID-19 outbreak feels like stepping into one of his horror stories.

"I keep having people say, 'Gee, it's like we're living in a Stephen King story,' " he says. "And my only response to that is, 'I'm sorry.' "

A pandemic like COVID-19 was "bound to happen," King says. "There was never any question that in our society, where travel is a staple of daily life, that sooner or later, there was going to be a virus that was going to communicate to the public at large."

On how he's dealing with the fear and anxiety related to the pandemic

The short answer to that is I'm not. What I'm living with and what I suspect a lot of people are living with right now is cabin fever. ... But to be in the house day after day, all I can say is I've made wonderful progress on a novel, because there's really not too much to do and it's a good way to get away from the fear. It's not panic. It's not terror that I feel, that I think most people feel, it's a kind of gnawing anxiety where you say to yourself, I shouldn't go out. If I do go out, I might catch this thing or I might give it to somebody else.

https://www.npr.org/2020/04/08/829298135/stephen-king-is-sorry-you-feel-like-youre-stuck-in-a-stephen-king-novel

[OAITW r.2.0]

1. He's probably writing a horror novel a week, given Trump's willingness to destroy this country.

So many storylines to follow.

Met Stephen in Bangor in 1984. He hosted a party for Gary Hart delegates which my wife and I were state delegates for at the convention. His office was a veritable fire hazard. There were literally 4 foot stacks of computer generated pages of stories all over the office. Blew my mind.

[Totally Tunsie]

2. He's really quite the character.

My youngest son went to college in Bangor, and had many SK sightings. Of course, he had to take me on a drive-by to see SK's house, complete with his eerie front gate. At Halloween, the Kings host a grand experience for trick or treaters.

<a href="https://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g40502-d12876267-i351845573-Stephen_King_s_House-Bangor_Maine.html#351845573"><img alt="" src=""/></a><br/>This photo of Stephen King's House is courtesy of TripAdvisor

<a href="https://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g40502-d12876267-i280004875-Stephen_King_s_House-Bangor_Maine.html#280004875"><img alt="" src=""/></a><br/>This photo of Stephen King's House is courtesy of Tripadvisor

[OAITW r.2.0]

3. The iron work was really cool!

Bats and spiderweb themes.

[Totally Tunsie]

5. I always wondered if he styled the house in "Misery"

after his own home. Write what you know!

[OAITW r.2.0]

6. LOL, never read any of King's novels.

Was never a horror fan. I did see his movies. My sister was in "Thinner" and the opening scene of Creep Show (?) was filmed in my town (where his wife, Tabitha. was born). I also was came through Bangor International Airport when they were filming the "Langoliers" airport fight scene. That was cool, too.

[Totally Tunsie]

8. Not really a huge horror fan either, but I like SK as long as he

doesn't go too far off the rails.

Misery is my favorite SK novel/movie because it's one of his calmer stories. Also favored Gerald's Game and, of course, The Green Mile.

That's cool stuff about your sister! Would we know her name as an actress?

[OAITW r.2.0]

10. Nope!

She was in a scene filmed at a courthouse in Bangor, I think. She was 6 months pregnant with her 1st child and was (and is) a court reporter. That is the role she played in the movie. I think her scene was done in one day. Still a hoot seeing sis acting in a movie, though...

[stopwastingmymoney]

9. Everyone really should read at least one

He’s a wonderful writer. A short one to try is Joy Land. If you like that, the Green Mile is really good too. 11/22/63 is long but amazing, especially for a history buff.

And then of course, everyone’s favorite is The Stand...

[OAITW r.2.0]

11. I did start reading 11/23/63....forgot about that. Didn't finish as it was a book at our

vacation rental in So Me.

[Dave Starsky]

25. One thing he truly excels at is writing relatable characters.

Which makes the crazy shit that happens to them feel all the more real and believable.

That is tough to do in the science fiction, horror, and fantasy genres, but he is really good at that.

[dewsgirl]

27. So cool that they do that for Halloween.

[Bayard]

29. Love it!

Haven't seen it before. Thanks for posting!

[backscatter712]

4. Why do you think I call this bug Captain Trumps?

[The_REAL_Ecumenist]

18. That's what I've been calling it since MID-FEBRUARY...I SWEAR TO GOD that it was here on the WEST

COAST since around Christmas. I have to get quadrivalent Flu shots, due to being a survivor of "TERMINAL CANCER" & having Sarcoidosis, (I'm WELL under 60 years old). RIGHT after Xmas, as on the last wk of the year, I got SICK as hell. Coughing up my liver & pancreas, felt like I had 12 inch long/2 feet wide steel belt across my chest & the pain? It felt like I had somehow survived the traditional means of execution in India & some areas of Southeast Asia where the condemned was crushed by War Elephants. It was THE SAME with the Hubs, he's ALWAYS had to get shots due to lung damage from his childhood Asthma, (the BEHEMOTH was born 6 wks early in 1961 in a itty bitty central TX town, in Williamson County.

