Under The Dome by Stephen King

Under the Dome is one of Stephen King’s longest novels – at 336,114 words – and one of his more typical. His stories tend to be about people trapped in an increasingly lethal environment: an empty hotel in The Shining; a prison in The Green Mile; in Salem’s Lot and here, a small town in his native Maine.

One fine October day, the town of Chester’s Mill is cut off from the world by a transparent and unbreakable dome. I was initially reminded of The Simpsons Movie, in which President Schwarzenegger orders a similar dome to be placed over Springfield after Homer pollutes its lake; and so were others on the internet. “I have never seen the movie,” King replies on his website, “and the similarity came as a complete surprise to me.” But it doesn’t matter, he argues, because unless there is outright plagiarism, “stories can no more be alike than snowflakes. The reason is simple: no two imaginations are exactly alike.”

Just so. Like Springfield, Chester’s Mill has dozens of memorable characters, including a town drunk, feckless young stoners and corrupt police – and like Grampa Simpson, some of the characters experience precognitive visions. But though he is by no means averse to jokes, King’s intentions are quite different. What interests him, as always, is evil and cruelty, which he explores step by squelching step, wading ever deeper until the reader is fully immersed.

Evil in Chester’s Mill is personified by “Big Jim” Rennie, used-car salesman, crystal-meth manufacturer and sanctimonious fascist, who uses murder, riot and arson to turn the town into a police state, with himself as dictator. As with Annie Wilkes, the nurse/torturer in Misery, who says such things as “the cock-a-doodie car”, one immediately knows Big Jim is a baddy by his euphemistic style of cursing, which somehow sounds more obscene than the real thing.

The chief goody is Dale Barbara (“Barbie”), short-order cook at the Sweetbriar Rose, who knows about evil from his military service in Iraq. When the dome descends, Barbie is promoted to colonel and given command of the town by a concerned President Obama, but Big Jim (a Palin supporter) frames him and throws him in jail, where he is threatened with waterboarding: “it was how these things went; how they went in Fallujah, Tikrit, Hilla, Mosul and Baghdad. How they also now went in Chester’s Mill, it seemed.”

The sci-fi aspect of the story – the origin and purpose of the mysterious dome – is kept for the most part on the back burner, which was a disappointment to me, as I find it difficult to suspend my disbelief in such stuff, but when it does emerge it has an ingeniously metaphysical plausibility. The focus remains mainly on the human element, the “little lives” of characters engaged in an epic moral battle.

“I have tried,” explains King in an author’s note, “to write a book that would keep the pedal consistently to the metal.” Whenever he faltered, he recalls, his editor “jammed her foot down on top of mine and yelled (in the margins, as editors are wont to do), ‘Faster, Steve! Faster!’” Author and editor have succeeded, and Under the Dome has terrific pace, whizzing from one cliffhanger to the next on narrative wires strung to an admirable tension. Which I think acknowledges that audiences are less interested in reading for depth and more interested in Michael Bay movies in book form.

Critics are likely to dismiss the literary quality of King’s work. This strikes me as unfair. He is certainly no Proust, but nor is he a Dan Brown, possibly a Shakespeare, crude but popular. Besides his evident ability to create compelling plots and monstrous characters, he can turn a good simile (seen from inside, the blue of the dome “has a yellowish cast, like a film of cataract on an old man’s eye”). And he can write consistently good sentences, such as these, which sum up the spirit of his work: “When dawn was still long hours away, bad thoughts took on flesh and began to walk. In the middle of night thoughts became zombies.”

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

Imagine a time when the Earth's population has grown to the point where population control isn't something done by repressive regimes, but by every nation in order to keep society from overwhelming every resource. Imagine that families are limited to two children and must have the governments approval for a Third. Imagine that religion is forbidden, because the conflicts it causes are too dangerous in such a world. Now imagine that the world is under attack from beyond, an alien race, the Bugger's, has discovered Earth and invasion has begun. How would we handle it? What length would you go to, as a soldier, as an officer, as a politician, to protect the world?

