Відео

Wonderful!

Really liked you guys's different opinions. Have you got to reading any other GRRM short stories?

Am enjoying your reflections on this terrific story, and would like to offer some of mine. The the exchange between such fevered fiction generated by a boy's imagination and the harshness of real life--the blending of each into the other--is as poignant as it is profound. It's important to note that Wolfe (born in 1931) grew up during the heyday of the pulps, and that the movie, "The Island of Lost Souls", was released one year later. So he most certainly saw it, hence the specific references to it. As with Harlan Ellison (born 1934), the popluar culture of the time (comic books, radio, pulps, and movies) left an indelible impression on their already impressionable minds. Wolfe is trying to work this stuff from such a childhood out through the jaded perspective of adulthood with all the baggage it brings. It is a kind of lament, a homage to the innocence of youth, now colored by a darker notion of things revealed grown up. It is this sadder aspect, shaped in dreams and cemented in everyday life, that makes this story unsettling. It's as if the memory of such youthful flights of fancy have been violated: corrupted by those unsaid things which scar us. Wolfe realizes that the notion of some idyllic childhood was compromised by life right from the start and, despite the lure of such nostalgic indulgence, the darkness must be acknowledged. This story is a tale of trauma and the creative compulsion to rehabilitate it.

Was exciting to watch this episode as a listener and not as part of the panel! - Nikita.

Finally getting around to this episode, I was looking forward to seeing everyone's opinion when I saw which short story you chose for that week's episode. It didn't disappoint! Happy new year to all of you! :)

I came from reddit

Rather than like today, I think that some earlier fiction is colored by ethnicity based upon occupation that had been historically allocated. Many Jews were colored by the fact that they worked Sundays and the top tier were heavily linked to the banking sector. Chekhov, one of the most beloved and empathic, sympathetic authors also occasionally did the same. Italian will often be depicted as "swarthy". I found the story superbly written, evoking the scenes with a vivid painterly quality and always restrained with a tragic sense of loss and waste. Also, there was a guy named Edward O'Brien who published the yearly 'The Year's Best Short Stories' - which has run for a 108 years, he did one volume for America and one for England and her colonies. In the 1923 American volume, he has an appendix of magazines and further stories to check out, they being entered was one level of notation, then there was a one star, two star and three star rating. This got a three stars in that Roll of Honor. Which isn't bad going for the countless items he had to read.

Great episode, had a blast recording this one! 🎉

SF short stories can have characters but don't need them, if it is a deliberate choice, as Philip K. Dick once said, the play on an idea is the star of a short SF tale. I remember reading it and it was relatively good but hardly "the best story of all time" that it voted into. I, like Asimov, preferred 1/ 'The Last Question', 2/ 'The Ugly Boy', 3/ 'The Bicentennial Man' (novelette version).

Things to consider: The Intelligence agencies said that you TV would be spying on you The extinguishing of the cigarette mimics the "public health" inroads into daily life, including the seizure SWAT team raids into organic producers, including non-pasturised milk by adult for their own use. Even if non of the story elements came true, and it had never influenced subsequent fiction, it's still a superbly dark story, timeless, written with surreal elements. The guy in orange is completely lacking in depth and good taste, unable articulate, and using slurs - what next, Orwell's '1984' will be labelled a "conspiracy theory". Kuttner/Moore were key acknowledged influences upon Sheckley, Silverberg, Tenn, Matheson, Bradbury, Dick, among many others. PS: You should have your names, at least initially, appear under you when first talking.

The short story is perfect, one of James best and worthy of it's place in a Hall of Fame. It doesn't need a character arc for the villain, that's not James' goal. The film is superb but flawed, the possible romantic implications of putting in the woman as a second lead, both of the leads are slightly dull, the demon is superb but shown too early and too often for too long, in short bursts - it's design, based on woodcuts, and looked has a real power. The direction and photography, music, the casting of Karswell and his mother are exemplary and are several set-pieces that belong in the front rank of supernatural cinema.

Good

I love this story!

Tyrant's Bane got a shout out! Woooo!!! Pretty interesting episode overall, already looking forward to the next episode (after your collective break!)

