The Stand, Stephen King, expanded edition 1990 (restores 400 pages the publisher made him remove from the 1978 first edition to cut costs), 1141 pagesThe Stand, Stephen King, expanded edition 1990 (restores 400 pages the publisher made him remove from the 1978 first edition to cut costs), 1141 pages, ISBN 0451169530. Set in 1990.
An engaging story. Elements of magic. p. 730.
This is fiction, but gives us true portrayals of the attitudes of people in power toward people without power. The most horrific parts are the ways people with power really do use it.
"Gentlemen, a regrettable incident has occurred. And when a regrettable incident occurs which involves any branch of the United States Military, we don't question the roots of that incident but rather how the branches may best be pruned. The service is mother and father to us. And if you find your mother raped or your father beaten and robbed, before you call the police or begin an investigation, you cover their nakedness. Because you love them." p. 124. "Covering up, even after the damage is done, is all-important." p. 525.
Spoiler: plot: (view spoiler)["He'll call them. The evil ones, the weak ones, the lonely ones, and the ones that have left God out of their hearts" p. 503. "We're the knot in a tug-o-war." pp. 535, 696. "Nothin' lasts, only the love of the Lord." p. 510. "I don't believe in God." "Bless you, but that don't matter. /He/ believes in /you/." p. 505.
To Stephen King, "The half-life of evil is always relatively short." p. 1001. (hide spoiler)]
Many characters, each with too little of what they need, many are self-destructive, but most of them are resilient.
"The world had all the charm of an eighty-year-old man dying of cancer of the colon." p. 329.
"He's come out the other side. No one can chart that lonely section of hell. You just … come out the other side. Or you don't. p. 435.
The mother of one character: "Sometimes I think you'd cross the street to step in dogshit." p. 88.
Another character: "They thought I was a lunatic. The strong possibility that they were right did nothing to improve our relations." p. 328.
"Where would he go? A hotel? The doorman at any hotel better than a fleabag would laugh his ass off and tell him to get lost. He was wearing good threads, but they knew. Somehow those bastards knew. They could /smell/ an empty wallet." p. 89.
Only love allows men and women to stand in a world where gravity always wants to pull them down. p. 199.
"He knew enough to shut off his mouth when his brains weren't running." p. 641.
Voting makes them feel like they're in control. p. 746.
A little self-righteousness is to the soul what sunblock is to the skin. p. 799.
He had translated his terror to the page. p. 794. The only writing that had ever come as a result of belief and personal commitment. p. 796.
Regular doses of gratuitous sex, as expected of the average best-seller.
Recommends "Lapham's /The Law and the Classes of Society/;" the closest actual book may be Lewis H. Lapham's /Money and Class in America/. p. 920. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
Fareed Zakaria purports to demonstrate that an excess of democracy is the main threat to individual liberty and freedom. --David Harvey, A Brief HistoFareed Zakaria purports to demonstrate that an excess of democracy is the main threat to individual liberty and freedom. --David Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism, 2005, p. 184. To the contrary, necessitous men are not free men. Excessive profits create undue private power. --Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1935. Ibid, p. 183....more
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