book review – Page 9 – The View From Sari's World

Dr. Sleep, A Review

I remember the day back in 1977 when, after waking up with female pains, I decided to stay home from school. Since I wasn’t sick enough to stay in bed, I got dressed and shuffled down the hall into our living room, hoping to find a book to read. Though my parents valued reading they had an odd aversion to keeping books in the house. Once read they vanished mysteriously as they had appeared.

I kneeled down in front of my parents’ meager bookshelf

(who only keeps a handful of books on a big bookshelf?)

as if praying to the book gods that I’d find something of worth. As much as my parents hated cluttered bookshelves there was something they liked more; good deals.

My mother had recently enrolled in the Double Day Book of the Month Club after convincing my father it would be a good deal. The hardbacks were priced cheaper than at the local grocery store (this was the era before big box book stores) and more importantly they came mailed right to your door! Once a month you either mailed them a card with your selection or they mailed you their selection of the month. My mother loved this because she saw it as a chance to have an “expert” pick out a book for her. No one had the heart to explain to her this was the publisher’s way of getting readers hooked on their brand, their authors.

My mother must have been behind on her club reads because there were five books sitting on the shelf, two of which were horror books.

(my lucky day!)

My mother had just recently started to read horror fiction. I think she really liked John Saul at the time.

The first book was called The Shining, by Stephen King

(never heard of him)

the second, Burnt Offerings by Robert Marasco

(never heard of him either)

I read the dust jacket for both. They were eerily similar. I had no idea then, but Burnt Offerings was an inspiration for Stephen King. I didn’t know which one to choose, so I chose the one in my left hand. I put the Marasco book back on the shelf and headed to the couch with King’s book in hand.

(it was a choice that would change my life)

It wasn’t so much the story, though it was good, it was the way in which the author wrote! He did something I had never seen before; he put his main character’s innermost thoughts in brackets.

(why hadn’t anyone ever done this before?)

I was completely hooked. The story was good, the character of Jack Torrance was compelling. I waved vaguely to my mother as she left for the day and read. And read and read and read. When she came home at 3:30 I was still sitting there reading. I sat there until I finished the book. No I didn’t want dinner, no I hadn’t eaten all day and yes, I would be finished soon. This would be how it was with me every time I read a Stephen King book. As an adult I knew myself well enough to make sure my chores were finished before picking up one of his books. In 1990 I read the extended version of The Stand in 9 hours, after doing laundry and cleaning the house. Once I am in, I’m in!

It is not so much the plot or story that draws me in. I’ve read many a great novel in my day that surpasses his. No, what draws me in are his characters and how he masterfully writes so that they are so true to life I not only connect with them, I miss their friendship when the story is finished. Some I have even mourned. Missed yes, mourned yes, but never really wondered what happened to them. So when King said he was publishing a sequel to The Shining because so many fans wondered what ever happened to Danny Torrance, I found it odd.

Don’t get me wrong, The Shining remains one of my favorite horror books. Remember the fire hose that unfurled itself from the wall with its wide nozzle looking like a snake’s open mouth and chased Danny down the hall? I work with firemen and to this day (I am 49) whenever I am near a fire engine I stay clear of the hoses. I’ve only read it once, but the story has stuck with me these last 36 years.

(it’s been 36 years since I read it? Where does the time go?)

I picked up Dr. Sleep, not because I was curious to see what happened to Danny and his mother, but because I trust Stephen King. If he felt he could revisit with these characters, I felt I could go along with him. A critic said it was better than The Shining. I didn’t think this could be the case, but it did make me a little curious. Could this be true?

Amazon shipped the book to my house on Tuesday. Hey, The Shining came by mail, so I thought it only fitting that Dr. Sleep came the same way. No I didn’t take the day off to read it, but I did take a day of so I could get my homework done before I picked it up. Saturday afternoon I got comfy on the couch and read. And read. Only now because of my ‘older” eyes, I put it down after 5 hours. Sunday morning I finished it.

No, it is not better than The Shining. If anything, it is a companion to it. I’d say the novels are like two bookends. They are the same, but twisted in opposite directions.

In The Shining Jack Torrance lets the demons, both inner and outer get the better of him. In Dr. Sleep, Dan Torrance takes control of both. In The Shining you have a child who has no say or control over the events in his life. In Dr. Sleep you have a child who knows the risks but wants control over her fate. In The Shining you get some imagined horror. In Dr. Sleep the demons inflict real life unmanageable horror on children though thankfully we are spared the gory details. This is no Pet Cemetery or Cujo. King tells you what they do, but never shows you.

In Dr. Sleep, Dan Torrance is a man who, like his father before him, finds himself up against a wall. He makes one last-ditch effort to stop drinking and to finally stop running from his past. Dan manages to stop drinking but finds his past has caught up to him. There are many nods and mentions to The Shining, but if you haven’t read it or don’t remember it, you won’t be missing out. However, if you haven’t read Joe Hill’s NOS4A2, then there may be a couple of places that will have you wondering if you’ve missed something. You most certainly will not get the inside joke about the glass ornaments. These winks and nods are for the “Constant Reader”, those of us who are King and Hill’s die hard fans.

Was it as good as The Shining? No, but don’t expect it to be. This is not a book that has horror at every turn. Where harmless fire hoses turn to snakes, or rotting women languish in tubs. This is a book about taking control of the horror. Oh wait, I take that back. That damn woman is still around! ! Be careful the next time you pull the shower curtain back. You never know what might be there.

