Stephen Kings wonky astronomy

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Jimpy

Well-Known Member
May 22, 2014
75
394
65
And I quote:
Any dedicated moon-watcher will know that, regardless of the year, I have taken a good many liberties with the lunar cycle- usually to take advantage of days (Valentine's, July 4th, etc.) which "mark" certain months in our minds. To those readers who feel that I didn't know any better, I assert that I did...but the temptation was simply too great to resist.
Stephen King
August 4th, 1983

This is printed on the very last page in the Signet edition.
You're welcome.
PS- M-O-O-N- that spells 'answer'.


Ok, but the point was he didn't have to fudge that much. I knew when I was reading it that of the 4th of July had a full moon then Halloween was going to be close to a full moon. I did about two minutes of research and discovered 1974 and it's full moons. To be fair I had a book that listed new and full moons for several thousand years in the past. It was an astrology reference book I found at goodwill for about fifty cents. I have an extremely low opinion of astrology, but hey, it was cheap and it came in handy that once, and only that once.

For the record, full moons 1974--

Jan 8
Feb 6
Mar 8
Apr 6
May 6
June 4
July 4
Aug 3
Sep 1
Oct 1
Oct 31
Nov 29
Dec 29

No matter how great the temptation, he mucked up the full moons when he could have gotten away without doing so
 

Moderator

Ms. Mod
Administrator
Jul 10, 2006
52,243
157,324
Maine
Ok, but the point was he didn't have to fudge that much. I knew when I was reading it that of the 4th of July had a full moon then Halloween was going to be close to a full moon. I did about two minutes of research and discovered 1974 and it's full moons. To be fair I had a book that listed new and full moons for several thousand years in the past. It was an astrology reference book I found at goodwill for about fifty cents. I have an extremely low opinion of astrology, but hey, it was cheap and it came in handy that once, and only that once.

For the record, full moons 1974--

Jan 8
Feb 6
Mar 8
Apr 6
May 6
June 4
July 4
Aug 3
Sep 1
Oct 1
Oct 31
Nov 29
Dec 29

No matter how great the temptation, he mucked up the full moons when he could have gotten away without doing so
I repeat--it's called artistic license.
 

fushingfeef

Finally Uber!
Aug 14, 2009
10,194
21,965
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Are we supposed to believe this is some sort of "magical werewolf" that can just transform regardless of the phase of the moon?! I mean, come ON, MAN! Everyone knows werewolves transformation is completely dependent upon the phase of the moon, and anything that falls outside of that just is plain FICTION, MAN!

(I maybe had one too many coffees today). :rofl:

Sorry Jimpy, no disrespect intended to you. But you remind me of my slightly nutty nephew. Once my sister-in-law said "Isn't that the most beautiful baby in the world!" and he said "How could you possibly know that unless you've seen every baby in the world?" in all seriousness.
 

VultureLvr45

Well-Known Member
Mar 15, 2012
2,650
13,707
Maryland
Ok, but the point was he didn't have to fudge that much. I knew when I was reading it that of the 4th of July had a full moon then Halloween was going to be close to a full moon. I did about two minutes of research and discovered 1974 and it's full moons. To be fair I had a book that listed new and full moons for several thousand years in the past. It was an astrology reference book I found at goodwill for about fifty cents. I have an extremely low opinion of astrology, but hey, it was cheap and it came in handy that once, and only that once.

For the record, full moons 1974--

Jan 8
Feb 6
Mar 8
Apr 6
May 6
June 4
July 4
Aug 3
Sep 1
Oct 1
Oct 31
Nov 29
Dec 29

No matter how great the temptation, he mucked up the full moons when he could have gotten away without doing so
Welcome, welcome Jimpy. I'm so excited to have a real mad scientist in the family now...images-383.jpeg
 

Sundrop

Sunny the Great & Wonderful
Jun 12, 2008
28,520
156,619
Good Grief!!
In 1974 I was seven years old. I couldn't have cared less whether the moon phases used in Cycle of the Werewolf happened on those dates "in the real world" or not. Come to think of it, I couldn't care less now that I'm 47 years old and the actual dates have been pointed out.
Artistic license is a wonderful tool when telling a tale.....I do not share your opinion that Stephen King mucked it up. He told a fabulous, FICTIONAL story.
I've enjoyed reading this many times, and never has it bothered me that the moon phases were off....gimme a break!
I also enjoy the film, btw.
 

