# Stephen King's "The Stand": Vegas or Boulder? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [January 25, 2014, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-the-stand-vegas-or-boulder/679703 "2014-01-25T18:47:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2014, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-the-stand-vegas-or-boulder/679703/21 "2014-01-26T12:40:47Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > I was living in Boulder at the time I read the book. I thought it was hilarious that all of the good people ended up in Boulder.šŸ˜ƒ I think I recall reading in an earlier thread on this subject that King didnā€™t have a good/bad divide in mind but rather one between freedom/authority or something like that. So you could be a good person who happens to believe in rules and authority and end up in Vegas. ---
**Author:** ![PeacePlease](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/71c47a/32.png) [@PeacePlease](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PeacePlease)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2014, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-the-stand-vegas-or-boulder/679703/22 "2014-01-26T12:52:29Z")
All by myself, thanks. If I had to choose, Boulder, of course but Iā€™d just as soon live alone. And very happily, as long as I had food, drugs, alcohol and books (most importantly)! Barring any unforeseen injuries or accidents, that is! (Thatā€™s what I loved about the ā€˜extendedā€™ version of the novel was the little stories about the people that just got screwed)! ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2014, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-the-stand-vegas-or-boulder/679703/23 "2014-01-26T13:36:13Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > I was living in Boulder at the time I read the book. I thought it was hilarious that all of the good people ended up in Boulder.šŸ˜ƒ Yeah, me too. I know exactly what you mean! ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2014, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-the-stand-vegas-or-boulder/679703/24 "2014-01-26T14:15:08Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > Iā€™d fall in with any of the living folks from my town (even with a 99.4% mortality rate, thatā€™s still several hundred people) Yeah, I remember having the usual ā€œWhat would I do?ā€ daydreams and then realizing that 0.6% of 20,000 is still 120 people. Even if half of them fall down open manholes or die from eating expired Hot Pockets, thatā€™s still quite a line at the ammo counter. And thatā€™s just a town in the suburbs so you have everyone from the adjoining suburbs around as well. Anyway, Boulder seems the only logical choice. Even if the ā€œfunā€ people went to Vegas, Flagg has them all on work details and with strict rules. Skip work to smoke weed and Boulder will just frown disapprovingly at you while Vegas puts you on a cross outside of town. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2014, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-the-stand-vegas-or-boulder/679703/25 "2014-01-26T16:13:18Z")
I think Iā€™d probably stay here on my little farm. Iā€™d have to learn to hunt or go vegetarian. My horses would get a lot more use. But if it came down to Vegas vs Boulder, not knowing the end of the story, Iā€™d probably be one of the people who chooses Vegas, then slips away as it gets more and more restrictive. I like rules and I think Iā€™d be more comfortable where people were expected to conform. The Vegas people seemed hard-working and cheerful, for the most part, except Flaggā€™s little cadre. Iā€™m not cruel, and the eventual crucifixions would drive me out. Stg ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2014, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-the-stand-vegas-or-boulder/679703/26 "2014-01-26T16:44:17Z")
As a number of people in this thread have pointed out, the number of survivors was much larger than the number of people in either Vegas or Boulder. I seem to recall that King posited that most of the survivors didnā€™t go to either one - they stayed pretty much where they were. ---
**Author:** ![G0sp3l](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@G0sp3l](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0sp3l)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2014, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-the-stand-vegas-or-boulder/679703/27 "2014-01-26T19:54:23Z")
Iā€™m a tech and I would have chosen Boulder. Mother Abigail would have kept me in a rage mostly butā€¦ Vegas has Flagg and the Happy Crappy guy with the car and the high heel boots wanted to go there. Big red flagg right there. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2014, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-the-stand-vegas-or-boulder/679703/28 "2014-01-26T21:41:38Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > As a number of people in this thread have pointed out, the number of survivors was much larger than the number of people in either Vegas or Boulder. I seem to recall that King posited that most of the survivors didnā€™t go to either one - they stayed pretty much where they were. Which doesnā€™t make a whole lot of sense. First of all. 99.4% is too low. That leaves 60,000 people walking around NYC. Also, I was under the impression that people were being driven by their dreams to choose one side or another. If you remained in place, I would think the nightmares would drive you crazy. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2014, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-the-stand-vegas-or-boulder/679703/29 "2014-01-26T21:51:41Z")
Neither. Iā€™m not big on joining up or mystic visions reaching out to me in dreams. That said, 99.6% of people wiped out would likely leave me alone, mourning, and single. So if some post apocalyptic babe wanted to, she could lure me into traveling with her to any damn place. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2014, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-the-stand-vegas-or-boulder/679703/30 "2014-01-26T21:59:20Z")
Iā€™d live in Boulder _metro_. Close enough so that I could hop on a moped and get the latest Randall Flag news. But far enough away so that Fran and her conveniently immune children wouldnā€™t get on my nerves. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2014, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-the-stand-vegas-or-boulder/679703/31 "2014-01-26T22:01:41Z")
Boulder. This is a community of people who are fundamentally law-abiding, pro-society types. I might be annoyed by the way they do things, but weā€™d ultimately have the same goals. Iā€™d happily slot myself into the bureaucracy and put my accounting skills to good use in helping things to get up and running. Vegas is just a ghost ship full of diseased cannibal rats, to borrow from another thread here. They can perhaps be forced into a functional bunch through application of sufficient force, but theyā€™re not really a coherent group of nice people. While I might see more rewards more quickly if I went to Vegas, Iā€™m pretty sure Iā€™d wind up getting shivved by some scumbag eventually, even if we permit some alternate ending where Iā€™m not vaporized. ---
