Reminded me of Lord of the Rings a bit

[Sarkisaur]

*spoilers*

Especially Stu and Tom's return journey, similar to Frodo and Sam i thought. Plus the books are of equal length (1000+ pages each). And both books deal with a hugely epic story about the world ending (or near enough) and good vs. evil.

I understand the depth of Tolkein's work, him having practically made up an entire new language, etc. But still these works seem similar to me, and i wonder why The Stand is nowhere near as lauded as LOTR. Is it a genre snobbery issue? The fact that The Stand is a modern tale, with vulgarity? Cos of course, vulgarity = low-brow *rolls eyes*.

But that can't be it either, surely. Look at Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh...

Just seems like The Stand doesn't get its due credit. I never hear it mentioned in lists of the greatest books, etc.

[JohnDalglish]

Hi,

Aye, indeed.

The Stand was the first book I ever read to replace LotR as my favourite ever (before DT).

I consider it the greatest novel of the 20th century.

Long days and pleasant nights

[GNTLGNT]

The feel and grand sweep of the book is very similar to LOTR and if Uncle Stevie had been born on the Moors and worn a tweed jacket while he wrote-maybe puffed on a pipe and thought "Pip, Pip, Cheerio" was the height of conversational brilliance-his critics might just have wet their knickers and put him into the shrine of "Great and Deep" authors(with a capital and snobby A). But, since he is so much like all of us common folk(with a MUCH larger bank roll)-he isn't considered one of the greats by many. What a laugh! He'll always be the best in my opinion, and that's usually the only one that counts(unless the wife tells me otherwise)

[Pucker]

This is an interesting comparison when you consider that The Lord of the Rings is merely one part of a much larger mythology and that, as time has gone by, much of Mr. King's work has been intertwined with The Dark Tower. Not that this has anything in particular to do with The Stand itself, but it strikes me that there might be an entirely different thread concocted around this very idea.

[BlaineThePain]

From what I remember, The Dark Tower itself is partly an homage to The Lord of the Rings. The name the Dark Tower can refer both to the Browning poem and Sauron's tower.
I never really though about similarities with The Stand, but ya, there are a couple. A small band going to their seeming death. Trashcan Man as Gollum. The red eye of the Crimson King, which was Sauron's symbol. Sauron and Flagg both seeing great distances with their 'eye.' Moria and the Lincoln Tunnel (no balrogs in NY though). This could be a fun discussion.

[JG_Hilliard]

Not accidental. If I recall correctly, King is quoted as saying something to the affect of the motivation for the Stand being wanting to write a LOTR of his style for the modern United States. I'll get back with a link if I can. I think I read it in a book I have though, and most of my collection is at my friend's house that I used to live at.

[JG_Hilliard]

Thanks wikipedia, found the quote. It was in Dance Macabre "For a long time—ten years, at least—I had wanted to write a fantasy epic like The Lord of the Rings, only with an American setting. I just couldn't figure out how to do it. Then . . . after my wife and kids and I moved to Boulder, Colorado, I saw a 60 Minutes segment on CBW (chemical-biological warfare). I never forgot the gruesome footage of the test mice shuddering, convulsing, and dying, all in twenty seconds or less. That got me remembering a chemical spill in Utah, that killed a bunch of sheep (these were canisters on their way to some burial ground; they fell off the truck and ruptured). I remembered a news reporter saying, 'If the winds had been blowing the other way, there was Salt Lake City.' This incident later served as the basis of a movie called Rage, starring George C. Scott, but before it was released, I was deep into The Stand, finally writing my American fantasy epic, set in a plague-decimated USA. Only instead of a hobbit, my hero was a Texan named Stu Redman, and instead of a Dark Lord, my villain was a ruthless drifter and supernatural madman named Randall Flagg. The land of Mordor ('where the shadows lie,' according to Tolkien) was played by Las Vegas."

[BlaineThePain]

I guess if The Stand is his Lord of the Rings, then The Dark Tower is his Silmarillion. Along with most of his other books. Frodo lives!

[Doc Wilson]

Yep, the Stand was his homage to LOTR, and to my mind it far surpasses its inspiration on every level imaginable.

[randallFlaggfan1]

The feel and grand sweep of the book is very similar to LOTR and if Uncle Stevie had been born on the Moors and worn a tweed jacket while he wrote-maybe puffed on a pipe and thought "Pip, Pip, Cheerio" was the height of conversational brilliance-his critics might just have wet their knickers and put him into the shrine of "Great and Deep" authors(with a capital and snobby A). But, since he is so much like all of us common folk(with a MUCH larger bank roll)-he isn't considered one of the greats by many. What a laugh! He'll always be the best in my opinion, and that's usually the only one that counts(unless the wife tells me otherwise)

No matter what anyone says, Stephen is and will always be the best. There's no comparison.