The Science of Stephen King

Winona Nelson: “Wendigo stories come from the very real risk of starvation faced by Ojibwe people. Winters in the north are brutal. Communities would break apart into independent family groups because it is easier to keep a small group alive. In extreme times it wasn’t unheard of for someone to turn to cannibalism to survive. This is a major taboo, and was a crime for which the Ojibwe had a death penalty, because once a starving person has turned to cannibalism there is no longer a barrier keeping them from doing it again. In those cases, a wendigo is a real-life monster, a human who has broken the worst taboo and must be executed. Wendigo also refers to all-consuming greed, such as that of the oil industry and capitalism and the profit-over-everything mentality that is killing our planet. So, both of the translations are accurate, yet don’t quite cover all the meanings the word has to us.”

Kelly:“According to the Canadian Encyclopedia, ‘wendigo legends are essentially cautionary tales about isolation and selfishness, and the importance of community.’ Do you think this theme is prevalent in fairy tales and legends we pass down through generations?”

Winona Nelson: “Yes, although different cultures have different balances of themes in their stories. In general, European fairy tales place more importance on piousness, obedience, treasure, and royalty than the stories of North American tribes, which focus more on individual freedom, respect for all beings, and self-knowledge. If the Europeans had more wendigo stories instead of so many fairy tales ending with rewards of wealth, maybe we wouldn’t now be living in such an unsustainable way.”

Thank you to Winona Nelson for this eye-opening interview!

“Sometimes dead is better,”8 Jud Crandell says in Pet Sematary. We agree. Although it can be sad to lose a loved one or close pet, don’t try to reanimate them. It never seems to turn out the way you’d like.

CHAPTER NINE

Thinner

Many of us have wished that we could eat as much as we want and not gain weight. My husband’s family is notorious for having exceptional metabolism and has been encouraged to eat more. I (Kelly) have the opposite problem and could gain five pounds by just looking at a piece of cake! Billy Halleck, the main character in Stephen King’s Thinner, has a similar problem in the beginning of the book, but through a curse is unable to keep any weight on. Stephen King recalled being heavier himself at one point:

I used to weigh two hundred and thirty-six pounds, and I smoked heavily. I went to see the doctor and he told me, “Listen, man, your triglycerides are really high. In case you haven’t noticed it, you’ve entered heart attack country.” I used that line in the book. He told me that I should quit smoking and lose some weight. I spent a very angry weekend off by myself. I thought about it and how awful they were to make me do all these terrible things to save my life. I did lose the weight, and pretty much quit smoking. Once the weight actually started to come off, I began to realize that I was attached to it, somehow, that I didn’t really want to lose it. I began to think about what would happen if somebody started to lose weight and couldn’t stop. It was a pretty serious situation at first. Then I remembered all the things I did when I weighed a lot. I had a paranoid conviction that the scales weighed heavy, no matter what. I would refuse to weigh myself, except in the morning, and then after I had taken off all my clothes. It was so existential that the humor crept in after a while.1

This journey of weight loss led to the novel Thinner being born.

Eighty percent of adults under the age of thirty-six report that they “could be healthier.”2