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The Stand-Stephen King (1 Viewer)

Hudi124

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Yehuda Friedman
King absolutely is anti-technology, and he demonstrates it throughout The Stand. If you read the last chapter just before the epilogue in the unabridged version, It has Stu considering the drawbacks of society. He comes to the conclusion that all of our problems come from organization, and that it would probably be better if the Boulder Free Zone were to disperse, and the people just wander aimlessly around. In the last few paragraphs the unsubtle suggestion is made that, if we were to just abandon technology, all of mankind's problems would be solved.
"Maybe If we tell...(our) children. Warn them. Dear children, the toys are death-they're flashburns and radiation sickness and black, choking, plague. These toys are dangerous; The devil in men's brains guided the hands of God when they were made..."
So, he basically clumps all technology together as being evil, harmful and irredeemable. This makes him, in my opinion, not all that far removed from a Luddite. King is a brilliant writer, but his thoughts on society and technology are so far removed from reality as to be delusional fantasy. Organization and technology are the forces that have facilitated all the positive things about humanity; art, literature, vaccines, etc. (Obviously technology has also allowed the creation of terrible things, but to blindly label it as inherently 'bad' or 'good' is ignorant at best)
 

RobertR

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Hudi124 said:
King absolutely is anti-technology, and he demonstrates it throughout The Stand. If you read the last chapter just before the epilogue in the unabridged version, It has Stu considering the drawbacks of society. He comes to the conclusion that all of our problems come from organization, and that it would probably be better if the Boulder Free Zone were to disperse, and the people just wander aimlessly around. In the last few paragraphs the unsubtle suggestion is made that, if we were to just abandon technology, all of mankind's problems would be solved.
"Maybe If we tell...(our) children. Warn them. Dear children, the toys are death-they're flashburns and radiation sickness and black, choking, plague. These toys are dangerous; The devil in men's brains guided the hands of God when they were made..."
So, he basically clumps all technology together as being evil, harmful and irredeemable. This makes him, in my opinion, not all that far removed from a Luddite. King is a brilliant writer, but his thoughts on society and technology are so far removed from reality as to be delusional fantasy. Organization and technology are the forces that have facilitated all the positive things about humanity; art, literature, vaccines, etc. (Obviously technology has also allowed the creation of terrible things, but to blindly label it as inherently 'bad' or 'good' is ignorant at best)
As I read your post, I thought of the movie Maximum Overdrive, written and directed by King, in which he portrays machines as deliberately, consciously bent on destroying humanity.
 

Citizen87645

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There's also a moment in the Stand where

One of the characters speculates that most of the "techies" will gravitate to the Dark Man, because they need order and control, and presumably the gadgets they love so much. I found this amusing, in a holiday "drunk uncle," "Oh, Uncle Stephen's going off about technology again." way.

On a more general level, I found it odd for King to change the date to 1990 in his unabridged version, but then retain so much of the slang and historical references that's obviously tied to it being written in the '70s. Can you dig it? :rolling-smiley:
 

Josh Steinberg

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You should check out his book “On Writing” - if he keeps the same habits to this day, he wakes up bright and early, goes to his study, writes on an old fashioned typewriter until noon, and then calls it quits. His method is that he needs to write every day, and then he’ll discard or rewrite as necessary. He doesn’t sit around waiting for inspiration to strike; he goes to work looking for it.

I think if you’d ask him, he’d prefer to read a paper book, but that overall he cares more about people actually reading than what they read on. When the first Kindle came out, he wrote a short story that was exclusive to it for some time.
 

Jack Briggs

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I, a lover of science and technology, have never -- absolutely never -- had a trouble with Stephen King, who is my favorite writer. I am shedding all pretense here, and admitting to it. I no longer claim William Faulkner as my "favorite" writer. Sorry, but I love the work of the man who gave us an evil car, a haunted hotel, a town of vampires, a small time warp that transports people back to 1958, a pet burial ground that harbors evil, a mad writer's fan who nearly kills her idol, etc., etc., etc.

Is Mr. King "anti-technology"? He may be averse to using cell phones (read Cell), he may prefer pre-expansion baseball, and all that. But I do not get any sort of anti-technological vibe from the man.
 

Jack Briggs

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Also, Josh, you post is spot on. And it is good that you mentioned On Writing. Also worth reading: Dance Macabre.
 

Josh Steinberg

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He’s not so much anti-technology as he is anti-shortcut. A recurring theme in his writing isn’t really that technology is bad; it’s more about, if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.
 

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