Christine - Let's Discuss! - *SPOILERS*

[Odetta]

I've noticed that AMC has been playing Christine a lot in the past month or so, so why not make it the Book of the Month!

Did you enjoy Christine? Did you find it corny?


Let's discuss!

[theBeamisHome]

Christine was either the first or second King book I read and for that I'll always love it. I just rented the dvd from Netflix as a matter of fact although I'd seen it about 8 years ago maybe and it was still enjoyable. I thought it was funny that it didn't take place in Maine. Ever since I've LOVED Bel Airs.

[Steve]

I love Christine--as far as King's early books go (pre-IT, that is), it's in my Top 4.

1.) The Stand
2.) Salem's Lot
3.) The Shining
4.) Christine
5.) Carrie

I love the rock-and-roll song quotes at the beginning of each chapter, and the book gets really heartbreaking at the end. Read Chapter 49 with Jan and Dean's "Dead Man's Curve" and tears will fall.

[mia/susannah]

I just finished a rereread of Christine. I have seen the movie several times. I love this book. It has a lot of intrigue and sorrow. The way the car just comes to life, man that is scary to me.

[Bev Vincent]

I saw Christine when it first came out in theaters. At the time, the bladder technology used to make the car fix itself was impressive. They spent a lot of screen time focusing on that, whereas nowadays it would be trivial to render that on a computer, so it would be less gee-whiz. That's one of the problems with older SFX films where the creators were very pleased with what they've achieved.

I think it's an okay movie, but they chose a different explanation for the haunting of the car which shifted King's intent a lot.

[mia/susannah]

Yeah, that was the one thing I did not care for. They should have went with Kings explanation of the haunting of the car

[Odetta]

can someone refresh my memory on that?

[Darkthoughts]

The only time I ever saw the film of Christine was in France...in French...and I was 12...so I can't help you there

But, as for the book - just reread it. It was the first King book I ever read, I must of been about 12/13 because I remember after seeing the film instantly wanting to read it.

I didn't find it corny at all, I thought it was great - as usual, King does an excellent job of having the horror elements of his story mirror real life relationship/friendship struggles that we all go through.

[Odetta]

what was King's explanation of the haunting of the car... that's what I don't recall.

[MrsSmeej]

I thought the haunting was caused by the death of the original owner's daughter. A death that seemed almost a dark offering. Of course it's been a few years since I've done a re-read.

[theBeamisHome]

hmm... apparently I need to do a reread too.. although I recall that my dog sensed Christine's evil and decided to eat the book (no joke).. I thought the guy that owned it before was haunting it (I really don't remember). But I do remember being a little miffed about them changing the story in the movie (even though they always do that)... it just seemed a pretty important plot point to change.

[Randall Flagg]

Just a little info on Christine:

I rather enjoyed the book and the way King breaks narrative. Here is a piece from The Art of Darkness that explains it far better than I could:


Christine began it’s genesis in the summer of 1978, when King began to think strange thoughts about the old red Cadillac he owned.

It was a short-story idea. I thought I would write a really funny story about a kid and a car whose odometer ran backwards. The car would repair itself, and the kid would get younger and younger, and the kicker would be that, when the odometer turned to zero, the car, at the height of its beauty, would spontaneously fall into component parts. Ir would echo that Lewis Padgett story, “The Twonkey”-really funny, but maybe a little sinister, too.

But when King began to write the story, “the same thing happened as with Carrie: the “loser” character began to take over, and the short story became a book. Defying one of Mario Puzo’s rules on how to write a bestselling novel, the opening and closing sections of Christine are written first-personas the narrative of Dennis Guilder, looking backward.
His point of view produces not only King’s most colloquial novel, but also his most humorous. The middle section is written in third person after Dennis is hospitalized with a football injury. Just as Dennis’s broken leg ensures the end of his friendship with Arnie, King’s breaking of narrative, a device particularly common in the early Gothic novel, likely ensures the reader’s alienation from Arnie’s initially sympathetic character.