Neither one of us could figure out why because even without shots, neither of us have EVER gotten this sick from a respiratory virus...EVER. I STILL have a cough almost 4 months later because Sarcoidosis infiltrates the lungs most often. I cannot tell you all enough that I've heard literally over 100 folks from the WEST COAST who wondered what his them I laid them down low.
I RARELY spike fevers, (hell, I only had 15 MINUTE period of fever when I was walking around with VISCERAL GANGRENE, which affected all my organs EXCEPT my lungs & heart). My normal body temperature is below 97.9 on the regular. So, to say that I got an herpes simplex outbreak IN my nose, (I've NEVER had fever blisters outside of my nose &/or mouth), in late February, I KNEW I'd had something was abnormal & BAD WRONG.

The only reason I believe that people FINALLY began to sit up & say, "Oh $h!t" RE: CV19" was when it cold no onger be explained away with that HUGE cluster of cases in nursing homes in Western WA state. I know of dozens here in North Central CA who got DEADLY ill around the end of 19, early '20 were tested for Flu & were NEGATIVE!
How many Du'ers here got a crazy "viral illness" which made you feel like you were RUN OVER by a fully loaded 18 wheeler, hit by a speeding train, kicked to hell by a pissed off African Pygmies & chewed on a pack of starving hyenas, with mange, rabies & fleas? Just asking for a friend...

[marlakay]

24. I got sick end of November

After a trip to CA and was sick for the whole month of December with a flu/cold like none I had had before. Fever for a week, bad cough thought it would never go away it caused me to throw up many times. Usually if I get the flu I am in bed one day and rest on couch, with this twice I was in bed for five days each. No energy to move.

I went to doctor, no test just told me bad flu, like you had had 4 way flu shot and never had anything like it.

If I did have it its a good thing I didn’t know it and how many would die or I would have died from fear. As it was I felt like death.

[backscatter712]

34. Follow-up - now Stephen King himself is calling the bug Captain Trumps!

[kairos12]

7. Trump exceed the horror anything Mr. King has written.

[tclambert]

12. "The Stand?" If I recall right, the way they got past the bug was to nuke the Devil.

I always thought two people wrote "The Stand." One wrote the first half, and the other wrote the second half without reading the first half.

[left-of-center2012]

14. "I always thought two people wrote "The Stand."

Why?

"The Stand is a post-apocalyptic dark fantasy novel written by American author Stephen King and first published in 1978 by Doubleday.

The Stand was highly appreciated by literary critics and is considered one of King's best novels."



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stand#Plot

[tclambert]

20. Because . . .

the first half describes a superflu with hideously high fatality rate breaking out from a secret military lab, spreading across the country and the world, and how different people in society react to this new plague. It was grounded in reality and science and seemed pretty realistic.

Then the second half veered sharply away from science and realism into the supernatural as telepathic prophetic figures "called" two groups of people to fight a war against each other, leading to a mission to nuke the Devil, which required the literal Hand of God to succeed.

The two halves really have nothing to do with each other.

I'm kind of expecting a book that has the other two halves to come out. The first half has a supernatural apocalypse that destroys almost all of civilization, maybe a zombie apocalypse started by some magical power. But in the second half, the source of the magic disappears, the zombies all rot away, and groups of survivors band together, eventually forming two warring camps trying to rebuild two highly opposed forms of civilization, both grounded in real primitive technology and the side that masters horses wins.

[BadGimp]

13. A Stephen King Novel might be an upgrade...

[left-of-center2012]

15. 1/3 1/3 1/3

Rightly or wrongly (?) I heard that applied to the American Revolution.

1/3 was for revolution.
1/3 was pro-British.
1/3 was 'neutral'.

[Jamastiene]

16. A Stephen King novel would be better.

There would be less severe storms so I could listen to the Ramones and take a break from all the hate and other BS in this world. More Ramones, less storms, please. I wish I WAS in a Stephen King novel. I could get that. As it stands right now, I cannot.

[GreenEyedLefty]

17. I think about Stephen King a lot

It is amazing how much life imitates art sometimes.

I grew up reading King's novels. I haven't read all of them, but most. The ones I have read, all of them are good. Some are great (like The Stand). I re-read my copy until the pages started falling out.

[Major Nikon]

19. ...

[left-of-center2012]

21. Love it

[murielm99]

22. This is like two Stephen King novels

mashed together. First, we have The Dead Zone because we allowed that orange lunatic to become President. Then, we add the pandemic. It is The Dead Zone and The Stand put together. Even Stephen King is not that diabolical. (Although I have read most of his books and I love them).

[Aristus]

23. Poor Stephen King. We lay a lot at his door.

He voluntarily withdrew his novella "Rage", written under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, from any further printings.

He wrote it in the late 1960's when school shootings were rare and horrifying events. Once they became as common as full moons, he asked the publisher to stop distributing it.

It's about a mentally-disturbed high school student shooting two teachers and taking his algebra class hostage.

King doesn't write about the horrors we face; he writes about the horrors we have yet to face...

[backscatter712]

31. Well, we still have Carrie...

I know, I know...

[dchill]

26. Stephen King is good people.

[backscatter712]

32. He's fun to watch on Twitter - he's progressive as hell!

Link to tweet

?s=20

[Bayard]

28. Have loved Stephen King since Salems Lot

Scared myself to death while staying up all night to read it. Nailed the crawl space shut.

He's definitely one of the good guys in real life.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

30. This virus isn't decimating the world's population - that's the big difference

Stephen King even mentioned this.

[backscatter712]

33. Well, Captain Trumps is only 0.5%-3% fatal, not 99.4% fatal.

I feel safer already.