Group Discussion: The Stand (40th Anniversary)

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do1you9love?

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Feb 18, 2012
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Something new occurred to me this time. The only flaw (I hesitate to call it that) was how many of the characters start mourning the world and they are only just beginning to see the effects. Book One only covers the first few months (summer 1980, for those reading the original version). Thoughts?

I think I know what you mean, but the world really was dead. We haven't quite gotten to the polarizing effects that Mother Abigail and Flagg had. The world as it was is over. No more baseball, no more TV, no order.
 

Doc Creed

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I think I know what you mean, but the world really was dead. We haven't quite gotten to the polarizing effects that Mother Abigail and Flagg had. The world as it was is over. No more baseball, no more TV, no order.
Yeah, Frannie will ultimately write things in her journal for her baby but even then it feels premature. It takes time for a loss to be noticed and to cause grief. It's a minor thing, though. King had to address these things for the emotional impact and to help bond us to what the character's are losing.
 

Doc Creed

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I've always been drawn to Larry and Stu. Larry and Eddie from DT seem very similar to me but I love them both.
Yeah, Eddie is very similar to Larry. I like Stu but he is somewhat of a mystery. King describes him as being a man of few words and, in fact, in Chapter one you'll notice Stu only utters two lines of dialogue.
 

do1you9love?

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Yes! Not a lot of things more terrifying than those itty bitty germs that can cause havoc. You cannot avoid them, you cannot prevent it. Scary stuff for sure.

And you know there are things like this out there. That just makes it 100 times worse.
My daughter and I are reading a YA series that has a flu-virus released into a mall forcing a quarantine. I told her it was The Stand at The Mall. :laugh:
 

do1you9love?

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Frannie is a character that I like better in some parts than others, if that makes sense. Not a big fan when she meets Jess on the pier, but love her interactions with her dad in the garden and cringe for her during the confrontation with her mom in the parlor. That is one of my favorite of the uncut add back parts!
 

do1you9love?

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Coolallosaurus
Frannie gets on my nerves a little (moreso in the middle portion of the book) but I try to remember she is only 18, 19. (Or is she in early twenties, anyone?)
She's 21, I think. She mentions (or we are told in her thoughts) being a year older than Jess in the very beginning. But yeah, that could account for the annoying-ness! :laugh:
 

Coolallosaurus

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May 20, 2018
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Frannie gets on my nerves a little (moreso in the middle portion of the book) but I try to remember she is only 18, 19. (Or is she in early twenties, anyone?)
I think she's 20? Like an undergrad in college. I know this is mean, but I was kind of rooting for her to get the flu from the start. You make a good point, thought. Maybe I will try to think of her as one of my undergrads to soften my feelings for her.
 

Spideyman

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Yeah, Frannie will ultimately write things in her journal for her baby but even then it feels premature. It takes time for a loss to be noticed and to cause grief. It's a minor thing, though. King had to address these things for the emotional impact and to help bond us to what the character's are losing.
Could a factor be that Steve was writing this book during a period of the Cold War-- a time when people lived in a degree of fear of immediate annihilation? Thus his characters where to a degree already preparing for "loss". Being Steve draws the constant readers deeply into his characters , their emotions about their future were more dire than one might expect today.
 

Coolallosaurus

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I know, her mother seemed like a force to be reckoned with. It made me like Frannie's father that much more, ha.
Yeah, it't interesting how Stu and Frannie's father are mirrors.

Also, for those that read the original novel, how different is Frannie's mom? I know SK says something about using the uncut version to fully unpack Frannie's relationship with her mother.