Under The Dome so far

[la_belle_laide]

I'm writing this before I've even finished Stephen King's novel Under The Dome because I can't hold it back anymore. I get like that sometimes.

I love this behemoth. I think it's one of the best, most subversive-but-not-really pieces of work he's ever written. I say this as an admitted long-time King fangirl. Sure and he's written stories that've made me go “meh” but this is not one of them and Imma tellya why.

First let me say that it's not King's ability to write male leads that I always fall in love with—although he does—that gets me so into this book.
You just gotta love Dale Barbara. (Not in the same way one falls in love with Roland Deschain, but still.) King is such a master at taking the mundane and making it epic, at taking normal people and making them into heroes and unthinkable villains, it seems effortless when he does it. And he writes a good scare, and he's not afraid to get really dirty and gross and horrific with the body fluids, guts, rot, and general nasty stuff like that. I appreciate a good gross-out almost as much as I appreciate a good scare. And I envy his ability.

But none of that is what is really getting me so excited by Under The Dome. What's got me worked up enough to devote an entire LJ entry to it is the premise and how he handles it.

So, there's this small town and a dome randomly covers it. No one can get in or out. It's a national tragedy. Throw in some good guys, some bad guys, and a small-minded dictator, and you've got a political tragedy.

After this devastating event locks the entire town down, King's as-yet most evilest ever Bad Guy decides that he's the only one fit to rule the town. It's 'cause he's a good Christian, see, everything he does is for the good of the Chu'ch, for the good of 'Murrika the town. Never mind that he and his henchmen are involved in some really filthy side-businesses that make them tons of money and destroy the health of the rest of the citizens. It's all for the good of the town. And don't think they don't struggle with their decisions. But the Big Bad, he gave his heart to Christ, so he prays a lot. You know, in order to get guidance, to do what he does. For the good of the town.

The Dome isn't enough of a unifying tragedy, since some forward-thinking townspeople are still against him and his cronies. So he creates more tragedies in order to pull them all together (for the good of the town.) And any turr'rist citizen who is really against him, why, they are easily gotten rid of. Then he can frame them for his crimes, and those of his henchmen, and lock them in prison, trying to force them to confess under the threat of waterboarding. For the good of the town. And he gets his son, and all his son's friends, on the police force in a state of martial law, in order to create and enforce order, and repeals the citizens' rights to carry weapons. Because you have to give up your rights sometimes, when it's, you know, for the good of the town.

After another tragedy strikes, most of the citizens start wearing yellow ribbons blue armbands to show their solidarity, and support of the good men of the police. Even the folks who are against him and his group have to wear the armbands in order to blend in, to not be lynched.

And I really can't go much further with my own take on this here, because otherwise I'll be e-lynched, and probably by a few people I even know. There are certain opinions that are still taboo.

King made some cagey decisions to save his own ass, or at least that's what I think he did. The hero of the story is an ex military guy. There is a sympathetic and sane Christian character – although she's secretly agnostic; and a sympathetic, sane and heroic Republican – although the newspaper she writes is called “The Democrat.” King's obviously no dummy, but neither am I. I know a token when I see one.

So, I haven't finished the novel and I really have no idea of how it's going to end, but I love him for this book. On the one hand I think it's not timely enough: it should have been written in 2002. On the other hand, I perfectly understand the impossibility of releasing this book even a year ago.

Well done, King. Bravo for seeing and saying what so few people have the balls to see, or if we do see it, to say. And then to use your obviously HUGE voice to write a great big novel about it. Beautifully carried out. I know a few folks in my own circle who are devout conservatives who probably won't even see what's going on here.

We see what we expect to see in novels. In many things, really. That goes for me, too. I could be wildly misreading his intentions here.

But I'm not. ^_^