Assorted Discussion Questions (Plague Chapters)

[aeroplane]

one thing that kind of bugs me about the stand is how a lot of the superflu victims happened to die doing things that seem routine. at the compound where the outbreak first happens, the entire cafeteria is full of people that seem to have been just eating when they died. tons of cars out in public clogging streets with people behind the wheel. i mean, every death that's described in the story, the person goes through quite a sickness and is at a point where they don't even know what's going on around them. i know campion was driving while he was looking death in the eye and i'm sure there were people that were still capable of functioning in a very limited capacity even though they were very sick, but it just seems staggering to me how many people were doing day to day things when they died.

one other thing, stu's nurse that sneezes on her way to see him and doesn't think twice about it, even though there's a large sign at the nurses station that says report any kind of sickness, no matter how little it is, and she sees that sign every day she's working and i'm sure the brass at the compound had hammered home to everyone that they have to report even a sniffle. i would have been able to take that characters reaction to her sneezing better if she thought "oh ****, i might be in some trouble here...but i know what they're doing to sick people, so i'm just going to keep this to myself."

don't get me wrong, i love this story....just a couple things that stick out in my mind.

Interesting point. This makes me wonder what the President, Vice President, Deitz and Denninger were all doing around the time the end was near for them. The first two were busy "running the country" and the latter two were busy trying to find a vaccine or cure of some sort. How long do you think each of them stayed on the job and how were they managing things as the sickness set in?

The nurse Patty Greer helped speed up the process of Captain Trips wiping out the plague center in Atlanta. However, the bigwigs over there were doomed to get sick sooner or later. She just made this happen 12-24 hours earlier. For example, we see a scene where Deitz is sitting around in his "street clothes" without the space suit on and talking into a tape recorded (his final scene in the book). Sort of a bad idea as easy as the superflu was to catch.

Not to mention I'm pretty sure some of their bigwigs were in civilian clothes at several points while talking to and processing the people of Arnette.

[aeroplane]

No the comics don't say either. They are pretty faithful to the novel so I didn't expect them to offer any further speculation as to Creighton's fate.

I figure the troops assignned to the Project were of a different caliber. they would probably all have Top Secret clearances and understand the nature of their assignment or duty. In my 14 years as a soldier I served in the Armor Corp (tanks), Military Intelligence and the Signal Corp (communications). Whne I was in Military Intelligence I world closely with infantry and aviation (helicopters) soldiers. There are differences between the folks who go into those different branches. Not bad difference, but differences. Most infantry soldiers are in the late teens and early twenties and are like young men all over the world. MI and Siganl Corp tends to have older troops (but not always) who are more technically oriented. Many enlisted MI soldiers have some college and more than a few (such as me) have four year degrees.

In the early seventies whne SK wrote the novel the Army still had a large percentage of draftees in the ranks. Especially in the infantry and morale was very bad. In the years immediately following Vietnam things were shaky all over the military - not just the Army infantry units. The only branch that was probably still pretty tight would have been the Marine Corp and even they Marines were forced to take draftees in the last few years of the Vietnam War. Also many of the troops out in the different locations would have been NAtional Guard troops. I spent a few years in the Gaurd and Guardsmen are usually older part time soldiers. They have families, professions in the civilan world and are connected to the local communities where their respective units are based. With a disaster like Capt. Tripps the Guardsmen might have been acting out of rage and frustration. They could have served as a catalyst for the breakdown of discipline. The troops assignned to the Project would have probably been career military, educated, technically oriented and not as agressive as your typical 19 year old private in the infantry. Basically like a NASA technician in uniform. So no I don't see them losing control. But who knows?

Even though the President is dead and Starkey has offed himself there is still a chain of command. The Chiefs of Staff, Vice President etc. Somebody else could ahve given the order.

Assuming that Creighton might have been immune to Captain Trips, for a period of a few hours he might have been the most powerful man in the United States (at least in the chain of command) once the rest of the government officials started dropping like flies.

Do you ever wonder if Creighton ended up meeting with the President as Starkey had requested? How did he get there? Surely not a commercial flight, I wouldn't think. Does he know the President is sick ahead of time and wouldn't this worry Creighton?

Meanwhile, I found another answer to my long-running Creighton question. Someone has a fan fiction piece online clearly indicating what "could have" happened to him. It is a pretty short read if you have five or ten minutes.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/30872

I'd definitely like to ask King what were are supposed to purport happened to Creighton. However, I'd worry if he'd remember the character all that well. Or if he did, you might get a quick, 'he died of the flu.'

[Checkman]

First of all let me apologize for my many typos. I typed that while sitting in my car and it isn't easy doing eighty on the Interstate while typing. Okay that's a joke. I was parked, but it still can be awkward.

Okay I followed the link. That little piece was very well written. For a moment I wondered if it was SK writing it. It was very faithful to his style and would easily slide into the novel without any seams showing. Obviously others have wondered about Len's fate like you and I have. But I still like to think that he was immune. You're probably right though about what Mr. King would say if you asked him about Len's fate though.

As far as meeting the president. Well in the novel ,and even more so in the comic adaptation, it's apparent that the President is no longer in Washington D.C. Perhaps he isn't to far from Project Blue in an underground bunker? Can we really say that we know about all the possible hiding spots they have for the president and other "important" people? It might have been a simple two hour helicopter ride to the president's location somewhere in Nevada or Nothern New Mexico.

Oh by the way did you read some of the other fan fiction involving The Stand? I espeically enjoyed the crossover of The Stand with Stargate/Atlantis. Lots of fun - if one can say such a thing about a story involving the death of billions.