James Smythe is writing a series of articles on his process of reading all of the Stephen King books in order. Cool! And, glad to read his comments – as it’s not something I would take on! Sounds, eh, messy to me.
Of course, this means he started with Carrie. Besides giving a brief synopsis and observations, Smythe also has Kingisms and Flagg-raising subsections. In Kingisms, he looks at common stylistic touches that appear throughout King’s works. This will probably be my favorite portion of Smythe’s articles. Under Flagg-raising, he takes time to point out where the Dark Man is hiding in this particular novel. Imagine it as the Where’s Waldo of the review.
Wait! Is the man in black in Carrie? Smythe writes:
Carrie's mother, in her religious fervour, frequently refers to – either directly, or through Carrie's prior indoctrination – "the black man … his cloven feet striking red sparks from the cement". Now, while it's meant to be the devil in this instance – or, rather, a more direct suggestion of the devil than Randall Flagg's usual appearances – that particular being is never mentioned by name. And "the black man" is awfully close to the Man in Black and the Dark Man, I'd say …Read the full review HERE.
Huh, I never would have pegged Carrie as Dark Tower related.
ReplyDeleteI think Honk Mahfah tried something similarto what Smythe is doing if I'm remembering correct, I could be wrong.
ChrisC
there was a person doingthat, on a blog. . . but I can't remember who it was.
ReplyDeleteI could be wrong, however I believe in the Stephen King Reviewed Blog from the links you listed below, Reverend.
DeleteIt looked to be interesting there for a while, but it's stopped at Skeleton Crew hasn't shown a sign of life since, too bad, It would have been next on the list.
ChrisC