On the other hand, when books AREN'T made into movies, it frees up your imagination to interpret the text however you see fit. Sure, the author lays out the context and describes things, paints the picture for theater of the mind, if you will, but you're the final editor of your own mind's eye.
The Long Walk hasn't been made into a movie, at least, not directly, which leaves it as one of my long-standing favorites, because I love the way it plays out in my mind.
Remember this guy? Yeah, book two.
The Long Walk was released in July 1979 under King's pseudonym, Richard Bachman. King later revealed that The Long Walk was the first complete book he'd ever written, started back in the late 1960's, well before Carrie and the start of his literary career. The Long Walk follows the pattern I'd previously mentioned of the Bachman books being human-nature based, rather than involving elements of the supernatural.
None of the four books collected in The Bachman Books involve the supernatural, or horror, for that matter. Instead, they're somewhat philosophical, sociological, with an element of science-fiction. I truly believe that King was exercising a different part of his personality in these works, and I can understand why he kept them separate from his vampires and telekinetic teenagers. I've said it before, but I found The Bachman Books fascinating, and I still do. Even though I found myself let down by Rage, I was extremely happy to find that I was not let down at all by my revisit to this alternate world of Maine, which is the stage for a brutal national contest.
The Long Walk is simply that. It's a walking contest. 100 Walkers (not the zombies from The Walking Dead, either), start at the border of the United States and Canada in upstate Maine. The rules are somewhat simple. Stay on the road, don't interfere with your fellow Walkers, and walk at or above the minimum speed of 4 miles per hour. Fall below 4 miles per hour and you get warned. Your warnings expire after an hour. You get three warnings. If you should fall below 4mph, and you've already got three warnings? They shoot you. Dead. If you're the last man standing? You win 'The Prize', and The Prize is anything and everything you ask for, for as long as you live.
Sorry, Rick. Wrong kind of Walkers. Good luck with that, tho...
Who's they, as in 'They' shoot you? They are the Soldiers of the 'Squad'. What 'the Squad' is is never clearly defined, other than it's some type of national military service, and if you talk badly about the government, Soldiers come and take you out of your home and you're never heard from again. You get 'Squadded'.
The Leader of the Squads, and perhaps the leader of this twisted version of America, is The Major. That's what he's called. He has no surname. He is only known as The Major. He runs The Long Walk, and he appears throughout the book, popping in, giving pep talks to the Walkers from his jeep and receiving adulation from the crowd before speeding away into the distance.
When I was a kid, I was a huge fan of G.I. Joe. In G.I. Joe, there is a character named 'Major Bludd', and from the first time I read The Long Walk, I associated The Major with Major Bludd. Of course, in the book, The Major wears mirrored aviator sunglasses, and Major Bludd wears an eyepatch, but if you put sunglasses on him, that's exactly what I envision when I read about The Major.
Who's got my sunglasses? It's bright out here.
The story is focused on Ray Garraty. Ray is a 17 year old boy from Maine who's been chosen for this year's Long Walk. Oh, I forgot to tell you. These 100 Walkers? They're coveted spots. Young men from all over the 51 states (yes, I said 51) apply and go through a series of tests to determine who will even qualify for selection. The selection is then held on national television. Out of thousands, 200 names are chosen. 100 Walkers and 100 alternates, because there WILL be a field of 100 Walkers at the start.
Ok, where was I? Oh yeah, our boy Ray Garraty. So, Ray's in the Walk, and he's from Maine, so he's kind of the hometown favorite. Along the way we're introduced to many other characters, and I'll get to them as they become relevant to my musings.
Let me spoil this for you right now: Garraty wins. The fact that he wins is not important, because, as a reader, you would normally recognize that the protagonist of this story is going to see it through. Yeah, I'm looking at you, Katniss Everdeen.
...and then there was one...
Speaking of Katniss, and the Hunger Games, and Battle Royale, and The Long Walk, they all tend to be cut from the same cloth. Don't get it twisted, King/Bachman wasn't on to anything new here with his idea of a death contest involving kids from districts, or the concept of society turning on itself. Shirley Jackson's 'The Lottery' was published in 1948, and King even had one of his characters reference it in The Long Walk. I'm sure there are others out there that I haven't read, so I'm not aware of them. Still, the idea is not new.
The Walk begins, and over the course of the book, we, The Constant Reader, are like a fly, hovering over Garraty as he goes through The Walk. We meet people, we get inside Garraty's head, we feel his emotions, his doubts. We learn about him, and slightly about this America that we're suddenly in. One of the things I liked about this book when I first read it, and still like to this day, is the offhand way King mentions differences in society, without going out of his way to explain. You just accept that this version of America is fucked up, different, as if somewhere in the course of history, society zigged, when in real life it had zagged. How else do you explain 51 states, or The Squads, or The Major? You don't explain them, they just ARE.
Let's go back to The Major for a second. There are some things that we know about him from the book, and I have some ideas on King's allegories. The Major is a mythical figure. Crowds cheer for him, legendary and possibly apocryphal stories about him are told from person to person, and, oh yeah, he's ultimately responsible for the systematic killing of 99 of America's own citizens FOR SPORT. Yet, he is beloved.
