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The Blue Air Compressor
"The Blue Air Compressor" is a short story originally published in the January 1971 issue of Onan Magazine, and later reprinted, after revision, in the July 1981 issue of Heavy Metal.
In this most self-conscious of all King's stories (he even intrudes, by name, directly into the narrative, introducing himself and reminding us that "Rule One for all writers is that the teller is not worth a tin tinker's fart when compared to the listener"), we are introduced to Gerald Nately, a would-be writer who write a story about his enormous seventy-year-old landlady Mrs. Leighton. When she laughs at his manuscript he fetches the blue air compressor...
In this most self-conscious of all King's stories (he even intrudes, by name, directly into the narrative, introducing himself and reminding us that "Rule One for all writers is that the teller is not worth a tin tinker's fart when compared to the listener"), we are introduced to Gerald Nately, a would-be writer who write a story about his enormous seventy-year-old landlady Mrs. Leighton. When she laughs at his manuscript he fetches the blue air compressor...
- GenresFictionShort Stories
8 pages, ebook
First published January 1, 1971
3 people are currently reading
95 people want to read
About the author
Stephen King
2,410 books888k followersStephen Edwin King was born the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his father left them when Stephen was two, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family was at the time, and in Stratford, Connecticut. When Stephen was eleven, his mother brought her children back to Durham, Maine, for good. Her parents, Guy and Nellie Pillsbury, had become incapacitated with old age, and Ruth King was persuaded by her sisters to take over the physical care of them. Other family members provided a small house in Durham and financial support. After Stephen's grandparents passed away, Mrs. King found work in the kitchens of Pineland, a nearby residential facility for the mentally challenged.
Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.
He met Tabitha Spruce in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University, where they both worked as students; they married in January of 1971. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines.
Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many were gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.
In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching English at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.
Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.
He met Tabitha Spruce in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University, where they both worked as students; they married in January of 1971. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines.
Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many were gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.
In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching English at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
May 22, 2023
Read in Shining in the Dark
June 18, 2021
A very unique story within a story within a story. It is very choppy and of course "Steve" intentionally wrote it this way. There is truly a lot going on within each level of the story and the choppiness gives you a chance to stop and think, a chance to learn. After finishing this short story I felt as though I had read much more than I actually did.
July 28, 2020
King is one of my favorite horror authors of all time.
This story is absolute garbage.
I can accept the blathering about the fat Mrs. Leighton (don't even get me started about "he's fat-shaming!"; stories need characters and they are not all exactly perfect, OK?), at least that had opportunities for something interesting to happen.
The repeated mentionings of Poe seemed like plagiarizations of his tales, and, even if not that, came across as lazy and formulaic.
The "4th wall" interjections (I think it is 4th, maybe 3rd?or 5th? I honestly don't care) were asinine. Self-serving. Egotistical. Stupid.
I am reasonably sure King wrote this on the crapper. Probably should have wiped with ass with it (assuming it was done on paper, but if it was done digitally - not the ass-wiping but the writing - then maybe wiping his ass with a tablet or laptop would have served him right for publishing such a turd.
Don't bother with this one.
I am finding that when authors have unpublished and hard-to-find stories, usually short stories, there is a reason they are such.
Because they suck ass.
This story is absolute garbage.
I can accept the blathering about the fat Mrs. Leighton (don't even get me started about "he's fat-shaming!"; stories need characters and they are not all exactly perfect, OK?), at least that had opportunities for something interesting to happen.
The repeated mentionings of Poe seemed like plagiarizations of his tales, and, even if not that, came across as lazy and formulaic.
The "4th wall" interjections (I think it is 4th, maybe 3rd?or 5th? I honestly don't care) were asinine. Self-serving. Egotistical. Stupid.
I am reasonably sure King wrote this on the crapper. Probably should have wiped with ass with it (assuming it was done on paper, but if it was done digitally - not the ass-wiping but the writing - then maybe wiping his ass with a tablet or laptop would have served him right for publishing such a turd.
Don't bother with this one.
I am finding that when authors have unpublished and hard-to-find stories, usually short stories, there is a reason they are such.
Because they suck ass.
June 2, 2023
This is my first Stephen king…anything and it will be my last. I don’t have a problem with him inserting himself, at first I thought it was funny. He turned into him sexualizing horror…yes I understand that some people do that but that’s not what I want to read about. Not their metaphors for human genitalia and the devils tango. I want to read about dungeons being dungeons and zombies being zombies…that’s IT. He made a short story EXTREMELY uncomfy and hard to read. No no no. If I could rate it 0 stars I would
August 25, 2021
Ghastly and gorific! Albeit it was explicitly clear that - my Ole fav writer - Steve was strongly affected by "Sigmund Freud and his diddly squat", in his intrusion which I absolutely loved - in fact I always wanted to find a same like thing in one of his stories... - but to sum it all, that's a groovy short story.
June 24, 2021
This "story" has no formatting, no spellcheck, no cohesion of any kind, and Stephen even has to barge in at the middle of it to try and explain why it's so bad. I guess his backspace key was broken that day and he was forced to finish it at gunpoint
July 19, 2023
Really weird story about a fat lady.
November 5, 2024
Gönülsüzce mecburen söz verdiği ya da son anda deadline’ı hatırlayarak için istemeye istemeye yazı masasına oturarak “bir şeyler karalamış” tadında😀
February 26, 2025
Une nouvelle avec une belle plongée dans la psyché de son personnage principal, comme Stephen King s'est parfaitement le faire.
August 28, 2019
Poe was obviously on King's mind a lot at the time if this writing. Poe's name is mentioned more than 5 times in 18 pages.
The story isn't bad. It also isn't terribly interesting. It doesn't flow easily, it's a bit choppy. The author continually breaks into the story to explain this and that, I'm not sue why he felt the need to do that.... the story would have been fine w/o this commentary. Maybe he was playing around w/ the idea of using that as his style.
At one point he sounded very much like Kurt Vonnegut, inserting himself into the story like in Breakfast of Champions... That was actually kinda cool.
He mentions that every author has plagiarized at least once, then he ends the story in true Poe fashion.
I've never heard people talking about this sort story, and now that I've read it, I understand why.
But again, I say that it wasn't bad. It shows great potential.
The story isn't bad. It also isn't terribly interesting. It doesn't flow easily, it's a bit choppy. The author continually breaks into the story to explain this and that, I'm not sue why he felt the need to do that.... the story would have been fine w/o this commentary. Maybe he was playing around w/ the idea of using that as his style.
At one point he sounded very much like Kurt Vonnegut, inserting himself into the story like in Breakfast of Champions... That was actually kinda cool.
He mentions that every author has plagiarized at least once, then he ends the story in true Poe fashion.
I've never heard people talking about this sort story, and now that I've read it, I understand why.
But again, I say that it wasn't bad. It shows great potential.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews