Video: The IT Department

I really enjoyed the 80s IT movie and want to see the new one (at home, not in theatre. I don't think I could handle screaming and jumping in fear in front of strangers).

Some of the responses to the new film, specifically the purposeful confusion of the word 'it' and I.T. are a lot of fun.

This photo of an I.T. Crowd actor in the sewers a la Pennywise just cracks me up (via GEEK Magazine's facebook page), as does James Corden's The IT Department video.

The Dark Tower Movie Trailer and Book Synopsis

The Dark Tower movie opens tomorrow, based on a series of novels by Stephen King. I read the first two books in the series (The Gunslinger and The Drawing of the Three) about 15 years ago. I was living in Japan at the time and there was a small English language book library where I borrowed them. I wasn't that keen on the first one - too western for my tastes and the ending rubbed me the wrong way - but thought the second was well written, if rather bizarre. I'm really curious to see how they've adapted the first novel. Apparently after finishing the series King went back and revised The Gunslinger to be in line with the final ending.

To King, The Gunslinger demanded revision because once the series was complete it became obvious that "the beginning was out of sync with the ending." While the revision adds only 35 pages, Dark Tower purists will notice the changes to Allie's fate and Roland's interaction with Cort, Jake, and the Man in Black--all stellar scenes that will reignite the hunger for the rest of the series. Newcomers will appreciate the details and insight into Roland's life. The revised Roland of Gilead (nee Deschain) is embodied with more humanity--he loves, he pities, he regrets. What DT fans might miss is the same ambiguity and mystery of the original that gave the original its pulpy underground feel (back when King himself awaited word from Roland's world). --Daphne Durham (source)

Given the changes, I might like the book better now...



If you haven't read the books, here's the Goodreads listing (the best 'back cover' I could find) for The Gunslinger:

Beginning with a short story appearing in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1978, the publication of Stephen King's epic work of fantasy -- what he considers to be a single long novel and his magnum opus -- has spanned a quarter of a century.

Set in a world of extraordinary circumstances, filled with stunning visual imagery and unforgettable characters, The Dark Tower series is King's most visionary feat of storytelling, a magical mix of science fiction, fantasy, and horror that may well be his crowning achievement. 

Book I
In The Gunslinger (originally published in 1982), King introduces his most enigmatic hero, Roland Deschain of Gilead, the Last Gunslinger. He is a haunting, solitary figure at first, on a mysterious quest through a desolate world that eerily mirrors our own. Pursuing the man in black, an evil being who can bring the dead back to life, Roland is a good man who seems to leave nothing but death in his wake. 

This new edition of The Gunslinger has been revised and expanded throughout by King, with new story material, in addition to a new introduction and foreword. It also includes four full-color illustrations in the hardcover and trade paperback formats.

The Books in the series in order are:
The Gunslinger
The Drawing of the Three
The Waste Lands
The Wind Through the Keyhole
Wolves of the Calla
Song of Susannah
The Dark Tower

Book Review: The Long Walk by Stephen King (Writing as Richard Bachman)

Pros: creepy premise, really get to know the characters, thought provoking

Cons: don't learn much about the world or why the walk is put on, crass discourse

Every year 100 teen boys join the Long Walk.  They walk at 4 miles per hour, day and night, until they can't go any further and are given their ticket.  The prize for the winner is great.  But it's a long, long road.

This is a character driven dystopian novel that focuses on a small group of walkers in the current year's Long Walk.  The characters become very real, three dimentional people.  Which makes reading the book difficult, as you're slowly watching them die.

As the walk progresses and the characters discuss why they've joined it and who will survive, you're left questioning many things as the reader - are you the same as the crowd that lines the road, hoping to see blood?  Or are you one of the boys, learning that you don't want to die because death is suddenly so close?  Unlike the crowd you see the characters as human.  You feel their pain.  As someone who walked the last 100+ km of the Santiago de Compostella pilgrimmage in 5 days, I really did feel their pain.  But even as you feel their pain and sympathise with their situation, you're still a spectator, safe in the knowledge that you can stop walking, sit down, enjoy today with the knowledge that tomorrow is coming.

The book also makes you think about peer pressure, and how much easier it is to go with the status quo than to fight it, even when you life is on the line.

I was disappointed that you don't learn much about the society that allows - nay encourages - the Long Walk year after year.  Clues in the text indicate that America has become in some ways a police state, but the extent of it is hidden from the reader.  Similarly, the early text leads you to believe that the boys volunteer for the walk, which isn't quite the case.

I wasn't a fan of some of the boys' discussion, but I accept it as realistic.  There's some crass humour as well as discussions of bodily functions, etc.

If you liked The Hunger Games or Battle Royale and want a less violent, more introspective version of the same ideas, then check this out.

Stephen King Interview on Q Uncut

Q Uncut has posted an excellent interview with Stephen King, talking about his newest book 11/22/63.  One of my co-workers, who knows more about SF & F than I do, told me this book has the most unique take on time travel she's ever seen.

Click here for the interview.