Dragons of Autumn Twilight was one of the first fantasy books I read as a young teen. It sparked my love of the genre, and made me fall in love with both writing and roleplaying. I had the honor of meeting Margaret Weis at Gary Con earlier this year, as well as cover artist Larry Elmore. They are both amazing people! Anyway, this book, and Dragonlance in general, are near and dear to my heart. Reading as an adult, the book definitely has flaws, but the pure nostalgia saves it for me every time. Remember, this may have a lot of fantasy tropes but it was written in the early 1980s. It was definitely influenced by Tolkein and also even Star Wars. The subsequent books see a maturing of the story and the skill of the writers. I recommend reading the whole trilogy before giving up on the Heroes of the Lance!

Interesting discussion, though Nicky definitely needs to read the second book as that’s where Laurana (the saga’s best character) really comes into her own. The story gets so much better once her story gets going. Also I do have to quibble with one thing XJ said in his summary of the book as Tanis was never adopted by the Speaker. Tanis was the Speaker’s ward but was never actually accepted as a son. We see this from how the Speaker welcomes Tanis to Qualinesti: “Is it indeed you, Tanthalas, son of my brother’s wife?” -Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Book II, Chapter 5 (Note: the explicit lack of him recognizing Tanis as his son.) And also from how Tanis describes the Speaker when talking to Laurana: “You know what would have happened if your father had found out,” and ""Your father would have every right to kill me!" -Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Book II, Chapter 6 (Note: him saying “your father” not “our father” or “father”. That shows that just as the Speaker doesn’t regard Tanis as his son, so to does Tanis not regard the Speaker as his father.) This also brings some nice karmic justice into the story. After all if the Speaker had actually accepted Tanis as his son, then Tanis would have grown up as Laurana’s brother and she never would have developed romantic feelings for him, but since the Speaker didn’t actually bring Tanis into the family that made him a viable romantic prospect for Laurana.

Lmao, he was so based for this!

Full Episode at: ua-cam.com/video/FxVkK5KMP3Q/v-deo.html

Very interesting to see how different writing rithms impact the career of writers. Very interesting video and so inspiring!

Very good podcast, loved seeing his opinion on the Heresy, and Graham was a very good sport about the Toilet seats.

Best Episode Yet! - Not biased at all.

I hope I write something as 'forgettable' as this great story, someday.

I see you're still poking fun at setting a story in a tavern, lol! Not my favorite Conan story but killing the priest with a stool was a suitably demeaning demise for the fiend! Congrats on 40 episodes!

P.S. I'm up for a short story challenge any time! Hmm, what if the nefarious Ferran was the focus of a sequel to Warrior's Reward? Hmm, the gears are turning...

On the ancient manuscripts: one can easily imagine a given text going from Alexandria to Rome to Constantinople, with copies being made. After 1204 or prior to 1453 an escaping Byzantine scholar or visiting Western scholar brings a copy to Western Europe, where a wealthy Abbott learns of it, and decides to add it to his monastery's collection. The bigger question is how the hell this monastery is sitting on a lost dialogue of Plato without anyone wanting to turn up to make copies of that.

I forgot to add, XJ's additional visuals were very welcome and useful!

Imagining the 4th dimension makes me thing of either seeing the world as a cubist painting or an endless repetition of shapes and outlines as if your head was spinning... So not that far off from being really drunk, like Nikita said! :)

So strange to see everyone come to the same conclusion for varying reasons, great episode! The audio and video wasn't in sync, I was worried it would get cut off by the end but thankfully that didn't happen.

Happy Halloween! 🎃

The details might be different but this is the same discussion of the difficulties people have with the story that they have been having since the story was published 80 years ago BUT the first time it was recorded by a small group of live people. Usually it's only discussed in writing.

"They" is one of my favorite stories, thanks for the discussion.

💪 𝖕𝖗𝖔𝖒𝖔𝖘𝖒

That was a very great return to form! The part about the rejection letter was unexpected but very welcome!

Very enjoyable chemistry.

Now I understand why your channel is named Roll Off A Tangent. You definitely rolled off on a tangent. As for King not world building in The Long Walk, perhaps that's the point. Perhaps he wanted to leave it up to your imagination. We do get some insight into the world. There are mentions of alternative histories happening in World War II. We know there are no millionaires and no libraries. So people are generally poor and information and knowledge is probably controlled by the state who feed them propaganda, just like in North Korea. We know the government is totalitarian because speaking out against the government, The Major or The Long Walk, can get you squaded, which might actually mean you're executed. Garraty never saw his father again after his father got squaded.

51:25 About King being prolific, the author L. Ron Hubbard was also prolific hold the Guinness World Record for most works published. L. Ron Hubbard published 1084 books. Stephen King published over 60 novels. But most of what L. Ron Hubbard published was pulp garbage.

