Birthdays
Sibel Kekilli b. 1980 (Game of Thrones)
Tom Lenk b. 1976 (Buffy, Angel)
John Cho b. 1972 (Star Trek reboot)
Bill Cobbs b. 1934 (Brother From Another Planet, Star Trek: Enterprise, Oz the Great and Powerful, Night at the Museum)
Prediction: 16 June 1990: a disease created by biological warfare experts escapes from a lab. Called the “superflu” by authorities and given the nickname “Captain Trips” by the public, within weeks it kills over 98% of the world’s population.
Predictor: Steven King in The Stand - complete and uncut, published in 1990
Reality: This is not so much a prediction as a plot device. For his many devoted fans, King puts the time period just a few weeks away from the publishing date, so they can get the creepy thrill of thinking the end is just around the corner. The dates in the earlier version are different and had already passed.
Two comments.
1. Damn, this is a big book. I mean, George R.R. Martin looks at this thing and says, "What, they couldn't find you an editor, either?"
2. Captain Trips. Would people give an extinction level plague a jokey nickname? I know it references Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead and King is making a symbolic statement that the dead should be grateful they don't have to live through the crap storm that's coming after, but I just don't buy that people would be in the least bit lighthearted about this.
Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!
It's time for another dip into the great technological paradise those liars at Popular Mechanics promised us.
Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
Actually, the first release version of the Stand did have an editor, a pretty enthusiastic one; cut a couple hundred pages of expository fluff out of it.
ReplyDeleteAfter he had become rich and powerful like Elmer J Fudd, with a mansion and a yacht and beyond the reach of an editor, that he had the extras added back in.
They were OK, but as the editor gleaned, hardly necessary to the story.
And in later years, the Big Guy figured out the way around such travails by serializing his logorrhea.
Hey, ZR! I've only read a few things by King. I have to say that several of the movie versions of his non horror stuff have been entertaining and there are a lot of writers with better literary reputations who wish they could say the same.
Delete