The Science of Stephen King

R. J Huneke: “I think the best thing anyone can do in an age of ransomware and identity theft is to educate themselves as much as possible. If you do not want to know a whole lot about cyber-security you can use a trustworthy cybersecurity professional for help, you can easily employ an antivirus, use a reputable password manager, and always create long, difficult passwords that are unique. Take full advantage of the free tools and information offered up by the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation, EFF. org, where Privacy Badger can be installed into your browser of choice to block ads and ad trackers or the bots that take your information about what you see online and sell it to third party advertisers. I’ve been told by one of the best in the cybersecurity industry that anyone and anything can be hacked; it’s just a matter of how much time, skill, and effort the hacker employs on the target—so you want to make it difficult and not use your birthday for a password.”

Meg:“What is your favorite Stephen King work and why?”

R. J Huneke: “Now this question is just unfair—it’s way too hard to choose a favorite work of King’s. The short answer is The Gunslinger, the first book in the Dark Tower series. Though I think Different Seasons may be some of the finest fiction ever written by any author, and I love three of the four novellas in that book a great deal, and I love Firestarter so very much, too! The Gunslinger is unlike anything I have ever or will ever come across and it is truly special in myriad ways. I never thought I would find a book I loved as much as Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings which I re-read along with The Hobbit (1937) every year, for about twenty years now, and then I read The Gunslinger. ‘The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.’ That is the best first line in fiction. Period. The self-degradation of the soul alongside betrayal for one’s cause, one’s obsession is heart-wrenching, especially when it comes to Jake and Roland. And the mythology is so great, too.”

Speaking to someone with technological know-how who is also a Stephen King fan has been edifying. It’s haunting to think that subliminal messaging is still used, and while it hasn’t been proven to provoke mayhem, you never know!

Bradbury’s novelFahrenheit 451has been banned and censored several times, an irony, as the book’s plot centers on the burning of books.

Throughout the Mr. Mercedes trilogy, Bill Hodges feels lost in a world that has outgrown him. Technology alters his role as detective at a dizzying pace, often leaving him behind. Yet King is an expert at writing complex characters, and while Hodges at first seems incapable of change, he develops knowledge of technology, as well as acceptance of the paranormal. In the end, this fusion of old-school detective skills and the desire to understand technological science means the good guy wins again.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

The Outsider

As with many of his stories, Stephen King started to think about the plot for his book, The Outsider, when he was taking part in an everyday activity. When his son Owen was twelve, King coached his little league baseball team. He recalled “nobody in a small town is more respected than someone who works with kids … and if something happens to that person where they find out they have a secret life that’s not nice, nobody’s more reviled and hated.”1 This inspired the character of Terry Maitland, a little league coach in Flint City, Oklahoma, to be arrested for the murder of a child. This unspeakable act leads the town to turn against this once beloved hero. But there’s more to the story. Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s William Wilson (1839), Stephen King wondered “what would a story be like if the evidence that somebody committed a horrible crime was ironclad. But if the evidence that the person had a perfect alibi, what if that was ironclad? You know, kind of an immovable object, an irresistible force.”2 Can a person be in two places at once? This is the central idea that begins the plot in the novel.

The 1839 storyWilliam Wilsonby Edgar Allan Poe explores the idea of having a doppelganger.