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SassaFrassa's Replies
Yes, I read some of your posts discussing it from older discussions. I've actually got an old account here, "Langolieron", but I didn't remember the password or email I used for that old thing so I made this new one. I do believe I'll check out your novel sometime. Your writings about Harold, and in general, are insightful.
Franny for me. Mind you, it isn't that I think she is badly written. On the contrary, I think she is very well written as a self-absorbed, attractive young woman from an upper-middle class background. She's not a bad person, and even her self-absorption isn't some great in; we all have our flaws. However I just find her monologue a bit irritating and I think she's the kind of person I'd get annoyed with if I spent much time around her.
I don't like the Kid either but there's no need for me to go into that.
The Dark Man will be the White Man in the new version and will probably have a Trump 2020 or MAGA pin on his jacket and will be explicitly stated to be a right winger rather than an equal opportunity agitator.
In a new addition call it the Blue Flu. Blue because it came from Project Blue, but also because it turns your face a deep, bruised purple (or blue), as well as the glands on your neck.
Something I noticed in this re-read, a minor thing but that bothers me a little, is that when the murder of Ray Flowers is set-up the text states that when the nearby soldiers (about 50 miles away) are ordered to go and shut him down, two soldiers refuse and are executed. Presumably this was summary execution right there in the field since there wasn't time to arrest these guys and put them on trial. So next the rest of the platoon or whatever arrives at the radio tower and the NCO in a charge guns down Mr. Flowers, only to then be gunned down by one of his men, in shock. Why the surprise at the murder of Mr. Flowers? This same NCO had executed two of their ranks just an hour so previously so what did they think was gonna happen when he ordered the troops to shoot their way into the studio and confront the radio host? It just seems that little tidbit about the two soldiers being executed first should have been cut or should have been part of some other incident.
Also, earlier in the thread somebody mentioned an apparent slip with Nick and his prisoners on Shoyo, who one of the men is described as delirious and then dead by six o'clock that evening. In the next chapter, all three men are alive. However I think this is not actually a goof but a bit of convoluted writing. Vic is indeed stated as dead at the very end of the previous chapter, but the next chapter starts several days later and then goes back and recounts previous events, which includes Nick going to the get the men food and finding Vic dead that evening when he returns to the jail. So it isn't actually a goof. Just a bit hard to follow.
Now, one gun goof I noticed is that the military in the book is frequently described using .45 caliber handguns. However if I my knowledge is correct, the military switched to the 9mm Beretta in the mid 80's. So in the 1990 edition of the story they should primarily be using those pistols as sidearms and not what are, presumably, colt 1911's.
Nadine. She dies insane and believing she is condemned to burn in Hell, and she got raped by an inhuman monster. Harold had it bad too, but I think he died at peace with himself and, in a way, his conscience. He died sane and accepted responsibility for his actions, learned at last (if too late to save his life) from his mistakes, and perhaps saved his soul. Even the people he had tried to murder found it in themselves to mourn him and show his corpse a measure of respect.
I think the imagery in the opening of the miniseries, showing all those vents and piping on the surface, are a clue as to how Campion and the rest of the base get infected.
I think the miniseries is pretty good and faithful to the book in all the stuff that really matters. Text can't and shouldn't be directly translated to the screen, most of the time. They are different mediums and convey ideas and themes in different ways. I think my only real criticism of the miniseries would be that it strips out Harold Lauder's layers and humanity, turning him into a one-note villain without any depth. In book it is critical that we get his backstory and, more important, we get to see him grieve for his family and show some genuine vulnerability and tenderness.
I do not think the US Gov, as a whole, or most of its real leaders, would deliberately spread the plague to the rest of the world. After all, if they do that they have no place to escape to. Otherwise, I find the US Govt's actions in the book to be pretty believable. Anyone who thinks it wouldn't and doesn't commit murder and fraud and... other things is gullible and naive.
Regarding the US military, which I see no reason to champion, it should be noted that as things start coming apart it seems the military begins to turn on itself. There are several descriptions of regular troops killing or attempting to kill their superiors. For example when the college students are fired on the police, who witness the event, describe that after the soldiers opened fire that they then opened fire on one another. Two of the troops sent to execute Ray Flowers refuse and are executed on the spot, only for some of the remaining men to kill the sergeant after he guns down Ray. A communique from LA to Blue Base (Project Blue), has the officer in charge describe that he is trapped in an office in a Bank of America building with demonstrators outside trying to break in and kill him; he describes many if not most being in army uniform.
So at the very least, King did not write every member of the US military being a mindless drone. That would be very unrealistic. Even General Starkey, the guy charge of most of the clean-up, is presented as a layered, if strung out and deeply flawed, human being.
Regarding the virus itself, I doubt something so potent would ever be intended for release. Rather you develop it and then tweak it and tone it down. Perhaps into something lethal but which won't mutate and will break down quickly outside of the human body. A biological weapon as potent as the Superflu has no practical military application since it is near-enough guaranteed to destroy you along with your enemy.