Man. I’m a avid King reader I’ve read most of his works, but never got around to reading the stand until now. This is truly his best book. The writing is top notch the story is paced perfectly. Some of his best perspective writing and character development. I can’t believe I’ve waited this long to read it.
I read the uncut version a year or so after this video was filmed, I think I was about 13, and I thought it was brilliant. I actually wrote to him as part of a school project and he replied, I was blown away!
I remember also being smitten with the short story from Night Shift, forget what it was called, where Captain Trips was mentioned. It felt more like a vignette, with some kids on a beach and a very apocalyptic mood. Something about it even though it pretty much lacked a narrative in the traditional sense.
After leaving work one day I knew I was coming down with the Flu so i decided I would just stay in bed all weekend and read a book. I Stopped by a local book store on my way home and bought The Stand. Of all the books to read while in bed with a bad case of the Flu. This is my favorite book of all time. "A dark chest of wonder indeed."
Probably my favourite as well, after the Bible. The Talisman and Swan Song are right there as well. I remember reading The Stand as my Dad and I were driving from Virginia to Arches National Park in '86. Actually, during the part (no spoilers, I promise:) where they're walking from Colorado to Nevada I believe we were in either western Colorado or eastern Utah....ironic, poignant and unforgettable. Thanks Dad! Love and miss you...thank you for the memories.
Randall Flagg: Pleased to meet you, Lloyd. Hope you guessed my name. Lloyd Henreid: Huh? Randall Flagg: Oh. Nothing. Just a little classical reference.
Mick Jagger's, "In Sympathy With The Devil." Was the reference that Randall Flagg was talking about. The historical parts are about the devil during certain major events. Nice touch!
Jamey Sheridan kills it as Randall Flagg. Jamey Sheridan creatively mixes this eclectic cocktail of an elitest, grassroots, messianic, rockstar, television preacher, Charles Manson Demon.
Yeah, I thought Sheridan did a pretty good job, and if you've read the comics, which King had input into, you can see that Sheridan evoked the same archetype that King had shown to us in the comic.
CCOMPLETELY AGREE! Sheridan WAS channeling The Walking Dude. I have ZERO faith in Stellan Skaarsgard as Randall Flagg, and it's because that actor does not, and can not, evoke the American flag over the shoulder type of villain Randall Flagg is. If Randall Flagg wasn't so evil and psychotic, he very well could have been the greatest rockstar of that era, which is what makes him so damn scary. He's charismatic without effort, he's intimidating without effort, and it seems like he always has an ace up of his sleeve and something to sell.
Never read the cut version, but the uncut version is a masterpiece. I can't imagine missing a single scene! I did a review of "The Stand" (uncut) if any are interested. FANTASTIC book.
The cut version was "almost" as good. I mean, if you think about that whole business with the Kid, you can see that removing it wouldn't really change anything else. It was great stuff, but it was "cuttable" without reducing the quality of the book to any extreme degree.
I heard that The Kid's storyline was cut, which was probably the only thing about the book that I didn't like, I thought it felt out of place and it just felt like filler to me, other than that though I wouldn't cut anything, after hearing about some of the cuts that were made I'm shocked, I loved those scenes.
I just finished The Stand Complete and Uncut for the first time this week, after never having read the original. The absense of the scene with Fran and her mom shocks me. That was such a great scene. Brutal, but great.
I know this will sound weird to some people and to some they will sadly know where I'm coming from. Stephen King saved my sanity as a teenager. When i read his books i could leave my horrible home life for a few chapters at a time. If I'm honest more than a few chapters at a time. But i digress. When people talk about his drug/alcohol abuse. He's human. Shit happens. Mr. King is the one who told us He had a problem. He's overcome His addictions and is a better man for it. Also from what I see and hear His kids are well adjusted human beings. Be like Stephen King!
Exactly how I felt. I read The Shining during the absolute darkest period of my teenage years. Broken home life and self-isolated at school, that book let me escape and feel a fun kind of terror rather than the normal dread.
The Stand still haunts me to this day, it also moves me emotionally. Stephen King does not write horror, his best books (like The Stand and IT) are beautiful character studies.
@@nedflanders5302 King seems to like that sort of character - I think he feels they have an innocence that others don't. In the Dark Tower you got Sheemie in that same mold.
Oh yes - that was great. Just reinforced how Tom told us Flagg never dies. I read that as "humans will never lose their capacity for evil." Flagg's role in the universe is to provide scope and opportunity to our evil. The endless test - we have to rise above it again and again.
I read the Dark Tower IV before I read the Stand. All those references went over my head at first. I'm gonna reread Book IV to pick up on the references the way it was meant to be read.
I'm in the middle of my annual tradition of reading it every year around June/July. That's allergy season around here and people are sneezing and wheezing like crazy. The desert monsoons become apocalyptic and most times the strong winds cause the power to go out. Its all a fantastic setting to sit out on a sweltering afternoon in the shade and spend time with Mother Abigail. This edition is damn heavy and you have to be committed just to spend time holding it up long enough for the journey.
