More a student of history than a predictor of the future. What's happening in the world at the moment is nothing new, human societies are pretty predictable, at a broad scale.
this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2025
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One man is born with immense wealth, grows up to gain even more wealth and total control of an entire geographic region and wants to control more land, wealth and people ... his thirst for power is insatiable and costing the lives of hundreds, thousands and even millions of people.
Guess the century.
All of them
Umpteenth.
Rome?
Tale as old as time
My stoned ass was a prophet in the back of a Chevy Cavalier. My history teacher was pretty adamant about the importance of the field but tried to make it as interesting as possible. Even just watching hotel Rwanda spurred a week of curiosity and lessons
If you think that’s prescient, try King’s “The Dead Zone”. It’s about a president who makes insane campaign promises (“put pollution in garbage bags and send it to space”), has rallies with mixture of party vibes and violent populism, and who has a signature hat.
Let’s hope “The Stand” isn’t next.
Convinced husband to read that during covid. Boy was he piiiiiissed
That one is in my digital library literally staring at me everyday. I don't know why I keep putting it off. I think I'll read it after I read the deadzone then.
It's the best King novel in my opinion.
(But I may be biased cause I watched the movies first as a teen and had a crush on one of the characters)
That makes me want to read it now. Lol. Damit. I need to finish this one first.
(But I may be biased cause I watched the movies first as a teen and had a crush on one of the characters)
Let me guess: Tom Cullen?
Mother Abigail
I highly recommend it. The stand is one of those novels I reread every few years.
Which one do you think is better deadzone of the stand?
The stand, just because it’s a much bigger scale novel with lots of interesting characters, world building, and a lot of story.
The dead zone is one I probably won’t reread. But it’s definitely worth it once, like most of King’s work. And the fact that it has uncomfortable parallels to Trump and the MAGA movement adds another element.
Damn. I'll put it on the list for next
God damn. Definitely reading that next.
Haven't read it yet, but a lot of Stephen King books can feel that way. Stephen is more political then you think, so no shock he could see the direction we were heading.
That or someone high up in our political system read as a to do book. How I feel about 1984, scary watching parts of that book become reality now.
Same as it ever was.
That divide/polarization, the police brutality, pollution ... All of it... It has been going on for a long time.
It is all here now. But it was all there then too.
That's just sad. I didn't grow up in the US, so I don't know much about its recent history, aside from what I've read/watched on TV.
Sci Fi is about the time it was written in, with a veneer of futurism to distance it enough to make it not a politicial polemic.
Hitchhikers Guide is about 70s Britain
Foundation is about 50's Europe
Handmaids Tale is about post-WW2 thru 80s colonialism in Africa
F 451 is about 50s America...
With thousands of sci-fi books being written every year, one of them is bound to be an accurate prediction.
And "like now, but on steroids" is basically the definition of the sci-fi genre.
Oh, new movie coming out this year! Not a remake, but closer to the book.
Looking forward to something more true to the source, but that being said, the original Running Man film scratches the '80s action thriller itch for sure. I have a soft spot for those movies.
Considering how the book ends, I am not hopeful for an overly faithful retelling.
Ha, I think it would be therapeutic.
I saw some videos about it on YouTube.
You know what they say: the 80's are back, baby!
If you like this type of science fiction, could I interest you in The Space Merchants and Gladiator At Law by Frederik Pohl and CM Kornbluth? More prescient and much more biting, in my opinion. Also much earlier, having been written in the 1950s.
You absolutely could. And thank you. Put them on the list. I've been reading nonfiction my whole life and I just picked up fiction recently and I kinda like it.
That is right guy up my alley, I love finding old sci-fi.
I didn’t know he wrote that. Apparently I got to the book before he was outed.
You could take elements of any novel set in a dystopian future and find commonalities. Like the other commenter said, it’s likely that shitty people were given ideas by these books instead of being warned off.
Try DeadZone next!!!
I didn't even know he had written such book. It's next. Thank you
thats how I feel when playing cyberpunk accept like just over the horizon.
Well, he predicted that us would have fully online elections in The Running Man, meanwhile the us 🤡
I can only assume the Stephen King novel has nothing at all to do with the Schwarzenegger movie because I don't think we are yet putting people into heavily coporatized deathmatch game shows.
Now I wanna know it's about. I can guarantee the only reason I never read it is because I must have thought the movie was based on the book. Or maybe that is the case and there's just way more explained in it?
I think we do have people in deathmatches. Amazon Warehouses. lol
Also, I just watched the movie, and man, it has absolutely nothing to do with the book, except for the names of the characters. That's it. It was a very entertaining movie of course.
No. A can of coke does not cost 6 dollars.
Hoping that image worked.