Hardly an American 'Stand' in...

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This started elsewhere as an aside but I'm continuing in this new thread.

I started rereading The Stand by Stephen King, as it's January and nothing helps with the post-holiday blues than reading about a pandemic that wipes about 99.4% of the world's population, followed by a showdown between good and evil, all taking place within a book of over a billion or so words (get the extended version if you really really need to read something). A quick note: it's a page turner, though quite disappointing in the end. It was made into a TV movie, and is out as a graphic novel.

So why am I talking about this here, on the Downs?

One of the fifty or so 'main' characters, Frannie, makes reference to Tolkien. Her father had a shed in the back yard, and the door to the same was smaller than usual. As a child, and maybe even as a young woman, she always hoped that when she opened the door, instead of finding her father's work room, she would find Bag End, and the tunnels (dry) and oddities that made up any well-to-do hobbit hole. This never happened, but she still liked her father's room just the same.

Did I mention that her father smoked a pipe? And that one of her ancestors took the name of Tobias Downs? Anyone else wonder which muse was murmuring in the author's ear?

Where was I? Oh, anyway, so in the first part of the book, you, as the reader, realize that a super germ gets out and starts killing every man, woman and child (and dog) that gets near anyone that is infected. It's sometimes bleak reading, as you know that anyone near any character that sneezes or coughs will soon be dead, and that includes the infant in the car, the kids out in the backyard, etc. Mostly the death happens off screen, but you do get to read about some of it, and it's not very uplifting.

Also, the persons responsible, instead of trying to stop the pandemic, first want to cover up their involvement, and in doing so, allow the plague to spread to the point where it gets out of hand. They even seed it across the oceans to confuse any researchers - not that any are left after a few weeks to point any fingers. After that, civilization breaks down, the dying take one last swing at the resistant people, and then, well, the real fun begins. One of the good things about the book is that you really get to know some of the characters, and you feel for them, which is similar to reading about the Fellowship. There are sets of characters, and each set tries to get to its 'base,' whether the base for the good side (Boulder, Colorado) or the base for the bad side (Las Vegas, Nevada). Crossing the country, characters have various trials to overcome, and so again it's Fellowship-like.

I looked a little on the web and found that the author wanted to write a Lord of the Rings-type book but have the story take place in America. Note sure how successful he was. His words:

Originally Posted by Stephen King

For a long time-ten years, at least-I had wanted to write a fantasy epic like The Lord of the Rings, only with an American setting. I just couldn't figure out how to do it. Then, slowly after my wife and kids and I moved to Boulder, Colorado, I saw a 60 Minutes segment on CBW (chemical-biological warfare). I never forgot the gruesome footage of the test mice shuddering, convulsing, and dying, all in twenty seconds or less. That got me remembering a chemical spill in Utah that killed a bunch of sheep (these were canisters on their way to some burial ground; they fell off the truck and ruptured). I remembered a news reporter saying, "If the winds had been blowing the other way, there was Salt Lake City." This incident later served as the basis of a movie called Rage, starring George C. Scott, but before it was released, I was deep into The Stand, finally writing my American fantasy epic, set in a plague-decimated USA. Only instead of a hobbit, my hero was a Texan named Stu Redman, and instead of a Dark Lord, my villain was a ruthless drifter and supernatural madman named Randall Flagg. The land of Mordor ("where the shadows lie, according to Tolkien) was played by Las Vegas.

The main antagonist takes the name of Randall Flagg, whom you learn is not the Devil, but one level below - I guess - or something. He's sometimes called the Imp of Satan, which might make him more like Sauron to Morgoth. Anyway, everyone has nightmares about him, and we read that everyone is like totally frightened of this creature/person. In the dreams he takes a few different forms, and one is that of a hooded creature with weasel and/or red eyes. He always stays in the shadows, and uses each person's fears against him/her. Purportedly he's just as frightening in person, but I read it as a little less so.

The leader, kinda, of the good forces is the 108 year old Mother Abigail. She somehow, like her dark counterpart, is marshalling her troops as well, putting out some kind of psychic call, all with the aid of God (who doesn't come off very nicely in this world). But she is not without fear and trial, as the dark man is looking for her, and we find another point of comparison.

Originally Posted by Mother Abigail

Somewhere, far to the west, beyond the Rockies that were not even visible on the horizon, she felt an eye - some glittering Eye - suddenly open wide and turn towards her, searching.

Sounds familiar for some reason.

Anyway, there are other points of comparison - especially the climax - which I will note, but will let the conversation persist a moment before I continue.