by Jay Wilburn
The plan is to reread all of Stephen King’s novels and collections and assorted other publications in their order of publication. Richard Chizmar of Cemetery Dance set out the challenge for himself and invited others to join in. It is an idea which indulges my obsession with King’s writing. I’m doing it because I am a writer and I want to improve my long fiction and storytelling. I think there are secrets to be discovered or rediscovered in it too. As Chizmar posts his after read posts and Bev Vincent posts his accompanying history, I will add links to those in my corresponding posts.
Here is Bev Vincent’s historic essay.
Here are Richard Chizmar’s thoughts.
You can also go back to the beginning and read Before Carrie or any of my other posts up through this one and beyond by checking out this link to the Master List of all my #StephenKingRevisited posts.
Much of what I write in these posts will really be notes for me. I will do my best to make them into coherent observations for you. I will also style my comments to be as spoiler free as possible for those who haven’t read the book, but in a way which will also work for those who have read the books. Be warned though that I am discussing the content of the book and the writing.
Let’s sit down in our secret club and hear some tales.
The four novella collection Different Seasons opens with a quote “It is the tale, not who tells it.” This is from the mysterious club in the fourth and final story “The Breathing Method.” It’s an unnerving little thing on the wall in that story. At the head of the collection, it reads as something more noble and inspiring. I wish this were more the motto of the publishing industry. I wouldn’t be as successful of a ghostwriter, if this was true for the gatekeepers.
There is an afterword in the book. It turns out Blaze, a novel which was published much, much later was written before Carrie was published and was presented as a potential second novel. His editor/ agent was worried about King getting “typed” as a horror writer. Both King and this other fellow grew to accept the idea. So much so, that the fellow was nervous when King wanted to publish a book of novellas that weren’t strictly horror. The Breathing Method was added on as a “fourth season” and a sort of reassurance back to the horror niche. In this section, King calls novellas a literary banana republic between the borders of short stories and novels. The title “Different Seasons” is meant to communicate to the reader that these are different stories from the horror they had grown used to in the early career of King. I think the meaning of that title is largely lost on the general public these days.
In the back of the old copy I read is an ad for the Creep Show comic and forms to order other books that I have largely not heard of. Wonder what would happen if I tried to mail those order forms in today?
Hope Springs Eternal is the first section for the story Rita Haywood and the Shawshank Redemption. Pretty much the whole story translated pretty faithfully to the movie.
There is a story about fixed brakes and a car crash in Castle Rock during the Great Depression and World War II. Our narrator is the guy who can get things, who I will now forever hear in the voice of Morgan Freeman, and we meet Andy who came to Shawshank in 1948 and asked to have Rita Hayworth smuggled into the prison.
The fact that there was always a draft in Andy’s cell is good foreshadowing.
In this one, the laundry machine is called “The Mangler” which King has used before a couple times.
The speculation about the actual escape went on for a while in the story.
“Get busy living or get busy dying” is a good line obviously.
“I hope.” This is a really good last line.
Summer of Corruption is the next season with the story Apt Pupil.
We open with a 71 word first sentence describing Todd Bowden. That is a ballsy move and had to be done with some sort of thought-precision in mind. As the story gets going, King emphasizes that Todd is an All American boy in every minor detail of appearance and background.
We are introduced then to “German efficiency.”
The moment of escape is when the boy could have let the door close. All those lives would have been saved, if he just walked away in that moment.
He called his mother “Bugs” for Bugs Bunny. I’m not sure my kids would get that reference anymore. Todd also calls his mother “Monica Baby” which comes off a bit odd.
The beginning of the story has a reference to Vietnam going on in the background.
His dad went to “Smoke Enders,” but seems to still have all his fingers. The banker who bought the old man’s stocks went to jail for murdering his wife. Our Andy hero from the previous story may have been less innocent that we thought, even if he wasn’t guilty of murder.
Great, almost timeless, juxtaposition between the horror of the Navis and the ads selling the horror for enthusiasts.
Both the old man and the boy kept their secrets and tell their lies. They charm others to disarm and hide. They will both progress down parallel, dark paths to similar fates.
The contemptable description of a guidance counselor trying too hard struck me as something personal to King. Maybe a personality he encountered in the office staff from his teaching days.
Mescaline is mentioned again in this story. How common is that? It shows up in Stephen King stories, a lot. And at one point, a character “clenched his fists until half moons showed.” I posted on Facebook, asking if that was even possible. It’s in 70’s and 80’s written stories pretty often. Multiple people claimed to have done it. A lot of women talked about experiencing it.
