In the shadow of
the US Bank Stadium, writers, readers and book peddlers gather in the make
shift Minneapolis tent village, crowding the closed streets, haggling over
words, sentences and paragraphs, and whispering in hushed tones, “Soon the
master will be here.”
“Imagine” by John
Lennon is being piped out over the crowd when I show up. And I wonder if these
are the same people who sold out First
Avenue last night to hear the Rock
Bottom Remainders. I suspect they are. Why should they be any different
from me? Here to witness the same phenomenon, the head horror writer in charge,
Lovecraft’s current channeler on earth—Stephen
King.
He doesn’t go on
until 10 AM, so I pick out a spot fairly close to the stage, but far enough
back I’m out of the crowd—at least for now. The morning is relatively pleasant.
It’s sunny, there’s a spring breeze, classic rock plays along with a steady
bongo drumbeat somewhere that has me thinking “Renaissance Festival for
Writers.” Commercial interests are represented, mostly by Target reps in red
shirts that hand out sunscreen and sunglasses, all with the Target logo.
I scan the crowd
for writers I know—and come up empty. But there are enough people here they
could easily be hidden in the growing mass of people. “I Feel Like Making Love”
comes on, and the Ren Fest feeling now gives way to more of a “carnival for writers”
vibe. I also think that in a King novel (Cell,
for instance) this would be the moment right before it all goes bad, before
people start going mad and biting each other. I take a step further back from
the growing crowd, eye-up the exits.
A woman in the crowd asks me how Instagram works on her phone (I’m no help). Another woman,
about four feet tall and at least eighty years old, leans close to me, enjoying
the shade I provide. When I take a step away, she moves closer again. My toes
are run over by a stroller filled with two sleeping infants and their mom yells
“toes!” in surprise, and jokes with me that “You probably didn’t need those
anyway.” No harm done, I concur. There are clearly a variety of people here,
and most of them, it seems, are here just like me, readers or writers, waiting to
see King.
“Dangerous Type”
by the Cars plays now. Somewhere past the wall of people, King must make a brief
appearance as he heads towards stage. A flurry of hands and cheers all go up at
once, and stop just as suddenly as he ducks out of site. I can’t help but
wonder if this is where fame gets you. People yelling and waving at just a
slight glimpse. There are so many of us now in this crowd, my mind jumps to a
scene in Jesus Christ Superstar:
Jesus and the Lepers. “There are so many of you!” I hope King gets something
worthwhile from this—besides big bags of writer superstar money, that is. I
hope it’s worth it.
When King is
finally introduced and makes it on stage I mostly see him on the big projection
screen they have set up. He has a casual manner, and a wide, friendly smile. He
shows his age a little: gray hair, a bit bent of posture, very soft-spoken.
Benjamin
Percy, local author (of some fine books like Thrill Me and Red Moon) interviews
King, with full disclosure, that they will mostly talk about one of King’s
newer books, The Outsider (I’ve read
it, not bad—the first two-thirds were great, the ending felt familiar to me,
reminiscent of It).
King is so much
fun to listen to, and between him and Percy they had some great things to say
about reading and writing and horror. Here are a few gems (tried to capture as
best I could, please consider most of what follows “paraphrased”):
·
King complimented the crowd for being “People
who read shit.” (Meaning: great that they are readers)
·
“If you can read and write you can own the
f•cking world.” - Stephen King
·
He spoke of how many people have written him to
say our current president reminds them of Greg Stillson, the president in his
book The Dead Zone (The first thing I
thought of when Trump was elected.)
·
A few times he talked about how his books end,
in this manner: “I’ll find out the ending in the course of writing the book.”
·
He’s a Game
of Thrones fan.
·
Random thought/observation: The closed
captioning at this event was bordering on hilarious. I’m sure it’s tough—I
couldn’t keep up if I were typing, but here are a few captions I noticed that
made me smile:
o Supernatural
Beans (beings)
o Needful
Chinks (things)
o Swagger
(Jimmy Swaggart)
o Kid
tanning on the window (tapping)
·
Some projects King has in the works
o A
sequel (perhaps) to Salems’ Lot
o The Outsider will be a Netflix series
o If It Bleeds (new novel coming out soon—it
sounds good!)
·
A joke by King: “So far so good: What the guy who jumped off the roof said
as he was passing the 40th floor.”
·
What does King write about? He says he writes to
the point that monsters are real—and sometimes they win. He likes to write
about people falling apart. He also talked about how all people have secrets,
and used the example of Ted Bundy, who did terrible things yet to most people
around him, they only saw a handsome, charming guy. He also uses his writing to
pass on his fears and traumas to others (why pay a psychiatrist when people pay
him to read his fears).
·
King also spoke about how in these (current, terrible,
scary) times people are frightened, and that writers have a responsibility to
write about what frightens them.
o His
upcoming book If It Bleeds may
express some fears about Alzheimer’s and dementia. (A writer’s tool is his
mind…)
·
Some things that King spoke of fondly:
o Wait Until Dark (an old movie with Audrey
Hepburn)
o The Shrinking Man (Incredible Shrinking Man)
·
On fame: “Writers should be like Clark Kent.”
·
“Minnesota is a great place. You’re lucky to
live here.” – Stephen King
·
“It’s a strange life.” – Stephen King
·
How good writing should be: “A hem stitched so
fine…” (meaning so well written people can suspend belief)
·
Side note by King and Percy: the director, John
Carpenter, apparently keeps a “File of Scares’—creepy images—that he uses to
work from.
As King spoke the crowd grew. Some
of the most interesting people in the audience, to me, were the ones who walked
on by, who never looked at King up on stage, or even paused. One of the most
popular writers on the planet is up on stage—and you can’t stop to listen in
for a minute? I just don’t understand.
This is my third
time being in a King audience—and I love to listen to him expound about
writing. But why shouldn’t I, as someone who has read 40+ Stephen King books?
I’m plenty biased.
 |
One other moment I
got to experience, thanks to The Loft’s Word
Play event (and my thoughtful wife who bought us tickets for our anniversary),
was to hear King and the Rockbottom
Remainders play a blend of classic rock songs, most that I recognized as cover
tunes from my father’s old record collection. Hearing this group of writers
sing “Paper Back Writer” was wonderful, and as another writer friend of mine
said, “Hearing King sing Stand By Me
was a dream come true I never knew I had.”
Ditto.
~Mark
@manOwords
@manOwords
