Derry: A Town of Unspeakable Evil, Part 2

Derry, Maine: A Town of Unspeakable Evil

Part 2 – 1958 to 1998

In the first installment of this profile of Derry, I discussed the town, its history, and a few of its famous residents. Now I will discuss events that have been documented in King’s stories. Derry plays a significant role in the world that King has built. Due to the number of stories that take place in Derry, this will be a three-part series.

 

One event that must be discussed covers a time span from 1958 to 1985.  In 1958, children in Derry were disappearing or being killed at an alarming rate.  One of these victims was Georgie Denbrough who was killed while playing with a paper boat that his brother Bill made for him. Bill Denbrough and six of his friends created a club called “the Losers Club” while playing in the Barrens where they spent their childhood afternoons building a dam in the creek that flows through it.  The boys become convinced, due to things that they saw and experienced, that an evil murderer was stalking their hometown.  In 1958, they track the “murderer” into the sewers to exact revenge and stop the murders.  They believed that they were the only ones who could stop the murderer.



The Losers Club



In 1985, children started to disappear and be murdered again; This was also the same year of the Great Flood in Derry, which did damaged the city extensively and cost millions to repair. Mike Hanlon, the city librarian and a member of the Losers Club, contacted all of his childhood friends about the recent activity. They had made a promise as children to return if the murders started again.  Six of the seven members returned to Derry and faced the child-killing monster again.  In the course of their stay in Derry, Mike Hanlon was stabbed and one of their friends was killed. (For more about these events, see IT, 1986)

IT was inspired by the classic Norwegian fairy tale “The Three Billy Goats Gruff,” according to The Complete Stephen King Universe.

In 1994, Derry resident Ralph Roberts begins a descent into a type of madness created by insomnia and the loss of his first wife, Carolyn.  Ralph, who is a senior citizen, begins to see strange people-like beings that he calls “the little bald doctors.”  Ralph develops a sixth sense that allows him to see the auras of people around him.  One of the hardest things about Ralph’s newly developed abilities is the way that he can see death hanging over someone’s head.  Ralph described it as being able to see a “black balloon” over their heads.  This is not a pleasant gift to have in the town of Derry because death is a daily occurrence.

Ralph Roberts also develops the ability to know evil when he sees it.  Ralph decides that he must take action when he learns that his neighbor, Ed Deepneau, is planning an assault on the Derry Civic Center where Susan Day, a pro-choice activist, is speaking.  A mysterious force known as the Crimson King is manipulating Deepneau’s thoughts and wants the man to kill a child named Patrick Danville, who has an important place in history.  (To read about Ralph Robert’s life, see Insomnia, 1994).

To promote the release of Insomnia, Stephen King made a ten-stop tour of independent bookstores across the United States on his Harley-Davidson motorcycle. This trip helped inspire two novels, Desperation and The Regulators, which were released in 1996.

In 1998, Mike Noonan, a best-selling novelist who calls Derry home, finds his life changed in a significant way.  Noonan’s wife, Jo, dies from an aneurysm that occurs when she is expecting their first child.  Noonan becomes emotionally distraught and finds it difficult to pen another story.  He decides to leave Derry for a while and stay at their summer home at Dark Score Lake.  The home is called “Sara Laughs.”  The author believes that the writer’s block may be broken by staying at his summer home.




Mike Noonan (portrayed by Pierce Brosnan)



While staying near Dark Score Lake, Noonan becomes involved in a couple of different events.  He rescues a child from the street and then finds himself in the middle of a custody battle between the child’s mother, Mattie Devore, and her father-in-law, millionaire Max Devore. Noonan also begins receiving messages in various ways from spirits, one of which he believes to be his deceased wife. He also starts to investigate the possibility that his wife had an affair prior to her death.  The truth was much darker.  His wife had been investigating the rape and murder of a Jazz singer named Sara Tidwell that occurred nearly a century earlier. (Mike Noonan’s story can be found in Stephen King’s Bag of Bones, 1998)

Bag of Bones was adapted for television in 2011 and aired on A&E.  Stephen King read the audio version of this novel.

To Be Continued...

 

New Promo for The King of Castle Rock

This is the new promo for the King of Castle Rock Blogger and Facebook sites. This promo covers fourteen of King's most memorable works. Check it out and let me know what you think. TB

The King of Castle Rock Promo (YouTube link)

The Twain in King

The other day, I found myself, once again, in the situation of defending the work of Stephen King in relation to classic American literature. The person that I was conversing stated that King's work was good, but could not be compared to the likes of Mark Twain. Both are extraordinary writers with unique voices, which is heavily influenced by the respective region where they grew up. I pondered this conversation for a several hours and started making some comparisons between the two authors.

Here are some similarities between King and Twain:

• Popularity of a genre: Twain brought the American experience to life in his humorous style, which has been recognized as a genre that Twain helped make popular in American culture with many imitators to follow in the years. King has done the same thing with the horror genre. The two genres are different, but both developed their respective genre to a new level.


• Courageous youth as protagonists: Some of Twain's most popular stories involve children and teens as protagonists. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) are examples where young characters are the heroes and lead the readers through an adventure, often involving dangerous situations. Stephen King is known for his young characters facing numerous horrors who lead the battle against whatever evil has befallen upon them. A few examples of this are The Shining (1977), Cycle of the Werewolf (1985), and IT (1986).


• Multiple dimensions of existence: Though the two authors do not hold the patent on stories that cross dimensions of exist, Twain and King do have popular works that involve this phenomenon. Twain's A Conneticutt Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) is a story that involves time traveling with a twist. Stephen King has explored several different twists on this same idea of time traveling and existing on multiple planes. To find an example, one only has to turn to King's Dark Tower series (1982-2012), which has characters existing on multiple planes at the same time. In "The Mist," a novella in the 1985 short collection Skeleton Crew, King shows what happens when dimensions between two planes is opened. This discussion does not include the planes between earthly and spiritual that is the basis for a good ghost story.

I would argue that there enough comparisons between the two authors to fill a lengthy paper. Does this make them both significant contributors to American literature? Can Twain's status as a mainstay in the study of American lit be used to argue that King too deserves such inclusion? These are questions that depend upon your own personal feelings about King and his work. I assert that King indeed has changed American literature and deserves to be studied with the masters, as he is one. tjb

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)