The Long Walk is on a different level

  • This message board permanently closed on June 30th, 2020 at 4PM EDT and is no longer accepting new members.

KingAHolic

Banned
Feb 3, 2015
6,926
20,505
Old Dominion
I finished this story last night and I have to say it's criminally underrated. I had heard about it and presumed it was a short story. It's now one of my all time favourite King stories. I love the way he takes a simple concept like 100 boys just walking and brings out the humanity and nuance of the situation.
As for a film version apparently Frank Darabount holds the rights so who knows...

I could not agree more....
 
  • Like
Reactions: Neesy and blunthead

AnnaMarie

Well-Known Member
Feb 16, 2012
7,068
29,564
Other
A movie can't effect one way or the other the book it's based on, can it?

In one way it can.

Think about The Shining. Most people will immediately picture Jack, probably breaking through the bathroom door. Or maybe Olive Oyl cowering and crying. (Wait...what?)

No matter what they looked like to you when you originally read the book, Paul and Annie are forever James and Kathy. It doesn't matter how they are described in the book, you can not unsee them.

And I can no longer enjoy reading The Running Man.
 

blunthead

Well-Known Member
Aug 2, 2006
80,755
195,461
Atlanta GA
In one way it can.

Think about The Shining. Most people will immediately picture Jack, probably breaking through the bathroom door. Or maybe Olive Oyl cowering and crying. (Wait...what?)

No matter what they looked like to you when you originally read the book, Paul and Annie are forever James and Kathy. It doesn't matter how they are described in the book, you can not unsee them.

And I can no longer enjoy reading The Running Man.
I seem able to separate what I see in a book from what's presented onscreen. The real test would be for me to reread The Shining.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Neesy

EAST COASTER

Well-Known Member
Mar 1, 2012
689
1,673
58
WITHERNSEA, NORTH EAST ENGLAND
In one way it can.

Think about The Shining. Most people will immediately picture Jack, probably breaking through the bathroom door. Or maybe Olive Oyl cowering and crying. (Wait...what?)

No matter what they looked like to you when you originally read the book, Paul and Annie are forever James and Kathy. It doesn't matter how they are described in the book, you can not unsee them.

And I can no longer enjoy reading The Running Man.
I'm with you on The Running Man, the film was pretty awful although I do still enjoy the story. I hope The Long Walk is treated better, I hope they don't mess with the ending.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Neesy

KingAHolic

Banned
Feb 3, 2015
6,926
20,505
Old Dominion
I'm with you on The Running Man, the film was pretty awful although I do still enjoy the story. I hope The Long Walk is treated better, I hope they don't mess with the ending.

I HATE when they change the ending. Make a movie exactly (as possible) like the book! If you want to tell a different story, name it something else! Or find your own unique idea!
 

Pucker

We all have it coming, kid
May 9, 2010
2,906
6,242
62
Oh . . .

and four miles an hour is an athletic pace.

Hungry kids would not walk for very long at four miles an hour.

But that's a fairly niggling point.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Neesy

Neesy

#1 fan (Annie Wilkes cousin) 1st cousin Mom's side
May 24, 2012
61,289
239,271
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
I finished The Long Walk about 3 days ago, and to say that I was completely infatuated with this story would be the biggest understatement. That being said having a book with 3 other Bachman novels I decided to read The Running Man which is arguably the more famous of the original Bachman works. After reading it I have to say it does not hold a candle to The Long Walk. Now the thing is The Running Man was not a bad book. In fact I found to be very entertaining and even had some useful commentary on poverty and exploitation. Had I read it first I probably would have praised it. It's not about what The Running Man lacked but more about what The Long Walk had.

To me The Long Walk was a story that was told on such a deep and intimate level that few books can ever compare to. It made me seriously think about the issues of death, and war and brutality that our society currently promotes as entertainment. The images that I congured up of the horrible suffering the boys went through will not leave my head. To me it felt like such an emotionally baring book that had the ability to disrupt my current mood an thoughts and continues to do so. Where as the running man just served as momentary entertainment. Did anyone else fell this special connection with The Long Walk? And that the book was just on a deeper level than most fiction? If so does King replicate this in any of his other books?
My special connection to The Long Walk was to pick it up this past summer at a used book store while on vacation. It was on sale for 4 dollars. I hesitated and decided against it.

