That Bus Is Another World discussion

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Pucker

We all have it coming, kid
May 9, 2010
2,906
6,242
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I don't know if I so much agree with it but I feel it did show how we all prefer to stay in our own world. And tend to avoid entering anothers, you always see those videos of accidents or attacks where people walking by don't stop to help.

I think rationalization can sneak up on us. I think a lot of us do it out of simple reflex, or human nature, if you prefer. "I've got my own problems." And yet, that does not stop us wanting to watch, does it?

This story troubles me not so much for what does or does not happen in it, but for the "window" (get it?) it opens upon this brave new culture we're constantly re-creating. This is surely at least part of the "old guy" in me longing for what I think of as a "simpler" time, but think about what you see out in the world every day.

People open up windows in their lives -- they chat and they check in and they share -- and other people queue up to look through those windows -- and those of a certain bent count their "popularity" in how many people join that queue. That is "social" media. What we're doing right now. What does it say, do you suppose, that there is a kind of person walking around right now who will take out his magic telephone and shoot a video of some horrific thing so he can be first up on Twitter, rather than calling 911?

I don't know if (or how much of) this is what Mr. King is actually trying to convey, but I would have to think that simply getting people to think -- while they're being entertained -- is at least part of the endgame ... even if what they conclude may not necessarily have been the point (if there is one).

Either that, or I am entirely wrong.
 

Harmony Wellsprings

Active Member
Dec 10, 2015
38
212
Toronto
When I read the introduction, I thought, man, I would LOVE to be that woman on the bus in Paris, sitting five feet away from Mr. Stephen King, master of horror, completely oblivious to the fact that he's wistfully considering what it would be like to trade places with peu vieux moi, but then she gets her throat cut and I'm like, actually... maybe not so much, lol! Of course did I expect anything less? It was a great read and I love the moral question that it forces you to ask yourself: what would you do? I also love that he was able to have his little epiphany under such pressure.
It gives me hope. :)
 

Walter Oobleck

keeps coming back...or going, and going, and going
Mar 6, 2013
11,749
34,805
reminded me of chekov's story "at sea". remember that one? guys on a ship, i recall the impression that they are underway, passengers, and they take turns looking in through a porthole window. kinda like what story-telling does, right, allow the reader to become a kind of peeping tom. yeah, that's you, dear reader. freekin perpurt. cutting up apples this morning and it came to me...i failed to generate an estimate for some windows i looked at a week ago, give or take. things happen. the other thing i realized is that i hadn't read bazaar as yet. i did read this one, though...in whatever it came out in. a magazine, right? wait. don't tell me...i'll get it.

...

...not playboy i'd'a remembered that. atlantic? no. ummmm. okay. let's ask the audience.

and funny thing, i think this story generated a dream. when does a dream become a nightmare? coulda been da feet. that's what i'm thinkin. in the dream, a much younger stephen king is standing by a bus, answering questions. his hair is being blown by the wind. then. i notice his feet. fred flintstone feet, big gnarly toenails. see, he raised one foot (bringing attention to da feet) and used the toenails of the one to scratch at the side of the other. i went...ugggh...grimaced...and looked away.

cue the soundtrack. bus rider!
 

GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
87,651
358,754
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Cambridge, Ohio
bussssssssss.jpg
 
Dec 19, 2017
22
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Just finished this one. It was enjoyable. People are willing to go out of their way for themselves (leaving a bumper for an important meeting, etc.), but it is rare to see them do the same for others (risk losing a career opportunity in order to report a murder). So much wrong in this world, but a lot of it would be better if we would look out for others the way we do for ourselves.