This month’s book club discussion led by Lostblog’s very own ErinAva!
Stephen King‘s novel Carrie (1974) is the story of a girl raised by a pathologically religious, psychotically sexaphobic mother. As such, Carrie is a social pariah and frequently emotionally butchered in high school, mainly by the “popular girls.” They even punk her at the prom [pig's blood is Not Cool]. Lucky for Carrie, puberty brings with it her very own superpower — telekineses — with which she exacts unholy revenge on everyone, including her mom (who has it coming more than anyone, in my opinion).
Carrie was Stephen King’s third novel, but his first novel published. Even now he admits its not his best work, but that didn’t stop it from being adapted for on of MY favorite films [Amy hearts primal revenge]. King went on to write 300+ novels, novellas, short stories, non-fiction books, articles and essays, many of which were adapted for film and TV.
Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie were nominated for Academy Awards for their roles as Carrie and her freaky mother, respectively. [I never saw the remake, and, once you see the original film you'll know why.] They didn’t win, but as we saw on last week’s Emmy awards, pop culture phenomena like King are lucky to get that much recognition.
[Amy is still incensed by the OBVIOUS SHUNNING of LOST at the 2010 Emmys. And I don't just mean not winning, either. The "We-don't-want-yer-kind-around-here-with-your-new-fangled-websites-and-download-thingys-you-are-an-aberration-and-we're-letting-ya'll-know-we-won't-let-it-happen-again" Hollywood Old School Jerkys made an EXAMPLE of Team LOST. Can you tell? Dear Hollywood, Behold the backlash, b*tches. That's all I'm sayin'.]
King has readily embraced his status as pop culture anti-guru. He’s even got a gig as a regular contributor for Entertainment Weekly. His column, “The Pop of King,” gave a distinctive shout out to LOST after Season 2. Check out the excerpt below. See anything interesting?
Stephen King issues a challenge to ”Lost” execs
Published February 1, 2007 “The Pop of King” Entertainment Weekly
Ah, Lost. There’s never been anything like it on TV for capturing the imagination, except The Twilight Zone and The X-Files.
There’s a lot riding on the second season, and I’m not talking about whether the folks who left on the raft will return (they will), whether Kate will sleep with Jack (she won’t), or if Charlie will sample the heroin Locke and Boone found (of course he will). What’s really on the table here is no less than the soul of what I think of as ”the new TV.”
The perfect critique of the old TV is offered in Rob Reiner’s Stand By Me. Gordie Lachance asks his buds if they’ve ever noticed that the people on Wagon Train (an old ’50s show) never seem to get anywhere. ”They just keep wagon-training,” he says, clearly mystified. Of course he is. Gordie’s going to grow up to be a writer, and even at age 12 he knows that stories should resemble life, and life has a beginning, a middle, and an end. We grow, change, succeed, and fail; eventually we keel over dead, but we do not just keep on wagon-training.
All of the shows I’ve mentioned above acknowledge this fact. But they all also face a huge problem, a.k.a. the Prime Network Directive: Thou Shalt Not Kill the Cash Cow.
That directive is what made the final seasons of The X-Files so ignominious. There was no real closure. Minus the continuing presence of David Duchovny, X-Files blundered off into a swamp of black oil, and in that swamp it died. I could have throttled the executives at Fox for doing that, and Chris Carter for letting it happen. If J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof, and their band of co-conspirators allow something similar to happen with Lost, I’m going to be even more pissed, because this show is better.
Memo to Abrams and staff writers: Your responsibilities include knowing when to write The End.
ABC parent Disney, of course, will scream bloody murder. To call Lost (like Desperate Housewives) a cash cow is an understatement. We’re talking about millions here, and if the show runs long enough, potentially hundreds of millions in DVDs and more.
None of that changes the basic facts: When a meal is perfectly cooked, it’s time to take it out of the oven. And when a story is perfectly told, it’s time to fade to black. It doesn’t matter to me if Jack, Kate, and the others realize they’re all dead and descend that shaft into a bright white Kübler-Ross beam of light or if they go to war with each other in a final burst of Lord of the Flies savagery. They can discover they’re part of an experiment (human or alien). Jack can even — groan! —wake up and discover the whole thing’s a dream (actually, I’d hate that).
But please, guys — don’t beat this sweet cow to death with years of ponderous flashback padding. End it any way you want, but when it’s time for closure, provide it. Don’t just keep on wagon-training.
Cool right?
Team LOST has expressed an admiration for King and cites him as a major influence on them as they created the show.
In a 2005 “Lost” podcast, Cuse explained, “Stephen King is so artful at blending science fiction or horror concepts with really compelling character stories, and that is so much a model for what we are doing on the show. I mean, those books of his sustain for 800 to 1,000 pages. Not because of the mythology, but because the characters are so damn cool.”
– as quoted in “LOST Owes a Debt to Stephen King” from Larry Fire’s blog: The Fire Wire
Personally, I’m dying to know how Uncle Stephen liked the finale, aren’t you?
As we cruise through this months selection, I’m asking myself: Why is Carrie Juliet’s favorite book? And why would Ben hate it? For that matter, why does it matter if Ben hates it or not? Weird.
Have fun reading!
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Just as a side note bit of Trivia, I don’t recommend the 2002 movie remake of Carrie (it’s terrible, really), but I did see it long ago, and our dear Claire (Emilie de Ravin) plays the antagonist Chris Hargensen. -Badm0mbot
