How close is the depiction of Maine (and other places) to reality?

[Gerald]

I've never visited Maine or the US, but the books are often very detailed about the locale. They name highway numbers, roads, towns etc.

Of course some towns are fictional, like Derry or Castle Rock, but how does he use them within the existing REAL Maine (or whatever the locale of the particular novel is)? Does he adapt existing highways or roads and change them for the characters to reach the fictional places?

Is there anyone from Maine here or does ms. Mod know?

[GNTLGNT]

...I bow to Marsha's "inside track", but I've always thought he hewed pretty close to reality other than the fictional locales....

[Moderator]

I've never visited Maine or the US, but the books are often very detailed about the locale. They name highway numbers, roads, towns etc.

Of course some towns are fictional, like Derry or Castle Rock, but how does he use them within the existing REAL Maine (or whatever the locale of the particular novel is)? Does he adapt existing highways or roads and change them for the characters to reach the fictional places?

Is there anyone from Maine here or does ms. Mod know?

Short answer is yes. He uses real locations as they are or adapts them and puts them in his fictional locales. For example, many of the Derry places he's mentioned exist in Bangor.

[mjs9153]

There isn't really a door down there in the sewers,in a huge room,a door with a curiously inscribed device,which leads into..:eek2: Nah,couldnt be..:grinning:

[not_nadine]

Just watch yerself on the beaches.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_q1lg2fSahTI/TRDnZ9PfQGI/AAAAAAAABG4/sE-ADOh_GDE/s1600/lobstrosity72.jpg

[king family fan]

Guess we all have visited maine in our reading.Sure hoping it visit Maine in real life.

[Terry B]

What a wonderful question Gerald and thanks for asking it. Surprised no one has before.

[Gerald]

So if I get it right, Derry is a fictional version of Bangor? If you knew Bangor you'd recognize parts of it inside his geography of Derry?

It's kind of hard to look over the many stories and books and be sure whether it all matches and he always uses places and names in the same way. I wonder if he actually has a fictional map for himself or that it's instinctual.

I suppose what you get is a sort of patchwork where some things are real and if you'd visit you'd find it as it is described in the books and other things don't match at all?
He sometimes apologizes in a book for the liberties he takes with certain places.

The thing is that it all feels very authentic, it seems very detailed, especially the roads and highways he mentions. There is not some book (or site) where you'd find photos of places he used and how they look in reality?
For example, I seem to recall him saying that Uncle Otto's truck was real. So, it would be great to find things like that and put them in a book. No one thought about that ever?

I also wonder when he uses an existing street and a house number in an existing city like, say, New York if he checks the real adress, or takes a number that doesn't exist there. Because in reality it could be a house where real people live...

[Moderator]

Yes, that's exactly it, there are places mentioned in the books that will match the real locations especially with the Derry/Bangor locales. The Paul Bunyan statue is real, the Standpipe water tower is real, the barrens and (Kenduskeag Stream) canal are there, Mt. Hope Cemetery, and the list goes on.

Here's a link (http://www.stephenking.com/promo/11-22-63/als_diner/location_shots/) to location shots taken in Lisbon Falls for sites mentioned in 11/22/63.

He's more careful these days about giving out actual locations that aren't public property or phone numbers that are real (sorry, Maine State Police barracks :blush:).

[~Ally~]

The Paul Bunyan statue is real, the Standpipe water tower is real, the barrens and (Kenduskeag Stream) canal are there, Mt. Hope Cemetery, and the list goes on.

That's just what I was about to post...and I have the pictures to prove it. :wink2:
Damn, I'd love to revisit Maine again, it's amazing to finally see all these places in real life. :love:

[Gerald]

Thanks! So I suppose before (or during) writing he goes to the real places he wants to depict and takes notes, photos etc.?

I also suppose they do tours in Bangor and visit the places with groups? It's always hard to imagine when reading a book which is such a mix of facts and fantasy what the real places would be.

