The Science of Stephen King

Kelly:“In The Institute, children with impressive psychic abilities are captured by the government in order to be tested and used as weapons. Has there been a time you felt someone wanted to exploit your trait for their personal gain?”

Bonnie Macleod: “Honestly, no. I’ve never had someone try to take advantage of my gifts. Most of the time I call them or visit them after an experience, of course it’s mostly friends and family.”

Meg:“What would you like people to know about the reality of living with your gift? What are some false ideas people seem to have?”

Bonnie Macleod: “I would like people to understand that not all mediums are ‘guessing’ or trying to profit from them. I also want people to know that at times it can feel like a burden when people say hurtful things. It’s not something I asked for, and it took a long time for me to accept it and embrace it as a part of me. It’s also not a parlor trick, nor is it on demand. I refuse to guess or manipulate just to make someone feel good. Sometimes there just isn’t any message, it’s rare but it happens.”

Kelly:“Lastly, what is your favorite work by Stephen King and why?”

Bonnie Macleod: “I love both 11/22/63 and The Long Walk (1979) equally. They both leave the reader questioning how they would deal with those situations. They make you question exactly how selfless you could be, how strong you could be, and make you realize how easy it is to fall in love with a character in a book and embrace them as family.”

Thank you to Bonnie for insight into such a fascinating world.

The children of The Institute don’t have a choice about their abilities, or, like the victims of the MK-Ultra tests, whether they will be poked and prodded. Yet, Stephen King gives the fictional kids in his novel the ability to fight against what often feels impossible to rise against, a well-oiled and powerful government.

Conclusion

Thank you, fellow constant readers, for joining us on this journey into the heart of Stephen King and the complex, horrific worlds he has created. Truth is often stranger than fiction, and for the Master of Horror, he fused both, dropping memorable characters into plots as vast as killer clowns to time travel in the era of the JFK assassination. As the author himself said, “fiction is the truth inside the lie.” It is this intersection of both his believable, empathetic characters and his fictional, often paranormal horror that makes him the true master.

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Nicole Mele and everyone at Skyhorse!

Thank you to our parents who introduced us to Stephen King through his books and movies.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to be interviewed including Les, Luke, Andrew, Annette, James, Kara Lee, Richard, R. J, Amanda, Sara, Samantha, and Bonnie.

Thank you to our families for all of their love and support. And to the Rewinders, we’ll see you in the horror section.

About the Authors

Kelly Florence (left) and Meg Hafdahl

Kelly Florence is a communication instructor at Lake Superior College in Duluth, Minnesota, and is the creator and cohost of the Horror Rewind podcast as well as the producer and host of the podcast Be A Better Communicator. She received her BA in theater at the University of Minnesota–Duluth and earned her MA in communicating arts at the University of Wisconsin–Superior. Kelly is the coauthor of The Science of Monsters and The Science of Women in Horror, also from Skyhorse Publishing.