46:34 King's first Bachman book was Rage in 1977 then The Long Walk in 1979. His first published novel was Carrie in 1974, followed by 'Salem's Lot in 1975, and The Shining in 1977 and The Stand in 1978. So King only had two novels published before he published his first Bachman book. Rage and The Shining came out in the same year. So the first Bachman book was published only 3 years after the first King book.

"Writing as Richard Bachman" is not accurate for The Long Walk because King finished TLW in 1967, long before he invented Richard Bachman. TLW would have been King's first published novel. I'm guessing the 1967 version was more brutal and/or more sexual and that's why it got rejected. It's obvious that King made some changes in the late 70s because of two pop culture references. One is Ron Howard with a hard-on. Ron Howard played a teenager on the sitcom Happy Days so that line made sense when TLW was published in 1979. Ron Howard is now in his 60s, so that line takes on a whole new meaning. When the book was written, Ron Howard was 13 years old and not a house hold name, so it's obvious this was added later. Another clue is the mention of John Travolta. John Travolta was the same age as Ron Howard, both being born in 1954. Travolta was an unknown when King finished the first version in 1967 but by 1978, Travolta was a household name, having starred in the movies Carrie (1976) and Saturday Night Fever (1983) and the TV show "Welcome Back, Kotter" (1975-1979). Another clue that King made edits is that there are only 97 tickets but there should be 99. King probably removed two overly brutal scenes of boys getting killed. He tries to artificially adjust the ticket count but if you take notes and track the entire timeline like I did, you'd see that the ticket count jumps like part of the book was removed. I'm hoping the original version gets published someday so we can see what publishers rejected.

33:26 if you should get a medal for reading it twice, what should I get for reading it 26 times? My plan is to keep re-reading until I stop learning new things and stop having new realizations. On the 26th read, I had about a dozen realizations, so there is a lot to explore. The more you read it, the more you realize certain things, and the more insights I get.

31:48 he says everyone must have been an idiot. What he doesn't take into account is peer pressure and society pressure. Most boys age 13 to 18 signup. Those that pass the physical and mental test get into the lottery. 200 are chosen. 100 walkers, 100 backup, but you don't know which you are until the day before. You can back-out by calling an 800 number on April 15 and April 31 and the walk starts May 1. We know that these boys are poor, so winning is a motivation. Their society pushes them into it. They're expected to do it. Of course some parents try to stop their children if they get into the lottery, but only after a congratulatory dinner and various celebrations. Percy's mom didn't want him to do it, but it's not up to her. The decision is with the boys and to pass up such a rare opportunity might leave them regretting that decision for the rest of their life. When you get picked in a lottery, you feel special. In the case of Garraty, he was the only one from Maine picked, so he was Maine's own. A celebrity basically. So it's not about being stupid. It's about doing what society expects of you. Of the 100 boys, only 12 backed out, so that tells you the pressure they are under to go through with it. How many thought they could win? Stebbins thought he could win. Scramm thought he could win. Olson thought he could win. Baker could have won if he didn't get the nose bleed. Probably more than half thought they could win and the other half though they might win. Nobody is going to enter thinking they don't have a chance to win. The risk is worth it to them.

27:25 She says King does seem to be able to write female characters. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, Rose Madder, Gerald's Game, Sleeping Beauties, Lisey's Story, the Gwendy's Button Box series, A Good Marriage, The Gingerbread Girl, Mrs. Todd's Shortcut, Dolores Claiborne, Cujo, Carrie and The Shining all have strong female characters and I can keep going. She's over simplifying again.

26:58 She says everything is set in Maine. Obviously she's over simplifying. The Shining is set in Colorado. The Stand is all over the country from New York to Colorado to Nevada. The Bill Hodges trilogy is set in Ohio. The Dark Tower series is not set in Maine and that's 8 books. The Institute goes from Florida to South Carolina to Minnesota to Maine then back to South Carolina. Sleeping Beauties is somewhere in Appalachia. I can keep going.

21:12 He keeps calling Garraty as Gary. Actually, Barkovitch's first name was Gary. I think he got the two confused.

18:42 He says Barkovitch is African American. That's not accurate. His face is described as olive-sallow. We really don't know his race, but when a character was black, it was clear. Ewing was so black he looks sorta blue. Ewing was the only walker described as black.

