Stephen King Fans discussion

Below is a synopsis of the story from wikipedia:

(view spoiler)[The story, narrated by Howard Fornoy in the form of a personal journal, recounts the life of his genius younger brother, Robert. Bobby, a child prodigy whose adult interests led him to study a variety of scientific disciplines, discovered a chemical that reduces the aggressive tendencies of humans and other organisms. While doing sociological research in Texas, Bobby used crime statistics to create a sort of topographic map which displayed a geographical pattern of violent crime. Examining the map, Robert noted diminishing levels of crime centered around the town of La Plata. When he arrives to investigate, he finds that this town has never had any violent crime. Bobby is ultimately able to determine that the cause of the non-aggression is the presence of a chemical unique to the town's water supply, a phenomenon that is mentioned in (but had nothing to do with the causations of) King's earlier novel It. Even minimal exposure to the chemical will calm down an angry person or animal, and Bobby has been able to isolate the chemical and reduce it to concentrated form.

At a time of international chaos suggestive of an approaching total nuclear war, Bobby and Howard, with the aid of a volcano, disperse a large quantity of this substance throughout the world, in the hope of preventing a catastrophe. Indeed, the effects are quick and expected: a massive decrease in hostilities around the globe.

Several months later it is discovered that, to the Fornoys' horror, there was another constant about La Plata that was not studied until after the substance was released. It does eliminate aggression, and increases calm, but it does the job too well. It builds up, out of control, in a subject's system, ultimately giving them symptoms resembling dementia or Alzheimer's disease and eventually resulting in death. Howard's journal entries after this point begin to include increasing amounts of grammar, spelling, and other mistakes, eventually devolving into incoherence as Howard succumbs to the effects of the chemical and (presumably) dies. It is implied the human race will also eventually die out as adults start to forget how to care for newborn children.

The style of Howard's entries near the end are inspired by those of the character Charlie in Daniel Keyes' book, Flowers for Algernon. (hide spoiler)]

This is one of my favorites so far.

For those that are curious about the audio version, Matthew Broderick read this one. He did a great job.

I remember reading this one and chuckling when Howard talks about how frustrated Bobby got with trying ti write by hand until he discovered the typewriter. I had been dealing with the same thing at the time (exacerbated by my hand writing being terrible :()

Oh, I love this story.... there are so many examples in "real life" of say... (view spoiler)[ the government releasing a species of bird or insect whose natural prey is a pest to us.... and then the introduced species goes completely out of control (hide spoiler)] I love this story!!

I read this with another group recently and here are my comments from there:

I loved this story. This is exactly why I love King. He writes these stories that are so amazing and powerful and layered and honest.

Spoilers below:

I loved the history of these two brilliant boys. I loved the description of genius for Bobby, being like a compass needle spinning and spinning and looking for the North that will point to that genius's purpose. I both loved and was extremely disturbed by the Calmative. I wish that there was a way that we could stop fighting with each other, but it's no quick fix. It's called tolerance and understanding and it sure as heck don't fall like rain.

I loved the method of this story too - to tell it so quickly, and show the degeneration and and super-fast deterioration of Howard's mind in such a short amount of time kind of only proves how brilliant Bobby really was, even thought that's terrifying because he didn't care about the potential consequences of his actions.

And I loved the last couple lines, how they come full circle back to the brother who loves his little brother and will forgive him anything, even the end of humanity. But I especially loved the signature:

"sinned (for the wurld),

Bowwow"

Supposed to be "signed", but "sinned" is appropriate in a way too... Coming back to Original Sin, Bobby is kind of eating from the tree of knowledge and the whole world pays for it.

I love how it's a future story too, even though it's a not-too-distant-future story. King writes so few of those.

It might be too early to say, but this might be my favorite story.

Also, I watched the mini-series the other night, and I thought that they did a pretty decent job with this one.

Ron Livingston did really great as Howard, but I thought that they focused a bit too much on the mundane stuff and Bobby's genius rather than the effect of what his genius meant. I LIKE the relationship of the brothers, and that came through loud and clear, but I wanted to see the effect of Bobby's changes on the world, like we could in the story.

Oh well. Can't have it all. It was still good though. :)

I admit, I skipped this one in the book only because I had already seen this on the movie and the ending was already spoiled for me.

I really enjoyed this one. It was quick and light on the surface, but when reflected upon, it offers so many opportunities for discussion including, but not limited to:

- education based on skill level rather than age
- tolerance and acceptance
- how our choices impact others
- the need to be responsible and accountable for our actions