“You see how it is, guys.” This is used to effect over killing a bird. King then discusses dual determination.
The boy’s father mentally replays a story about his own father involving the left hand knowing what the right hand is doing. It is gold for the purposes of a plot device and character motivation. I wonder where that story came from for King.
King acted like he was going to escalate the violence in the story in a way that felt too soon and too quick for me as a reader. But then he pulled back at the last moment which felt perfect for the character I was invested in. It was a perfect use of tension.
He describes a face that looked like “the Death of God.” Great line.
“The dead speak, but we hear them with our noses.” Brilliant stuff.
Dialing 222 for emergency services. I did way too much research to see if this was common back then. I couldn’t find anything definitive. 222 is still used on some college campuses to get college police.
A hole that has been recently dug and refilled always looks recently dug and refilled. That is good stuff.
King’s history on having trouble with fried eggs is detailed in On Writing. A distaste for fried eggs is expressed by one of the characters.
“The horrors of old age. They are legion.” Great line.
Black and white serendipity is an interesting concept.
“I’m the King of the World.” Didn’t expect that line in this story. Maybe I just forget it was there from when I read it a long time ago.
The next section was Fall From Innocence with the story The Body. This is kind of a perfect Stephen King story. The set up of the characters, the discovery of the body, the set up of the quest, the use of the setting, and several other tools make it a quintessential Stephen King tale. It may not be his best. But how someone feels after reading The Body is how they will generally feel about Stephen King as a writer and the majority of his body of work (if you will excuse the pun).
The boys in this story are trapped in sad families of one type or another, and they are escaping to the back field for an adventure. Adults encountered along this hero’s journey are bad to the kids, too. Adults who come up in the stories and confessions are bad to them as well.
“A hiding” is used as a term for skinning your hide, a spanking or a beating for punishment. Women getting their tubes tied is called “The Band-Aid.” “Wet ends” is used for “hangers on” or peripheral members of a group of people. A “goocher” is all tails in a group coin flip and is considered bad luck. A “Moon” is all heads and good luck. Our characters don’t get the Moon.
There are stories within the story by the narrator who grows up to be an author. I liked these little snippets from King. One of my favorite examples of all time of this is found in Tommyknockers.
Cujo is mentioned by the narrator as an event that occurred twenty years later from the time of the story he is telling.
“I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, did you?” Great line in the book and the movie.
The train is compared to the junkyard dog as a hellhound in a very effective way.
“Your friends drag you down …” This is a powerful section in the story.
“Of course, everyone knew there was no such things as ghosts, but ten miles felt about right in case what everyone knew was wrong.” This is a magnificent line. It may sum up King’s philosophy on horror better than Danse Macabre and On Writing combined.
The description of the body is great horror. The use of bugs and hailstones. Pure art. The ultimate fear of death is spelled out well in the simple discovery of the body. The existential horror that follows for the narrator is a masterpiece of writing.
The Gorgon myths are mentioned her. Maybe this is where the writers of Stranger Things fixed on that monster in particular.
“Speech destroys the function of love.” Great line.
The kids took their beatings throughout the story all the way to the end. No one got out easy. Ace Merrill supports Reagan/Bush in 1980 and outlives a few characters.
The collection closes with A Winter’s Tale represented by The Breathing Method. This is the only one not adapted into a major hit motion picture. It probably does not lend itself well to that format. It was dedicated to Peter and Susan Straub. I wonder if King was planning on cowriting this far back.
249B … Thursday is the best for stories, but it is open every night.
Sometimes, I find King’s partial stories within stories as interesting or more intriguing than the main story line. I wish I could hear the endings of some of them, especially the tale of the thing that wouldn’t die in this novella. It somewhat foreshadows, in mirror image, the title story told at the end.
Swelling testicles are in both The Body and The Breathing Method. Maybe King was kicked in the nuts a few times while writing these novellas.
There may be a mistake in this story or my brain isn’t wrapping around properly, which is not out of the question. Andrews’s story was the first Christmas, but then a different story is mention as the first Christmas story at the club.
He builds up incredible anticipation for the title story to finally be told in this strange club of storytellers. I started to think it would let me down as the content unfolded. It didn’t disappoint though. It was eerie and dark, as promised. All the more so for the odd club setting around it. King turned up the cosmic horror a bit at the end for good measure.
Next up will be Christine with my Before Christine post which will be linked on Master List of all my Stephen King Revisited posts.
— Jay Wilburn, trying to tell tales better than the teller.
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