[Moderator]

Not really necessary for most of the places in Maine since he has lived most of his life here but he has gone to places outside Maine as research when he's writing about those, e.g. a copper mine in Nevada when writing Desperation, visited Dallas when writing 11/22/63, and the places he writes about in Florida are familiar to him from spending the winters living there for the past 10-12 years.

The Bangor Visitors & Convention Bureau offers several tours a year and there is a private company that does them in the Bangor area by appointment.

[Spideyman]

Uncle Steve was so spot on in Duma Key. The description of the storms rolling in from the gulf are way too realistic!!

[Gerald]

How does it work with adresses? Like for example in The Breathing Method it's about East Thirty-fifth Street 246B, New York. Do such adresses really exist? Or does he also take care to make an adress totally fictional in picking numbers/streets that don't exist?

In a fictional town you can do as you like, but I don't get how you do it with the real ones...

[E.Freemantle]

I can tell you this. I have visited small towns : Marquette Michigan, Tannersville New York State, and The tip of the Keewanaw Peninsula in the middle of Lake Superior.I am now in flooded Long Beach, New York( living with no heat and hot water and now back on the net with 14 days without juice. )-P.S. stay away from electronics(i.e. kindles.) my hardcovers and my lady and my hardcovers with candles saved my soul. This like the REACH ;another sort of Wrong beach,Wrong Island-an inescapable insular segregated secret mess of a community. I'm sure as I witnessed the water creating a Tsunami flooding 20 blocks away from the beach- here with four feet of water. During Hurricane Sandy looters were laughing in vernacular broken English" Ha Ha ha my man got the money" as they ran from 7-11 , The irish hate the jews, and the Italians hate the jews and the irish. The Catholics hate the Protestants.Hispanics and blacks of different colors hate each other according to national pride and similar scapegoat judgements. it has been a mixture of "Under the Dome" and "Needful things" here. People throwing out soaked belongings ;photographing them for FEMA checks; then screaming at even less fortunate homeless for rooting through their trash. When there was no power for 14 days, The national guard had to stop people from killing one another fighting for over cell phone charging stations. I'm sure that Mr. Stephen king's universe is VERY much a verisimilitude of anywhere Mr. King has experienced, (including florida and The Southwest- NOT JUSYT MAINE) Human brutality,prejudice, religious zealot fervor judgement, envy, hate, covetousness, violence, and general human grotesqueries of the demons and lesser angels of our being ARE EVERYWHERE, to me that is wht mr. king's work hits deep and rings true in the heart and mind.. Here in Long Beach New York -even prior to the flood- it was (as a monogamous couple )to be deemed selfish; and not cool amongst 18 to 40 year old boundless swingers. Drugs and alcoholism abound, perverts roam the streets spend a night in jail and move on to go right back to torture others. My overall point being that which seems naturally idyllic,-(Forested Maine or Midwest small towns to isolated beach communities- are thin veneer masks of envy,debauchery, plotting twisted lusts, hidden infidelities and the deepest levels of drug or abuse induced degradation one would naively expect to find in a bombed out third world country. The fish stinks from the head down-everywhere. All one can depend on is LONG GAINED TRUST, a slightly opened heart, and faith that there will always be people like those on this site who read Mr. King and gain lesson -filled thrills, comfort and a kind of mass love from the literary escape. After all is said "The artist sees what the artist makes- the viewer/ reader is what they see or get out of it. These places in Maine or anywhere else are as real as the sweat from your nightmares.

[Gerald]

How does it work with adresses, ms. Mod, or is it something you can't disclose or know?

[Moderator]

He doesn't intentionally use real residential addresses as it could cause problems for those living there.

