The Science of Stephen King

Annette Bruchu: “I like nail biters and being frightened comes easy for me. I startle easily and I am a bit jumpy because of my senses that are sensitive. I like The Shining because it was a bit disturbing and it had me screaming. I am all about numbers and the room number 237 at the Stanley Hotel is a seductive number with a scene of a lovestruck woman that ended up heartbroken and ends her life in the bathtub in that room. Devastating! When you visit The Stanley, you still get yourself ready to be frightened years after the movie had been released. I am so afraid of creepy noises and weird things in old hotels, still today.”

Meg: “That’s one of my favorites, too!”

Annette Bruchu: “Carrie was one of the first Stephen King movies that I saw as a kid. I didn’t sleep for weeks. I was a teenager myself and the girl had the strange powers that I could relate to. Seeing auras should be effortless when our mind and our eyes are relaxed. We open up our sensory apparatus, when color is more apparent to our physical eyes. When we get out of our own way.”

Kelly: “It’s incredible to me that you were going through this time in your life and were able to relate to Carrie in the movie. You both had powers!”

Our conversation with Annette Bruchu made us curious about our own auras and what would show up in our photographs!

Insomnia also explores how we view death. Ralph begins seeing “little bald doctors,” two of whom want to preserve the natural order of death while a third brings chaos. How do various cultures view these harbingers of death like the Grim Reaper? In Greek mythology, the Thanatos guides souls to the next life through a nonviolent death. They believed death to be a peaceful transition into eternal rest. In Irish mythology, death is foretold through the shriek of the banshee. In the fourteenth century, it was believed that the scream of the female banshee would predict impending doom. Around this same time, the Grim Reaper became popularized in society due to the catastrophic effects of the Black Plague. Death comes for Ralph at the end of Insomnia, although it is a sacrificial death in order to save his wife’s daughter. He goes peacefully with the two bald doctors by his side.

Many methamphetamine addicts report the appearance of “shadow people” after prolonged periods of sleep deprivation.3

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

The Green Mile

In 1996, Stephen King released eight books; six of them being serialized installments of The Green Mile. In the 1800s and early to mid-1900s, serialization was a popular form of publishing. This format gave authors a wider readership and publishers saw greater profits. Charles Dickens is most often credited with beginning this fad with The Pickwick Papers (1836–1837) but authors throughout history have used this model. After Stephen King published The Green Mile this way, several other authors jumped on the trend including John Grisham.

The story in this novel focuses on death row, known as the “green mile,” due to its linoleum floor. Paul Edgecomb is one of the guards at the prison and we follow the story through his eyes. Stephen King, on writing this story, said “the human spirit is alive and well even under the most difficult circumstances …”1 and it is proven in this setting. We meet and empathize with guards, convicted killers, and an innocent inmate whose name is John Coffey.

Paul Edgecomb is touched by a bit of the magic from John Coffey and will inevitably have a long life because of it. What is the average age of life expectancy? In the United States, the average life expectancy is eighty years while in Japan it’s eighty-five years. The oldest verifiable person on record was a French woman, Jeanne Calment, who lived to be 122 years old. Paul Edgecomb is 104 in the novel and he’s not sure when he’s going to die. Could we live longer as technological and medical discoveries advance? Not likely. Scientists say the answer lies in our bodies, not our health. Our bodies begin to break down, our DNA gets damaged, and our organs don’t work as efficiently.

A study found that the DNA of a 103-year-old man has fewer chemical modifications than that of a newborn baby.2