April 5, 2011

D: Desperation, Diligence, doo-wop

Duke of Earl reunion:

There's my doo-wop section - oh yeah, baby, Duke of Earl, kickin'ass in the morning and taking names in the evening. Now how do you follow THAT up?

Well I guess we move on to "Desperation." It means many things to many people; but I suppose I'm talking about the Stephen King book. It was a new concept in publishing - to simultaneously come out with two books, intertwined, one by his long-dead Pseudonym "Richard Bachman" and one by King himself. So you're not a King fan; you can surely appreciate his innovations in the publishing industry. The two books had identical character names; the Bachman book had been "found" by his widow many years after his "death - death by cancer of the pseudonym" but while they had the same character names they did NOT have the same characters nor the same story. Only the same...flavor. Naturally he put King's name to the better of the two books, "Desperation". What struck me, as always does in his books, is that there is usually only ONE (possibly two) people in the entire cast who find themselves in highly bizarre supernatural circumstances, but only ONE person (maybe two, if the second is retarded) who PRAYS. Contrast this with War of the Words where as one would expect, most of the people find themselves in church praying for God's help. No, in King-world, there's one strange person who prays and believes. Is this realistic? No. Not really. As a drowning man will grasp the point of a sword, people in dire circumstances find themselves saying "Oh god, help, Oh God, HELP!" There are no atheists in foxholes right? (Well, there are, but they're a minority.)

See, what struck me in Desperation was that the one 11 year old believer repeated endlessly throughout the book that "God is cruel." And...well, yeah I suppose he is. Since you're not gonna read it anyway I'll give away the end and say that the biggest atheist in the book left a note for the believer that said, "God is Love." It was...well it was earth-shattering. He IS love. But what we perceive and what we know is often two opposite things. Somehow,somewhere, some way, God IS Love. Don't ask me how; I'm just the messenger.

Diligence? Oh, hell, I wish I could learn it. I was never taught it and I don't know how to do it. So there it is. Hah! I thought I was gonna ace this challenge but apparently I suck at it. But I got a few comments and that's all I ever really wanted so I suppose I should count it a success. Diligence...hehe. ME,diligence. Antonyms. There is an acronym in Lisey's Story called "SOWISA" (Strap on Whenever It Seems Necessary.) There was a time when I could do that. Could that time possibly be past? I'm not even that old. But it's the mileage kid, not the years. Perhaps someday I shall be called on to strap it on yet again. Maybe I'll even be able to. Hah. Lotsa luck.

No comments: