Thoughts on Full Dark, No Stars
I'm not meaning the old blogamathing to become a meme dump, but Spring's busy as hell and whatnot. There's a big difference, though, in working like botard at the old jobplace, and being busy as hell working for yourself. I mean, I'm not hating myself and the entire Universe at the end of any work day, so there's that!
The purpose of this post is not one of apology for laziness, but rather to comment on something I read (or listened to, as the case may be.)
I finished Stephen King's Full Dark, No Stars today.
I can't remember what I've written here about it, but shortly after Dad died, I decided to try to read everything Stephen King had written in publication order. I did it a bit for Dad, who wanted to try to do just that, and didn't get a chance to. He and I didn't always agree on everything, but we both thought King was a helluva storyteller, and we could bond over those stories.
I went a period, though, around 2008 or so, where I took a break. It wasn't a conscious announcement of any sort, but I'd been underwhelmed by a lot of what he published following his van accident, and I just wasn't as enthusiastic about picking up new stuff of his to read.
Somewhere around 2011, my XM radio device went out. It's what I listened to during my commute (which was, at the time, about 45 minutes to work each way). This is back in the day, by the way, before people had the satellite radio as an option built in to their audio packages. Mine was a plug in doodad that ran audio to the radio via the auxiliary cable. My doodad crapped out, and aside from a bluegrass show my friend Danna did on Sunday mornings, there wasn't much I liked listening to on local radio, and I'd gone through a lot of my musical selection.
My Dad was a big advocate of audio books. I'd done a few in my life, but he was the real enthusiast. And for Christmas one year (I believe) we'd gotten him the CD audio book of King's Full Dark, No Stars. He really enjoyed it, and suggested it as something to listen to.
He was right. It was a helluva good listen.
Well, I'm now 8 years into my project. I'm 38 years into King's publication career, and drew Full Dark, No Stars. I was kinda looking forward to this one, just because it was such a pleasant surprise way back in 2011 or so.
It made me think of my Dad again. He really liked the story 1922. It had a nice Monkey's Paw vibe to it, that he always seemed to enjoy. I've always enjoyed King when he's leaning into his EC Comics fandom for inspiration. 1922 is fun. If Dad listened to a book, he never read it. But he found a used copy at McKay's and bought it for himself, and read that novella a couple of times. Don't know why it touched a nerve, but it did.
As a digression, I finally watched the Netflix adaptation of 1922 this morning. It stars Thomas Jane, and I'd avoided it after Netflix released it, because it released so close to when Dad passed. I'm glad I did, because while faithful in structure to the novella, it's missing something in spirit, and somebody needed to tell Thomas Jane to pump the brakes on his accent.....
The other stories are good, but they made me think of somebody else.
Gina Fann was one of the first regular readers and commentors on this here blogamathing. At least who weren't my folks or somehow acquainted with me in person. As coincidence, she'd also just read Full Dark after taking a similar break from King. In her words, she was waiting for him to find the magic again. And she felt like he'd found it in Full Dark, No Stars. There were, and are, a couple of stories that start problematically (one with a rape, one with a character with serial killer tendencies), that were often a turnoff for her (and me, if I'm being truthful). Some writers can't rise above those pitfalls, but King managed it. It was another reason for her to respect him.
Gina and I stayed friends across a handful of forums. I'd offered to meet once, when I visited Murfreesboro years after moving away, but she didn't have an opportunity then.
It wasn't unusual for her to disappear for a period, when work got heavy on her end, or when the political environment got sour. So I didn't think too much of it when she didn't pop up in the summer of 2023. In the fall, I sent a note or two to see how she was. When I didn't get a response, I asked around. Another friend in something of the same business did some digging. And sent me the awful news that she'd passed away in August of 2023.
It was a gutpunch.
For a lot of us. Like I said, she was very much a booster for those of us spouting our brand of witticism and/or vitriol into the void. She was funny, and smart. And often managed to get more out of us as writers than we thought we had in us, pushing from afar.
Here's something that I didn't mention: it wasn't until that fall that I knew that her name was Gina. I'd only known her as Grandefille since 2003 or 2004.
She was a good lady, and I miss her, even if we only ever met online....
Anyway....as the book goes. It was a fun read this time around, too. 1922 is a banger, and Big Driver works as a retribution piece. Fair Extension might still be the weakest of the four, but it did hit me a lot different in 2025, as I myself am wandering neck deep in middle age myself.
One of the fun (interesting? notable?) things about the project is seeing what themes remain constant, and what changes up over a period of time. Early in his career, there's lots of wariness about the government and media (which doesn't change much over time), and lots of anxiety about being a good father and husband. In the 80's, there's lots of worry over substance abuse, celebrity and worries about the dangers to kids. The 90's, after he kicked the booze and drugs, there's some foundering about relearning how to write....and there are some apologies. To Tabitha (Gerald's Game), his mother (Dolores Claiborne) and to himself (Rose Madder). And then there's the accident, when Bryan Smith, nearly ran him down with his van. There's a lot in the next 10 years that are fallout from that....King learning to write (again), rushing to finish The Dark Tower (which finishes appropriately, but books 6 & 7 lacking the heart of the first 5), and processing the trauma (Bag of Bones, Duma Key).
I'd flippantly noted when I was reading the Mr. Mercedes trilogy, and Revival, there was lots of cncern about being an aging white man. There's a little bit of that in Duma Key, and there's a lot of concern about aging and being in a 30 or 40 year relationship in this one.
Anyway. This one was fun. And I'm really looking forward 11/22/63, which is next on my list, unless I'm remembering incorrectly. That one is my pick for the finest thing he's written this century.....
I'm going to try to make myself sit down to write about a couple other things I've read lately:
Shyam, my friend Jill and I are in a small reading group, and the one we read recently was Mice 1961, by Stacey Levine. I haven't had a book flummox me like this in a while. Made me slow down while I was reading. And I felt very much akin to the narrator, who herself was a fly on a wall at a party attended by two very dysfunctional sisters.....
And I re read Harlan Ellison's Glass Teat...and mostly I want to talk about how I probaby wasn't mature enough, even at 22 or 23, to have truly appreciated the gravity of some of the political though in that book, as much as it purports to be a television criticism column......
Maybe I can make myself, gentle reader......
Although there was something pleasing about being able to bullshit out 1400+ words in a little less than an hour.....maybe there won't be so much making about it.....
posted by Tommy at
20:32
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