In Enders's Game, originally written by Orson Scott Card as a novelette in 1977, we catch a glimpse of one possible way such a future could unfold. And we follow the story of one young man, a Third, as he makes his way from his home to the forefront of battle, all before he turns 18.

The Story of Ender.

Andrew Wiggen, known as Ender, is a Third. Resented by his brother, loved by his sister, and wanted by the military, he shows a unique and keen strength, and is chosen by the government to leave all he knows behind to take his place in the Battle School, an orbiting training ground where the International Fleets takes the Earth's best and brightest to become officers. It isn't under the care and love of his family that Ender grows to maturity, it's under the watchful eye and careful manipulation of the military.

See, mankind is under attack by the Buggers, and the military knows that to find the right leader, they need to start with someone young that can be molded and developed into the leader they really need. And through testing and observation, they believe they have seen something in young Ender that will fit their needs. But just finding the right person isn't enough, they have to be in the right environment. So the Battle School is built in orbit, away from the distractions of the world and the prying eyes of the politicians. With all the best that the military can offer, young men and women from around the world are brought to the school, trained and tested, before going out to lead the military's fleet.

And Ender is the best there ever was, no doubt. A genius who is the best hope to save humanity. And so the military designs a special program for him, one designed to test him to the fullest, and if necessary, break him, before he can break while leading the fleet. They isolate him, not just from his family, but from his men, from his comrades, from anyone who might keep him from reaching his fullest potential. And Ender survives. Every day he improves. But everyone has their limits and eventually Ender reaches his, and when he does, his decision will leave a lasting impression on a world, and a race.

A Family Affair.

Ender isn't the only genius, though. His older brother, Peter, and sister, Valentine, are finding their own genius. Peter has found that he wants what his brother doesn't, power. Authority. Dominion. And when Ender was home, he found that by tormenting his younger brother. But with Ender gone, Peter chooses to direct his plans outward, and manipulates Valentine into assisting him. Using the Internet and its system of message boards (as Card imagined it), Peter finds an outlet for his dreams and ambitions, and combining his brains with Valentine and her ability to craft words, he is able to slowly begin building support for a political movement that will reshape the planet, once the alien threat has been dealt with.

It seems that Peter is one of the few people who have seen that the worldwide alliance is a fragile peace, at best, and that once the external threat is gone, the alliance will begin to crumble. By appealing to the masses, and building support from the common man, Peter begins to build his base of support so that when the threat passes, and the peace fails, he can be there to hold things together.But he finds he can't do it alone.
Valentine was always there to protect Ender when Peter sought to torment him. Now, with Ender a thousand miles above her, she finds herself in an unforeseen, and unhappy, alliance with Peter. She has seen what Peter has seen, and recognizes the danger. And what at first was a playful way to distract Peter from his more destructive tendencies becomes a far more serious development of ideas that will help Peter take charge of a world.

A Deeper Meaning

Ender's Game, as I said, was originally a short story, intended primarily as an introduction to Ender, as well as the world he's left behind when we find him in Speaker For The Dead. The expanded novel has since become one of the top science fiction books ever, consistently named a top choice by readers. Why should a simply story about a boy and his war have gained so much attention? I believe it's because the story isn't about war, or even politics, but about relationships.

The relationship between Ender and Valentine that pulls him back from his despair to return for the fight. Enders relationship with his team, the way he molds and drives them, and the way that when he needs them the most, they rise up to give back. The relationship between Peter and Valentine and how they find a way to use each other to get what they need. The relationship between Ender and the Bugger's. How he develops empathy for his enemy, and uses that to destroy them . Between Peter and Ender, and how the relationship between family members shapes us and molds us in ways we never expect, and how in the long run we can use it and turn even the worst things to good.

I think it's the way Card develops and uses these relationships, shows how one person can be so strongly affected and influenced by the people around them, that they lose track of what their own limits are and can be pushed to any length. This is, to me the real point of the story.

Ender's Series.

