What happened to The Shop?

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raggedyman79

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Sep 6, 2013
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Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States
Reading "Obits" and the references to experimenting with mind control and LSD in the fifties made me think of this novel. I guess I was curious if SK ever had any intention of revisiting The Shop or Charlie, to resolve those storylines? The Shop especially seems worthy of more stories, since it was prominent in several of SK's novels in the 80's.
 

GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
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Cambridge, Ohio
Reading "Obits" and the references to experimenting with mind control and LSD in the fifties made me think of this novel. I guess I was curious if SK ever had any intention of revisiting The Shop or Charlie, to resolve those storylines? The Shop especially seems worthy of more stories, since it was prominent in several of SK's novels in the 80's.
...no intention....I think that version of gubbamint subterfuge and skullduggery had it's day...
 

Boni

Well-Known Member
Dec 26, 2008
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If I'm not mistaken, The Shop is King's fictional version of the CIA (or the FBI, can't quite remember). So it may have failed in Firestarter and its other appearences, like in The Tommyknockers, but I believe they are still there, waiting for the supernatural to show up and seize it.
 

GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
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I wish he would write a novel-length story that heavily involved The Shop.
the%20shop%203%20black%20copy.jpg
 

sam peebles

Well-Known Member
Sep 17, 2008
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Massachusetts
The Shop also apparently appears (or is mentioned) in The Stand, The Langoliers, the Golden Years miniseries and the movie version of the Lawnmower Man (I know, I know...doesn't really count).

I agree with Doc it'd be pretty interesting to tell a novel of the Shop through the usage of short stories, but didn't realize this is en vogue nowadays. Bradbury did that fifty years ago! Who's ripping off my Bradbury? (King of course being the exception to my just-now-made-up rule)
 

Spindle

New Member
Feb 15, 2016
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My dad took me to see The Shining when I was five. It was the 80s. My dad was not exactly irresponsible. By five, my reading comprehension was at a collegiate level -- he figured I could handle it. I didn't. He took me to see a movie about a dad going crazy and killing his son who is only a little older than me. But, after a few nights of worry and nightmares of snow and isolation and cold -- I figured out the solution.

I read 'The Shining'. And since the age of five and a half, I've read everything that Stephen King has published and I could get my hands on -- short stories, novels. Everything...I am a lifelong fan.

Firestarter captured my imagination as a lost 'X-Men' story...a superhero story in the King universe.

And since I read it, I always wanted to see a series from the days after The Shop closed its doors -- one where there's a new Shop, but its directive is to investigate things like the prom night fire in Carrie's hometown...the sudden migration of all those swallows in The Dark Half -- things that happen in the other novels are investigated by a group that slowly unravel the connection between each event and all of the events -- when I read The Dark Tower; and moreover, the novels having actual connections, I was over the moon.

It's the dream project that ain't been made yet.
 

Neesy

#1 fan (Annie Wilkes cousin) 1st cousin Mom's side
May 24, 2012
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Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
My dad took me to see The Shining when I was five. It was the 80s. My dad was not exactly irresponsible. By five, my reading comprehension was at a collegiate level -- he figured I could handle it. I didn't. He took me to see a movie about a dad going crazy and killing his son who is only a little older than me. But, after a few nights of worry and nightmares of snow and isolation and cold -- I figured out the solution.

I read 'The Shining'. And since the age of five and a half, I've read everything that Stephen King has published and I could get my hands on -- short stories, novels. Everything...I am a lifelong fan.

Firestarter captured my imagination as a lost 'X-Men' story...a superhero story in the King universe.

And since I read it, I always wanted to see a series from the days after The Shop closed its doors -- one where there's a new Shop, but its directive is to investigate things like the prom night fire in Carrie's hometown...the sudden migration of all those swallows in The Dark Half -- things that happen in the other novels are investigated by a group that slowly unravel the connection between each event and all of the events -- when I read The Dark Tower; and moreover, the novels having actual connections, I was over the moon.

It's the dream project that ain't been made yet.
Welcome to the SKMB Spindle
11-22-63 Welcome.JPG
 

Aloysius Nell

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Apr 1, 2014
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My version: The Shop got into congressional trouble too many times. The top folks had to take early retirement, the middle folks got reassigned to BFE posts, and the young ones were shunted into other assignments for a few years. Then, it was reorganized under a new name, with a new "mission statement", and started up the same ol' flim flam.
 

Rrty

Well-Known Member
Jun 4, 2007
1,394
4,588
And since I read it, I always wanted to see a series from the days after The Shop closed its doors -- one where there's a new Shop, but its directive is to investigate things like the prom night fire in Carrie's hometown...the sudden migration of all those swallows in The Dark Half -- things that happen in the other novels are investigated by a group that slowly unravel the connection between each event and all of the events -- when I read The Dark Tower; and moreover, the novels having actual connections, I was over the moon.

It's the dream project that ain't been made yet.

That is absolutely brilliant. It should actually be a television series, or maybe a comic-book series. It could be looked upon as not actually being a part of King's universe proper, but simply a piece of fan fiction, if you will.

One other suggestion: Shop agents investigate a couple of mysterious eggs found in Derry (along with a fossil of a giant spider).

I've never seen the series, but I wonder if Haven sort of gets into this type of thing. And am I recalling this correctly, wasn't there a series in development at one point about the Shop?
 

Blake

Deleted User
Feb 18, 2013
4,191
17,479
The FBI don't going around knocking people off. I think the Shop relocated, maybe to the desert near Roswell. Rainbird died a peaceful death in 2002. It doesn't say in the novel for sure that he died. All it says is that he fired the gun at her and she vaporised the bullet, it doesn't say he died. Give me Rainbird instead of Cap anyday.
 

kingricefan

All-being, keeper of Space, Time & Dimension.
Jul 11, 2006
30,011
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Spokane, WA
The FBI don't going around knocking people off. I think the Shop relocated, maybe to the desert near Roswell. Rainbird died a peaceful death in 2002. It doesn't say in the novel for sure that he died. All it says is that he fired the gun at her and she vaporised the bullet, it doesn't say he died. Give me Rainbird instead of Cap anyday.
Are ya sure? Really, really, really sure? ;-D
 
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Lundahl

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Nov 20, 2016
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I just finished reading Under the Dome, and I was really hoping that the dome was The Shop's doing, considering Firestarter was the book I finished right before I started UTD.

I would love to see the Shop revisited with more of their scientific experiments! Or maybe a sequel with the girl?
 

Aloysius Nell

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Apr 1, 2014
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I just finished watching Stranger Things yesterday, which has a decidedly SK feel about it. All throughout the show, when I saw Eleven's "father" on screen, I knew he reminded me of SOMEONE. In the finale it finally clicked - he was CAP! All along! And that was a Shop project if I ever saw one.