This is the wrong time to read The Stand

[Ophelia]

You know, swine flu scare and all. It's kinda freakin' me out.

"so and so sneezed three times delicately into her handkerchief and then the entire eastern seaboard died."

*shudder*

[aptpupil]

Au contraire

The greatest asset of a novel like "The Stand" is that nagging feeling that it invokes in the reader which insists that, regardless of how horrific the story is, there is enough basis in fact to make such an event a plausible future possibility. So, when something such as Swine Flu starts to run amok amongst the general population, it serves to blur that fine line between fact and fiction, and brings the premise of a story like "The Stand" into the realms of reality, and thus makes it a more relevant, and more frightening, novel.

So, read it against the current backdrop, and enjoy the terror!

[Ophelia]

Oh, exactly!

I more meant that if I wanted a clear line between fiction and reality, if I wanted to keep my head while reading a scary story, I shouldn't have read The Stand during a flu scare.

[michal]

There is never a bad time to read a book, I feel. I often imagine myself in the after-world of the survivors, and having the real world catch up with fiction just improves the story, I think - makes it easier to Suspend the Disbelief.

[Jesse Lovett]

I know I'm just reading it now well for a lil while now but its so freaky!!!

[teejay17]

Just wash your hands before you eat or touch your face/eyes.

[luckygehrig]

I agree with everyone else. I think this is the best time to read The Stand. Current events really bring the book that much more to life.

[Ophelia]

There is never a bad time to read a book, I feel. I often imagine myself in the after-world of the survivors, and having the real world catch up with fiction just improves the story, I think - makes it easier to Suspend the Disbelief.

Imagine how freaked out George Orwell would've been...

[jchanic]

I'm waiting until the middle of October (when the flu is supposed to be really starting) to reread The Stand. It seems more appropriate.

John

[Ranger_Strider]

I always thought The Stand was more about the eternal struggle between good and evil, incidentally set against a backdrop of one flavor of armageddon (superflu, aka Captain Trips) so as to set the struggle in motion.