Goofs (or Things that You Wonder About) in the Book

Ok, to cut a long story very short indeed I am going to say: ‘Bravo Gary‘ on a fantastic previous post there!

This has proved to be a seriously interesting and informative thread! Anyone who is just looking into this now would do well to think that over and consider reading the whole thing for themselves.

With reference to writing – and this is the last time I am going to mention it – I hope that you do indeed keep writing. It is not my hope for you that you become either rich or famous from it (although it would be nice to say the least) what I hope for you is that you are able to write something that fulfils you, and something that will sustain, that way you will have a legacy.

Long may you run, and may your pencil / fountain pen / typewriter / word-processor never run out of good words.

And now to get back on point:

This thread was started as a way of spotting goofs in the book ‘The Stand’ I am probably not the best person for this – as I mentioned before – I’ve only read the book once in 1997. I did, however, watch the mini-series over the past two days and there seems to be two glaring goofs in the TV adaptation (and I am sure there are more) firstly: no-one who is driving through long deserted stretches of post-apocalyptic America bothers to carry any extra stores of fuel with them in the understanding that the outbreak of Captian Tripps has magically caused the gas tanks of the survivors vehicles to become bottomless and eternally filled with fuel.

Also…

The character of Randall Flagg, for all his (would-be) satanic powers and badness doesn’t seem to be able to control any of the female characters: both Nadine Cross and Dayna Jurgens off themselves before they can be of proper use to Randy F. and Julie Lawly, through bad timing, never gets to impart her information directly to Flagg, at a time it would have been useful.

That’s just two things I noticed on re-watching the miniseries, but to be honest I think that the TV version is a pale imitation of the book that inspired it. That's just an opinion.

Ok, people, thanks for reading this far, as usual post with any thoughts you might have.

Cheers for now.

Think I spotted another one. After Mother Abagail returns, the novel says that Ralph took Frannie to see her in his 'clattering old truck'. Hadn't he switched vehicles in Nebraska?

Stephen King is not a "gun-guy". This is obvious when he creates something like that fantastical recoilless rifle that is capable of firing over 4,000 rounds per minute. As Gary stated the only weapon capable of such a high rate of fire is the multi-barreled Gatling Gun or Vulcan cannon.

I have no idea of what a "gas tipped slug" is supposed to be unless King was thinking of High Explosive Incendiary/Armor Piercing Ammunition which combines a tungsten carbide penetrator with an incendiary and explosive tip. However those types of rounds are fired by tanks and other larger guns - not a handheld rifle. They do manufacture rifle rounds that are designed to penetrate armor but they don't have explosive tips.

King will often have his characters carry something that is impractical for real world usage such as one of his characters using a Desert Eagle pistol in "Duma Key" or ,in one of his short stories, a character grabs a .410 gauge shotgun (a small bore shotgun) and refers to it as a very powerful firearm - which it isn't. If you have read any of the Dark Tower books you probably have also noticed that he really has a thing for Ruger's single-action Blackhawk revolver. An infatuation which he seemed to have passed onto his oldest son Joe Hill. In Hill's novel "Heart Shaped Box" a Blackhawk revolver plays a pretty large role.King is impressed with firepower, but has never looked into what is practical for real world activities (i.e. hunting vs. concealed carry and target shooting vs combat shooting). The one time this works though is in Road Work which he wrote under the Richard Bachman pen-name. In that novel he has his protagonist buy a Weatherby Mk V rifle in 460 Weatherby Magnum (a cartridge used in Arica to take elephants and cape buffalo) and a Smith & Wesson 44 magnum revolver. But the character doesn't know guns and he's influenced by the Dirty Harry movies. Since the story is set in 1973 that works perfectly.

I've often suspected that much of what King learned about firearms came from his youth when he grew up watching westerns, World War II movies and television. I also get the impression that since it was him and his mother he was adopted (so to speak and in a positive way) by men who had some influence on him. Possibly many of those men served during World War II (this would have been in the fifties and early sixties) which is why the M1 carbine, M1 Garand rifle, Browning Automatic Rifle and the Colt 1911A1 Government pistol (Colt 45) play such a large role in his (earlier) writings. Those were standard issue firearms in WWII. An example of this would be in The Stand (novel not mini-series) when Trashy goes to the nuclear weapon storage facility and picks up a Browning Automatic Rifle. The BAR was declared obsolete in the late 1950's and was long gone by the mid-seventies (when King wrote The Stand). You wouldn't have found an obsolete weapon at a DOD facility where nukes and other high level/top-secret weapons are stored. But King knew the BAR so he put it in there.

Like I said not a gun guy. I like much of what he writes, but I just take the inaccuracies in stride.

Thanks for reply. I knew the Judge never reached Vegas, just thought it odd that Tom left on a push bike and is already shown to be working in the Indian Springs airbase while the Judge is still en route.

I noticed that too about the owl hooting while he is in jail but thought it was maybe a residue of the dream he had just been having where he could hear things.