The Stand uncut is absolutely fantastic, but I'd still go with The Shining as my #1, simply because it's the scariest. The part with the stone statues in the lawn fucked me up...
:-) I just 1) re-watched the mini-series, 2) re-read the extended edition, and 3) read the entire series of comic books, all in a few weeks. So I'm probably about as "on top" of that story as I've ever been.
they didn't really want to make it into a big block-buster movie, like his other books, b/c in the story its a biological weapon released by the govt. so they created a different story where the virus came from a monkey instead and called it OUTBREAK.
I read the shortened version of "The Stand" the 800 or so pages of the book at The Super Sears Store at Jersey City, New Jersey back in 1982 over the course of a three hour shopping trip by my immediate family.
I was like a kid on Christmas Day when I bought the uncut version of The Stand in 1990. I think I read the first 300 pages in a little over a day. I was as obsessed with those characters in The Stand as Annie Wilkes was with Paul Sheldon’s characters in his book.
Mr. Kings book was "laying about" in 1980 when I was to be studying for finals for Prep High School, so these exams were epic. Needless to say, I couldnt put the book down, & it freaked me out severely. I winced every time someone coughed or sneezed.... nowadays, it looks like he was talking about the Coronavirus of a date in the future; 2020-- Unreal!!🤔😲😷😷😷🤧🛌🤢🤮☻☠👋⚰.P.S. I flunked the exams/finished the book.
of all the 30 books I have read by him the stand has to be my favorite, I started reading him back in 1976 and I was reading the talisman, now without Stephen king I would be forever lost.
The Talisman is a GREAT READ as well. It contains what I regard as King's most overtly, immediately SCARY AS HELL scene. I won't detail it here so as not to spoil it for anyone, but I'll just refer to it as the "Our boy?" scene - those who've read will know. Just creeped me THE HELL out.
I read The Stand in 1991 after having read The Eye of the Dragon in which Randall Flagg appears as a wizard of dark magic. If you haven't read Eye of the Dragon I recommend it highly as it gives you a whole new perspective of Flagg at the very least.
Yes, I had to stretch a little to make those the same entity. Flagg in "EotD" seemed to have a long memory, unlike Flagg in TS. I thought that aspects of the character in The Stand was great - it was like he's a tool that Evil keeps in its tool chest until a situation in which he's useful arises, and then "drops him in." So, Mother Abigail will consider that to be "a minion of Satan" - people steeped in other beliefs might describe it a different way. Also, Flagg in EotD seemed capable of wielding direct, personally launched evil against anyone he wished, whereas in The Stand I always felt like he was "prevented" from doing that - he had to get a human helper to do it for him. Like in the jail cell with Glenn - why DIDN'T Flagg point his finger at Glen and burn him down with an energy ball the way he did his own guy at the big finale? I think he COULDN'T - I think he wasn't allowed to do that with his own hand to a "person of good." Only to people who'd given themselves to him. I didn't get that feel from Flagg in EotD.
Back in the he day, when I fell in love, with the man, behind the horror. Thank you Steve, you gave me hours of pleasure/terror. Love you more. The Stand, to me holds the single most horrific chapter in American literature. The walk thru the Lincoln tunnel. Omg I couldn't sleep for a week. Thanks Steve, I'm gonna always love you for that.
King has the ability to craft words in a way that makes you feel like you are there - you FEEL the feelings he's trying to produce. I put in a plug somewhere else in these comments for Jim Butcher's Dresden Files books - Butcher has a similar ability - you feel like you are THERE, in his universe, right alongside the characters. It's a rare gift, apparently, because I just don't get that feeling from most books. I can still enjoy the stories, but it's not the same - not as "personal." Those of you that enjoy King, I definitely recommend you try out Butcher. The first Dresden novels were written the very beginning of his career, and it shows to some degree - somewhat like King when he wrote The Gunslinger. But there are 15 Dresden books, with 7 or 8 more expected, and he grows to his full power over the course of the first few. He Butcher, that is, to his full power with words.
All I can say is that SK is a genius in his own right. And if you have the chance to meet and get to spend any time with him, you'll discover, as I did, that he's a big ol sweetheart and is just like folks.
Then I saw the miniseries advertised on Superbowl Sunday. I was apprehensive and joyful at the same time. My complaint in the miniseries were the characters of Harold, Frannie, and Trashcan Man were underdeveloped.
I just finished re-watching the mini-series and re-reading the complete / unrevised edition. My biggest complaint about the mini-series is the elimination of Rita Blakemore and the "taking over" of her plot line by Nadine Cross. I think Rita's fate in the novel was a huge factor in Larry's character development - it haunted him for most of the rest of the book. The mini-series was unable to follow that path because of the Rita/Nadine compositing. Because of that change, they were forced to bring Joe / Leo into the story through Lucy instead of Nadine, and that affected Nadine's character development a lot. Out of all the changes made for the mini-series, I think that's the one that caused the most issue.
