Stephen King Says Donald Trump Is Like Two of His Characters, Neither of Them Good
Stephen King knows a thing or two about horror, and he seems pretty alarmed by Donald Trump. The oft-adapted author of “The Shining,” “It” and countless other books you’ve maybe read and definitely seen the movie versions of has written a piece for the Guardian called “How Do Such Men Rise? First as a Joke.” In it, he admits to being “dismayed, but not particularly surprised” on election night — a lack of enthusiasm for Hillary Clinton in the liberal enclave of New England stuck out to him, as did the implications of Brexit.
To better understand the current occupant of the White House (when he’s actually in the White House, that is), King has convened a panel of six fictional Trump voters. They discuss their reasons for supporting the businessman-turned-politician, whom King compares to one of his own characters: Greg Stillson of “The Dead Zone,” whom Martin Sheen played in David Cronenberg’s 1983 film adaptation.
“[Stillson] is laughed at when he runs for mayor in his small New England town, but he wins,” writes King. “He is laughed at when he runs for the House of Representatives (part of his platform is a promise to rocket America’s trash into outer space), but he wins again.” Sound familiar?
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Anyone who’s read the book or seen the movie knows that this leads to exactly the kind of apocalyptic scenario that those who oppose Trump now fear; not exactly comforting is King’s second comparison to one of his creations, namely Big Jim Rennie of “Under the Dome.”
He describes him as “a crook, a cozener and a sociopath, the worst possible choice in a time of crisis, but he’s got a folksy, straight-from-the-shoulder delivery that people relate to. The fact that he’s incompetent at best and downright malevolent at worst doesn’t matter.” Read the full story here.
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