I don't remember my age when I first read Carrie, but I do remember that I had already seen the movie. I was a child of the eighties, a VCR and cable kid who was raised on regular, weekend trips to rent stacks of horror movies from Video One and spoon fed the constant re-airings of hits, classics, and mediocre fare on Cinemax and HBO. Carrie was a staple in the oeuvre of titles that you weren't considered cool until you'd seen, and it played prominently in a little gem of a horror amalgamation called Terror in the Aisles. For me, it was a terror film essential. I don't remember ever finding the movie especially scary, but I do remember finding it interesting. Even at a very early age (probably too young to have seen it by the moral standards of today), the prom scene in its entirety stood out as a lovely marriage of sight and sound that I recall rewinding to re-watch multiple times (particularly form the moment that Sue first becomes aware of the rope to the moment that the bucket empties over Carrie's Cinderella-like appearance).
I'm pretty sure that the book originally took me quite a bit of time to complete the first time, and I may have even skipped around to "the good parts," those sections related to the aspects with which I was most familiar, particularly the tormented scene in the girls' shower and, of course, the meat of the story: Prom Night. This time, I sped through it, completing bulk (from about one hundred pages in through the epilogue) of the novel yesterday while tending to my mom during her brief, day-long hospitalization. The only difficult part of reading the story, now so familiar with the tale from its cinematic form, was viewing the characters as Stephen King originally wrote them. It's nearly impossible to picture the pimply, unattractive girl blowing green snot bubbles during her fit of despair before Tommy begins to see her as possibly pretty as anything other than Sissy Spacek's interpretation. It was also difficult to have an audible, mental note of Margaret White's lines as having any voice other than that of Piper Laurie. That being admitted, I do have to write that I have a totally different perception of Tommy Ross, Susan Snell, Ms. Desjardin ("Ms. Collins" in the film), Chris Hargensen, and Billy Nolan than the way they were interpreted later. In the novel, Tommy is the All-American, "perfect" guy, endowed with both brains and brawn, and one can really feel Tommy's attraction toward Carrie develop during their date. Chris is a bit more sympathetic, though much more spoiled. Ms. Desjardin is a bit less sympathetic (and less of a major character). Billy Nolan is much closer to a vindictive villain than the bumbling marionette to Chris's puppet strings. And Sue is as much of a secondary protagonist as Carrie White herself.
King's decision to use epistolary exposition, in the form of book excerpts, court depositions, snippets from the AP wire, and portions of a fabled document from "The White Commission" are key in making his first work more topical now than ever. In modern days, we've become much more aware of the possibly horrendous effects of bullying and we're inundated with the positive ideas from celebrities being seen as normal people promising that "it gets better." Stephen King had a great understanding of what it might feel like to be on several sides of this spectrum: the victim (Carrie), the bullies(Chris, Helen, Billy, etc.), and those who try to undo an injustice and do something to give back (Sue and Tommy). In the end, the experts analyzing the case of what happened regarding Carrie White wonder how something like this could ever be prevented (the novel operates with the assumption that telekinesis is a verifiable scientific phenomenon, a recessive trait similar to red hair).
Since completing the book, I've watched the Special Features on the DVD, read what I can online, and seen a few videos on YouTube on the history of the book's publication. Everything seems to suggest that Stephen King believes, like many other writers, that he has grown by leaps and bounds as an artist since the publication of this, his first work. I agree that this is not the greatest novel ever published, and definitely not the best thing I remember having read by the author; however, I think find it to be a great read.
Were I just exposed to King for the first time at the age I am now, I would definitely want to keep reading to see what next this man has in store.
Next stop, 'Salem's Lot.
No comments:
Post a Comment