The Bachman Books and King’s “Rage”

The now-banned edition of King’s “The Bachman Books”

Coming back to finish off the Bachman Books, after starting them last Christmas and leaving the book somewhere. If you didn't know, this book is controversial as it's a rare example of an author self-censoring. Stephen King allowed the copyright to lapse and not put out a new edition because of his story, Rage, about a school shooter.

I was gonna say "about a kid who brings a gun to school," "or who shoots up his school," but we have a technical term for those kids these days, and that's "school shooter."

And this might be a controversial opinion, but, having read Rage, I think Stephen King was entirely, entirely correct to do let it lapse. It's often been said that Stephen King nails his characters, and really gets inside characters' heads to bring them to life, and in this book he nails the mindset of ... not who a school shooter IS, but how a school shooter IMAGINES the scenario will go when he does his deed. If you haven't read it, after he shoots the hypocritical teacher, all the other kids in the class slowly start to agree with him. They aren't afraid of him; they start to help him; he gets to show benevolence to a few of them -- except, iirc, for that one weasely do-gooder kid who wants to wrestle the gun away.

Either way, I was turning every page like, "Oh no, oh no ... no, no no ... oh God..." No problem to see why this might cause King some sleepless nights.

The Long Walk though, always been a fav.

Also, Stockholm Syndrome is a crock of debunked crap. Look it up.

Either way, happy readings to all.

(Also, my missus told me to tell everyone that this is her book and I'm not allowed to peddle stolen book valor. I think this is primarily because it's her mom's book and I apologized to her mom for not bringing it back when I was home in October, and her mom told me to keep it, not realizing that my wife had stolen it first.)