Yes, but for days at a time from a group of young men, the vast majority of whom (if not all) did not specifically train as athletes? Who could maintain the pace even while dozing, eating, and pissing?
Jebus, it really is a 33-year-old book! Good thing I’m already sitting down.
I always do four miles an hour on the treadmill at the gym (in Garraty’s honor, no less) and it’s about as briskly as I can walk without having to break into a jog. I never thought about the sleeping Walkers…now I agree it’s a bit far-fetched, but who cares.
I think so too. He was alive, but mad, and they probably took him around the corner and shot him as soon as it was feasible.
For what it’s worth, Google Maps seems to think an average walking pace is 3 MPH when it gives walking directions.
I didn’t try dozing or pissing but I can definitely eat at 4 mph. And I have a fair idea that I could piss at the same speed as well. My aim may suffer a bit though.
The toll on somebody doing that for 4-5 days would be tremendous to be sure, but a gun to your head is a great motivator. I don’t remember the details of the book all that well, but according to Wiki it is implied that the winners die soon after the walk, which would not be surprising (and convenient for a dictatorial regime uninterested in actually providing some dude everything he wants for the rest of his life).
It is. The point of 4 mph was to make it more difficult.
I always assumed it was death–a combination of exhaustion and survivor’s guilt.
I’m away from home, so I can’t grab my copy, but the winning Walker gets anything they want, right? At that point, all he wants is death.
Bummer ending but it feels right.
One of my absolute favorite books. I couldnt put it down. I also shed some tears throughout the book. Sad, but I think right ending.
Honestly it’s one of the only endings I think King has really gotten right. Maybe it’s intentionally ambiguous. I hope so.
Agreed, most of his endings are terrible, but this one was actually quite good.
I loved it.
And put me in the “Garraty survived, but the walk left him insane” camp
Poor Mr. King - he always gets criticized for his endings. 
That’s what I always took away, too. That he survived, but that he was utterly and completely broken by the experience. Death would probably have been preferable.
I agree that it’s one of the best works of literature in the century and should be required reading in schools. I re-read it every couple of years, usually because I’ve made the mistake of picking it up and opening it, and then a few hours later I realize I’m on the flypaper again.
I’ve tried 4 mph on a treadmill and it’s a damn fast walking pace - presenting the perpetual temptation to break into a jog. I personally figure 3 mph or even 2 would have been sufficient for the long, slow, grinding, multi-day event (though it wouldn’t plausibly reach the milestone border crossings at New Hampshire and Massachusetts). At 4 mph, I’m not sure 100 random teenage boys would last until sunset, though I suppose being followed by men with carbines does offer encouragement.
I gather its deliberately ambiguous what happens to Garraty - I personally figure he dies.
For minor quibbles, I’m a little curious how it works out that the boys, given their numbers in alphabetical order, have a “Fenter” at #12 and “Garraty” at #47. That’s quite a jump, implying that of an ostensibly random selection of 100 American boys (there is some hinting the selection process is rigged), 24 have names alphabetically between “Fenter” and “Garraty”. Even assuming “Mike” and “Joe” (walkers who are brothers, and thus presumably share a surname) are in this group, that’s still quite an anomaly.
Just to be anal, I checked Wiki’s list of the top 100 surnames in the U.S. Only four (Garcia, Flores, Foster, Fisher) meet the criteria.
I love the story, (and the other Bachman books as well)
Always figured that he went insane at the end, so winning or losing didn’t matter - he didn’t know the difference anymore.
The only thing I didn’t like was (what I thought was) the rather clumsy “motivation” to the walk being his mother threatening to make him walk through town naked when she caught him doing something “wrong” (can’t quite remember what it was now). I also thought the “spontaneous” orgasm to be a bit silly, but could overlook that.
Me too. King seems to have a fascination of going insane, what it takes to go insane, or what it’s like. A lot of characters from his stories ask themselves “is this what insanity is?”
I first read it when i was about 12, and i thought when the Major congratulated him, he just cracked, went madly insane and just ran under the power of his sheer horror… Perhaps somewhere to ultimately die. But there is something more poetic and poignant in interpreting it as a metaphor for dying.
I think it’s one of the greatest books of the 20th century. Certainly in my top 3.
Hmm, i dunno… I think most of his endings are pretty memorable (and perfect) especially for his better stories. I’d bet there are a plenty of King fans here who can quote the last line(s) of the stories below just from the first reading alone:
The Jaunt.
Survivor Type.
The Green Mile.
The Dark Tower.
The Mist.
And I’m sure plenty more.
Another Long Walk question I’ve always wondered about, is King writes one of the characters saying something along the lines of, “One of the tips is not to wear sneakers. They’ll give you blisters” [paraphrased].
I know it was the late 70s, and athletic shoes aren’t what they are today, but, I can’t see how any other shoe would be better than sneakers? Unless I’m misremembering or read that wrong.
Sounds fun, I’ll try!
[spoiler]
The Jaunt.
My answer: It said other things, too, but by then, Richard was screaming himself.
Actual: It said other things before the Jaunt attendants were finally able to bear it away, rolling its couch swiftly away as it screamed and clawed at the eyes that had seen the unseeable forever and ever; it said other things and then it began to scream, but Mark Oates didn’t hear it because by then he was screaming himself.
Survivor Type.
Mine: lady fingers they taste just like lady fingers
Actual: lady fingers they taste just like lady fingers
The Green Mile.
Mine: But oh dear God, sometimes the Green Mile is so long.
Actual:
The Dark Tower.
Mine: The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.
Actual:
The Mist.
Mine: Two words that sound a bit alike. One of them is Hartford. The other is hope.
Actual: Two words that sound a bit alike. One of them is Hartford. The other is hope.[/spoiler]
Couldn’t check Green Mile or Dark Tower at Amazon, but I feel pretty good about ‘em.
According to Wikipedia, King actually wrote the story in the mid-1960s; and as one who wore sneakers in those days, I can state that there wasn’t much to them. Here, for example, is a photo of a pair of Keds sneakers from the 1960s. I certainly wore enough pairs of these back in the 1960s, so I’m sure that these are what the Long Walkers are referring to when they mention sneakers.
They did wear out rather quickly–of course, none of us were participating in anything like the Long Walk; as kids, we were wearing them for gym, and for playing outside, and so on–and I don’t recall that they lasted more than a few months. The rubber sole would wear down to nothing, the canvas would separate from the sole, and so on. They were cheap, and cheaply made, and probably not the kind of thing one would want for the Long Walk.
My favorite from Pet Semetary:
“Darling”, it said.
GargoyleWB, now there’s an ending I was never quite sure of. What happened after that?!