Summer of Stephen
Title: “For Owen”
Publishing Date: 1985 Length: 2 pages Start Date: November 17, 2018 End Date: November 17, 2018 I’ve discovered that I’m doing myself a great disservice by not writing about these shorter King works immediately after reading them. I didn’t remember anything about this poem, which makes sense considering I read it almost three years ago. And, for once, Wikipedia let me down, so I just went back and re-read the whole poem. And upon reading it a second time, I can say with confidence that this poem is...okay. It’s definitely not what you would expect from Stephen King. But in his defense, it was written for his son Owen (as I’m sure you could figure out from the title) who was 8 at the time. It tells the story of King walking Owen to school and Owen telling him about an average day of class, replacing the other students and teachers with various fruits. While this isn’t a word I would normally use for something written by Stephen King, this poem is cute. Maybe there’s darker meanings in it that I’m just not picking up, but maybe it’s just a nice poem he wrote for his kid. I don’t know. It was fine, but it didn’t make a huge impression on me.
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Title: “The Reaper’s Image”
Publishing Date: 1985 Length: 8 pages Start Date: November 17, 2018 End Date: November 17, 2018 According to my master list, this is also one of my least favorite King short stories so far. This is kind of surprising, because I’m usually all in on stories about haunted antiques. But for some reason, this one just didn’t really do anything for me. “The Reaper’s Image” tells the story of a man who wants to purchase a mirror with a terrifying history. Allegedly, those who look into the mirror see the image of the Grim Reaper standing behind them. Those who see this always disappear soon after. Of course, the main character doesn’t really believe this, because people in these stories never do. When the man sees the mirror, he’s upset that it has been damaged and the corner has been taped. The museum’s curator assures him there is no tape on the mirror, and what he is seeing is the Grim Reaper. The man reaches out to touch the tape, only to discover nothing but the smooth surface of the mirror. Suddenly terrified and completely believing the legend, he runs away. I honestly don’t remember why I wasn’t a fan of this story. Maybe it just needed to delve into the backstory of the mirror a little more. I don’t know for sure, but this just isn’t one I’m likely to revisit. Title: “Beachworld”
Publishing Date: 1985 Length: 18 pages Start Date: November 17, 2018 End Date: November 17, 2018 According to the list I’ve been making to rank all of Stephen King’s works, this is my second least favorite of his short stories. And I think that’s mostly due to the fact that I have no memory of this story two years later. When I first read the title in my spreadsheet, I was pretty sure this was the story that’s set in the same universe at The Stand. Turns out, that’s “Night Surf” which I wrote about a long time ago. So I made my way to Wikipedia to remind myself what “Beachworld” is about. Apparently it’s the story of some spacemen who crash on a planet made up of sand dunes that resemble a beach. One becomes mesmerized by the sand to the point that he’s unable to leave when a rescue crew arrives, instead just standing there while the sand around him becomes sentient and attempts to kill the rescuers. As I said before, I remember nothing about this story. Even after reading the Wikipedia summary, I still couldn’t remember it. The only evidence I have that I actually read it is that I marked it as “read” on my spreadsheet. So I guess I can’t really recommend this one, but if you’re really into space stuff, maybe you’ll like it. Title: “The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands”
Publishing Date: 1985 Length: 19 pages Start Date: November 17, 2018 End Date: November 17, 2018 Like many Stephen King stories, “The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands” shares a setting with some of King’s other works. It takes place at the same “old boys’ club” as The Breathing Method, but tells a story that’s not quite as dark. “The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands” is a story told by one of the members of the club about a man he once played cards with. This man refused to allow anyone to touch his hands which, considering the global pandemic happening at the time I write this, doesn’t seem like the worst idea. At the end of the card game in question, the titular man wins and another player jumps up and shakes his hand without warning. That man dies within a few days. Throughout the story, the narrator learns that the titular man was cursed years ago to kill anything he touched. Not sure if he believes this, the narrator continues his search for the man, eventually finding him dead with his hands clasped together. Overall, this story was okay but fairly predictable. The title gives away the main premise and from there it isn’t difficult to figure out why the man refuses to shake hands with anyone. Title: “Word Processor of the Gods”