Idiot America

Back in 2003 I was living in Kalispell Montana. I lived next door to Fred, a high school science teacher, who had spent several summers in the eastern Badlands of Montana collecting dinosaur fossils. My 11 year old son, a budding paleontologist, found Fred fascinating. The two of them spent several hours pouring over Fred’s finds. Alex learned a lot about dinosaurs from Fred.

The University of Bozeman, noted for its paleontology department, was only hours away from our home. I had high hopes that my son would study natural science in high school then move on to graduate from U of B. It came as quite a shock when Fred came home one day and said he had been let go. The local high schools had all decided to add Intelligent Design to their science curriculums. Fred refused to teach it. Whitefish High refused to let him show off fossils. It appeared that the schools of Western Montana were moving backwards in time. This was one reason I moved out of Montana Since then I have often wondered how and why it is America seems to be dumbing down even as we move into an age in which information is just a few keystrokes away. Why is it that the more readily available facts become, the less likely we are to seek them out?

I picked up Charles Pierce’s book Idiot America, hoping to find some answers. The back of the book looked promising. It says, “Pierce asks how a country founded on intellectual curiosity has some how deteriorated in a nation of simpletons more apt to vote for an American Idol contestant than a presidential candidate”. Before you to get offended at that statement, ask yourself this. “What do my co-workers and I talk about?” Chances are you talk TV shows or sports far more often than you do current events. Or try this. When at work today ask a random co-worker what upsets him more, the fact that Breaking Bad is ending or America’s blind eye to the plight of the Syrian people? Yeah, now that you think about it, that statement isn’t too far off.

Pierce offers three great premises of Idiot America:

Any theory is valid if it sells books, soaks up ratings or otherwise moves units.
Fact is that which enough people believe. Truth is determined by how fervently they believe it.
Anything can be true if someone says it loudly and often enough.

From these three ideas, Pierce takes his readers on a historical look at how local crackpots have morphed into today’s national pundits and political mouthpieces. He introduces readers to little known historical figures whose ideas were only dangerous to themselves and maps out their evolution to the dangerous political ideology we hear on TV and radio today.

There are a lot of ideas to unpack in this book. I could write a paper on Pierce’s indictment of today’s Idiot American, but for sake of brevity will comment on the one that stands out the most; the war on expertise

The War on expertise.

Pierce argues that one of the things that makes America great is the freedom that allows for independent ideas. Our Founding Fathers believed in freedom of expression (let’s be honest, for white tax paying males,) and that any and all ideas were welcome and experimentation was key to our budding country. The country itself was a social experiment. The scientific revolution was at its peak when America was born, and though the Founding Fathers encouraged bold new ideas, they assumed these same ideas would be put to the scientific method. Those who were willing to put their ideas up for debate, tested and passed would be our country’s experts. The problem is this happened infrequently. The country saw the rise of the crank.

Take the story of Ignatius Donnelly, a congressman from the late 1800’s who left public office in disgrace only to rise up again as the expert on Atlantis. He fell in love the Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousands Leagues Under the Sea and used the book as a jumping off point in his search for Atlantis. In 1882 Harper & Brothers published his book Atlantis: The Antediluvian World. In it Donnelly credits the Atlantean culture for everything from Bronze Age weaponry in Europe to the Mayan Calendar. He claimed that though the island vanished, many of its inhabitants escaped, spreading across the world telling their story and sharing their inventions. Laugh now, but at the time the book was a big success. Donnelly crisscrossed the nation giving lectures to gullible masses, including the media who never questioned his ideas. For a while, he was the leading expert on Atlantis. As the country made scientific and archeological advances, Donnelly’s ideas did not stand up and his crackpot ideas were dismissed.

We see the same thing happening in today’s America. Anyone can now write a book or host a show and call himself an expert , even if he has no training or background in the subject at hand. If an idea appeals to enough people well then, any theory is valid if it sells books, soaks up ratings or otherwise moves units.

This happens because of the human tendency towards confirmation bias. The gut drives that which we accept as fact. If your gut tells you that God would never let our planet’s weather patterns change to the detriment of humans, then the facts of climate change will not change your mind. But you will be swayed by “facts” that confirm your gut feeling. Never mind that many of these facts are unsupported or are just blatant lies told to sell a book , more oil, or spread an opinion as fact, your gut will override common sense. People don’t care if they are not right; they just don’t want to be wrong in their beliefs and will seek out others who share these beliefs. Fact is that which enough people believe. Truth is determined by how fervently they believe it. This is why conspiracy theories spread.

The problem with idiot America is that far too many people who let their gut rule their brain now have access to mass media. And if their message reaches enough people who share their gut beliefs we know, anything can be true if someone says it loudly and often enough. This is why talk radio is so popular.

Pierce comments on Idiot America using sarcasm and biting humor. He goes to great lengths to show his readers how opinion is now held has facts and the effects this has on our politics and social values. He reminds us that our Founding Fathers envisioned a country that valued education. As Madison said in a letter, “a free country is an educated country”. It is much harder to bullshit an educated person. Yet somehow along the way we have devalued education to the point of distrusting scholars and scientists. As Pieces notes, we are now a country free to believe anything we want, including idiotic ideas.

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The War on expertise.

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