Posted on 11/16/2007 1:34:42 PM PST by goldstategop
I'm not sure what Stephen King thinks of Christians. Maybe those of you who read a lot of his work can tell me. But if "The Mist"--a movie out Wednesday for the big Thanksgiving Weekend--is true to his novella, "Skeleton Crew," on which it's based, then he certainly doesn't care too much for them.
I can't post a complete review here until late Tuesday Night, but the fact is that, in "The Mist," the biggest villain besides a mysterious mist produced by (who else?) the military (guess King doesn't like our troops so much either) is a Christian woman, who wears her religion on her sleeve. Played by Marcia Gay Harden, the Christian woman resembles the Fred Phelps folks from the Westboro Baptist Church who protest at troops' funerals and shriek our troops deserve to die because of our sins. This woman echoes them and blames the plaugue of the mist (and the monsters it spawns) on our sins. Among them, she cites abortion and stem cell research. And she causes the murder--the "sacrifice"--of innocent soldiers. Just like the Phelps team. themist.jpg
Um, here's a newsflash: Conservatives and religious Christians detest the Phelps crew of protestors. We don't agree with them. And we're not like them, no matter what Stephen King thinks.
Yup, the evil conservative Christian preaching against abortion and stem cells and sexual promiscuity is America's greatest villain, in the eyes of this movie.
Sad that King can't find a more believable enemy than that. Looks like the mind of King has gone feeble.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
King has always bashed Christians. Who would expect anything different?
This is an old short story.
We are listening to it on MP3 on the way to Thanksgiving. I like free MP3’s.
I don’t remember any negative comments towards the military in the book. There was a raving nutter who happened to be a Christian, though.
I never saw the troublemaking woman as a Christian. She wants to sacrifice a human to appease the monsters (god). She sounds more like a pagan.
Is this the one where the protagonist and a bunch of other people get trapped in a supermarket while a weird fog rolls through town and brings out all these insect mutants?
}:-)4
This is one of my favorite King stories. I don’t remember any of this questionable stuff in the original.
It is one of my favorite King stories and one I have hoped would make it to the Big Screen.
Stories are for entertainment, not political agendas.
That's most of it. Yes.
I thought the novella was effectively creepy and look forward to the movie. But judging from the trailer the apocalyptic Harden character looks way over the top, and that will probably detract from the picture’s impact.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
In the book the military was suggested to have been doing experiments that resulted in the monsters in the mist, causing a couple soldiers racked with guilt to hang themselves in the back. Also the old woman was a bible-pounding lunatic.
King is an old-school, Clinton-style, dirty hippie rabid military/Christian-hater. But he can spin a good yarn.
KIng has never liked the military much. He’s a hippie from the Vietnam generation, and he’s paranoid about the government. In Firestarter, evil government agents tortured and murdered the little girl’s parents. In Dreamcatcher, military hit squads went out and killed witnesses to the alien infestion. The Army commander was a raving lunatic. In The Stand, when Flagg (basically, Satan on Earth) ruled Las Vegas, he had many military men under his command.
He’s traditionally been a little kinder to religious people, but as you pointed out, has been downright vicious too. And lately, he’s allied himself with MoveOn.org; I didn’t give a damn about his politics before, but when he did that, he might as well have sent a donation to Al Qaeda as far as I’m concerned. I was a huge fan when I was younger and have read all of his early books, and many of his later ones. But I haven’t had much use for him lately. Maybe the accident changed him too much, who knows.
Well, I just went to imdb.com and viewed the trailer, and Marcia Gay Harden as the Christian Phred Phelps-wannabe nutter gets an awful lot of screen time, and she looked suitably demented. Of course, in the story, she was.
I know of one other book he did with that had a small bit of Christian-bashing in it. In “Cell” (one of his latest, which wasn’t very good) the heroes are a graphic artist, a gay guy he meets on the street, and a 14-year-old girl. Along the way they meet a Baptist woman who is doing similar end-of-the-world ravings to the woman in “The Mist”...at which point the gay guy coldcocks her and cusses her out.
}:-)4
Throughout all of his fiction, King's enemies have always been pretty supernatural, which, by definition, have to be taken with a large grain of salt. While I generally like Debbie, she's really stretching here.
I guess she never read Carrie, either.
First, please bear in mind that King wrote the Mist in 1980.
Second, I didn’t read the story at all as anti-military or anti-Christian. At the risk of posting a spoiler, the military was responsible for it occurring, but it was a very minor part of the story, only mentioned a few times early on and then left alone.
As for Mrs. Carmody, King painted her more as a crazy woman than a mainstream Christian. Even then, whatever religion she was wasn’t the focal point, it was the we-pissed-off-the-gods lynch mob theme that happens in a lot of the survivor-type tales.