Publishing Date: 1985 Length: 19 pages Start Date: November 16, 2018 End Date: November 16, 2018 This short story is every writer’s dream come true, while also being a huge nightmare. “Word Processor of the Gods” tells the story of a writer who is unhappy with his life. His wife is a nag and his son is more interested in his untalented band than in making something of himself. The writer is also grieving the loss of his nephew and sister-in-law who died in a car accident, along with his abusive brother who was driving drunk. The writer is given a word processor that his nephew was attempting to put together and meant to give him as a gift. But as the writer begins to type on it, he discovers that what he writes has an effect on reality. While testing the power the word processor possesses, the writer hears his son making cruel remarks about him to his bandmates. In a fit of rage, he types his son’s name and then deletes it, which results in his son disappearing as though he’d never existed. When the writer’s wife comes home, he sees how fat she is (at some point, we really need to discuss Stephen King’s issue with fat people) because she never had children. I don’t entirely understand how being childless would cause someone to be fat, but that’s beside the point. The writer quickly grows tired of her verbal abuse and deletes her as well. By this point, the word processor is beginning to die, so the writer knows he has one chance to create the life he wants for himself. He quickly writes a new reality in which he’s married to his deceased brother’s wife and his nephew is actually his son. The machine breaks down just as this becomes true. As I said, every writer dreams of being able to turn their fantasy world into reality. However, we also know how disastrous this could be. This story was a fun departure from King’s more horror-centered stories, but wasn’t quite as good as many of his other supernaturally driven stories. Title: “The Raft”
Publishing Date: 1985 Length: 29 pages Start Date: November 15, 2018 End Date: November 15, 2018 This short story is pretty middle-of-the-pack, but goes back to King’s comfort zone of “reality with a touch of unexplained supernatural.” Side note: I’m going to spoil the major plot points, so if you’re planning to read this story, stop after the next paragraph. “The Raft” follows four college students who want to spend a day at the lake before the weather turns too cold for swimming. While there, they swim out to a wooden raft to lounge around and enjoy the sun. One of them soon notices what looks like a small oil slick on top of the water. When one of the girls reaches out to touch it, though, it pulls her in and violently devours her. One of the boys plans to jump over the slick, which is now bigger, and swim to shore to find help. Before he can do this, some of the slick shoots up between the boards of the raft, wraps around his legs, and drags him between the boards. The remaining two have no idea how they’re going to make it out of this alive, and take turns keeping watch while the other gets the chance to sit down and rest. As night falls, the two move closer for warmth and then DECIDE TO HAVE SEX WHILE A VIOLENT SUPERNATURAL CREATURE IS WAITING TO DRAG THEM DOWN AND RIP THEM APART! Sorry for the yelling. I just have a hard time dealing with stupidity. As you could probably guess, the slick grabs onto the girl’s hair while she’s lying on the raft HAVING SEX RIGHT ABOVE A VIOLENT SUPERNATURAL CREATURE! Sorry. I’m calm now. While it slowly tears her to shreds, the boy decides to put her out of her misery by kicking her into the water so the slick can devour her faster. The final boy manages to hold out for several more exhausting hours before it seems he’s finally resigned himself to allowing the slick to take him. The story ends with him seeming to become hypnotized by the colors in the slick, implying that he will soon become its next victim. Overall, this was a pretty good story, though, as you could probably tell, I don’t understand characters who feel that having sex in the middle of a horrific crisis is the best decision they could make. And if it’s absolutely necessary, have sex standing up, because lying down a raft that’s right over something waiting to kill you is only going to end in disaster. And, I guess, that’s my public service announcement for the day. Title: “Paranoid: A Chant”
Publishing Date: 1985 Length: 4 pages Start Date: November 14, 2018 End Date: November 14, 2018 I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t always understand poetry outside of Poe and Dickinson, so it’s possible that this poem went over my head. From what I could figure out, it’s about a man who is paranoid that someone is trying to kill him, so he’s attempting to remain vigilant against all potential assassination attempts. The thing I liked most about this poem was the repetition of the first part at the end. The poem begins and ends with the lines: “I can’t go out no more / There’s a man by the door / In a raincoat.” I decided to do a little research (a.k.a. Wikipedia) to make sure I don’t sound like a complete idiot. Through that, I learned that King uses a line from this poem in his description of Randall Flagg in his novel The Stand. I haven’t posted about The Stand yet, but I have to say it’s one of my favorite King books, so that was an interesting connection to discover. Well, that’s pretty much all I have to say about this poem. I’ll probably read it again at some point, just to make sure I actually understand what’s going on in it. Title: “The Wedding Gig”
