Is There An Official Reason For Changing The Year Of The Plague?

[allanwood]

I've always wondered why King moved the year in which the novel is set, from 1985 to 1990. Did he ever give an official explanation?

In the original, published in 1978, the plague is set 7 years in the future. The uncut version, published in 1990, is set in 1990. Not wanting the plague to be set in the past would be unavoidable without updating the book every year. Anyone buying The Stand now reads the plague happening 22 years ago (so to speak). It seems like moving the date created a lot of work in updating all the cultural references, etc. Why not just keep the plague in 1985 and add the material he added?

[Shoe]

Two very similar but slightly differing worlds on separate levels of the Tower. Time slipped a little bit for one of them before the Captain gets loose.

[GNTLGNT]

Why not just keep the plague in 1985

...not when you got a little Captain in you...

http://images.sodahead.com/profiles/0/0/1/9/2/8/3/5/7/got-a-little-captain-in-you-12952054623.jpeg

[Chris1974100]

wow this is cool man

[Todash]

I'm not sure how many cultural references he really changed, but he certainly had to reread the book anyway because of how much extra material he added back to the uncut version. Seems to me that already being in there, it would have been pretty easy for someone like King, who immerses himself in popular culture anyway, to update the references to be current.

Heck, maybe it was all because of the chocolate-covered PayDays. :biggrin2: