In Stephen King’s The Stand, a big nasty Superflu wipes out 99.9% of the population, and the survivors found themselves being drawn towards opposing supernatural sides in some divine conflict. “Good” people went to Boulder, Colorado, under the tutelage of Jedi Master Yod-* uh, I mean, Mother Abigail. “Bad” people went to Las Vegas to side with Randall Flagg, the Walkin’ Dude, the Embodiment of Evil and He Who Has A Cheesy Prosthetic Face But It’s Okay Because The Rest Of The Movie Was Relatively Great.
'Course, there’re gray areas… some people that went to Boulder were asses, and some that went to Vegas were swell. “Good” and “Bad” have a lot of overlap…
So where d’ya think you’d go? Boulder - good skiing and divine righteousness - or Las Vegas - sex, drugs, rock and roll, and nuclear detonations?
To be perfectly honest, I’d probably head to Vegas, half because it’s far closer to my house than Boulder… but I’m also a sucker for booze and lechery. I’d like to think I’m a good guy, but man… oh man…
'Course, the whole “living in subdued terror of Flagg” might get old after a while…
Dude, don’t you remember the hippie-dippie utopian atmosphere of early Boulder? With everyone basically being decent and sort of stunned by their “good” fortune, wandering around and being able to pick and choose any type mansion or cottage they desired? (albeit ones that had to have the dead bodies cleared out of them, except that Boulder had “miraculously” been mostly emptied of people due to a rumor, if I remember correctly) Not to mention being able to finally! smoke “legal” weed (which I don’t think any of our beloved goody two-shoes characters did in the book, but I definitely would have!). Remember, in Vegas, the penalty of more than a beer was crucifixion! Ouch!
**Disclaimer: I do not smoke pot. **
I also would’ve tried to steal Harold from Nadine at the crucial moment. Of course, that would’ve ruined the book. But, I could’ve changed him into a good guy. With just my Llllllooooovvvvveeeee.
I would’ve totally been in Boulder.
(Now, to try to conjure a lucid dream where I get to live there. ) Mmmmmmrrrrrrrgggghhhhhh…
Definitely Boulder. I think Vegas is cool in a way, but it’s always kind of depressed me. During my childhood, when we were on a family vacation, we’d barrel past Las Vegas as quickly as we could to get to the pretty mountainous places, like Colorado.
Colorado it is. (You know, mountains. Kind of like how Yosemite has mountains. Need I say more?)
Disagree with your division, SPOOFE: it wasn’t “Good guys”->Boulder, “Bad Guys”->Vegas. King made the point repeatedly that Luddites and Anarchist types went to Boulder and Techies & Law-n-Order types went to Boulder.
Also, there was no drugs, limited lechery and limited booze in Vegas–Flagg crucified people for stuff like public drunkeness, IIRC.
Given some of Glenn’s rants about the differences between the place (Glenn is *such * a moron but kudos to King for breathing so much life into him!) as well as some of the narrator’s comments, anyone who’s so much as put together his or her own computer is into science and therefore is “anti-life” ( :rolleyes: ) and ends up in Vegas. I like the book, but I have to close my eyes and hold my nose at the philosophy: It’s a very techophobic/anti-science/pro-Luddite book. (King horribly blows it when he makes pro-tech types compatible with hyper-authoritarian types. I mean, c’mon. Just look at the internet for an example of tech-types run amok: hardly a fascist paradise.)
IMO, the choices you have are:
Boulder: Free love ‘n’ drugs ‘n’ anarchist paradise…but you won’t get electricity for months, you’ll probably get cholera when someone decides to dump crap in the water supply and you’re surrounded by morons who, when someone drunkenly wanders up and down the street destroying irreplaceable resources, decide to hold a committee meeting to determine the holistic way of changing his moral outlook without bumming out his karma.
Vegas: Lights are on. No chance of cholera or disease. Generally beneveolent dictatorship (orphans and retarded people are taken care of, for example)…but the key word is “Generally”. Overall, you’ll have normal levels American law-n-order, but with some really bizarre excesses: piss off the dictator and you’re crucifed on a telephone pole type stuff.
And I’d probably end up in Vegas—not because I like Flagg, but because I’m a tech-guy and, y’know, we’re all fascist pro-Nazis “on a deathtrip”* types :rolleyes:
Fenris
*actual term used to describe techies/engineers/scientists.
I think I’m stupid enough to end up in Boulder, I tend to be too entertained by drunkards to stop their waves of destruction. I’m sure my laziness and perchance for procrastination will make me an ideal denizen.
Well technically Astroboy, your wife will probably be dead.
I mean the Captain Tripps was pretty serious.
With my luck, I’d probably be like Stu and end up in a research lab with them trying to figure out why I didn’t die but then when the techs die, I wouldn’t be let out.
Bah!!! Id wait around in Kansas and hitch a ride with Roland =), But if I had to decide between the two then I would be Boulder Bound. (only 120 pages into Wizards and Glass so dont ruin it for me =P)
I think when first hearing about the two cities, I’d probably choose Vegas. I mean, electricity vs. no electricity, not such a hard dilemma. It would probably take until the first crucifixion for me to realize that Vegas was seriously farked up, at which point I’d want to leave. But since they don’t like people leaving, and since Flagg would be able to read my mind, I’d be dead.
So to make a long story short, I wouldn’t be on a side; I’d be in a coffin.
Why should our choices be limited to Vegas or Boulder? They both sound like they suck rocks. Where did people in all the other countries go? Maybe I should duck south of the border someplace. Or north, if it’s not too cold. Someplace with a hydropower station.
That was always my feeling. I abhor crowds and with everyone rushing to fill up those to locales, I’d have been mountain bound!
Besides I could have had ALL of the PNW to myself more or less!
And as many cats as I wanted without having to listen to everyone around me bitch… all the time in the world to read… yeah!
But I thought the point was that people were drawn to one or the other of the places - at least those people in the general area of the U.S.
I have wondered where the people in the other countries went to - obviously Flagg couldn’t have been in all the countries at once.
As for me, I’ve been debating about which place I’d end up. Part of me says Vegas, because the lights were on and because there’s a set of rules - known rules that you either live by, or you die. At the same time, I’ve become less likely to play by the rules the last few years, and Boulder is appealing. I’d like to think I’d end up there for a while anyway. But I’d probably be one of the first to leave once it started getting too big - and then maybe head to a beach somewhere.
