But to get to the root of your question, let’s take out the supernatural element and say that we find ourselves in a similar predicament. I think my ideal lifestyle would be akin to Boulder if I could have a patch of land, farm it, have some technology to make the job a little less back breaking and have some free time to spend with the community at large.
However, I have no idea how to farm and my skill set is fairly specialized. I suspect I would be drawn to a more autocratic ruler who was trying to redevelop the world we lost. I think this type of leader would be more likely to get technology up and working, get clean water flowing, and allow people to specialize enough that we’d likely have protection. I suspect any crimes would be heavily punished which I would not like, but in a post apocalyptic world I’d probably be ok with that.
So while I’d dream of Boulder, I’d drudge away in Vegas.
As mentioned, this assumes that everybody who survived was having dreams, which is not stated to be the case.
And would really suck for people on other continents with no way to get to either Boulder or Vegas. Can’t remember how/if the book handled such (for some reason I never really remember much detail beyond leaving the farm and then a really stupid and sudden ending) but I always liked to envision that every isolated landmass had its own version going down and maybe in Australia Flagg won.
Oh, and as written Boulder. Assuming I wasn’t able go all My Favorite Martian and stay where I was painting nature scenes. And that my dreams weren’t directing me to Vegas.
Though watching gasoline storage tanks go off with Trashcan Man would be fun for a while.
I thought it was heavily implied, if not outright said, in the book (I only read the extended version) that the same “battle” was going on in other places on the globe.
And as such, you wouldn’t be forced to work for the community, but you would directly benefit from all of your efforts, so most people (me included) would work hard to make it a good community.
I hadn’t realized that (or I forgot it). What would be the point of that, though? Best two out of three?
Like I said, I don’t remember if it was expressly stated or just implied. It might have been the musings of one of the characters (“But what if this is happening in Asia or Europe?”)
I don’t think the end can be seen as a complete victory one way or the other anyway. The book shows that evil could still exist in Boulder and even if you exclude Harold & Co, they noted a growing law & order problem as the population swelled. And, of course, Flagg is still around in the end. I think it was more giving the people in the US/N. America a chance to do it the Boulder way rather than “good” necessarily winning.
That said, the ending doesn’t really hold up well to examination in my opinion.
I have almost replied to this like five times now. Basically, I’m in a pickle, because there’s no doubt that the supernatural is real in the world of The Stand, and Mother Abigail is both literally and figuratively on the side of the angels, and Randall Flagg is, without a doubt, making a stand for mustache-twirling, pitchfork-wielding, cloven-hooved and pointy-tailed EEEEEVIL. There’s not much room for an atheist who ain’t so big on praisin’ Jesus, but who is also a fan of freedom, civilization, kindness, love and all that good stuff.
So, I’ll fight the hypothetical and do my best to be in just the right spot when Roland steps onto the highway filled with deserted Takuro Spirits. I’ll offer him a Nozz-a-la and see if there’s not room in the ka-tet of 19 and 99 for one more.
Worth it for the journey alone, for me, and to walk a few wheels with Roland Deschain. Sure beats singin’ hymns with Mother Abigail (or licking RF’s boots).
Nick tells Mother Abigail that he’s an atheist to which she just gives the pat “But He believes in you” answer. So apparently a lack of faith isn’t a barrier to kicking it in Colorado. Glen Batemen struck me as more of a secular humanist than a religious type as well, talking about how if you stick a couple people together alone, they’re going to reinvent society, religion, etc.
Yeah, that type of shit is what made me give up on the book the most recent time I tried to re-read it. If I moved to Boulder, it’d have to be way out in the suburbs so that I wouldn’t accidentally bump into Mother Abigail. Having to listen to her Jesus pablum would send me running to Vegas.
Hmmm. Yeah, I’m guessing they don’t have a lot of need for a law-talking guy, do they?
I’ve been hearing a lot in the past few days about people having more vivid dreams in recent days, some dealing with COVID and others not.
Haven’t heard anything about them guiding people to this or that city, however. If THAT happens, then I’ll get really worried.
Over the past few years, I have personally had reoccurring dreams where I have been in some kind of maze that I could theoretically exit, but can’t. Nothing like that has happened to me before. Anyone else?
If I were in the book, I’d look around and have to stipulate that there is a god, or at least a mostly benign being who occasionally does horrific things to both his enemies and his followers, and that there is a devil who does horrific things all the time and who likes to crucify motherfuckers as a warning to others.
I’d play the odds and go with Boulder, but I’m confident that I wouldn’t be singing any hymns.
Since reviving this zombie thread, I remembered that the most likely reason why the refugees were drawn to Boulder was because it had been largely vacated in the early stages of the epidemic, because a rumor started that it had begun in the local weather station, which was then blown up by some radicals in town.
Don’t remember why Vegas was the other city, or even that a reason was given.
My inner zombie had the same thought. I’ve not read TS for a long while and I thought of Boulder City near Boulder (Hoover) Dam. Of course nobody here talks of the OTHER Las Vegas, in New Mexico. I might head that way. But if dreams led me somewhere, I’d just as likely get lazy along the way and settle into a deserted mini-mart.
Something is sending human lemmings to large gatherings, thence off the cliff. Can we blame HAARP mind-control rays? Events have distracted us from that hidden horror.
I don’t remember my dreams, even the ones I’ve directed myself into. And no mazes - I’ve never liked those. But I’m experienced at drawing, building, and tracking classical (Cretan) labyrinths with no escape. I know I’m doomed so I don’t let it worry me. The only legal ways out are up, down, or back, but I can always cheat and cut across, same as real life. Walls? Carry an axe.
And no