7:10 he says it doesn't make any sense that Gribble dry-humped the girl and they don't shoot him even though he went off the road. It does make sense because walkers are allowed to interact with the crowd on the shoulder. He did not leave the road. They dry-humped on the shoulder. The sports car was parked on the shoulder. The shoulder is the neutral zone where walkers and spectators can interact. He's also misremembering because Gribble got cramp and was shot. Baker said he had blue-balls.

1:07 You said that King wrote this as Richard Bachman but he wrote it before he invented Richard Bachman. He did revise it after he invented Richard Bachman though so you're slight correct. I know he revised it because there are some pop culture references to Ron Howard with a hard-on and John Travolta, both of whom were not famous in 1967 when he finished his first version. Ron Howard is 67 now, so the hard-on quip takes on new meaning, but when it was published, Ron Howard played a teenager on Happy Days. John Travolta starred in the movie Carrie in 1967 but he was famous before that from the TV sitcom Welcome Back Kotter (1975), Saturday Night Fever (1977), and Grease (1978). Charles Atlas is also mentioned. He died 1972. The ads started in the 1930s. I remember seeing Charles Atlas ads into the mid 70s so that dates it. People will say The Long Walk is the near future, but there are so many things that date it in the 60s and 70s. The Internet is not mentioned. There's no smartphones or tablets. The computer screen when Garraty arrives is early 1970s tech.

I used to do endurance hiking where I would push my limits so I too could relate to the pain of walking. My longest hike was from 9 am to 9 pm, and I ran out of water and got severely dehydrated to the point where I could walk a few minutes, then I had to lie down for 10 minutes to get my energy back, and I was literally seeing stars. I was alone on this hike and didn't see other people. I didn't bring enough water and there was no water sources. I was hiking in the blast zone of the volcano Mt. Saint Helens in Washington state and there was no tree cover. Just the hot sun all day. I hiked from one outlook to the other which was about 20 miles round trip. So my pace was far below 4 mph but I had some big hills to climb, much larger than in The Long Walk, but it was mostly flat hard-packed ash.

You combined Long and Walk as Longwalk in the title. It's actually The Long Walk.

3:57 You said there was nothing nothing magical or supernatural but you missed or forgot that Stebbins repeatedly read Garraty's mind. Stebbins took things from Garraty's dream of marrying his mother, and used it to anger Garraty. Later Garraty was thinking he knows the way since they were getting close to where he lives, and Stebbins responded to his thought saying something like "Maybe it's your edge, but I don't think so." Garraty had the feeling Stebbins had reached into his brain. There was also the dark figure at the end. One interpretation is that is the ghosts of all the walkers who died on The Long Walk and since Garraty is dying, he can sort of see them. There are a lot of hints that they will walk this road forever. Scramm said "The real Walk may still be coming." There is a reference to the Flying Dutchman, the legendary ghost ship that can never make port and is doomed to sail the oceans forever. The dark figure beckoned, beckoned in the rain, beckoned for him to come and walk, to come and play the game. And it was time to get started. There was still so far to walk. Jump to this bottom of this page for ending interpretations for even more excerpts that backup the theory that they're all walking as ghosts. patcoston.com/StephenKing/TheLongWalk-TheEnd.aspx

This is an alternate reality. It's hard to say when because King wrote it from 1966-1967 and probably revised in 1978, so the shoes that fall part is more mid-60s. By 1979 when it was published, you could wear well-fitting sneakers on a long walk without getting blisters and they wouldn't fall apart after 5 days. There is a lot of German symbolism. The blond soldiers, the halftrack, the Sam Browne belts, the khaki colors used for uniforms and the Major's Jeep. Other characters had blond hair like Jan and Stebbins, a blond lady, a big blond in the finish that Stebbins saw as a child, Parker was blond, and Percy hand blond hair. The Long Walk is a metaphor for the German Death Marches of World War II of people from concentration camps. If they went too slow. they were shot dead. We know there was a German air-blitz of the American East Coast during the last days of World War II. It's possible that Germany won World II and the US was conquered in this alternate reality and became totalitarian. We know there are no more millionaires and all the boys seem poor. Obviously a rich boy would have no motivation to join the long walk. This was a way for the poor to escape their miserable lives. King doesn't world build or tell us how The Long Walk got started but if you examine all of these clues, it's pretty clear that they live in a savage world. It's like the once a year Purge movies. This is a way for angry citizens to get some cathartic relief and take their minds off their own problems and perhaps win some money in their bets.