"a Stir Of Echoes..."

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VampireLily

Vampire Goddess & Consumer of men's souls.
Jul 25, 2013
1,469
8,829
New Jersey
i find that re-reading an old favorite after so much time has past, is like visiting with an old friend...and so i just finished reading the Dead Zone again.

i laughed out loud when i came to the phrase towards the end of the book "a stir of echoes." and immediately thought about the movie with the same title starring Kevin Bacon which is also about a man who has gained a psychic ability against his will. When the movie came out, i didn't make any association with The Dead Zone... of course i didn't associated the phrase with the book or even recalled it for that matter. It wasn't until i came across the line 'a stir of echoes' again in the DZ that i got to thinking about artistic phrasing and literary embellishment.... so what came first, i wondered.

it seems that the movie A Stir of Echoes was adapted from the book of the same title written by Richard Matheson in 1958.... Matheson himself may have borrowed the phrase from the Scottish poet/playwright Archibald MacLeish who also delved quite a bit into the supernatural.

it's interesting how language travels, isn't it? And how beautiful writing seems to have an afterlife all it's own. I just thought that all of this was cool and interesting... wanted to share it with you good folks here. I also wondered whether any of you had recently read that same line in The Dead Zone and instantly wondered if the script writer for Echoes hadn't borrowed it.


Sometimes within the brain's old
ghostly house,
I hear, far off, at some forgotten
door,
A music and an eerie faint carouse
And stir of echoes down the
creaking floor. -- Archibald Macleish, "Chambers of Imagery"
 

ghost19

"Have I run too far to get home?"
Sep 25, 2011
8,926
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Arkansas
Has anyone on the board read Stir of Echoes? Sounds like a cool book. The movie was pretty good, but didn't know it was based on a book written that long ago. Thanks 'Lil. Might see if I can find that book for my Nook.
 

VampireLily

Vampire Goddess & Consumer of men's souls.
Jul 25, 2013
1,469
8,829
New Jersey
Has anyone on the board read Stir of Echoes? Sounds like a cool book. The movie was pretty good, but didn't know it was based on a book written that long ago. Thanks 'Lil. Might see if I can find that book for my Nook.

Yes, Ghost... i finished reading it right before Doctor Sleep. It's a fabulous read and i was blown away at how modern it read.... it didn't come across dated at all but rather like Matheson is a contemporary of work being published now. I scored it from B&N for my Nook.
 
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ghost19

"Have I run too far to get home?"
Sep 25, 2011
8,926
56,578
51
Arkansas
Yes, Ghost... i finished reading it right before Doctor Sleep. It's a fabulous read and i was blown away at how modern it read.... it didn't come across dated at all but rather like Matheson is a contemporary of work being published now. I scored it from B&N for my Nook.
Cool. I'll log into my B&N account and download it. I love my Nook!
 
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