Stephen King: The Running Man

Hi guys. I want to talk about books today because I’m starting to feel like I am the only one who reads anymore. If I want to talk to someone about a video game plot or what happened on Scandal last week then they are a dime a dozen but after I went on my latest book bender, I found myself lacking someone I could share my thoughts and have a discussion with. I bought 27 books and no one I know has read any of them.

It’s a bit of a bummer to be honest.

However read on at your own risk. I’m not promising spoilers or any context but I’d like to talk about some of the books I’ve recently read. Let’s start with Stephen King’s book, The Running Man.

The Running Man is a wonderful dystopia about an over populated world filled with devastating poverty and a man who is willing to risk his life to save his child, stop his wife from earning rent on her back, and be gainfully employed. However to get the money he needs to save his family our protagonist applies for a set of lethal game shows that pay based on how difficult it is to survive. Obviously he gets into one of the games or there would not be a plot.

I think one of my favorite aspects of the book is the honesty of the protagonist to himself the whole time. As I read the book I kept waiting for him to realize he was wrong about his beliefs and I adored the part of the book where I finally came to terms that he was right. As you read about the world he lives in I found myself wanting it to all be a lie but our protagonist is no superman in a cape.  

This is the point where hubby and I start to disagree. I see the protagonist joining the game as a way of finally embracing the dystopian society as all his rebelling did was drive them into poverty. My husband sees it as him rebelling because he is snarky and takes out his anger on those in wealthier positions.

If you are confused or intrigued at this point I’d recommend you go buy the book. Brand new it’s $8. I don’t know about you but I found my copy used for $1.50. Just throwing that out there.

Anyway, as the story progress I found the point where I saw him to be rebelling occurred much later in the plot. You know after stuff happens and he is challenged on many levels. I am also at this point just going to throw out there that I am a bit torn between revealing oodles of spoilers or hoping I intrigued people enough to go read the book and pose some questions we can talk about. I’ll start.

1.     Do you think our protagonist is rebelling against the system from the get go? Yes, No, Maybe so?

2.     What do you think actually happened to his daughter?

3.     Do you think he was justified in his actions?

4.     What about the games corporation? What events do you see occurring that could lead a society to a place where they would try and kill people for a game show?

If you haven’t read the book and this all sounds interesting I would like to place a challenge out there for you. Just one hour a day where you would watch tv, play a video game, putz on your phone and text people about what you want to do before giving up. Just stop and read a book for an hour. Or just one chapter at a time when you have a little to spare. It’s fun, honest. Who knows, if I can get enough people reading then maybe I will have someone to talk about books with.

Neil Gaiman

Raise your hand if you have ever read Neil Gaiman. I hope there are at least a couple of you out there. Don't recognize the author? That's ok. I'm talking about Neverwhere, American Gods, The Graveyard Book, Stardust,  Anansi Boys. Sound a little more familiar? I hope so. If they're not stick around for a bit. If they are, do stay.
Now the reason I picked those particular Neil Gaiman books is because they are the ones I have read. I try not to form too strong an opinion on something I don't know but for this I am fairly convinced. Neil Gaiman doesn't know how to write stories involving Gods. Let's start with Exhibit A, American Gods. The story had potential. It opens with potential living dead, creepy hallucinations, and adorable pet names. A BA ex con whose dead woman used to call him puppy, I think it's darling. However that's about as far as the characterization of the guy went. The story itself was dull and I found I kept reading just because it was a Neil Gaiman book and I kept telling myself if had to get better. The characters felt flat to me. The plot not 100% thought through. And to avoid spoilers, let's just say I was overall disappointed. 
That was Ok though. I had Neverwhere to keep me company for many rereads or if I wanted something a little more chipper I had Stardust. Then I managed to get a copy of the Anansi Boys. It was a book about a man called Fat Charlie Nancy who has no ambitions and no real merit in the world. He is an accountant and he is due to unenthusiastically be married. Then his father dies and at the funeral he discovers that he is the son of a spider god and he doesn't have powers because his brother has them all. If he ever wants to talk to his brother he just has to ask a spider to invite him. Once again this book gets off to a great start and it took me a little bit to think back to American Gods and make the connection that this was a spin off tale. That is probably why I didn't enjoy it and found the same flaws in it.
So once more disappointed with a Gaiman book I set my sights on The Graveyard Book. It was written for children I believe but had quite a fascinating story of the life of a little boy. This little boy's parents are murdered when he is just three years old and he waddles into a graveyard exploring/escaping from the murderer. It is in the graveyard the the inhabitants find him and protect him. The story follows the next twelve years of his life and what he goes through and all he learns being raised in a graveyard. I found it to be a darling story that kept me entertained all throughout. It was paced nicely and while it was a bit heavy on foreshadowing to the point of prediction, it was quite an enjoyable read that I would recommend. 
Now being in a couple of fiction courses, I have quite an extensive lot to read for class and it's not leaving me much time to read on my own. However the list is quite a varied selection of short stories and perhaps I will share my opinions of them with you in a little bit. I have my own works of fiction to create right now as well as papers to be done and a reading list to hack away at so I am capable of discussing things in class. 
So Corset is going to cross her fingers and try and find time to finish reading Charles DeLint The Onion Girl. Unfortunately it won't be today.
With Laundry calling her name,
Corset signing off.