Apr 272009
You wouldn’t be alone if the news of outbreaks of a virulent flu strain evoked comparisons to a certain doorstopper of a postapocalyptic novel. A friend and I were chatting this morning about how we both thought of The Stand while scanning the headlines over the weekend. There are plenty of other pop culture treatments of your standard killer-virus-wipes-out-the-world scenario, but The Stand is the measure by which they are judged. It’s the book that best illustrates Stephen King’s affection for all things Americana and his recognition that civilizations are fragile things.
Incidentally, The Stand is now being adapted into a comic book series that I’m enjoying quite a bit.
I thought The Stand was anti-climactic as hell…a lot like the other handful of Stephen King novels I’ve read. The dude can’t seem to properly end any of his novels.
While I personally find King’s work a little dull, I have to agree with you here. The current news makes a post-apocalyptic doomsday scenario a little too close to fiction for me to be comfortable.