Crept into the Psyche

The GoodReads profile asks for influences, and I listed mine free-association style. One of the influences I listed was “Stand By Me,” but as I said, I didn’t actually give it much thought. Yesterday, my dad read “President Park Incidents” and he noted that the interactions between the friends were similar to “Stand By Me.” He hasn’t seen my “influences” list, so I tried to think about what particular interactions might have keyed him into that connection, and I thought of the following conversation. I haven’t seen the movie in maybe 10 years, and I’m quoting this from memory, so maybe I shouldn’t be surprised that this crept into my psyche and resulted in a very similar conversation between Tay and Sarah at one point in my novelette.

Chris (played by River Phoenix): You’ll be a great writer someday, Gordie.

Gordie (Played by Wil Wheaton): F#@k writing. I don’t want to be a writer. It’s stupid. It’s a stupid waste of time.

I had also forgotten that Gordie was a writer. Thankfully, none of my characters are writers:)

Of course, my dad had insight that other readers won’t, such as the fact that “Stand By Me” was my favorite movie when I was 9 years old, even though its really not a kids movie. Is it weird to love a childhood-nostalgia movie when you’re still a child? At 12-years old, the characters were older than me.

Digressing… “Stand By Me” is one of those rare movies that are better than the book (“The Body” by Stephen King), in my opinion. “Shawshank Redemption,” from the same book (“Different Seasons” by Stephen King), is probably another example, although my memory is failing me on the specifics of both the book and movie at the moment. I’ve never read “The Green Mile,” (also by Stephen King) but I’d bet a nickel it falls in the same category. Anyone read “The Green Mile”? Agree or disagree?