I haven't read any analysis about The Long Walk. No literary reviews or criticisms for me. However, I feel a strong relation to Adolf Hitler when I think of The Major. Hitler was worshiped in his own country, and his Nazi party ruled by fear (The Squads, anyone?). Hitler, in a self-deprecating move to make himself relatable, referred to himself as 'The Corporal', and wore only his earned Iron Cross and wound badge from World War I. In a world where most dictators look like a Christmas Tree threw up on them, Hitler remained visually simple, with a subdued wardrobe, although unquestionably in power. Is The Major the ruler of America? He certainly has a lot of power within the context of the novel. Did King model The Major after Hitler with his understated title and simple military dress? I think he did, but I could be wrong.
Enough about the Major.
The Long Walk always interested me because of it's odd believe-ability. I always found it possible that we could end up in a society like this. Maybe... maybe it's because I grew up Jewish. Let me slow that down and explain where I'm going with that.
When you're 6 years old, it's not very likely that you're aware of The Holocaust and World War II and the Nazis... unless you're Jewish. When you're Jewish, you learn about all of that as a young child, because of heritage, and culture. My family, especially my Grandparents, gave me a strong historical education, and I learned about The Holocaust long before I ever cracked a book in social studies class. Having that knowledge, that awareness of history in my mind when I first read this book made it understandable, and not so far-fetched as the average reader may take it. If stuff like The Holocaust could happen in the real world, then who's to say that The Long Walk couldn't be a part of our future.
I'm telling you, sugar-tits, that entire last paragraph is bullshit!
I have 4 more specific points that I want to make before I wrap this up, based on my notes. If, during the course of expounding upon those points, I create additional points, then tough titty, said the kitty.
Looking back at The Long Walk using information that we know now, there are two specific things that stood out to me in the text that could be construed as clues to Richard Bachman being Stephen King, keeping in mind that King wasn't actually outed as Bachman until 1985.
At one point, Pete McVries, another Walker and Garraty's closest thing to a 'friend', talks about his old job in a pajama factory, mentioning that they would often spend time on break throwing baling hooks at the rats that would hide in the fabric bundles. As soon as I read that, I flashed back to 'Graveyard Shift' in the book Night Shift, which had almost the exact same instance. Another clue was during one of Garraty's thoughts when he remembered swimming in the Royal River, dealing with leeches, and how you could pull them off 'if you weren't pussy'. Flash forward a few years to 'The Body' in Different Seasons (also known as the movie 'Stand By Me'), and that exact scenario befell Gordie Lachance and the boys. Now, granted, we're years and books away from Different Seasons still, but in today's world, with my knowledge, they struck me as clues, perhaps a 'catch me if you can' wink.
...oh shit, ohshitohshitohshi... wait, I'm not in this story!
Another thing that stuck with me from childhood is King's irreverence. The author's wit, exemplified through sarcastic dialogue. "Hail Mary, full of grace, let me win this stock-car race" is one example. Another is 'Let this ground be seeded with salt, so that nothing may grow here. Cursed be their crops. Cursed be their loins. Cursed be their hams and their hocks.' (Giggles) Maybe King didn't originally write that, or maybe he did. I know that, as a kid, riding my bike back home with The Bachman Books tucked in my bookbag for the eleventyith time, it struck me as funny, and it wove into my lexicon. I didn't bust it out very often, but I distinctly remember saying it a few times in my life.
One last thing. During the course of this race, you don't leave the road. If you do, you get shot. No warnings, just dead. You forfeit your warnings when you leave the course. There are no port-a-potties or places to discreetly relieve yourself. You are a spectacle for all the world to see. Pissing is one thing. The 100 Walkers are men, so when they have to pee, they just turn around and piss backwards, away from themselves. Garraty wrestles with the urge to have a bowel movement, and King does an amazing job of working out all of the thoughts and emotions that you might wrestle with if you're faced with dropping a deuce in the public eye. Shame, embarrassment, resignation, fear, the physical logistics, especially when you've been walking for days or hours and your body can betray you at any second. That feeling of captivity, being constantly on display, like an animal at the zoo, without dignity, eventually coming to the realization that you've got to do it, trying to get it over as fast as possible, and moving on with your life, in this case literally with your life. In typical King fashion, he mentions the bloodthirsty spectators that have come to alternately cheer the Walkers as well as celebrate their demise, because everyone deep down has a morbid, rubbernecker curiosity. Once the Walkers move down the path, the spectators fight over who gets to collect the dropped turds as a souvenir.
Pleasant imagery, huh? Similar to the Christians and the lions, or the Tributes in the Arena while everyone watches in the Capital.
In my mind, I see The Long Walk as a movie. I read it like a movie, I mentally picture the cinematography, seeing it all play out as a psychological drama/thriller. It's not an action movie, because the only action is when a Walker... well, stops walking. Still, I've always framed it out that way. I can't say that about every book I've read, but that's how it's always been with me and The Long Walk.
The Great Tradition of Rollerball?!?!? If you say so...
I really have a deep affinity for The Bachman Books. Sure, 'Rage' has lost its luster for me a bit after the last reading, but I still feel that all four stories in the collection are strong. The only one ever made into a movie was 'The Running Man', and even that deviated so far from the source material that it was a completely different story on film. That's ok, though. I'm kind of protective of them. Unlike 'The Dark Tower', which I'd love to see made into some sort of film or miniseries, I'm perfectly ok with the rest of The Bachman Books staying on the page. It gives my mind the freedom to see them, relatively uninfluenced, as I see fit.
That's kind of the point of literature in the first place.
