Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished - Revised & Expanded Edition (2 page)

And this, in
Straight Up Midnight: An Introductory Note
, in
Four Past Midnight
:

I still believe in the resilience of the human heart and the essential validity of love; I still believe that connections between people can be made … I still believe, I suppose, in the coming of the White and in finding a place to make a stand … and defending that place to the death. They are old-fashioned concerns and beliefs, but I would be a liar if I did not admit I still own them. And that they still own me.

Yet, the everyman individual often rises up in a King story and ultimately wins, often at great cost. As an example, Johnny Smith with his oh-so anonymous surname is able to defeat a potential megalomaniac but loses his life in
The Dead Zone
. Stu Redman, the only survivor of four men sent to confront Flagg
also
carries a splendidly resonant surname. John Coffey was unable to save two little girls but did save a small mouse and a woman’s life before being cruelly taken from this world (King acknowledges in
On Writing
the deliberate choice of John’s initials, “after the most famous innocent man of all time”). LT deWitt, Martha Rosewall and Darlene Pullen somehow won little victories of their own. Dolores Claiborne, Rose McClendon and Jessie Burlingame were all able to battle and defeat spousal or sexual abuse. The Losers’ Club stood against Pennywise twice; and Gary Jones was able to defeat an alien invasion through the powers of his mind.

It is often when describing basic human horrors that King is at his most effective. Whether it is spousal abuse (
Rose Madder
,
Dolores Claiborne
); blackmail (
Apt Pupil
); sexual predation (
Gerald’s Game
); suicide and despair (
All That You Love Will Be Carried Away
,
The Last Rung on the Ladder
); false imprisonment (
Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption
); or approaching death (
The Woman in the Room
), King brings the depravity of certain events and the very human responses to them directly home.

Sometimes the story appears to be for story’s sake (
My Pretty Pony
, the original version of
Blind Willie
,
The Death of Jack Hamilton
,
Hearts in Atlantis
,
It Grows on You
). On the other hand King has said if he cannot scare the reader he is not above the gross-out. He used zombies and worms in
Home Delivery
, the self-amputating
Survivor Type
, a creature sucking its victim through the boards of
The Raft
and pie disgorging in
The Revenge of Lardass Hogan
to make this point.

King’s characterisations and ability to get the reader to empathise with the heroes (Stu Redman, Nick Andros, Dolores Claiborne, Rose Daniels/McClendon, Danny Torrance, The Losers’ Club); the victims (Tad Trenton, The Trashcan Man, Sara Tidwell, Mr. Jingles, Louis Creed); and even many of the apparent villains (Cujo, Sara Tidwell again) are superb.

At times, King ties us so deeply to a character that the reader also suffers the loss when they die (King has often pointed out that
he
does not kill characters, the
story
does). Mattie Devore in
Bag of Bones
, Susan Norton of
‘Salem’s Lot
, Tad Trenton in
Cujo
, Nick Andros in
The Stand
, Susan Delgado (
The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass
), Henry Leyden of
Black House
, Wolf in
The Talisman
, Duddits Cavell in
Dreamcatcher
, and Eddie Dean, Jake Chambers and Oy of
The Dark Tower
serve as tear-inducing examples.

King’s shorter works often provide his most haunting, memorable or unique characters. Think Gary and his tormentor in
The Man in the Black Suit
; Gary Paulson in
It Grows on You
; the eponymous Mrs. Todd; Stella Godlin of
The Reach
; the maitre d’ at the Gotham Café; or Jordy Verrill’s lonesome death in
Weeds
.

It is also the lesser characters in novels that are sometimes among the most memorable. Duddits Cavell in
Dreamcatcher
, Mr. Jingles or indeed Delacroix in
The Green Mile
, Rhea of the Coos (
The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass
), The Trashcan Man and Tom Cullen (
The Stand
) are all unique creations and stand in one’s memory long after the story is laid aside.

The ranks of the villains King has created are either original (Pennywise/It, Andre Linoge, the Overlook Hotel, Randall Flagg, the Crimson King) or at least provide a powerful addition to the ranks of the derivative villain (Leland Gaunt, Kurt Barlow, Max Devore, Charles Burnside, Sunlight Gardener). Few if any could be described as single dimensional or lacking in, if you will excuse the pun, character.

Of course, there are also those we can pretty much have outright dislike for – Percy Wetmore (
The Green Mile
), Ace Merrill (
The Body
,
Nona
and
Needful Things
), Pop Merrill (
The Sun Dog
), Joe St. George, Sr. (
Dolores Claiborne
) and Roland LeBay (
Christine
) are all nasty examples of humanity but at the same time all too believable. Where a reader may not
really
believe a vampire, werewolf or supernatural monster exists, it is easy to accept the existence of these human monsters. We probably all know one or two ourselves.

In review it is astounding how many of King’s characters are original and memorable and time is likely to show that many will join the ranks of the legendary fictional characters created by Twain, Dickens, Hugo, Stevenson, Tolkien or Shakespeare. Among those that may achieve such longevity are Roland Deschain, Randall Flagg, Jack Torrance, John Coffey and Carrie White.