Publishing Date: 1985 Length: 16 pages Start Date: November 14, 2018 End Date: November 14, 2018 I didn’t particularly like this short story, which is surprising since I’m usually really into mob-type stories. I’ll get into the part that bothered me in a moment, but first here’s a quick summary. The narrator is the leader of a band who’s hired to play for the wedding of Maureen, a 300-pound woman, and her extremely skinny fiance. During the dance, though, a rival of Maureen’s brother shows up, insults Maureen, and ends up killing her brother in the ensuing scuffle. Years later, the narrator learns that Maureen took over her brother’s “business” and has taken revenge on all of his former enemies. She eventually dies and her husband ends up in prison. Now, for the part that bugs me. And, this is kind of a problem in a few of King’s stories. There is a lot of emphasis put on Maureen’s weight. Which, as a woman who struggles with her weight, I hate reading stories where a woman’s weight is used in place of giving her a personality. This story could have been so much more interesting if King hadn’t felt the need to focus on how huge Maureen was. But, maybe that’s just me. Title: “The Jaunt”
Publishing Date: 1985 Length: 26 pages Start Date: November 13, 2018 End Date: November 13, 2018 “The Jaunt” is one of my favorite Stephen King short stories so far, which was unexpected since I’m usually not big on “space stories.” But this one focuses more on human nature, letting the space aspect take a backseat. This story takes place in a future where people are able to “jaunt” from Earth to Mars through a fairly simple procedure that relocates them almost instantly. As long as they’re unconscious. The main character in the story, Mark, is preparing his wife and children for their own jaunt by telling them a sanitized version of how the jaunt came to be. He leaves out the dark truth that a death-row inmate was used as a guinea pig to determine that anyone who jaunts while awake goes insane within moments of emerging from the “jaunt portal” and usually dies soon after. Finally, it’s time for Mark and his family to leave for Mars. They are anesthetized to ensure they remain asleep for the journey and wake up seemingly seconds later. Mark’s first moments of consciousness are interrupted, though, by his wife’s screaming. He discovers that his son held his breath to avoid taking in the anesthesia and was still fully awake while he was jaunted. This led him to experience what felt like infinity over the span of a few moments. Mark’s son begins to scream about the eternities he’s seen and then proceeds to claw out his own eyes. As I mentioned before, this is one of King’s better stories (in my opinion). I like reading about the choices people make and thinking about what might have led them to those decisions. Mark’s son is easily the most interesting character because his choice has the biggest impact on the story. At some point, I’d like to teach this story and see what kinds of discussions we can have about the characters. Title: “Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut”
Publishing Date: 1985 Length: 26 pages Start Date: November 8, 2018 End Date: November 12, 2018 This was a pretty enjoyable King short story and I’m honestly not sure why it appears it took four days to read it. It was also one of those stories that I’ll probably have to read again a few times to make sure I really understand what’s going on. “Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut” tells the story of the titular character attempting to find ways to get from one place to another as quickly as possible. Homer, the man telling about Mrs. Todd, was always amused by her obsession, though he eventually starts to question her claims. While her shortcuts first seemed plausible, they start to seem physically impossible. After questioning her, Homer is invited to ride along with her. While on this ride, Homer sees signs, plants, and animals that he’s never known to exist. He also realizes that after every trip, Mrs. Todd looks a little bit younger than she did before. He’s shaken up by his trip and doesn’t wish to ride with her again. As the story ends, an incredibly young-looking Mrs. Todd pulls up and Homer (who also appears younger than he should) gets into the car with her and they drive away. The implication is that Mrs. Todd, in her desire to find shortcuts, has actually found a way to drive through other dimensions. As I said before, I’ll have to read this story more than once to see if I still make the same assumptions about it. But for now I’ll say it was a good read with an interesting premise. |
Jacinta M. CarterProfessional Book Nerd Archives
July 2019
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