Being slightly mad about 'The Stand'

nickeyb borrowed The Stand off me a little while back, and returned it over the weekend. Whenever I get The Stand back, I start dipping into it, and I keep on dipping into it so much that I basically end up re-reading it. This I have done over the past couple of days.

I love The Stand. I think it is the Great American Novel, along with The Great Gatsby. I shall not support this argument sensibly. Anyone who disagrees with me is simply WRONG.

The Stand freaks me out. It freaks me out in winter, when people have colds. It freaks me out in summer, when people have hayfever. Because when I am reading The Stand and I hear someone sneeze I am RUNNING FOR THE HILLS. That, my friends, is true horror.

The miniseries of The Stand manages to be not bad at all. Randall Flagg is now the police captain in Law and Order: Criminal Intent. This SCARES THE BEJESUS out of me.

Also, in The Stand Sociologists Are Heroes Too. This is a limited sub-genre, and I can only think of Bellwether by Connie Willis. One day I will make a sociologist the hero(ine). The Stand has thus provided me with AMBITION!

God, I love The Stand.

Goodbye, Mr Bronson

Michael Sheard has died.