Yeah, there just wasn't enough time - he had to "make it fit" somewhere. My main complaint was the elimination of Rita Blakemore and the fusion of some of her bits with Nadine, which also caused them to need to put Joe/Leo with Lucy from the jump. The events he experienced with Rita were *totally* vital to Larry's character development. All of that was just lost from the mini-series. And Nadine was very underdeveloped as well. No criticism here - I recognize King was working under a time constraint that put big limitations on him.
Read the book twice. I want to read it again, but it's sooooo long. On top of that I'm currently re-reading "It" to prepare for the upcoming film, so that would make it two behemoth books in a row.
I read The Stand earlier this year and it took me a few months to complete it due to distractions, etc. I thought the book was great, and there is a lot of great scenes in it... I unfortunately didn't find it the be all end all that everyone else sees it as. I enjoyed IT more due to the atmosphere is creates, and just how many things that are created inside of Derry. The Shining is the other one that is one of my favorites, but i digress. The Stand is a great book, and everyone that enjoys reading should check it out. Just don't read all the hype surrounding it.
My wife bought me the book the stand complete and uncut version. I love it! It's very interesting especially about the characters the movie or show didn't really mention I'm barely on chapter 3 and so excited to read more 😊
I've read both the original 800-page version and the restored 1200-page version, and personally I prefer the original. The restored version definitely has some additional flavor but like so many of SK's works, it's just too dang long and overly detailed.
There are always shocking moments and many times in the many stories we lose an essential character we've grown attatched to.. torture and love juxtaposed, married in & it leaves us angry thrilled and drawn to the stories, tjanks Mr King.
The following is a true story believe it or not. I read the Stand & its still to this day, my all time favorite Stephen King novel hands down. It's scary as all hell because for me, its something that "could" happen in real life IMO. But that's not where I'm going with this. So one night I had just finished reading King's book "Pet Sematary" & just as I closed the book on the last page a thought came to me. How it would be really cool if they made this into a movie. Now for the part you won't believe. Just as I thought that, as God as my witness a commercial came on & YES it was a preview of a NEW Stephen King movie due in theaters called & are ya ready for this, PET SEMATARY! Talk about being freaked out, I mean what are the odds of that happening? I know, crazy right? But its a true story & I wanna thank Stephen King for scaring the shit out of me once again. The master of fright continues on....... Thank you Sir King!!! GREAT JOB!!!
Just rebought it hardcover cuz my old paperback copy broke and it was held together w duct tape I had had that copy for like 15 years. It was in this miniseries I first heard “don’t fear the reaper” and “everybody wants to rule the world”
I admire this author for his ability to be a strong business person, and, especially, to navigate to the important aspects of marketing his productive works that benefit the community of those who want to read his books.
Interesting that he says most people tell him The Stand is their favorite novel, and most of the comments here echo that-it's also my favorite, lol! The characters are so rich, and I think people really seem to gravitate towards apocalyptic type settings. I don't know why that is, maybe part of it is the idea of freedom to basically do whatever you want and go anywhere you want? Even if life is a wasteland? Very curious. For me though, top 5 are The Stand, IT, Needful Things, Lisey's Story and Cell.
I do think the apocalyptic theme provides a lot of scope for a writer. Another really good one is "Swan Song" by Robert McCammon. I think The Stand wins out in a head-to-head competition (for me at least), but Swan Song is nonetheless thoroughly entertaining. My favorite King works are 1) The Stand, 2) The Dark Tower, 3) Insomnia, 4) The Talisman, and 5) Black House. All of those tie in strongly with "The Dark Tower universe." As far as his works that don't, I enjoy Duma Key, Bag of Bones, The Shining, and Doctor Sleep. But those are just the stand-outs; he has so many that are good reads. A few summers ago I went on a "King binge." :-)
Something like that, I think - yes. I think in our souls we still yearn to "face the wilderness," so to speak. This civilization of ours is a rather recent invention - we're not "used to it" in an evolutionary way yet. It provides us with all kinds of creature comforts, but I think we still have parts of our psyche that it leaves empty. I think, for example, people that love to take their sailboat and go out onto the high seas, alone, are seeking to fill that empty place. It's one of the few ways you can still do it.
Funny how many of the comments are "I just finished the book and..." I also just finished it a couple days ago and I can already tell it will be one of the books that stays with me forever. I read the Complete and Uncut Edition coming in just short of 1,200 pages (my longest book by a good deal). Despite it seeming a little overwhelming to start with, it seemed to roll by on it's own momentum and was over in fairly short order for such a whopper. The parts King mentioned in the video are some of the more memorable scenes from the book so I am glad I chose the version that contained them all. It would have been a lesser book without them, though undoubtedly still a masterpiece.