Christine the Book (by Michael Morelli)
In 1982 writer Stephen King completed a new horror novel called "Christine". It was about a 1958 Plymouth Fury that possesses its new owner, high school nerd named Arnie Cunningham.
In the book Mr. King makes several references to the 1958 Plymouth Fury that were not accurate. We have come up with some errors about the 1958 Fury that appear in the book:
Book: Christine is referred to as a four door.
Fact: The 1956-58 Furys only came in a two-door hardtop. It was not until 1959 you could get a four door Fury.
Book: Christine is red and white. (It is mentioned that she was a special order.)
Fact: The 1958 Fury only came in buckskin beige with gold trim. The 1958 Belvidere, the next model down, was available in toreador red and iceberg white, with silver trim.
Book: The transmission is called hydramatic.
Fact: That was a GM transmission, Plymouth had the TorqueFlite.
Book: One line says, "I saw Christine's transmission lever suddenly drop into drive."
Fact: The 1958 Plymouths had push button drive.
These are just a few errors we mention that are found inside the book. If you have a copy of the first issue hard cover with the dust jacket, you will find on the back cover a picture of Mr. King sitting on the hood of a 1957 Plymouth, not a 1958.
In an interview Mr. King was asked, why all the errors? His response was that he wrote the middle first, then a few years later wrote the beginning and end. He needed to come up with a car brand name and found Fury the most fitting. Webster defines Fury as "Violent, intense anger." Need we say more?

[theBeamisHome]

idk why i keep thinking Bel Air then... maybe just because I like them.. You have all kinds of great quotes by the way. I like the part about the break in the narrative and the end of Arnie being the victim sort of. I felt that way when I read it.

[Whitey Appleseed]

The only time I ever saw the film of Christine was in France...in French...and I was 12...so I can't help you there

But, as for the book - just reread it. It was the first King book I ever read, I must of been about 12/13 because I remember after seeing the film instantly wanting to read it.

I didn't find it corny at all, I thought it was great - as usual, King does an excellent job of having the horror elements of his story mirror real life relationship/friendship struggles that we all go through.

Thought I'd find a Christine to try to illuminate, rather than the modern twist of enlighten and baffle, a variation perhaps on Sir Philip Sydney's "delight and instruct". One could argue, for example, that Petunia, the Kaka Sucker, "a real corker" as that old codger calls her, is a metaphor for all those critics that say the horror genre is low-brow stuff. Petunia, the kaka sucker, crushes Christine. Yeah, our hero, or someone's hero, uses Petunia to complete the job...but here we have a car, haunted, evil even. Arnie pushes her to a kind of rebirth.

Lame example? I dunno. What, after all, are monsters if not metaphors for those fears we face? As you said in your post, "the horror elements of his story mirror real life," a variation on the theme of the supposed masters, should art imitate life, blah de dah.

I've used the word ubermensch in a previous post or two, Darkthoughts, perhaps that is what confused you, as you said on the other thread. I know Jean used the same word in some of his exemplary posts, and that word is also a way of speaking about King's stories as metaphors, symbols, and as I said elsewhere, nursery rhymes.

[Darkthoughts]

I haven' t read your reply in the other thread yet...on my way!

Ubermensch didn't confuse me, as a word, I just find your flow a little hard to follow is all

[Bev Vincent]

King believed the haunting originated with Roland LeBay whereas the movie implied that the car came off the assembly line haunted.

[Bev Vincent]

Both!

[Matt]

That was a great answer!

[Ste Letto]

I really didn't like the book. I liked the idea but I found the book patchy, overlong and disjointed. I thought the film tidied it up and made it far more punchy and impactful.

[Jean]

<...>I found the book patchy, overlong and disjointed<...>

That's what it is; I liked it anyway, though.

[BROWNINGS CHILDE]

I liked the book. Didnt someone commit suicide in Christine? I cant remember it has been awhile.

[BROWNINGS CHILDE]

Like the previous owners wife???

[Girlystevedave]

Man, I just finished reading Christine last night and I really enjoyed it. I think that, more than being horror, it was just a sad story at it's core; the parents watching their son turn into someone unrecognizable was pretty heartbreaking.
I liked that the story began from Dennis's point of view, jumped to third person halfway into the book, then back to Dennis at the end. I thought that was a pretty cool touch. But, I have to say, I was left wanting a little more from Arnie's perspective. Overall though, this was a damn good book.

[Girlystevedave]

Like the previous owners wife???

Yes, the wife committed suicide in the car not long after the daughter died in the car.

[Iwritecode]

Man, I just finished reading Christine last night and I really enjoyed it. I think that, more than being horror, it was just a sad story at it's core; the parents watching their son turn into someone unrecognizable was pretty heartbreaking.
I liked that the story began from Dennis's point of view, jumped to third person halfway into the book, then back to Dennis at the end. I thought that was a pretty cool touch. But, I have to say, I was left wanting a little more from Arnie's perspective. Overall though, this was a damn good book.

It's been awhile since I read the book but I agree about it being a really sad story. Arnie being betrayed by Dennis and Leigh. Arnie fighting for control at the very end before the wreck with his mother. Dennis and Leigh not being able to stay together because of the memories of what happened.

I find that a lot of King's books have more sad moments that actual scary moments.