The Stephen King - Ray Bradbury Paradox

In 2009, I had the pleasure to perform in a stage version of Ray Bradbury’s The October Country, under the direction of Pillar of Fire co-founder Terry Pace, who co-founded Pillar of Fire Productions with the legendary writer Ray Bradbury. I have read Stephen King’s praise of Bradbury for many years since Danse Macabre (1981). King has long contributed Bradbury’s work as being inspiration for his own stories. It may be confusing to understand how a man who helped create and mold the genre of science fiction and fantasy had such an influence on the man who would become the ‘Master of Horror’. However, as I was preparing for the show, I began seeing these small references within Bradbury’s words that instantly made me think of Stephen King’s work.

The October Country (1955) is a collection of nineteen macabre stories by Bradbury, while the stage version incorporated four short stories. The story that held the most significant connection, for me, between Bradbury and King was “Cistern,” which was the creepiest and scariest of the four plays that we performed. “Cistern” is a story about two sisters, one who appears to be emotionally disturbed and obsessed with the sewers and what is in them. Every Stephen King aficionado understands the importance of the sewer in certain pieces of his work.

While watching the two very lovely and talented actors rehearsing their lines, I was able to see what an influence that this one Bradbury short had on a popular Stephen King novel. Some of the lines refer to the “people living in the sewers” and persons “floating” beneath the grates. This single concept of people in the sewers, which every child has probably imagined when walking past a sewer grate on the streets, became the concept for Stephen King’s novel, IT (1986).

The parallels between King and Bradbury do not end there. King has contributed Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962) as being the author’s “best work.” He describes it in Danse Macabre as “a darkly poetic tale set in the half-real, half-mythical community of Green Town, Illinois….a shadowy descendant from that tradition that had brought us stories about Paul Bunyan and his blue ox, Babe, Pecos Bill, and Davy Crockett.” This formula for creating a “half-real, half-mythical community” can be found in King’s own work.

Stephen King contributes Bradbury with providing a basis for understanding horror in Danse Macabre. King writes: “My first real experience with real horror came at the hands of Ray Bradbury – it was an adaptation of his story “Mars is Heaven!” on Dimension X. This would have been broadcast around 1951, which would have made me four at the time. I asked to listen, and was denied permission by my mother…..I didn’t sleep in my bed that night; that night I slept in the doorway, where the real ad rational light of the bathroom bulb could shine on my face.”

There is little doubt that Bradbury, among others, has been very influential on Stephen King and his writing. Could it possibly be that that moment when Stephen King was four and heard Bradbury’s story broadcasted over the radio that the future writer found his love for a genre that would be forever changed by his contributions? If so, then we owe Mr. Bradbury a debt of gratitude, not just for his own work, but also for his influence on all writers that have embraced his work as a stepping-stone for their own.

(The connections between Bradbury and King go well beyond the few examples that I have provided. I am planning to include more discussions of Bradbury in future posts.)

The Story of Castle Rock

One of the enduring traits of Stephen King is the creation of this world where stories occur with characters that can be compared to people in our own hometowns. If a town in America was like Castle Rock, it might be home to a satellite office of CNN, and, possibly, the FBI. Castle Rock, like the other towns in King’s domain, has had a colorful past where an underlying battle exists between forces that remain unseen to the outside world.

Castle Rock is the flagship town in Stephen King’s work, and is located in southwestern Maine, between Rumford and Augusta. The town, created by SK was to be more than a mere location for a story. The Complete Stephen King Universe asserts that it was designed to “function as a scale model of contemporary American society”. The small New England mill town was
named after a location in Lord of the Flies, the classic coming-of-age story by William Golding; a story that Stephen King has identified to be one of his favorite novels as a child.

On the surface, Castle Rock is a postcard snapshot of everyday America. It is the exact kind of town that politicians are referring to when they mention “helping Mainstreet America”, and Norman Rockwell painted in his Saturday Evening Post covers. However, this tranquil town, filled with Mom-and Pop stores and community spirit, has had a violent history; most of the tragic events occurred after 1978. Many people wonder what exactly happened in the little rural town in Maine that ultimately led to its destruction.

