“Bad Dream” by Stephen King
Stephen King is losing popularity in Russia.
Unfortunately, it is so.
There are various ways to check and verify this. You can look at the sales statistics of his books, you can look at the number of reviews of new books (say, on fantlab) and discussions on forums. Interest is falling. The trend is obvious.
For a long time, the master of horror and thrillers from Maine was the best-selling writer in Russia. Even by the end of 2022 (when all this sanction hell began), according to the Russian Book Chamber rating, King was the most published author of fiction in Russia (Dostoevsky was in second place, Agatha Christie in third). By the end of 2023, he was only seventh (Anna Jane was first). By the end of this year, he will most likely fall out of the top ten.
In addition to the occasional claims that “King is no longer a cake” and “the old graphomaniac has written himself out”, a new-fangled accusation of Russophobia has been added. Unfortunately, King himself refused to publish new works in Russia in 2022. And King, unfortunately, was also pranked by pranksters.
Although, of course, he is not a Russophobe. I think King breathes evenly and indifferently towards Russia. King, as a true American, is interested only in the United States of America. All his life he writes about them and only about them. All his life he writes about ordinary Americans who find themselves in unusual situations.
Some readers (or are they readers at all, or something like “I haven't read Pasternak, but I condemn him!”) constantly see some kind of agenda. Some people see only what they want to see.
King's latest novel, Holly (2023), has been mercilessly criticized by some Russian-speaking readers: here you have the agenda, here all the positive characters wear masks during Covid and bump elbows as a greeting, and all the bad guys are anti-vaxxers, anti-maskers and Trumpists, here all the victims are gays and blacks. For some reason, these people stubbornly refuse to notice that this black girl was raped by black guys, and when she had an abortion, her own black family kicked her out of the house. For me, one of the most impressive scenes in the novel The Stand is the scene where blacks execute white soldiers, blowing out their brains on live television.
Yes, King often writes on topical issues, but this is not an agenda or an order. If you remove the mystical component from his books, then King simply reflects American reality (and often critically – this is why official publications of the USSR loved him from the early 80s, because he “denounced capitalist reality”). Some people do not want to see that King is honest and multifaceted. Back in 1984, in his only interview with a Soviet journalist, when asked how he explains his incredible success, King answered: “Yes, my works are unusually popular. I myself am literally stunned by this. I do not particularly understand this phenomenon … I would like to think that I did everything in my power as a writer. That I was honest. I did not heap up lies. That I carried my heroes across the pages, so to speak, with clean hands … ” (“Literary Newspaper”, 1984, N 35). This interview in full, unabridged form was later published in a book V. Simonova “What are you breathing, America?” (1987). There will be a separate article about Stephen King in the USSR sometime.
In the latest collection of short stories and novellas, “You Like It Darker” (2024), King's diversity and lack of “agenda” are fully manifested. In “Rattlesnakes,” the main positive character constantly forgets his mask at home during Covid or does not wear one at all; in “Two Talented Assholes,” written by Democrat Stephen King, the main positive characters are Republicans.
But the story that caught my attention most from the new collection was “Danny Coughlin's Bad Dream.” This is one of King's best works in recent years. A dynamic plot, interesting shots from American life, no “water” (which is what he is so often accused of), a colorful antagonist. In short, the plot is as follows: the main character (far from politics and from the craving for mysticism) has a bright, colorful, memorable dream about a dead girl buried behind an abandoned gas station. A stray dog wanders nearby and begins to slowly eat this unfortunate girl (starting with her hand). This dream haunts Danny Coughlin, he goes to that abandoned place and really does find the girl's corpse. After making an anonymous call to the police from a disposable phone and telling where the body is buried, Danny calms down. But then hell begins for the respectable American. King clearly and convincingly demonstrates how easy it is to ruin the life of a mere mortal and how defenseless he is before the millstones of the state and society. How easy it is, if not to put him in prison for life, then at least to make him an outcast in the city, taking away practically everything that is dear to him, including his health.
This year King will be 77 years old. King has already earned so much money that he has provided for his children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren for the rest of their lives. During his literary career, King has written over 70 books, almost all of which have become mega-bestsellers. But King is not calming down. King does not stop and continues to create. The “talented asshole” still has something to say to the world.