Graphic Novel Review: American Vampire, Volume 1

 Written by:  Scott Snyder & Stephen King
Artist: Rafael Albuquerque

Pros: great stories, fantastic idea regarding vampire evolution, intriguing characters
Cons:
Art: rough strokes giving thick limbs and showing pencil lines, lots of motion, good shading and details

Too connected stories told by two writers, American Vampire is a great graphic novel.

Each comic (there are 4 in this collection) starts with a story by Scott Snyder involving aspiring actresses Pearl and Hattie.  Things don't go as expected when Pearl's invited to a party hosted by the producer of the film she's an extra on.

The second story, by Stephen King, deals with the origin of the titular American vampire.  A wild west bank robber is accidentally turned by a European bank owner during a bust gone bad.  But where the European vampires have trouble in sunlight and can't cross water easily, their American counterparts have no such weaknesses.

The two stories work well together, slowly explaining the vampire situation in the new world and how they evolve as a species based on different blood.

The artwork is blocky and thick lined and while it's normally not to my taste, it suits the subject matter here surprisingly well. 

Ultimately it's a great grapic novel.

Stephen King's Full Dark, No Stars

(If you saw the original version of this post where I got the book title wrong, please excuse it! I'm obviously not thinking clearly this morning. :P )

If you haven't heard, Stephen King's new collection of novellas, Full Dark, No Stars, is coming out November 9th. Here's a trailer for it:



And the cover copy from the book site:

“I believe there is another man inside every man, a stranger…” writes Wilfred Leland James in the early pages of the riveting confession that makes up “1922,” the first in this pitch-black quartet of mesmerizing tales from Stephen King. For James, that stranger is awakened when his wife, Arlette, proposes selling off the family homestead and moving to Omaha, setting in motion a gruesome train of murder and madness.

In “Big Driver,” a cozy-mystery writer named Tess encounters the stranger along a back road in Massachusetts when she takes a shortcut home after a book-club engagement. Violated and left for dead, Tess plots a revenge that will bring her face-to-face with another stranger: the one inside herself.

“Fair Extension,” the shortest of these tales, is perhaps the nastiest and certainly the funniest. Making a deal with the devil - never a stranger from most people with something to lose - not only saves Dave Streeter from a fatal cancer but provides rich recompense for a lifetime of resentment.

When her husband of more than twenty years is away on one of his business trips, Darcy Anderson looks for batteries in the garage. Her toe knocks up against a box under a worktable and she discovers the stranger inside her husband. It’s a horrifying discovery, rendered with bristling intensity, and it definitively ends a good marriage.

Like Different Seasons and Four Past Midnight, which generated such enduring films as The Shawshank Redemption and Stand by Me, Full Dark, No Stars proves Stephen King a master of the long story form.

To celebrate the release, Simon and Schuster Canada is holding a sweepstake. The winner gets a Stephen King library, including Full Dark, No Stars, and his two most recent DVDs (Mist and 1408).

Carrie - Stephen King

R. A. Salvatore mentioned something during his talk at the World's Biggest Bookstore that Guy Gavriel Kay said to him. Mr. Kay, in discussing the Lord of the Rings movies said something along the lines of, "Do you realize that no one from now on will approach the Lord of the Rings the way we did, by reading the book?"

At the time I thought that was improbable. Tolkien's books are classics, and while the movies were good, there's something to be said about reading the books. But that doesn't necessarily mean the books will be read first. Which would be a shame.

Take Carrie, by Stephen King. The book came out in 1974, several years before I was born. It's considered a classic of horror. And yet, I saw the movie long before reading the book (which I finally did this week). I imagine most people know the story. Or think they do.

Carrie is about a 16 year old girl who is brought up by a fundamentally religious woman, and whose unfortunately public onset of puberty set forth a chain of events that resulted in death and destruction. It's the kind of story where you imagine the suspense is in the ending, and is therefore ruined by knowing what's coming.

But it's not. The novel itself is told from many viewpoints and many time points. You get third person narrative following the various characters as the events slowly unfold interspersed with sections by future scholars analyzing the events, as well as memoirs and testimonies by survivors at the White Commission, designed to discover if such a disaster could reoccur. In other words, from early on in the novel you've got a pretty good idea of what's going to happen. You may not know all the details, but you already know telekinesis is involved and that... Well, I don't want to spoil the book for those who haven't read it. Suffice it to say, the suspense doesn't come so much from the ending as it does from two other things:

1) The explanation of how events proceed to bring such a conclusion, and
2) The personal motivations of the characters for their actions, all of which combine to form the final conclusion.

In other words, it's the journey not the destination that makes reading so much fun. And most of the interesting nuances from the book are necessarily lost when making a film. You can see some motivations but not all. It's one of those instances where telling actually works better than showing (something that's hard to do with movies).

Carrie White herself is an intriguing character. It would be easy to hate her, especially given her description at the start of the novel. And yet, as the book progresses you sympathize with her more and more, wanting things to go well for her. You honestly want the prom to be a chance for her to start anew, even while you know (because King tells you) that that's not going to happen.

Carrie's a great book. And there's more to it than the movie would have you believe.

I'm left wondering however, how the book would have affected me if I hadn't known the ending in advance. I found myself constantly trying to fit what was happening into my fuzzy recollections of what I remembered about the film. So maybe it is true that future generations will be less likely to read the book if a movie's out based on it.