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I thought the same thing.
Leave it to Brice to make us feel dumb. :(
:P
I loved Rage. It's my second favorite of the two Bachman books i've read. (Rage and the Long Walk). I consider them both to be among the best of King's books.
I felt that Rage really met me where I'm at with my life right now and I'll explain that later. I interpret the story as a metaphor, albeit a graphic one, but a metaphor nonetheless. I really, really liked it.
Thanks guys for bringing it to my attention. :grouphug:
I'll be starting The Long Walk soon. :cool:
The Long Walk is amazing. It's one of my favorite Sk books. You're gonna love it.
Well, that and I believe the timeframe of Columbine roughly coincided with it actually leaving circulation at least in the paperback format of The Bachman Books.
:huglove: Y'all ain't dumb at all.
*slowly steps away from Ryan*
:lol:
I think it's a shame he took it out of print. It's a really good psychological story.
It's always bothered me that he did, though I understand his reasoning for it.
Yeah, but I'm tired of people using the media as an excuse for their bad behavior, know what I mean?
Well, as mentioned, though out of print, it is still readily available.
Which is exactly why I personally think he should have said "fuck that! It's just a story". It's not tv, or music, or video games, or their parents or anyone else's fault for what they do. It is their own.
True! Anyone who really wants it can get it with little difficulty.
Yes, it's available, but I'm with Brice - I think we need to stop making excuses for people who clearly are disturbed to begin with.
Like I said earlier, I respect King's decision, but I totally disagree with it. :)
It is readily available. I got a copy of the Bachman Books from Amazon for a buck fifty. This was only a week ago, and again, I appreciate you guys recommending it.
Great book, IMHO.
It reminds me of being around 12 or 13 and Mike Judge got in 'trouble' because some kid set his bed on fire and it was blamed on the fact that Beavis walked around saying :"Fire..Fire!"
It's a f'n cartoon character for crying out loud. I agree, people need to start taking responsibility for their actions.
Hell, wasn't Marilyn Manson partly blamed for Columbine too? :orely:
Or am I getting that mixed up?
No, I think he was.
So, this means I could kill a town of 57 people and blame it on SK for writing the Gunslinger, right? :orely:
Exactly.
I won't make any promises :evil:
I also got a copy of the Bachman books off Amazon. Arrived today and I've just finished Rage this minute...really, really could not put this story down.
It reminded me in the basest way, of what its like to be a teenager and also how some adults (in positions of responsibility where they should know better) treat kids/young adults in such shocking ways (ie, the humiliation Charlie feels from the teachers, the violence from his father). It ultimately didn't matter if Charlie was "right" or "wrong", it was more to do with the way that anyone could look at an aspect of their childhood and justify the rage he feels.
Great stuff! Jean, please come back and say why you didn't like this story :)
I liked the story. It wasn't great, but it was good. I read it a long time ago, when I was about 20. There are many stories out there, and some of them are dangerous. King thought it was possible that this was one of them, and I can't say that he's wrong. It may very well be. I can remember how I was when I was 15 , and I was very angry. I hated most of the people around me to the point that I wanted them to die. I did not actively seek their demise, but I can certainly see where reading a tale like this may have put a germ of an idea into my brain. I'm not saying King would have been responsible for my action, the person bearing the responsibility would have been me. And King wouldn't have put the idea there. A seed won't flourish if set out on concrete. It has to have the proper soil, the water, and the sun to thrive. A single story doesn't give that. Years of pain turnes to hate and hate leads to suffering. Rage come from all of this, is wrapped in red gauze, and one day a 16 year old finds himself going to school with a deer rifle because he's had enough of receiving the pain. He's going to dish some out for once. I can understand that. Not support it, not lay aside blame because of it, but understand it. Absolutely. For nearly twelve years I lived in darkness, almost all of my childhood. I came close to never seeing daylight more than once and when that darkness tried it's best to follow me when I went to college I issued edicts to halt it. I live with some of that hate even today, but I deal with it better than I did then. I have someone to help me hold on, to be my rock. But I sometimes wonder what might have happened had I read something like Rage when I was having those thoughts that are mirrored in the actions of this tale. I may not have made it this far. I may have just brushed it off as fiction. Either way, I'm rather glad I never found out.
It was a good story, but I completely understand why King doesn't want it in print. That's just my side of things though.
Stories aren't dangerous; people are dangerous. People use stories, movies, books, games, alcohol, and drugs as excuses for their actions, but in the end they choose what they do.
Don't get me wrong: I understand about outside influences. Believe me, I understand far more than I will go into here.
I personally like the idea of a story being dangerous. I love the Bachman books in general. I think King used the psuedonym as a means of telling the stories that were so dark that they even gave King a gut check about his sanity. They are Kings dirty little secrets so to speak. Rage and The Long Walk are worth reading 100 times. I have not yet read Blaze, but I bought it the other day. Looking forward to seeing if it fits with the other Bachman books. The only one that doesnt fit that extremely dark nature of the Bachman books is The Regulators. What happened with that one? That is most definitely one of King's clinkers.