Stephen King 2025 read-along discussion

It's the most wonderful time of the yearrrr!! And by that I mean it is time to post our last pick for our 2023 Stephen King Read-Along. We are finishing with a bang with Lala's Buzzword Readathon prompt for December which is "sound related" words. We're going to be reading two short stories from Skeleton Crew titled "The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet" and "Paranoid: A Chant".

"The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet" is a short story that was first published in the June 1984 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and later included in King's own 1985 collection Skeleton Crew. "Paranoid: A Chant" was a previously unpublished poem written by King that he decided to include in Skeleton Crew as they are seen to be slightly connected.

"The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet" follows Henry who is the fiction editor for Logan's, a struggling magazine. Henry receives an unsolicited short story from up-and-coming novelist Reg Thorpe, and considers the story to be a masterpiece. Through his correspondence with Thorpe, Henry learns of – and, due to Henry's own alcoholism, eventually begins to believe in – Thorpe's various paranoid fantasies. Most notably, Henry and Thorpe believe that their typewriters serve as homes for fornits – tiny elves who bring creativity and good luck. The story, told from Henry's perspective as he relays it in anecdotal form at a barbecue, concerns Henry's descent into Thorpe's madness. Meanwhile, Henry also struggles to get Thorpe's story published, despite the fact that "Logan's" is in the process of closing its fiction department. Henry refers to part of his correspondence with Thorpe as a "paranoid chant" which many believe to be the basis for "Paranoid: A Chant" which is why we included both in the read-along this month. Specific images and ideas in the poem imply that it's "written" by Reg Thorpe, or written from a similar perspective. The poem also has ties to the Dark Tower epic. When King originally began writing The Stand, he wrote "A dark man with no face." This became the description for Randall Flagg and is an exact line from the poem.

While "The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet" has never officially been adapted, in the television mini-series Nightmares and Dreamscapes, a fornit's symbol can be seen on a letter in the story "Battleground". However in 2000, "Paranoid: A Chant" was adapted into an eight minute Dollar Baby short film by Jay Holben, starring Tonya Ivey.

At the core, both stories' main focus is insanity. Since the publication of these stories, King has occasionally used the term "flexible bullet" to describe insanity, in reference to both of these stories.

I love going back to stories (particularly short story collections) that we've visited in the past and Skeleton Crew is no exception. Apart from it housing "The Mist" I feel like a lot of these particular short stories can get overlooked in King's catalog and they shouldn't be. This is a great collection!

As always, fellow Constant Readers, we couldn't have done this read-along without you. Thank you so much for coming along with us on our journey to read King and we absolutely can't wait to continue it with you all next year! Chime off down below if you're as excited as we are, and as always, have the happiest of holidays and the best new year!! :)

Hi everyone happy holidays :) I realized today that I haven’t read the tommyknockers! So I’m starting that one tonight. I hope you all have a safe and happy new year

Chelley wrote: "Hi everyone happy holidays :) I realized today that I haven’t read the tommyknockers! So I’m starting that one tonight. I hope you all have a safe and happy new year"

How did the Tommyknockers go? I still insanely haven't read it fully. I also insanely only finished 5 books this year which is just crazy. I can not wait to finish school.