**Author:** ![Disgruntled\_Penguin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@Disgruntled\_Penguin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disgruntled_Penguin)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2014, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-the-stand-vegas-or-boulder/679703/32 "2014-01-26T22:34:45Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > Which doesnā€™t make a whole lot of sense. First of all. 99.4% is too low. That leaves 60,000 people walking around NYC. Also, I was under the impression that people were being driven by their dreams to choose one side or another. If you remained in place, I would think the nightmares would drive you crazy. 60,000 people if the mortality rate was evenly distributed. I donā€™t think the immuned people would be necessarily evenly distributed and there would be some non immuned people who hadnā€™t run into anyone with the plague yet. Iā€™d think NYC would be sunk since thereā€™s no way you could avoid the plague there really. Iā€™d bet the survival rate would be higher in isolated rural areas that can be self sufficient. If you never meet anyone with the plague, you could survive. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2014, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-the-stand-vegas-or-boulder/679703/33 "2014-01-26T23:12:08Z")
> [@Disposable Hero](#): > > I think I recall reading in an earlier thread on this subject that King didnā€™t have a good/bad divide in mind but rather one between freedom/authority or something like that. \ I hadnā€™t heard that, but it makes sense. Boulder was about working together and doing things by consensus; Vegas was all about The Man ruling with an iron fist, working towards The Manā€™s goals, rather than the Communityā€™s goals. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2014, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-the-stand-vegas-or-boulder/679703/34 "2014-01-27T00:45:47Z")
> [@Disgruntled\_Penguin](#): > > 60,000 people if the mortality rate was evenly distributed. Iā€™m pretty sure that a 99.4% mortality rate means that 99.4% of people who contract the disease die from it. Remote groups who had no outside contact and never contracted the illness would only add to the total surviving people on Earth. The book made the US seem a lot more depopulated than it should have been, especially in New York when Larry was roaming around with Rita. I suspect the real answer is that ā€œ99.4%ā€ sounded sufficiently high in Kingā€™s mind and he never bothered to pick up a calculator. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2014, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-the-stand-vegas-or-boulder/679703/35 "2014-01-27T00:55:05Z")
Given the state of my respiratory system odds are high that Iā€™d go fairly early in the plague, but since God is picking and choosing: if I were spared and had to choose itā€™d definitely be Boulder. I donā€™t even want to go to Vegas _now_. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2014, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-the-stand-vegas-or-boulder/679703/36 "2014-01-27T02:00:54Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > Which doesnā€™t make a whole lot of sense. First of all. 99.4% is too low. That leaves 60,000 people walking around NYC. Also, I was under the impression that people were being driven by their dreams to choose one side or another. If you remained in place, I would think the nightmares would drive you crazy. Just to nitpick, more like 42,000 (again assuming that the mortality is evenly distributed). The population of NYC in 1980 was about 7 million, not the 8 million of today. The book was written in 1978. Youā€™d still think that Larry and Rita would run into a lot more of these 42k souls in their travels around the metropolitan area. ---
**Author:** ![Fair\_Rarity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fair_rarity/32/153_2.png) [@Fair\_Rarity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fair_Rarity)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2014, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-the-stand-vegas-or-boulder/679703/37 "2014-01-27T02:17:10Z")
The mortality rate of Captain Trips bugged me too because there should have been more survivors, but I think he did a good job of explaining that the survivors had a high mortality rate after the fact. So I accept that maybe 99.94% of the survivors kicked it too, leaving us with numbers more in line with the books. Didnā€™t Glen also wax philosophical about less modern societies having a less post-flu mortality rate? ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2014, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-the-stand-vegas-or-boulder/679703/38 "2014-01-27T07:31:39Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > I hadnā€™t heard that, but it makes sense. Boulder was about working together and doing things by consensus; Vegas was all about The Man ruling with an iron fist, working towards The Manā€™s goals, rather than the Communityā€™s goals. This fits with what I feel: Boulder is about consensus among the people as to how to govern themselves; Vegas is about obeying rules handed down from above. As such, Iā€™d go to Boulder. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2014, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-the-stand-vegas-or-boulder/679703/39 "2014-01-27T11:23:16Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > Which doesnā€™t make a whole lot of sense. First of all. 99.4% is too low. That leaves 60,000 people walking around NYC. Also, I was under the impression that people were being driven by their dreams to choose one side or another. If you remained in place, I would think the nightmares would drive you crazy. Not everyone had the dreams. IIRC, King specifically mentions that and that a lot of people go elsewhere or stay in place. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2014, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-the-stand-vegas-or-boulder/679703/40 "2014-01-27T16:51:07Z")
Boulder, definitely, although Iā€™m not too keen on the whole Mother Abigail benign theocracy; Iā€™m more of a democrat (big and small ā€œDā€). But Iā€™d probably be killed or enslaved or stave to death if I wasnā€™t in some kind of a community after Captain Trips does his thang, and I do NOT want to be in Vegas with all of the killers and bikers and crazies. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-the-stand-vegas-or-boulder/679703.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-the-stand-vegas-or-boulder/679703.md?page=3)