King’s ability to create an entire World (Roland’s, for instance, or The Territories) or the magnificently painted lives of small towns and cities (Derry, Castle Rock, Jerusalem’s Lot) and their residents is close to legendary.

Castle Rock is so comfortable to King readers that it feels like pulling on an old jumper when we delve back into its doings. Derry, a larger town, is less comfortable but it takes only a few words early in
Dreamcatcher
to bring it back into focus for seasoned readers. As the years went by we learned more of Roland’s World, a creation that rivals that of Tolkien’s Middle Earth. The Territories were well sketched in
The Talisman
and we received another glance at the end of
Black House
. Undoubtedly, when King and Straub choose to complete the story of Jack Sawyer, we will receive a much deeper description of that strange agrarian realm.

Stephen King’s Maine is now legend. Apart from Castle Rock and Derry dozens of small towns have grabbed our imaginations or stirred our nightmares. Jerusalem’s Lot is synonymous with the modern American vampire. Maine has a huge number of islands and a lengthy coastline and King has used these to effect in creating Little Tall Island, Goat Island and Gennesault Island, among others. Harlow is well developed as Castle Rock’s neighbor; Willow visited but once by readers and the Grahams alike; the Lakes District – Dark Score, Kashwakamak, Long Lake; Gates Falls, the history of which King has been revealing to us as long as any town; Haven, destroyed by forces both external and internal; Chamberlain, the site of the Black Prom; and scores of others both real and imagined – Ogunquit, Tarker’s Mills, Lewiston/Auburn, Bridgton, Pownal, Chester’s Mill, Ludlow (and its dangerous road) and the wilds of the Jefferson Tract, have all taken their place in the myth that is Stephen King’s Maine.

But it is not simply the geography of Maine that King paints so superbly. The people, the lifestyle, the self-reliant and closely held Yankee culture, and the community all shine through. The benefits and of course the downsides of small-town, rural and hard scrabble areas of Maine life are delivered to the reader, warts and all in story after story. It is this grounding in absolute reality that is one of the great attractors of King’s fiction and will be one of the keys to its standing the test of time with a readership for many decades to come.

It takes a lot of skill, dedication and not a little respect for both the geographies King creates and his readers, for him to deliver on the promise of creating a full-blown town or world. In many ways it would have been easier for King to set each story in a new town or anonymous location without having to concern himself with relevant back-story. It is telling, perhaps, that the key locations (in our world at least) that recur are in Maine. That same feeling of
connection
between the author and his geographical subject only really seems to occur otherwise in the case of Roland’s World or Colorado (
The Stand
,
Misery
,
The Shining
,
Before the Play
). While other locations are generally well described the depth and instant familiarity seem to be missing.

That is not to say that some memorable towns have not been created outside Maine – Desperation, Nevada; Rock and Roll Heaven, Oregon; many of the devastated small towns of
The Stand
such as Arnette and Shoyo; and Gatlin, Nebraska. But few seem to reach the level of “reality” that marks King’s Maine creations.

King often despairs of the lack of interest in the skills and art of fiction writing that exists today. The media is but interested in surface matters (
where do you get your ideas?
) and rarely is this prominent exponent of his art asked; how his skills developed and how he views the practice of creative writing. Fortunately, he has provided a number of dissertations on the matter in articles, interviews and in two non-fiction books,
On Writing
and
Danse Macabre
. We recommend those interested take the time to discover these contributions, which go a long way to explaining why King is so successful. Apart from brilliant story ideas and the ability to create characters and backgrounds to suit them, King is a
craftsman
, dedicated, as are all good craftsmen, to delivering the best product he can.

Let’s look then at King’s skills inside the two major delivery methods – the written word and the world of film and television.

The Literary Arts

Unlike many authors, King seems at home in virtually all forms of writing. While he has indulged in relatively little poetry, his efforts there are judged well by those who understand the form. His short stories range from the bizarre (
Battleground
) to the sublime (
That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is in French
). The relatively unusual form of the novella is well represented in King’s credits; think of
The Mist
or
The Body
. Of course, King certainly knows how to write a novel, some of truly epic length (
It
,
The Stand
) and has also been able to create a highly successful and satisfying series (
The Dark Tower
cycle) as well as the most successful serialized novel of modern times (
The Green Mile
), which once held six of the ten top positions on best-seller lists!

He has been equally successful with screenplays. Although they are of mixed quality, the motivation and timing of each should be taken into account. Balance, for instance, the schlock of
Maximum Overdrive
(which appears to have achieved pretty much exactly what King intended) with
Storm of the Century
, a very powerful and disturbing tale.

As the years have passed, King has progressed in literary opinion and has begun to receive at least some acknowledgement for the high quality of his writing as well as the sheer power of his stories. Even the august magazine
The New Yorker
regularly publishes his tales. Until recently awards came mainly from within the Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy literary communities. Recognition from one’s own peers is likely to have brought King a certain degree of satisfaction, considering his early roots as a hard-core fan and consumer of these genres.