[guido tkp]

e.freemantle...i am just awed...that was a fantastic rendition of what must be a scary-as sh!t- time for you...

i guess we never really know what it'd be like until the wheels come off, all while you're flying downhill...

but that.???

that was unnerving...

good luck, friend

[MemnochTheDevil]

I came across this graphic of Stephen King's Maine a while back and thought it might help. I tired to attach the picture, but couldn't get it to work, so I have included a link to the original article below.

http://bigthink.com/strange-maps/2-stephen-kings-maine

[William Stebbing]

Do many people know that the film of the Tommyknockers was filmed in New Zealand (near Auckland, Puhoi, I actually lived there for seven years)...the scenery looks the same as Maine? I wouldn't have thought so!! Anyway, I have always wanted to go to NE, thanks to the mastery of Stephen's writing.

[Gerald]

Is that map by Frank Jacobs that MemnochTheDevil linked officially approved by Stephen, ms. Mod?

There have been maps of streets and town in books, but never one of the whole of his fictionalized Maine for his whole work as far as I know. Does he use such a map for himself as reference to remember how he laid out roads, towns etc. in previous books?

[Moderator]

I don't think we included that when we did the last site update as it needed a lot of tweaking but it was on stephenking.com at one time. No, he doesn't use a physical map to the best of my knowledge--it's pretty much in his head and he can always go back to the books if he needs to to refresh his memory.

We had grand plans to create an interactive map at one time that would include all the places, fictional and real, not just in Maine but in all his stories with overlays, pictures of real locations, etc. but it was too much for us to take on with the staff that we have so had to let that idea go.

[not_nadine]

You guys lookin to hire?

[blunthead]

...We had grand plans to create an interactive map at one time that would include all the places, fictional and real, not just in Maine but in all his stories with overlays, pictures of real locations, etc. but it was too much for us to take on with the staff that we have so had to let that idea go.I'd sooo love that.

[Gerald]

So, the Jacobs map is the only one we have then.

That interactive map idea sounds great, exactly the thing I'd like. It would also make a great poster I'd imagine.To see all the houses of characters, the summerhouses, places where certain events took place etc.

Hopefully the idea remains alive and the staff is able to pull it off at a certain moment.

[Moderator]

You guys lookin to hire?

Sorry, afraid not which is why we had to give up the idea. :sad:

[Moderator]

We'd even tossed around ideas about having maps of The Territories and the real places where Jack "flipped" back and forth, maps for the Dark Tower including real locations, e.g. pics of the real park where the statue of the turtle is located and the skyscraper mentioned, etc., maps for the locations from The Stand, and on and on for his works. The idea was that when you clicked on a spot all those extras would become available for viewing. As I say a very ambitious plan but would have been tres cool. Unfortunately, a lot of logistics for getting photos, creating overlays, making it all work smoothly, etc. that made it impossible.

[not_nadine]

I should have put a winky face after.. That would be very cool to have, thou.

[Gerald]

Has he been to New Hampshire?

And Louisiana?

And Los Angeles?

I always think you can write best about a place you know to avoid mistakes (usually the advice given and taught), but then in the end it doesn't matter that much perhaps: Stoker is said to never have visited the Carpathians, yet from the book you'd never tell - only the people who've been there might find mistakes.

[Robert Gray]

I can honestly say that he captures Maine quite accurately. In my mind's eye at least, I saw what I later walked. Derry which is a fictionalization of Bangor, Maine not only shares many landmarks, the descriptive feel in general is there.

[Gerald]

But this goes only for Derry, I assume? Places like Castle Rock or Haven (from Tommyknockers) are not based on existing towns or have landmarks of existing towns?

I kind of wonder why he did this only for Derry...

[Moderator]

He's done it for other towns as well but since he has lived in Bangor for many years, that's the logical one to do this in more detail. Chester's Mill is based on Bridgton, Maine and the map in the book was drawn as a loose representation of the layout of streets and businesses Steve used as his inspiration for Under the Dome.

[Gerald]

Ha ha, and people who live there WILL notice. I once used only the NAMES of stores in an existing street, without any other reference to it. And people said: I KNOW where you got your names. :)