usmcsis's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Taking a Stand So I'm finally reading A Kiss of Shadows by Laurell K. Hamilton. Suzanne has been trying to get me read it for over a year now. lol I read the first three chapters last night and let me just say, wow. LKH so rocks. She has such depth in her writing. She layers her descriptions so deeply that not only can I picture the scene, I feel the textures and smell the scents. It's really great to read her stuff. I was going crazy trying to finish The Stand. I finally finished it around 2:30 yesterday afternoon. Of course, that was after I had read until 4am twice and I did nothing but read from the time I woke up yesterday until I finished it. It was such a long book but that's not even why I was in such a frenzy to finish it. It is so, involved is the only word I can think of to describe it. There are so many characters taking part in the story, yet each of them is a different story themselves. And of course, the subject of the book, the end of the world as we know it and the time honored good vs. evil, was written in such a way that it practically forces you to keep turning the pages. My mom went through a big Stephen King phase when I was younger, where she read anything by him that she could get her hands on. She bought The Stand and started to read it. She never finished it. When I was 14 or 15, I myself went through my first (of many lol) King phases and I asked her about some of the books she had read. She told me then and there, NOT to read The Stand. She told me that it had scared her so bad she couldn't sleep. She was wary about even leaving the house and she would cry in the morning when my brother and I got on the school bus. Not only did she never finish it, but she couldn't even keep it in the house and put it in the garbage. Being that I was only 14 or so at this time, when my mom told me she was scared, I immediately imagined horrible monsters. What else would scare her so terribly? But what was the big deal? Everyone knows monsters aren't real. Right? Until this past Monday when I opened it to page 1, I had no idea what the book was even about. When Jeff found out that I had neither read the book nor seen the movie, he simply said, get the book. Having read it now, at 26, in light of what's going on in the world in this day and age of terrorism and anthrax via mailman, I can see what so terrified my mom. All art imitates life as the saying goes. Back in the year that King first published The Stand, the year I was born actually (1976), people were getting over The Vietnam War, America was still dealing with The Cold War and communism. It was a pretty timely piece of literature at that time in the world. (And yes, I do consider King's work to be literature, I know some do not but that's an argument for another day.) But today, in the year 2002, it's still timely. He actually wrote the book into the future. As I said, it was first published in 1976 yet the story takes place in 1990. There is even some mention of the upcoming "New Millineum." It's very easy to forget when reading the book that it was written 26 years ago. If you haven't read it, I suggest you read it. It makes you wonder... 10:44 am - 14 Sep 2002 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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