Although no one knows when Castle Rock’s problems began, many point toward one event as the moment when the town’s fate became sealed. In 1979, a serial killer was stalking young women on the innocent streets of Castle Rock. Sheriff George Bannerman turned to a local resident named Johnny Smith for assistance. Smith had suffered serious injuries in a car wreck; remained in a coma for four and a half years; and woke with the psychic ability to see the future by touching personal items or places where others have touched. Smith and Bannerman were able

to catch the killer, a deputy named Frank Dodd. However, Johnny Smith discovered his own fate in the process. (To read more about these events, see The Dead Zone (1979).)

KOCR note: The Dead Zone released in 1979 was the first Stephen King novel to reach #1 on the New York Times bestseller list.

In 1981, Castle Rock was the scene of a fatal isolated incident at Vic and Donna Camber’s garage and home. The Camber’s Saint Bernard named Cujo attacked Donna Trenton and her four-year-old son, Tad, when they came to consult Camber’s about repairing their car. The normally lovable dog had been infected with rabies. The tragic events devastated the community that was still recovering from the Dodd murders and other tragic events during those years. (Cujo, 1981)

KOCR note: It is believed that Cujo’s ghost was seen by Polly Chambers in 1991’s Needful Things, according to The Complete Stephen King Universe.

In 1989, Castle Rock was once again the center of events in a Stephen King’s novel. In The Dark

Half, writer Thad Beaumont struggled through a personal dilemma, which included killing his pseudonym, George Stark. Unfortunately, Stark developed a life of his own in pursuit of “justice”, framing Beaumont for multiple murders in the process. Sheriff Alan Pangborn, who replaced George Bannerman, tried to prove his theory that Beaumont was indeed being framed. The Castle Rock papers once again carried headlines of savage murders, which spread fear throughout the community. (Dark Half, 1989)

KOCR note: The character Thad Beaumont was named in honor of writer Charles Beaumont (1929-1967), who created some of the most memorable episodes of the classic television series, The Twilight Zone.

In 1991, a series of tragic events unfolded in Castle Rock that destroyed the town in a very literal way, leaving its residents dead or struggling for survival. A stranger, Leland Gaunt, made his home in Castle Rock and opened Needful Things, a novelty store. Shortly after his arrival, neighbor turned on neighbor and a battle of good versus evil erupted on the town’s once quiet streets. Sheriff Alan Pangborn tried to protect the citizens of Castle Rock from Gaunt’s master plan. However, the town was seriously damaged after Ace Merrill, a local criminal, which is a name that should be well known to King readers, plants dynamite throughout the town. The

explosion did significant damage to the downtown area. Devices were placed in several buildings throughout Castle Rock, resulting in a significant death count. (Needful Things, 1991)

KOCR note: Needful Things is a tribute to Ray Bradbury, and shows the influence that the author’s work had on Stephen King. Many elements of Needful Things are reflective of Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes. Bradbury is a heavy influence of King’s work.

Castle Rock’s influence does not stop with the works previously mentioned. The town was home to writer Gordon LaChance who wrote about his adventures as a boy growing up in Maine in 1960 ("The Body," Different Seasons, ). It is featured in three short stories of King’s 1985 collection, Skeleton Crew. It is the setting for “Nona”, “Uncle Otto’s Truck”, and “Gramma”. Stephen King’s work during the 1990s made a few visits to Castle Rock including The Sun Dog (Four Past Midnight, 1990), “It Grows on You” (Nightmares & Dreamscapes, 1993), and “The Man in the Black Suit” (Six Stories, 1997).

Its longtime citizens may no longer inhabit Castle Rock, but it remains an important part of the world created by Stephen King. Some of its previous residents make an appearance after leaving Castle Rock like Norris Ridgway, a former deputy of Sheriff Pangborn who becomes neighbors of writer Michael Noonan in Bag of Bones (1998). Although this town collapsed beneath evil’s darkness, it shall exist forever in the place that it was created – the heart of the readers.

11 February 2012 (TJB)