The Stand: The Wait

The Stand: Blog Post 2

I’m getting closer to finishing, although not as close as I would like at this point. I’m now on page 1136 of 1647. The camps are beginning to really assemble, characters have grown out of their backstories and developed their own depth, and the spring, and the stand, is coming closer. I really like this book, but I do find myself wishing it would hurry up at times. Two of the characters, Nadine and Harold have evil intentions although they still remain in Boulder, the good team’s camp, and that provides the most interesting drama between characters. However because King can’t have them killed off, he has them plot and struggle with their relationships despite the lack of real action. Hopefully, one of them will lash out soon to provide some excitement. The matriarch of the good team is also missing, fasting in the desert after missing a key clue from God about Nadine, with no luck at all despite extensive searching. While King does a really great job juxtaposing technology and religion, even comparing the evil of Vegas with tech and the good of Boulder with divine faith, he chooses to make the main religious character disappear for several hundred pages while the mortals get back on their feet. It’s interesting to see society re-build itself in Boulder, but the growing suspense is getting a bit stale. I’m looking forward to hearing about the spies they send to Vegas, Abigail returning, Harold and Nadine being found out, and Stu Redman becoming Sheriff.

As far as my research on the novel goes, I feel like I’ve lost sight a little of what I want to do. As the story has progressed, I’ve become less focused on the relationship between the government/military and the superflu, and more interested on the relationship between religion and good, and the juxtaposition of that connection with the science and weapons gathered for evil. I think I may start trying to find a topic that could bridge that gap, perhaps talking about how the progression of science in a military setting has actually been a negative process overall. It would be instrumental to find a paper or essay on that from which I could develop a thesis for the research paper. I think I will just end up researching biological warfare in WWI and how the war sparked industrial and scientific research, despite the destruction it caused. It would honestly help me to choose a specific event within the war, but I will need to do more research over the course of this week to find a key battle or scientist which I can base my thesis on.

Until then I must keep reading. I honestly can’t believe that if I wasn’t reading the Stand I could have read maybe five other (read: shorter) books by now. I suppose that’s a healthy sign for my summer reading habits, which I hope will only be stronger when I have more time on my hands and less responsibility. I am also reading the entirety of The Stand on my phone, something I hadn’t really tried before but is actually better than expected. It’s nice to be able to read at any time, and with a book like this it totally saves space in my backpack. Plus I think it only cost me five bucks, the paperback is more like ten.