The Stand But...***spoilers***

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EddieDeanofNYC

Active Member
Apr 23, 2012
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...instead of the setting being an entire country it's one small town. That's about how I sum up the heart of this book. Obviously the disasters are entirely different (ie a devastating plague vs a supernatural impregnable dome) but the large cast of characters and human drama come crashing down (pardon the pun!) and all hell breaks loose. But the disasters are really just a backdrop for the ultimate question, "how would average people react in a certain situation?"

Long story short...I absolutely loved UTD. The people bouncing around each other like atoms in a single body. Besides Doctor Sleep this is my favorite Stephen King book in the 2000's (as much as I enjoyed Dreamcatcher, which I know a lot of people didn't).
 

Agent (X)

Member
Dec 15, 2013
7
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The explosion which acted like a catalyst for the ending of Under the Dome rang semblance to the same catalyst from The Stand, unabridged or otherwise. When Phil and Sanders (absolutely adored their "smoking glass" scenes) simultaneously depress the garage-door button which causes the entirety of WCIK to become toast, it instantly reminded me of The Stand's atomic explosion at Las Vegas, where Randall Flagg was located. Of course, the explosion in Under the Dome seems to have not actually directly resolved the conflict, more-so instigate the resolution of the main conflict, i.e., how they will escape the dome, or survive comfortably under the dome.

The relatively large cast was a similar element which can be found from The Stand, though in my reading of the unabridged version of The Stand, I found myself a bit more intrigued with the dynamic. Chester's Mill was envisioned by myself to be a stellar place to live (yeah.. aesthetically, that is), though a town can only bear so much diversity and variety. Think of it like the franchise Dead Island: you can only make so much games under that title before it feels repetitive and dull. Of course, Under the Dome is something I do not plan a sequel on (What would one do, now that the dome has been removed? Replace the dome?), though throughout the 1,000+ text it can have the potential to feel stale. Yet ultimately, I think King did a magnificent job on the general plot, sub-plots, narrative flow, and things of that nature. The book --like The Stand uncut/cut-- really does exemplify why I enjoy Stephen King's writing.

He seems bold, and blatant, providing realistic characters and realistic personalities, mostly. Unfortunately, I did find that in Under the Dome, the characters could seem extremely stark, and contrasting, borderline to the point of absurdism. The personality juxtaposition was provided when one character was compared to another, and not when one character acted in one way, as opposed to when they acted in another. In other words, UTD sometimes gave me the impression that some characters were with humane intent, and with humane actions entirely, while others were with inhumane intent, and with inhumane actions (see something like Big Jim and Rusty Everett). In The Stand, I never felt such a sentiment. Larry Underwood, for instance, and his struggle with Nadine Cross and that other lady; it represented internal conflict of character, which I sometimes felt was lacking in UTD.
 
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