The Lloyd Henreid "trial" sequence -- while one of the most entertaining and interesting scenes in the book -- always struck me as baffling.
So much of The Stand is rooted in reality, feels so real that it makes the characters and situations seem and feel so believable. We can buy into Captain Trips and the military base and Trashcan and Mother Abigail and The Kid and all the rest, to me, in large part because everything seems so real and fits into our perception of real life.
But this thing is so fantastical it seems out of place. I never knew what to make off it. It seems like a dream sequence or something. The crazy lawyer with his hip-DJ speech style (you know what I mean, Sylvester), the 40 executions under this unknown swift justice law ... it seems as unreal as the rest of the book feels authentic.
Anyone else share my view of this sequence? Have you found any way to make it fit? My take has been that this is something that played out in Lloyd's mind and that the lawyer is really Flagg, that it's a sort of mindfreak implant into Lloyd's head that plays a part in preparing him for his future role and things to come -- a way to make him more crazed and desparate and broken down, so he will accept Flagg when the Walking Dude steps into his life.
I'm curious to know how alone I am on this. Feedback would be appreciated.
Could be you're on to something, Pat, a twist on the Time Passages that I've begun to call these sort of things...cue
the soundtrack, "Buy me a ticket on the last train home tonight". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRKyGhgoNE8
I've seen variations of Time Passages in other stories...from other writers...Out of Sight, from Elmore Leonard, where
Karen Sisco has an imaginary conversation w/her old man...Look Homeward, Angel, from Thomas Wolfe, where Eugene
is reading and after he finishes and blows his heart into a handkerchief, he begins to imagine life with Bessie Barnes who
morphs into his 4th-grade teacher. There's others I've come across...I'm sure there are a pile of them in King's stories...I know
there's variations in his stories...just haven't listed them, as yet. Time Passages is only something I began to notice w/a
rereading of Wolfe's story...or perhaps it was From Here to Eternity that kicked it off.
Perhaps this is one...that begins on page 179 in my U.S.A. paperback version of the complete and unabridged story. Why does it
seem to fit the...criteria? What Devins tells Sylvester 6-pages later, I believe that if you search your memory, you'll remember Poke
telling you that your gun was loaded with blanks. Do you remember that? It's the Dallas Police, man, they're everywhere! But I
haven't convinced myself beyond a reasonable doubt, as yet...but yeah, get's your motor running...head out on the highway!
Markham vs. South Carolina (spoilers)
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