Review

Book goal update

At the beginning of July, Angela Collier put out one of her book dump videos and she’d read very very many books during the month of June. I didn’t even count because I knew there was no way I’d be able to read that much in that time. That being said, it did make me determined to read more, and I’m reminded of my reading goal of 20 books and how close I’m already getting!

Opening Thoughts

The running man is certainly a book written by Stephen King. Of course, under the Richard Bachman pseudonym, which I honestly didn’t know about before hitting the audio book. I quite enjoyed hearing King’s commentary about Bachman as a character, and it is really just a testament to the guy’s cavernous imagination.

Okay, so this book is weird and the two films that have been made in it's name are entirely different pieces of art, and I can see why they diverge so strongly. This book seems pretty classically Stephen King by all accounts I've come across. It's definitely got his voice, for better and for worse. I think the premice of the running man is a great idea, but perhaps not for a book, especially from King. His focus seems to only get muddier and more inconsistent as the story unfolds.

The stuff that works

But, before we get to that, let's talk about what I liked about this book, cause I think there's definetly a lot to like.

The Game

First, I'd just like to point out that I think as far as a Sci-Fi setting to criticize Americanism, The Running Man is perhaps one of the best ways to do it. I think stories like the hunger games are maybe over-emphasizing the game and Sci-Fi setting as a way to criticize American society. King avoids this trap, by designing the game to be focused and simple. The hunger games, as a story is at odds with the game itself. The story and game are always in conflict. Because, while it is quite tempting to deliver on scale & spectacle, it's not necessarily an efficient way to make the story flow. Now, obviously The Hunger Games is a genuinely gripping novel, but that's because Suzanne Collins understands pacing and story well enough to break “the rules” of the game in order to make it work. Not to mention how disconnected The book's dystopia is from American society.

King’s game of “The Running Man” is actually a single part of a monopoly Television Network's many different kinds of cruel death games. The class structure of American society is already going in that direction, I mean, sacrificing yourself for an economy is a very common idea. You don't need to travel hundreds or thousands of years into the future or reconstruct society in order to communicate that well! We're already playing these games, the biggest difference is that we don't televise them!

The Free-Vee

Which brings me to the other thing I like about this story; The Free-Vee. Aka; King’s Dystopian television. The way he frames it in the collective consciousness of Americans as this thing that's rotted all our brains, and nobody reads anymore -- pretty typical. He has the protagonist; Ben Richards ask one of the games people for a book while he waits for the network to set up the show for a week. What I find interesting is how King uses it to accentuate propaganda. There's this rule in the game that says he'll stop recieving momey if he doesn't send a video tape of himself to the network every 12 hours. At one point, Ben tries to use this to expose a conspiracy to pollute the air, and that's why so many working class people are so desperate for money. But the Network just edits the tape to make him say something else. Showcasing that propaganda is not just plain, old fashioned lying, it's moreso a filter through which to dissolve criticism of the systems of power. Only so many people are allowed to say whatever they want without consequences, and you're not one of them.

The Chapter Titles r Cute <3

I'd also just like to point out thay the syntax for naming the chapters is really fun, and delivers on the aesthetic of a high-ocate manhunt gane show. It goes;

Minus X... ...And counting

The Stuff that Stinks

While I think that King pretty much nailed the setting and tone starting out in the first act, by the end of the book, the plot is a fuckin’ mess. There's so many characters that don't really matter, Ben Richards literally holds a woman hostage for the entire second half of the book, and she serves no purpose other than that. What's particularly strange is that king definitely flirts with the idea of giving her some sort of use, but he never commits to anything. Perhaps that was the point, although I can't be sure what King was trying to say at all then. Throughout the entire second half, we see his hostage; Amelia Williams, Fake-threatened, real threatened, insulted, cry like a baby all the time, be ignored, argued with, lusted after, told that Richards has a wife and daughter, and thrown out the window of a plane. She seems to not really do anything other than... be there? There's even a moment where the ever so wife-loving Ben Richards has a monologue in his own head where he straight up says he wants to r°pe her and beat her!?!?? It felt like it came out of nowhere too. I felt like a frog getting boiled, but then they turned up the temp and I was immediately privy to the absurdity of what was happening in this book.

Freefall

Now, I think these issues with Amelia could have been ironed out, strong characters can emerge halfway through a story and serve as a voice to contrast against the hero. But setting all that aside, almost the entire second half of the book is set inside Amelia's car. It's not really any action at all, failing to deliver on the premise of The Running Man. It's mostly just Ben & Amelia arguing about fuck-all and Richards always being right and Amelia being frightened. It's just not what I would call good storytelling. The action novel I was promised dives off a cliff in freefall, only to do a cool flip before splatting at the bottom.

The ending

I'm gonna try not to tslk about it too much, mostly cuz I don't really give a shit. But, I thought the ending was meh. It seemed as if King put some effort into planning it out as a worthwhile fknale, and there was some pretty good action in there, but it felt a bit drawn out to me. Which, I suppose is a good way to summarize this entire book. I feel like this novel would have been much more effective of King cut things down a lot. There's just so much here that the reader doesn't need to see at all. I didn't even talk about most of the people Ben richards interacts with in this review, simply because I couldn't care less about it. It's a shame! That being said, I'm still glad I got this one under my belt. I've always wanted to read King to understand the appeal, and I think I more or less understand him as a writer that much more. I think he's generally not my taste, although, maybe I just need to read a better Stephen King book!

I think that under a capitalist system, we're always seeking to make the most of our time, to never be unentertained for even a moment, to always be obtaining value. But that's not healthy. You do need to have days where you do actually nothing but drink tea and water your plants and read and don't open your phone or social media. To me, bad writing is a blessing, because it reminds me of the pitfalls I'm susceptible to. And I mean, I still found value by engaging with this book that I didn't enjoy very much with a spoiled ending. I think that I've yet to write a more comprehensive review of a book that I liked, that's for sure! So, do things that are hard, that you don't like, that sink their canines into you and make you draw blood. It might be just what you needed.