The Stand Journal 6: Obituaries by Richard Bachman

Reading The Stand and loving it.  Chapter 38 is unique and worth comment.  It really opens the novel up even further, giving the story a sense of realism.  It's just a series of short stories about people  who died after the plague.  Not people who died because of the plague, but people who survived the super-flu but died of other causes.  These are like short stories set inside the world of The Stand.

I would call this portion of The Stand the "Obituaries."  King starts out by telling us that after the Superflu, there was a second epidemic that struck the United States in particular, taking another 16% down to the grave.

This part might have  been written by Mr. Bachman.

Here is a short list:

Sam Tauber, a five year old who is the only survivor in his town.  He wanders the streets horrified, and finally dies by falling in a well.

Irma Fayette of Lodi California.  She is so scared of being raped  that she does herself in at the first  sight of a man.  King concludes he story with the line, "No great loss."  This little section is very well written, and keeps the reader in suspense until the last lines.

George McDougall of Nyack, NY, takes up running as a hobby. Only, he runs himself to death.

Then there is Mrs. Eileen Drummond of Clewiston, FL.  She gets herself quite stoned and falls asleep with a cigarette in her hand.  She burns her house down -- and herself.  King again notes, "No great loss."

Arthur Stimson in Reno, NV, stepped on a rusty nail.  The result of a gangrenous wound.  He tries to cut his own foot off, but passes out and dies.  (I told you Bachman would like this)

My favorite is Judy Horton from Milltown, KY.  A beautiful self absorbed girl is thrilled when everyone dies -- especially her husband family and child.  She does mourn for a couple days for her child, but not really!  As the only one alive, she finds herself unable not to gloat about it.  She puts the bodies of her dead family down in the meat freezer.  Sh then visits the meat freezer up to four times a day.  "She told herself she was just checking.  What else could it be?  Surely it wasn't gloating?"  Well, guess who got herself locked in the meat freezer with her dead family!  There's something very Poe-ish about this.

There's the man who electrocuted himself trying to start his generator, and the Junkie who snorted  pure heroin.

None of these do anything for the characters in the novel itself.  This chapter serves the purpose of simply broadening the story.  It's also super morbid.