I've
gone back and finished “Under the Dome” by Stephen King, and I
cannot say that it was my favorite King book ever, or even up there
in the 50 percentile. I don't really know why this is, but as time
has passed and books like “The Stand”, “Salem's Lot”, “Dead
Zone” and even “The Shining” come up on their 30th
plus years' anniversaries, they look more like books written by
someone who was truly serious about literature in general and in
horror specifically. One of his finest books, “Different Seasons”
produced three exemplary novellas; an extremely difficult form to
master, and they were rich in language and satisfying, even in their
brevity. “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption”, “Apt
Pupil”, and “The Body” each left behind the supernatural and
horror genres King was famous for at the time and they were
resoundingly wonderful to read.
There is a television show of the same name. I got through about 14 minutes of it and had to turn off the tee vee. I understand it's been renewed.
But,
it seemed to me, that after the publishing of “It”, King had hit
a wall, or gotten into a rut. I'm not saying his writing became
formulaic, although, after so many books, some of the characters do
take on a sameness. What bothers me specifically is that his writing
voice has become artificial. It becomes harder and harder, with
exceptions to buy into whatever his characters' scrapes, situations,
life-and-death perils and choices are about and I find myself
dwelling more and more on the voice that is telling the tale, and to
me it is not ringing true.
Maybe
all wildly successful authors go through this; they hit their stride
and they find just the right note with an audience, and
subconsciously, they begin writing TO that audience, rather than just
spinning out their tales. One of my favorite authors, Aldrea Alien,
says in her bio “Since discovering the love of writing at the age
of twelve, she hasn't found an ounce of peace from the characters
plaguing her mind.” I love that; she puts her stories out there and
they are hum-dingers. She's writing currently about a race of
lizard-people and there are all sorts of things afoot. Being totally
rational, and given to reading history books, I was a bit skeptical
at first, but she makes it so damned REAL, that her world is easy to
buy into. Her worlds are spectacular and her plots are action-filled.
Lizard-people, huh. Who'da thunk it? Her characters are fully-fleshed
and their actions spring organically, from their previous experiences
and lives.
"The Rogue King" Available on Amazon.com. Again, as one who reads crime fiction, or history books, I became instantly captivated with Aldrea's Koral and his struggles and the world he lives in.
Back
to the “Dome”, and King's writing; a quick synopsis can be found
here. Some of King's characters make this kind of organic
sense, most notably, Dale Barbara, the protagonist of the book. As a
veteran of Dubya's mis-informed incursion into Iraq, Barbara is
familiar with the techniques of torture and humiliation that were de
rigueur as a part of an occupying unit in the Army, but that was
not who he was, and ultimately, his decency and humanity win out.
After a brief stint in Chester Mill's jail, which sees his life
threatened by Junior Rennie, who conveniently has a brain tumor,
which is causing him to be not just evil like his father, but
overtly batshit, Barbara is freed, to lead the good faction, that
eventually wins out.
"Big" Jim Rennie, as portrayed by the awesome Dean Norris, late of "Breaking Bad". This man can do good and evil equally well, and it's too bad King didn't have him for a template in the book. As it is, he is infinitely creepier in the show (so I've heard and can believe) than what King originally wrote.
The
problem for me is the antagonist, Big Jim Rennie, used car salesman
and 2nd town Selectman, who is just pure evil, through and
through and of such a cartoonish quality, I find it hard to buy into
ANYTHING he is selling, whether it be a car, or his own home-spun
philosophy, regarding who should run the town after the Dome has
fallen. No reason is given, as to his badness; did he wet the bed as
a kid? Were his parents dysfunctional? Who the hell knows and I
really was well-nigh fed up with him and his stupid dialogue.
Dale Barbara is played by actor Mike Vogel in the series; he seems to have made little impression on me, as I registered him as a cipher. He also seems to be a bit younger than your average Iraqi war vet, but hey, that's tee vee!
