# Fans of Stephen King's "The Stand"..... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 9, 2004, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fans-of-stephen-kings-the-stand/233241 "2004-03-09T04:18:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2004, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fans-of-stephen-kings-the-stand/233241/61 "2004-03-11T23:01:23Z")
“Stu’s very sick, Tom.” I loved it when Nick came to Tom. Hell, Tom and Nick in general. The scene where Nick nominates Tom to spy is terribly heartbreaking… Also, don’t forget “Cordwood.” ::shudder:: ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2004, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fans-of-stephen-kings-the-stand/233241/62 "2004-03-11T23:47:31Z")
> [@burundi](#): > > “If there was some kind of nationwide plague, I’d hear about it on the Straight Dope if nowhere else.” Even if the government could disable the Internet, that alone would cause a massive panic. If anyone is interested, I’ve started a thread over [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=244421), where we can pretend the Superflu (although we don’t know it’s Superflu yet) is breaking out and we’re sharing stories. It’s June in the thread, and people are calling in sick to work and the Claritin isn’t kicking in… ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2004, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fans-of-stephen-kings-the-stand/233241/63 "2004-03-12T20:04:14Z")
There are many of King’s works that I love enough to have reread them over and over and over again. But _The Stand_ was a sore disappointment when I first read it and I’ve never developed any real fondness for it since. It was the first really blatant case of King doing a great buildup and then practically shooting his own book in the head due to an inability to figure out how to make it live up to its own premises. Great, well-crafted tale of the spreading plague and the gradual polarization, a showdown between good and evil, with our friendly sociologist Bateman around to indict that entity “society” as the wicked one even as we see Boulder starting to replicate all of its structures and patterns. Ma Abigail to be less than happy with the New Jerusalem and its Newly Elected Town Board. But then the Officially Designated Evil Place and our old friend Randall Flagg sort of become less and less relevant to anything; Ma Abigail dies with little to say, and everything ends up turning on a weird little Children’s Crusade; the Designated Evil Place is erased with a _deux ex machina_ and no more is heard about the possibility that reestablishing the old familiar social institutions is a Bad Thing. So the upshot of the Great Conflict Between Good and Evil is that everything goes back to normal, evil was defeated but damned if we really know how or why, and aside from a temporary population trough that’ll take a few generations to recover from, it really was “just the flu” after all. Not that it didn’t have great scenes. Put me down for the escape through the Lincoln Tunnel. If this ever happens in real life, I’m walking over the Washington Bridge, or swimming if necessary. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2004, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fans-of-stephen-kings-the-stand/233241/64 "2004-03-12T22:08:16Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > It was the first really blatant case of King doing a great buildup and then practically shooting his own book in the head due to an inability to figure out how to make it live up to its own premises. […] the Designated Evil Place is erased with a _deux ex machina_ and no more is heard about the possibility that reestablishing the old familiar social institutions is a Bad Thing. I don’t see a _deux ex machina_, I see a theme worked out to its conclusion: When evil people try to harness a mindlessly destructive force, whether it be a novel pathogen, or a hapless pyromaniac, and try to cultivate it and turn it to their advantage, in the end it’s going to be their undoing, and honest, earnest people will endure… for a while. It might be a little banal, but it’s perfectly consistent and symmetrical. Like a cheeseburger. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2004, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fans-of-stephen-kings-the-stand/233241/65 "2004-03-12T22:52:28Z")
It’s not _deux ex machina_, it’s a recurring theme in good vs. evil stories. Evil turns in on itself and is it’s own undoing. ---
**Author:** ![YPOD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e99b99/32.png) [@YPOD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YPOD)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2004, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fans-of-stephen-kings-the-stand/233241/66 "2004-03-12T23:36:29Z")
My favorite was the one where Larry had spent the night with some girl, who was cooking him breakfast. I remember when I was with my old girlfriend, who would do exactly that - cook bacon and eggs in the nude. How she could handle the grease splatter on her boobs I could never figure out. she also did her homework and housework naked too. Very strange. Being a true gentleman, I never objected. ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2004, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fans-of-stephen-kings-the-stand/233241/67 "2004-03-13T00:55:58Z")
> [@](#): > > and no more is heard about the possibility that reestablishing the old familiar social institutions is a Bad Thing. Psst… that’s because Bateman’s _opinion_ was not necessarily being touted as the One True Belief. Many opinions were formed in that book… and YOU, the reader, are left to draw your own opinion, in the end. I think that’s one of my favorite parts of the book. And, incidentally, I probably would’ve sided with Flagg… ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2004, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fans-of-stephen-kings-the-stand/233241/68 "2004-03-13T01:02:33Z")
Hey, that gives me an idea… a new thread! [Will you join Flagg, or Abigail?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=4635673) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fans-of-stephen-kings-the-stand/233241.md?page=3)