Recently we had a thread on Stephen King’s novel The Long Walk. I’ve been wondering about one aspect of the story ever since.
The premise, for those who haven’t read the story, is similar to the Hunger Games in that teenagers engage in a competition in which only the winner survives. Unlike the Hunger Games however, the competitors don’t fight or kill each other. They merely walk, day and night, rain or shine, until they drop. If you fall below 4 mph for periods adding up to two minutes, or if you attempt to leave the designated route, you are shot to death by soldiers who patrol the road. All of the competitors are male teenagers, and all volunteer. The winner gets any material thing that he wants for the rest of his life.
My first reaction, when I read this, was that it was an entertaining story but a ridiculous premise. No one would volunteer for an event with a 99% chance of death.
My second reaction was that I was being naïve. People, especially teenage boys, volunteer for all kinds of insane shit. Cockroach eating, fraternity hazing, freelance drag racing, self-mutilation, drug abuse, drug dealing, even drunk driving—when did any activity, no matter how gross or risky or bizarre, ever lack for eager participants?
My third reaction was that I was right the first time. None of the other activities I listed carry anything close to a 99% chance of death. On the other hand, none of them carry the glory of winning The Long Walk and getting anything you want for the rest of your life.
So to you, Dopers, I put three questions:
Do you think one could find 100 volunteers, in a country the size of the United States, for a real life Long Walk?
Would you volunteer? (Assume you would be matched against others of your sex and age.)
If you are >19 today, do you think there is any chance you would have volunteered as a teenager?
What Bryan said. Just like some people gamble away every paycheck in vain hopes of hitting the jackpot, I bet under the right conditions you could easily find volunteers who would be willing to risk that they could outwalk and outlive 99 other people.
And no, I would not have volunteered, or volunteer now. That story freaked the fuck out of me.
Yes. Assuming you could clear the legal hurdles, I think you could easily find 100 people who would be willing to do a gladiator death march for, say, $100 million payoff.
No, I would not be one of them. I have no delusions about being in the top percentile for my sex and age. And I assume people who would volunteer would tend to be quite fit.
Very unlikely I would have volunteered. I was in better shape as a teenager, but I wasn’t crazy then, either.
I’m pretty sure in a case like this “volunteer” is usually in quotes. Sure you could say no, but they have ways of making you regret your decision. After enough “convincing” a bullet in the brainpan starts to look good.
There’s no way I would have done it when I was a teenager and I’ve gotten a little bit less crazy since then, so I still wouldn’t. But it wouldn’t be too hard to find a hundred teenager boys crazy enough to go for it.
Yes, easily. Stupidity is not that difficult to find, and the reward is greater than any lottery in the world.
Now? Hell no. (I am over 40 and too old for that shit!)
Hell no. There’s no way. In the story, didn’t they say some of the walks went 300+ miles? Is that even possible to walk that far completely non stop? I have walked some fair distances as a teenager (20+ miles) and I was damn tired afterwards. And I didn’t go 4 miles an hour, which seems unrealistically fast for a non stop long distance walk. What would be more realistic is if 90% of the walkers keeled over less than 30 miles in.
It’s mentioned in the story that “winners” don’t tend to live very long after the Walk, due to the physical and mental beating they take during.
They do volunteer to be in the pool drawn from to select participants, but if they’re drawn and pull a no-show or otherwise back out without using proper procedure, it’s strongly hinted that the results are not good.
As for whether I would have done it at that age, NO. I’ve never been all that athletic and I really don’t like the odds. Additionally, being female, I don’t have the “raging testosterone” factor that seemed rather common among the Walkers in the story.
I wouldn’t participate in it, but I am pretty sure that you could find 100 volunteers in the US that would.
One interesting thing about that story is that Stephen King never really came right out and said why all the boys volunteered for almost certain death. There was speculation all the way through, but no concrete conclusion.
Another interesting point is that as already noted, the prize at the end for the winner was nebulous at best - if, in real life, no one ever knew anyone who had won, or everyone knew that the winner died too, I think that might change the attitude towards participation. Although, it might not; 16-18 year old boys aren’t known for their good judgement skills.
As an aside, I’ve considered posting a walking challenge here - a challenge to see how far we can walk one way in one day.
Haven’t read the story, but I’ve read all three Hunger Games books, and I’d say that the premise is more plausible. I enjoyed the HG series, but it was completely implausible to the point of ridiculousness, if you sit down and actually think it through.
Easily. I’m guessing this is some sort of annual event. Finding 100 teen age boys willing to risk their lives for the reward of anything they want for the rest of their lives (if I have the major plot correct) would be child’s play even today (assuming you could get past the legal hurdles). In a time of wide spread depression and economic desperation? No problem at all.
Depends on how desperate I was…and, probably more importantly how desperate my family was, and whether the rewards I’d get would translate into being able to help or lift my family out of that desperation.
As I was when I was 19? I’d say my chances would have been good to fair. I was a pretty good athlete when I was younger. In pretty good shape, and with a lot of drive. I doubt that anyone who would volunteer for this would be in really top physical condition, as the odds would be bad for anyone, so we are probably talking about mainly the poor who can’t really train, but instead rely on innate ability. That said, it would really depend on the conditions I grew up under, especially with respect to nutrition and health (what sort of job would I have? Would I be a dirt farmer, or a blacksmith…or maybe in a merchant family. Much would depend on how well fed I was, how healthy I was, and what sort of lifestyle I might lead).
True, the country is a military dictatorship, and the economy seems to be less than robust. But people don’t seem to be starving. Life is not depicted as utterly miserable, as for example in the districts in the Hunger Games or in Nineteen Eighty-Four.
That’s why this intrigues me. At first I thought this was a flaw in the story but I’m now I think it may have been realistic.
This guy would volunteer. And win.(A Cracked article about a super marathon runner, Dean Karnazes. His body is a genetic abberration, in the sense that he can run for freaking ever, if he would so choose to do. )
The game would only be interesting if they found another guy like that.
Wow, that would be like a gladiator fight. To the death.
But it would be a shame to sacrifice such exceptional athletes. And if each of them knew there was another freak of nature like himself in the competition, they would reconsider and stick to minor races, that they would win and stay alive in. or they would divide the races between them. One winning the Long walk one year, the other the next year, and the other boys… well, too bad about those 99 other boys.
Well, it appears guys like that are called ultrarunners.
On edit: that other guy, Dean Karnazes, makes a living holding motivational speeches, and telling about his athletic triumphs.
But knowing that his physiology is just a one-in-a million exception, makes the message “” you too can do anythign you set your mind to!" at the same time less motivational and more interesting.
More interesting in the sense that we each should wonder what we are mentally and physically best capable of doing. Instead of choosing some goal and just trying hard and harder.
There’s no shortage of stupid people who vastly overrate their own abilities.
If you threw in a consolation prize of some sort (ten grand to your immediate family if you lose the walk), we could hold the race every week for years without running out of volunteers.
I got about 20 pages into that guy’s book, and my Lord, he just screams ‘DOUCHE’. I flipped through to random pages, and found douche everywhere I looked.
Yes, I think I could find quite a few more than 100.
No, I wouldn’t, nor 3. would I have. I’m not gifted in that area and I know it.