AUTHORS' IMAGININGS NOW REALITY

        Earlier this week, I did something I’ve never done before. I went to an author’s website and left a message. The author was Stephen King and the message had to do with his book, THE STAND. It was first published in 1978. I copied and pasted a short summary: 

The plot centers on a pandemic of a weaponized strain of influenza that kills almost the entire world population. The few survivors, united in groups, establish a new social system and engage in confrontation with each other. In writing the book, King sought to create an epic in the spirit of The Lord of the Rings that was set in contemporary America. 

As with many of the books Mr. King has written, I loved THE STAND. Subsequently, the book was reissued in 1990 with an additional 150 pages that had been deleted from the original. I read it again.

The reason I sent Mr. King a message, although I don’t know if he’ll actually ever read it because his web person takes care of the site, is because there hasn’t been a day for more than a month now that I haven’t thought about this book. What’s happening these days is exactly what happened in his book, although his virus originated in New Mexico or Arizona rather than China. But, it did go worldwide as the Coronavirus has.

His book concerned survivors, both good and bad people, who lived in the United States. There was no internet or major news sources or daily updates about what was going on. In some ways, I think I’d prefer to be living in King’s book. What the positive or good survivors had going for them was a dream they kept having about a woman in Colorado. They absolutely had to travel there. Thanks to my computer, television and phone, if I’m going to have any dreams, they’re going to be nightmares.

I know there have been other books and movies about a variety of viruses or diseases that decimate the population. In fact, I just used the internet to look up books with this theme. I found a list of 152 and recognized some that I’d read during my lifetime. THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN, THE HOT VIRUS, OUTBREAK, THE MAZE RUNNER, THE PLAGUE are all books about society being affected by something like coronavirus. Albert Camus’ THE PLAGUE was published in 1947, and there may be books that a were published even earlier with this topic. A number of these books have been made into movies.

          In thinking about the authors of all these books, I wonder what they think or feel to see this kind of a pandemic affecting the entire world. They were using their imaginations to create a different take on the world. I enjoyed reading what they imagined and never believed that I’d actually live during a time those imaginings became my reality.

          Instead of another interview with some talking head or another press conference by our “fearless leader,” I wish some enterprising reporter would contact Stephen King or Robin Cook, or Michael Crichton or James Dashner and interview them about how they feel seeing their imaginations brought to life. I actually don’t know who is and isn’t alive in the names I just typed (except for King), but out of a 152 books there has to be more authors than King that are alive.

          Meanwhile, I think I’ll save that list and see if the library can provide me with ebook copies of ones that sound interesting. Perhaps if I read another person’s imaginings, I can pretend or forget that I’m currently living the real thing…at least for a little while.