SLOW READ: The Stand (Chapters 1 - 4)

Welcome to SLOW READ, where we tackle the books you’ve always wanted to read at a pace you can handle.

Hosted by Sarah Stewart Holland and Laura Tremaine

We are currently reading The Stand by Stephen King (unabridged version)

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This is the second episode of Slow Read The Stand. The Circle is open!

If you prefer to read instead of listen, below is a cleaned up transcript of the episodes as well as links to all the books and Substacks we mentioned in this episode…and several fun bonus links and videos!

Laura: Okay, here we go. Page one. Page one of 1,200. We got six months. We got plenty of time. Sarah, the circle has opened.

Sarah: I don’t even know what that means yet. I don’t even know what “the circle opens” means yet.

Laura: Well, I don’t think you’re supposed to. That’s the whole point. But what we’re discussing today is—he doesn’t call it a prologue, but it is. It’s like a few pages of prologue and then the first four chapters. But before we even do that, he kicks off The Stand with these quotes, these four quotes.

Sarah: Music lyrics.

Laura: Yeah. Well, okay, the first one... if he’d just done the Bruce Springsteen quote, I think I’d have been with him. I underlined “and try to make an honest stand.” Okay. Why did he keep going?

Sarah: I mean, he couldn’t have known that Blue Öyster Cult was going to turn into a Saturday Night Live skit, in his defense. In 1978, he didn’t know that this song was going to become such a joke. So I have a little sympathy for the second one.

Laura: Well, I think that he is really wanting you to “Don’t Fear the Reaper.”

Sarah: But all I hear is cowbell, Laura. I also feel like... starting a book off with four quotes is a little bit amateur hour. My snobbery is going to show so early in this conversation, and for the next six months y’all just know it.

Laura: Yeah, it’s like he couldn’t pick. Don’t you have an editor? But I wonder, do we know if the first edition in 1978 had all three? That’s a question I would like to know the answer to. Maybe he was like, “You know what? They made me cut the Bruce Springsteen lyric and I’m putting it back in in 1990.”

Sarah: It’s just a little excessive. Was Bruce Springsteen a big deal in the 70s?

Laura: Well, I think he was already, like, to the cool kids. He wasn’t mass popularity. I don’t know. My Bruce Springsteen education is lacking.

Sarah: I did watch the entire Saturday Night Live 50th anniversary documentary about “Don’t Fear the Reaper” and how the song came to be and how it became a part of the sketch. I can tell you more than I really should know about this song. But I don’t understand the third one. “What’s that spell? What’s that spell? What’s that spell?” That’s not even a good lyric. What’s he doing? I don’t get it.

SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night, More Cowbell

Laura: Okay, well, that third quote... I wasn’t even sure that that was a real band. I had to look it up. Country Joe and the Fish was an American psychedelic rock band formed in Berkeley, California in 1965. Maybe the idea is that you listen to it—or hear the song in your head. Maybe it’s really more referential to the vibe of the music than the lyrics. But I’m squinting here. I’m really trying to give it the maximum amount of credit for these three, a little bit superfluous, lyric quotes.

Sarah: Well, here’s what you need to know about Stephen King. This is true in every book I’ve ever read of his. He is a real music lover. He will put music quotes or references—like how he always has characters listening to very specific songs when they’re driving the car. He never makes it generic. It is always very specific. He is a music person.

Laura: The first three are music lyrics. And then on the next page where it says “The Circle Opens,” which is the beginning of our story, there’s yet another quote. But this one is from a poet who I was unfamiliar with—Edward Dorn.

Sarah: Yeah, I’ve never heard of Edward Dorn.

Laura: His most famous work is Gunslinger, which came out in 1968.

Sarah: The poet reckoned? Yeah, what are you doing? It’s very Stephen King to me.

Laura: Yeah, it’s so literal. To me, quotes like this should really add to or create a sense of energy or vibe. This feels a little literal. But he’s such a writer for the masses, you shouldn’t need some sort of esoteric background on Edward Dorn for this to make sense to you. I’m leaning on you here. I’m just thinking, “Oh, I bet the more I read, the more these will make sense to me.”

Sarah: I don’t fi