What did you think of Stephen King's "The Stand"?

Answer 1

There are many people who believe that The Stand is the Greatest Book King Has Ever Written. It often comes top of definitive lists of favourites and is one of the most widely-cited of his works, especially with the die-hard fans. It contains a memorable central antagonist, Randal Flagg, who will need no introduction to fans of The Dark Tower series. It is also, undoubtedly, the grandest and most vast (in terms of time, space, characters, pages, everything) that King has ever produced.

Unlike Claiborne, Gerald’s Game and many of the Bachman books, The Stand contains little symbolism that isn’t strikingly obvious, though this is one of the primary strengths of the book. Nothing is left uncovered, all the cards are on the table. Indeed, King’s two primary talents - characterisation and imagination - evidence themselves from the beginning and dominate the entire book. Again, King’s lack of subtelty is turned convincingly to his advantage to engineer a meaty and plot-heavy read. It is a book which can be destroyed by dealing with the plot too superficially (I know - I’ve tried explaining its scope to friends, with little success), and I hope that particular error will not be repeated here.

In some Scandanavian legends there exists the myth of Ragnorok, an epic final battle of good against evil which takes place at some distant time, perhaps the end of the world. The Judaeo-Christian concept of armageddon is similar. Ever wondered how you would behave if the apocalypse visited itself upon our world right now? Imagine your mother or father caught a nasty cold, so nasty that they died of it. Your neighbours too. And their neighbours. In fact, what if everybody you knew and knew of simply went and dropped dead?
By which I mean the entire world. An unpleasant idea.

But not everyone is dead. There are survivors, wandering the earth in a state of utter shock, something reacting placidly, others aggressively, others with a reaching friendship born of loneliness. All united in one goal: the reinstablishment of order from chaos, the instinctive need of the human being to construct a protective social framework about himself, that which is ultimately responsible for his near-destruction, in this case.

But not everyone will go about this in the same way. For a reason - that may be to do with God or perhaps something more fundamental and a great deal older, King is maliciously vague, for some reason the remaining humans gravitate into two groups. They are guided by symbolic figures of sanctuary, the personification of good in Mother Abigail and the incarnation of evil in Randal Flagg. They go to these people as acolytes, each man and woman ready to bow at the foot of one and reinvent the world.

The stage is set for courage, romance, action, greed, and plain good and evil. The Stand does not read like a moralistic patchwork quilt of characters and situations (as could so easily have been the case) but vibrates with a kind of joyous energy because, and you’d better believe it, King is enjoying himself playing God, destroying his characters and manipulating them into some dramatic and glorious set-pieces which are only marred by an occasionally laborious run-up. The Stand is a rare book in that the apocalyptic tone is also one of hope and optimism; it is a celebration of the spirit of good and evil without (this may seem impossible given the above outline) rendering the two concepts as stereotypical nothings merely used as a plot device. If there is a moral or lesson within the thousand-or-so pages of The Stand, it is that the concepts of good and evil feed each other, and that the macrocosm painted by King on his fantastically large canvas exists within each of us. If these conclusions sound trite and obvious, fine. But take a moment to think about each; the chances are you accept them as intellectual facts (or maybe cultural truisms) but have you felt them? Have you experienced them so purely that they can be undeniable? Or have you merely labelled them as correct or dramatically effective, as they so undoubtedly are in the excellent but rather oversimplified Star Wars films? Maybe I’m wrong and I’m speaking too personally. All I know is that The Stand is a corking good read and can be used to convert those who automatically sneer at Stephen King because horror is such an obviously base and uneducated genre in which to dabble. Buy a friend a copy for Christmas and watch the grin die on their face, for it is indeed one of those rare Good Books.

But is it The Greatest Book King Has Ever Written? Ayuh, sir, I think it
might be.

Answer 2

i be attentive to i've got mastered the skill to stroll, talk and view. there is no longer something plenty left to check in those fields, and that i can do all of it with finished ease. does not recommend I by no ability stub my toe, slur some words, or come across a sentence now and then, yet i've got reached a ingredient the place it is thoroughly causal. i'm no longer an olympic sprinter, or a public speaker, or a velocity reader -- those are all fullyyt separate skills -- yet what I discovered is plenty to get via existence. I by no ability forget that the martial arts are called an artwork, no count if or no longer it is an eastern interpretation, yet interior the West this does have a purpose. An artwork could no longer be some thing you suited. music, portray and sculpting all have close to infinite skill, yet tiers of progression which you will ought to "grasp" to get extra proper. A black belt, as we've defined formerly on right here, is approximately having an company expertise of the basics, or "All basic strikes and methods, would properly be utilized with prolonged tension and proper application in basic mixture." the keywords right here would be "all basic strikes and methods" and "prolonged tension and proper application". i'd say there's a mastery of having discovered the standards and be attentive to a thank you to place them to apply, merely no longer something farther from the basics. i think of human beings bypass a sprint too far with the observe, utilising it in general erroneously, however the reason of conveniently and casually utilising what you have discovered is what they are all implying. As for the martial arts as an entire, that i've got self belief is impossible, fairly as an artwork.

Answer 3

Possibly the best book I've ever read. And it's all the more frightening because it could happen. The "superflu" type pandemic. Whenever people get sick, I still think of Captain Trips.

Answer 4

A bit long, but worth the read. The ultimate battle between good and evil.

Answer 5

I read it when I was 17 and I literally could not put it down. However, I wonder if I read it now, whether I would enjoy it half as much...

Answer 6

I enjoyed the book, however he can tend to drag his writing out on occasion. His imagination is pretty awesome. I think this is one of his best.

Answer 7

I loved it. As a matter of fact, it is my favorite S.K. book.

Answer 8

no idea