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.

Stephen King's On Writing

So being a wannabe author like I am, I tend to write a lot and read a lot. So when a friend of mine raved about how amazing Stephen King's book was called "On Writing" I had to check it out and for the most part it was time well spent. I agree with a lot of the things he says and the process he went through writing various books. It was nice to read about an author who wasn't afraid to admit he didn't come from the swanky area of town and just happen to make it big. Knowing that there are authors who fess up to having had to actually work to be able to write for a living and all the struggles he faced was inspiring to me. I could read through and identify that I had been in a situation like that and it sucks but it doesn't mean the sky is falling or that you should give up on writing.

The one issue I did have is how in part of his book he declares that you are as good a writer as you will ever be. He says that it is impossible to make a competent writer out of a bad writer and equally impossible to create a good writer out of a competent one. This irked me the wrong was as it does many because I look down at my work and if this is as good as it gets I should just stop trying to write a book and create a pseudonym to write erotica for life. Most of those readers don't care how well it's written.

Thankfully I am in a position where I don't believe that. Not at face value anyway. I am using my write to interpret his words to come up with a different meaning that is implied. Some people just get it. Have you ever met one of those kids that picks up an instrument and starts to play and it sounds beautiful despite the fact they can't tell you what they are holding? I think writers have those people too. I think that is where you get people like Yeats from. They pick up a pen and it just works for them. That doesn't mean that if you can't do that you shouldn't write. It means you shouldn't expect to grow into be a savant or grand master. You may just have to settle for being a good writer. Or in the case of some people (like Stephanie Meyers) you should just get down on all four and thank god and your publisher/advertisers for gullible high school kids and their mothers trying to reclaim their youth.

I might go on a rant as to why the Twilight series is bad for society but that is for another day. Right now I'm trying to talk about an author worth reading. So as I was saying, I am taking my time to interpret his words. If he disagrees then he should have been clearer on the subject. I would probably have a rabid fan girl moment if he commented on this to tell me I'm wrong.

At any rate I feel I am starting to flake away at you. So here's some end notes. This past month I have submitted my short stories to see about that whole publishing thing. We'll see how it goes. I think I might have some pretty new rejection notices to hang on the wall but that is ok with me. Writing isn't for the faint of heart. It takes a thick skin, knowledge that if you have a five percent acceptance rate you are doing it right, and that if at first you don't succeed try and try again. It's all about the persistence and pigheadedness when people tell you there isn't money to be made in writing.

Crossing my fingers to be published,
Corset signing off.