	Ender's Game Gift Edition (Ender Quartet) Price: $10.55 List Price: $18.95
	Speaker for the Dead (Ender, Book 2) Price: $4.29 List Price: $7.99
	Xenocide (Ender, Book 3) (Ender Quartet) Price: $6.99 List Price: $15.95
	Children of the Mind (Ender, Book 4) (Ender Quartet) Price: $7.92 List Price: $15.95

Ender as Hitler *Spoiler alert*

I recently came across the article "Creating the Innocent Killer:Ender's Game, Intention, and Morality" by John Kessel, and thought it was an interesting look at the Ender story. I disagree with it entirely, but still interesting.The basis for his argument is in the morality of Ender and the death's of some of the boys that Ender fights throughout the book, culminating in an act of genocide, and the fact that Card demonstrates a morality based on intention rather than act: "we are urged many times to judge a character’s actions not on their effect (even when that effect is fatal) but on the motives of the person performing the action."
Kessel cites an essay by Elaine Radford that was published by Fantasy Review in 1987. This essay makes a comparison between Adolf Hitler and the character Ender and states that Ender's Game is an apologia for Hitler. And Card himself has responded in his own defense, pointing out that the actions of the two are significantly different.
I would point out that the intention of the two people are wildly different. Hitler intended to destruction of the Jewish race. Ended intended to end a game. One vital point that both Kessel and Radford seem to have missed is that until the end, Ender was the only person who didn't know that he was being manipulated and that he was commanding real people. Hitler can't say that. Would Ender have made those same choices if he knew? The same basic idea applies to the deaths before: Ender never learned that the boys were killed, only that he never encountered them again.

And how did he react when he learned that he was responsible for genocide? There was no gloating, there was no pleasure at defeating the enemy. He was deeply distraught and upset by what he had inadvertently done. Knowing that he had acted in ignorance, yet still feeling the burden of genocide, he took upon himself the task of bring the Bugger queen t a place where she could live once more. Would Hitler have brought the last Jewish baby to a place of safety to grow?

Intention is everything. A driver that swerves to avoid a kid, and kills an adult, obviously he is accountable for his actions, but would we compare him with the drunk or distracted driver that hits a pedestrian? The doctor who tries to save a life but accidentally cuts a patient, is he as culpable as a man who draws a knife in a bar? How do you judge any action as good or evil without looking at the intention of the actor, as part of the act?

An Intro To Terry Pratchett

"As far as I'm aware I'm not specifically banned anywhere in the USA, and am rather depressed about it. Surely some of you guys can do something?" -- Terry Pratchett, alt.books.pratchett

Terry Pratchett is one of the funniest authors on the shelves today. He takes a very skewed look at the fantasy genre, as well as Shakespeare and politics and casts it through a kaleidoscope of chaos. With a dry and cynical sense of humor, he takes on current events and twists them to make you see both the humor and the tragedy. He does to fantasy what Douglass Adams did for Science Fiction, so if you've read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series you'll know what I mean. While He is best known for his Discworld series, you don't want to miss out on Good Omens, his collaboration with Neil Gaiman or Johnny and The Bomb.

Discworld is a flat world carried on the backs of four elephants standing on the turtle known as the Great A'Tuin, who swims through space to a destination only he can imagine, where magic is part of life and the laws of the universe are just a little bit different, even while the fundamentals of truth and greed and human venality remain the same. The series is 36 books with three more in the works. Certainly the characters and stories become intertwined over time, and the timeline does advance as the books get newer, but start anywhere in the series and you'll find your way down the path with ease. . And whatever you do, make sure you read the footnotes. They're much better than what you'd find in an academic text.

Who will you meet along the way? Granny Weatherwax, the most powerful witch in the Ramtop Mountains? Sir Samuel Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch? Perhaps Archchancellor Ridcully of the Unseen University. Or the newest citizen of the Disc, Moist Von Lipwig. All will keep you coming back for more. In future posts, I'll look closer at individual books. I can't tell you how excited I am to see the newest, Unseen Academicals hitting bookshelves in October.

Stay Tuned.