No, I don’t think King was bashing the military or Christians when he wrote the novella. In fact, other than The Stand, this was the one story of his I wanted to see made into a movie the most.
But after seeing the trailer last week, and the obvious overplaying of Mrs. Carmody and depiction of Christianity, I don’t think I’ll be seeing the movie either. This reeks of another Tom Clancy/Sum of All Fears moment.
Reread the story just the other night....I remember it pretty much as your comment. After all these years...still a pretty good read. IMHO
This reeks of another Tom Clancy/Sum of All Fears moment.
Yeah, but you haven’t seen the sequel — The Net After Tax Profit Of All Fears
I don’t think Stephen King has been the same since the accident...
skipping it. I’d rather watch Beowulf.
The hero was a Christian black women who voted for Reagan.
Never mess with a masterpiece.
He wrote this story long before the accident.
Is this the first time people have noticed the admiration Stephen King has for the works of the Devil and all his minions? This theme runs through almost ALL King novels, and seems to reflect the eventual fall of all mankind into the cataclysm of evil.
Good may be better than evil, but evil gets to speak all the best lines.
I read The Mist a long time ago, but I don’t recall the military or Christians playing a part in it. Also, it isn’t uncommon for Hollywood to completely transmogrify an author’s work. They turned the world of Heinlein’s Starship Troopers into a fascist dystopia, which is far from Heinlein’s vision.
Does the story have the nutso Christian lady in it? Or is she an addition for this post-accident movie?
Now that you mention it, they punch one in the latest Adam Sandler movie too.
King jumped the shark (IMO) about twenty years ago.
I thought “The Stand” was an excellent good v. evil, God helps those who help themselves, God guides us and works through us book. The whole end section in Las Vegas 00 with Larry and Ralph — was gripping. The themes of redemption and reparation for past sins were great, too. It’s one of my favorite novels. (IMHO, the miniseries sucked, though.)
I had a “Mist” moment myself shortly after reading this story a while back. My dog got stuck in the back of our backyard one night by tangling his chain up in some trees. I could hear him from the house but couldn’t even see him because of the fog. I got him untangled and sprinted with him back to the house, all the while waiting for something to grab my leg from behind.
And regarding the Schlussel piece, I’m surprised she didn’t write that the crazy character sounded like Pat Robertson. After all, he blamed 9/11 on abortions and lesbians.
I really like the first three books of his Gunslinger series, but the fourth one was his "jump the shark" moment for me. Just recently I tried finishing the series but had to give up halfway through book 6. Incredibly awful. King had created a vastly interesting world, and then proceeded to crap all over it. I can forgive him for his politics, but for what he did to the Gunslinger? Never. You're dead to me, Stephen.
She has to ask?
I learned over a decade ago, after reading numerous of his novels that at the least, he’s an liberal agnostic.
“Played by Marcia Gay Harden, the Christian woman resembles the Fred Phelps folks from the Westboro Baptist Church who protest at troops’ funerals”
Democrats!
Also, The Mist is a great short story.
Do either of you remember what he said wrt:writing under the influence of the drugs he was on while healing? I didn't buy the autobiography style book, just glanced through it. I don't recall where I read that he said it.
bookmark
I didn’t see anything about writing under the influence of drugs after the accident. But it wouldn’t be surprising; I believe he has admitted to writing under the influence of alcohol for many years (something which many writers have done, of course).
So Harden is depicting actual people? What’s the problem with that. Seems realistic.
The protrayal of Carrie’s mother was a raving puritan nutter.
King’s use of hyper-religious folks as villains is not new. The mom in Carrie, anyone? But yes, it does bother me a bit that, in the long haul, he hasn’t penned (AFAIK) any deeply religious HEROES (whose religious beliefs are key to their heroism).
I prefer his “The Shinnin” with the Simpsons.
This is like excerpting Ellsworth Toohey quotes from The Fountainhead to show Ayn Rand is a Communist.
I can think of one-- the Catholic priest in Salem's Lot, who reappears in the Dark Tower series.
I believe she was in it, but only as a bit player. (I may be remembering wrong-- it's years since I read it.)
Stephen King is one of the most disappointing writers I have ever read. He spends chapters and chapters building up some very good suspense, just to have some ridiculous and abrupt ending which is a total letdown. “It” and “The Stand” are both perfect examples of this - huge buildup, silly endings. It’s almost like he got bored with the story he was writing and decided to end it right then and there, whether it made sense or not.
A fair rejoinder! I’ve only read perhaps 20% of King’s output, if that, but your response reinforces my view that Schlussel’s criticism is only PARTIALLY on-target.
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