Stephen King and the Apocalypse

We all dread the world ending, and we dread it in many ways. We dread our civilization being destroyed in a technolocial, natural or otherwordly fashion. Stephen King, a popular American icon and prominent horror novelist, just loves to remind us that there are many ways of us being destroyed.

In my Science Fiction class, we read "The End of the Whole Mess." The end of the world revolves around a substance called the Calmative, which was found by a young man named Bobby. King's narrator, Bobby's brother Howie, does not start explaining the Calmative immediately; instead he summarizes his predicament with the world ending and everyone around him (Including himself) going senile. Howie recounts how his brother was born a child prodigy, studying everything and experimenting on anything he could get his hands on, including machines. One of the warmest moments in the story is when Bobby convinces Howie to launch him in a makeshift plane comprised of a wagon with wings attached. Anyone who's ever read or seen Stand by Me (Which I haven't yet, sadly) will know that King likes working with themes of brotherhood and boyhood. You will feel very sorry for these characters in their demise because you got to know them a little bit first. It is their bond that unites them but it is also the bond that would later destroy both of them.

Skipping a few years later, Bobby comes from La Plata, Texas with some wasps and bees. He uses the Calmative to make the insects respond to him in a pacifistic manner. These insects are tamed through the use of sucrose dioxin in Bobby's system. Bobby asks Howie to help him transfer the rest of the Calmative throughout the world to prevent humankind from killing itself. Howie reluctantly agrees, even with the question of what the long term results would be after the Calmative is adminstered throughout the world. Both of them somehow raise enough money to insert the Calmative through a volcano. How could they put in a volcano in the first place? My best guess is Earth's constantly shifting surface. Earth is the only planet in our solar system with active tectonics and King was probably making a rough guess on how the Calmative would be distributed. Pretty soon, as indicated by Howie's declining writing style, everyone suffers from an illness similiar to Rodney's Disease.

King is no stranger to the apocalypse with his story "The End of the Whole Mess." He has concentrated on the apocalypse on different levels based on his following works.

The Dark Tower series, King's "magnum opus," takes place in a decaying alternate universe similiar to our own. The protagonist is Roland of Gilead, the last of a heroic order known as the gunslingers who is hot on the trail of the Man in Black. The Man in Black holds the key to the secrets of the Dark Tower. Roland hopes to reach the tower to reverse the damage done to his world, as his world has "moved on."

Along the way, he recruits other members to his ka-tet from different time periods; the 1960's, the 1970's and the 1980's and even a creature with some speech and arithmatic capacity from his own world. The ka-tet must journey through their respective time frames and various areas which hold mutants, evil geniuses, cyborg animals and even a psychotic train that transport them through a desolate, irradiated landscape! Think Lord of the Rings if it was macabre, had a Wild West setting and with King's various edgy settings and characters. Ironically, the Lord of the Rings saga, along with westerns featuring Clint Eastwood, was what inspired King to create this seven volume series. The series also has its own collection of comic books based on some of the books or with original storylines.

The Stand is considered to be one of King's best novels regarding the apocalypse and one I would like to get my hands on. The storyline concerns of a pathogen named "Captain Trips" breaking loose into the world and killing most of the populace. The survivors of the epidemic must choose two major figures to follow; one who resembles good and another resembling pure evil. It is regarded to be one of King's best and also has its line of comic books to look into.

King's latest foray into the apocalypse is Cell. The premise of the series is that everyone becomes a "zombie" by answering their cell phones. These "zombies" operate during the day and hunt after the survivors who have to take cover in the night. If this sounds similiar to George Romero's Night of the Living Dead, comparisons can definately be made.

King explores the apocalypse in different ways in his works. Whether it is through our mutual destruction (pathogen in The Stand and senility-inducing substance in "The End of the Whole Mess") or through nuclear disaster and whatnot (The Dark Tower), or through techonology (Cell), King is among the authors who want to warn us about our destruction. Like him or not, King is part of our psyche when it comes to horrific scenarios and stories on the end of the world.

- Kristopher