blunthead

Well-Known Member
Aug 2, 2006
80,755
195,461
Atlanta GA
Ok, but the point was he didn't have to fudge that much. I knew when I was reading it that of the 4th of July had a full moon then Halloween was going to be close to a full moon. I did about two minutes of research and discovered 1974 and it's full moons. To be fair I had a book that listed new and full moons for several thousand years in the past. It was an astrology reference book I found at goodwill for about fifty cents. I have an extremely low opinion of astrology, but hey, it was cheap and it came in handy that once, and only that once.

For the record, full moons 1974--

Jan 8
Feb 6
Mar 8
Apr 6
May 6
June 4
July 4
Aug 3
Sep 1
Oct 1
Oct 31
Nov 29
Dec 29

No matter how great the temptation, he mucked up the full moons when he could have gotten away without doing so
I think you're still missing the point.
 

Walter Oobleck

keeps coming back...or going, and going, and going
Mar 6, 2013
11,749
34,805
What interested you in the astrology book at the Goodwill? I think I had a star/moon book at one time, had a telescope way back in the day, one of those pirate telescopes you could pull out to expand its length? A few years later we landed on the moon. We watched it at Art's out in L'Anse. Did Neil flub the line? Even as a kid I thought something was wonky. And no Marilyn! Course, it wasn't until we were out there at the river with James and his wife, ate at that diner there, come out to a full moon? See Marilyn he asks. Funny how her head is titled at different angles...there in Iowa, the line of her forehead, nose, chin was 12 to 6 o'clock...but U.P. here she has that hysterical cant to her face. I wonder if werewolves know that kind of stuff? I imagine so. Dark Shadows, the werewolf's fingers growing hair on the sheet, claws...so yeah, what interested you in the astrology book? You make your purchase and found it handy? Imagine if a calendar was made. Probably need a special license for that...can't have just anyone making calendars.
 

Jimpy

Well-Known Member
May 22, 2014
75
394
65
What interested you in the astrology book at the Goodwill? I think I had a star/moon book at one time, had a telescope way back in the day, one of those pirate telescopes you could pull out to expand its length? A few years later we landed on the moon. We watched it at Art's out in L'Anse. Did Neil flub the line? Even as a kid I thought something was wonky. And no Marilyn! Course, it wasn't until we were out there at the river with James and his wife, ate at that diner there, come out to a full moon? See Marilyn he asks. Funny how her head is titled at different angles...there in Iowa, the line of her forehead, nose, chin was 12 to 6 o'clock...but U.P. here she has that hysterical cant to her face. I wonder if werewolves know that kind of stuff? I imagine so. Dark Shadows, the werewolf's fingers growing hair on the sheet, claws...so yeah, what interested you in the astrology book? You make your purchase and found it handy? Imagine if a calendar was made. Probably need a special license for that...can't have just anyone making calendars.


Back in the olden days, when I walked right passed the goodwill store on my way home, I would check it out pretty much every day. Not so much the store itself, but it had a record/book store on the side that had longer hours. I pretty much got every Harlan Ellison and Ray Bradbury book I owned at yen time there. Outside of the fantasy/scifi/horror field I also looked at the science and technical books. The occult books tended to get lumped into science because the people who worked at goodwill didn't really care. If some people were working you were lucky if the paperbacks were sorted at all. Anyways I was fascinated by old textbooks, history book that were written about the time of the events they talk about and books on obscure narrow subjects. I own books on the different types of squirrels in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, what time zones towns and cities were in historically (this is also an astrology book) and many other useless subjects. I do the same thing with my kindle. Just today I found a book on Project Gutenberg that is about British sea shells and seaweed that was written in time 1800's. I'll never read it all the way through, but it looks cool.

Trust me, it's better to be known as the guy with the really weird library than the guy who drank his way out of college as a sophomore and has been making pizzas ever since.