The Stand - Section: Captain Trips

[Matthew, Assistant List Master]

Discuss the section of The Stand "Captain Trips" here.

[Matthew, Assistant List Master]

I read to page 11, but there were several pages of prologue all numbered with Roman numerals. I felt like I was doing pretty good and then noticed I was only on page 4!

[Matthew, Assistant List Master]

I really enjoy meeting a large cast of characters spread all over the country and then getting to watch what brings them together.

[Jeff]

I think in the Stand as well as Under the Dome, King ties his multiple narratives together tremendously. Especially The Stand....it has a large cast but it all fits.

[Justin]

Read through all the intro and prologue stuff tonight. Looking forward to meeting the cast of characters again. Just one question....

Baby, can you dig your man?

[Matthew, Assistant List Master]

Justin wrote: "Read through all the intro and prologue stuff tonight. Looking forward to meeting the cast of characters again. Just one question....

Baby, can you dig your man?"

I have that song stuck in my head, and I don't even know what it sounds like!

[Matthew, Assistant List Master]

Number of times King uses the word "pissant" in the first 70 pages: 3

Number of times I have heard the word "pissant" in the past 20 years (including this book): 3

[Justin]

Haha! it's interesting reading the uncut version again. I feel like some of it feels dated beyond 1990 even with the updates. It had been nice meeting the cast of characters again and watching the virus spread around the country. Hopefully this won't happen with Zika after the Olympics!

[Matthew, Assistant List Master]

Lots of reflection on parental relationships around 100 pages in!

[Justin]

Yeah I'm not far behind you. I like the relationship Larry has with his mom. Out there partying like a rockstar, getting hit by flying spatulas... but he always knows when it's time to go back home and let his mom take care of him. And she never seems to mind.

[Matthew, Assistant List Master]

So, you haven't got to Frannie's mom yet? She's a real piece of work!

[Justin]

Haha, I haven't yet but I remember her from the last time I read the book. Actually, when I saw the name Frannie I was like ohhh yeah.... Definitely a piece of work.

[Matthew, Assistant List Master]

The blurb in the front of the abridged version I have makes Lloyd sound like one of the good guys. Makes me wonder if the people who write the summaries actually read the books.

[Beth]

I'm just getting started with the extended version (not sure why I chose it) but am quite emersed in the story already as it slowly reveals itself. I felt like I was standing with those guys at the gas station when the Campion family paid them a visit. Also, its an eerie feeling hearing about different characters displaying what may or may not be due to "the virus". Re: the repetetive use of pissant, I chuckle when writers do this. It reminds me of Game of Thrones where someone or another is always " soiling his/her small clothes."

[Justin]

Yeah, the slow unraveling of the story is awesome. King has always been a master at setting a scene and developing his characters, even if they aren't sticking around for long.

[Kirstin]

Thoughts up to chapter 35

A pretty quiet beginning after the first chapter. It took about 200 pages to find a character I liked(view spoiler)[Nick Andros! And it wasn't until we met Lloyd and Poke that I was truly entertained (hide spoiler)]It's fun to have a book be dated by two different decades. It has a very 60's feel with the demonstrators at Kent State and mentioning The Weathermen and the broadcasting revolutionaries. I laughed when 'Spuds MacKenzie' was mentioned. I had forgotten about that beer drinking pit bull.

Captain Trips(view spoiler)[it takes a while to find out what that means but I guess Part 1-Tube Neck just doesn't have to same ring to it.

I have to admit to being excited to meet Randall Flagg. Nice, ominous chapter.

Lloyd's story is nasty and suspenseful. I made a lot of faces reading about him trying to break out of his cell. "Come eat chicken with me, beautiful." So creepy.

I liked this quote, " ?..love is what moves the world...It is the only thing which allows men and women to stand in a world where gravity always seems to want to pull them down." (hide spoiler)]

My copy is illustrated! Love that!

[Matthew, Assistant List Master]

Captain Trips (view spoiler)[It's looking more and more like the government is giving up not only covering up the problem, but giving up because they know they can't do anything about it. I like the scene where the guy staring at the monitors gives up and goes down into the compound and sits with the victims and kills himself. very powerful hopelessness (hide spoiler)]

Really getting into the meat of things now!

[Matthew, Assistant List Master]

After a compilation chapter of all the government cover-up tactics (a nice little transition from the common cold to devastating epidemic), there are some very interesting chapters with our main characters starting to cope with living in a world where they now know they are one on the last few people alive.

[Matthew, Assistant List Master]

HOLY COW! I forgot how intense the Lincoln Tunnel scene was. I did remember it, though, from reading the abridged 20 years ago. Also, I have driven through the Lincoln Tunnel before and I think this is a case of having been there it certainly heightens the experience!

[Matthew, Assistant List Master]

Just read the section about people dying not of Captain Trips, but who were immune and died shortly after of other random things. Kind of an interesting view - a part of the story that doesn't need to be told, but adds a lot to making the overall situation come to life.