This
is another thing about King that drives me batshit. In “The Stand”,
people, including Randall Flagg, acted and talked like normal people;
you could buy into Flagg's brand of Evil, because it was so subtle;
so seductive. But with Big Jim, I find it hard to believe that he
could hoodwink an entire town and run a successful methamphetamine
lab out of the Christers' radio station WCIK and people NOT know
about it; the guy is as subtle as a lead balloon. The kind of lead
balloon that has a gondola and people would ride in, not a kid's
balloon; he's that obvious and non-creepy. Everyone's a "cotton-picker" and/or a "Son of a Buck" which wears thin, and that falsity of his language piles onto the falseness of his character. If we're meant to believe that he is a Town Selectman (one out of three, who all seem reasonably sane, although one of them has a drug addiction, which she manages to kick, 40 seconds before her gruesome death at a town gathering; very King-esque) then, we must assume the rest of the town doesn't give two hoots and a holler, or they're all on meth, which turns out not to be the case.
Julia Shumway, played by Rachelle Lefevre, on the show "Under the Dome". In the book, Julia is the town's sole editor of the newspaper and is several years older than Dale Barbara, but that doesn't usually play well in tee vee land. In the book, Julia goes to the Space Kids and makes a lone plea for mercy to be let free. It works, but the ending feels tacked on, rushed and there's no sense of resolution.
The
ending didn't work for me either; it was more Star Trek (to
quote Wikipedia) in the “Can't we all just get along” school of
reasoning by Julia Shumway, than anything else. The idea that Space
Kids were looking at these people under a Dome from a jillion miles
and observing their goings-on, much in the way kids have looked at
ant farms is not a new one, nor is the idea of sequestering a bunch
of individuals – people, pigs, cows, whatever – as in “Lord of
the Flies” to see what they do in the absence of authority. But
most certainly, Julia's little heart-felt plea at the very end of the
book, resulting in the presto! change-o! lifting of the Dome, to
sweet, sweet fresh air and then, bam! The End. Well, it just all
seemed rather hastily written to me, and didn't resonate as a
satisfying ending.
In
reading over some other critiques before writing this, I do admire
King's antipathy for the Bush-Cheney administration and understand
why he chose Dale Barbara as a vet of the War in Iraq, as his protagonist, and why he touches so often on the idea of wanton and casual torture; not as a means to an end, or because people are callous and cruel necessarily. It can be as simple as something to ease boredom, which is a hugely frightening thought.
This is an un-retouched, un-Photo-Shopped picture. You can just see the evil dripping off this man. I have a short, short list of people I would dearly love to see underground; he's on it. I make no excuse for my lack of acceptance, tolerance, or forgiveness for those particular individuals, nor do I think that how I feel is a bad thing; at least I'm honest.
The metaphor and/or idea of
raging little kids not being able to do anything but lash out at an unseen enemy when it
was demonstrably clear that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 would
seem preposterous, were it not for the fact that the Bush
Administration proceeded to go ahead and do just that: invade Iraq,
after the invasion of Afghanistan, and months of gleeful trumpeting
about hidden WMDs in Iraq, which never existed, nor could they.
Anyone paying two minutes of attention to current affairs in the 80s,
90s and 00s would know this; Iraq had not the infrastructure, nor the
will after having their asses kicked in the Iran-Iraq conflict that
was only ended, when a brokered peace eight years into the war,
brought about a re-establishment of the pre-war borders. Iraq then
went on to fail miserably in the invasion of Kuwait and subsequent
ass-kicking from the U.S., so they were not really inclined to start
up a new conflict. We saw a weakened country; a corrupt and teetering
tyranny and took full advantage of it. But, I digress.
I
was agreeing with King's assessment of the Bush-Cheney
administration, although, King saw Cheney as Jim Rennie and Bush as
Andy Sanders, the do-nothing selectman, who discovers the joys of becoming a tweaker. That part may be true; I've always had my suspicions about
Bush. But, Cheney? Rennie is no where near as evil as that man.
Enough said. Also let me add this; parts of the book were written a
long time ago, and parts are new. Much of it is allegorical and I
have to be honest. I have seldom read an allegorical book that
worked, with the sole exception being C. S. Lewis and his “Chronicles
of Narnia”. It's just always so painfully obvious to me, what the
writer is trying to convey and it usually falls flat.
Chronicles of Narnia, C. S. Lewis
Anyway,
I had to force myself to finish the book, which is something unusual
for me. I would love to read King's “November 22, 1963”, and see
if that doesn't have a more adult tone about it. I didn't post
earlier this week, as I just started a Clinical Trial, was gone all
day, and stupidly didn't have a post ready for Wednesday. I will be
hosting a cover reveal for a friend tomorrow, and can't wait! Anyway,
happy rowing, fellow ROWers and more to come!