Duh! :facepalm:

I found out later that the copy I could have purchased for 4 measly bucks was worth around 60 to 80 bucks!
:no_pig:

Anyway - sorry, as I have not read it, I cannot comment.

But I WILL find another copy somewhere and after reading your glowing review I look forward to reading it :m_applause::m_cruise:

A girl in the book store seemed to think the concept was somehow similar to the book Hunger Games?

Never having read Hunger Games, does anyone around here have an opinion?
 

Pucker

We all have it coming, kid
May 9, 2010
2,906
6,242
62
A girl in the book store seemed to think the concept was somehow similar to the book Hunger Games?

Never having read Hunger Games, does anyone around here have an opinion?

I am only peripherally aware of The Hunger Games, but thematically I would say yes. It's basically about the way desperate times call for desperate measures . . . and desperate entertainments.

But really, The Long Walk isn't about the "why" of the existence of the walk itself, or about how the kids end up in it. It's about what they find out about themselves and each other

 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • Like
Reactions: Neesy

FlakeNoir

Original Kiwi© SKMB®
Moderator
Apr 11, 2006
44,082
175,641
New Zealand
Spoiler's not working again.
Where is that FlakeNoir at? She is good at describing how to use a spoiler.
I'm just copy and pasting from the User Guide in the FAQ's... :biggrin2:

Spoilers
You can either type in the coding yourself by typing:
[ spoiler ] the words you want hidden followed by[ /spoiler ]
(remove spaces from between the brackets and text)

Or highlight the words you want hidden click the insert button
insert-button.png
, and select Spoiler.

spoiler.png
 
  • Like
Reactions: Neesy

Pucker

We all have it coming, kid
May 9, 2010
2,906
6,242
62
Just like it didn't appear in that^ one.

As my cousin Vinny might say, "I guess the **expletive deleted** thing is broken."
 
  • Like
Reactions: Neesy

lowman

Well-Known Member
Mar 9, 2015
438
2,154
50
I loved the long walk but the ending,it leaves you hanging.did he get shot? Did he make it? What happened? That would be the only part of the book i felt could have made the book more complete.
 

Machine's Way

“Go then, there are other worlds than these.”
Jul 13, 2009
671
2,877
44
Baltimore
I seem able to separate what I see in a book from what's presented onscreen. The real test would be for me to reread The Shining.

For me its about reading the book before the Movie. I find that if I read a book after I have seen the movie (something I rarely do) my mind no matter how hard I try does tend to envision the actors that portrayed the characters on screen. But sometimes a movie is so good I will see of course that it was based on so and so's book and that will make me want to pick up that book and see how much better the book was than the movie.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Neesy

Sunlight Gardener

Well-Known Member
Jul 22, 2013
375
1,273
For me its about reading the book before the Movie. I find that if I read a book after I have seen the movie (something I rarely do) my mind no matter how hard I try does tend to envision the actors that portrayed the characters on screen. But sometimes a movie is so good I will see of course that it was based on so and so's book and that will make me want to pick up that book and see how much better the book was than the movie.

Yeah I'd be hard pressed to come up with a movie that is superior to the book it was based on. I can think one a few that are darn close to being as good (Green Mile comes to mind immediately).
 

Gregory B.

New Member
Mar 26, 2017
2
6
57
Did you know there is a real life "Long Walk" in Tennessee every October in the Ultra Running Community??? It is called Big Dog's Backyard Ultra created by the famous Barkley Marathon's Race Director Lazarus Lake (Gary Cantrell). People in the "race" have to run a 4 mile loop in one hour or they are out. Last one standing wins. 3 years ago it went 49 hours and the 2 guys quit at 204 miles!!! Check out the race at this link:
Big Backyard Ultra - October 21, 2017
 
  • Like
Reactions: GNTLGNT and Neesy