Dante Estrada | Long Beach Current
I wanted to start by saying Stephen King is having a moment, but that’s not quite accurate.
King has never really faded. The 78-year-old author remains as relevant as ever with three of his works (“The Running Man,” “The Monkey,” and “The Long Walk”) adapted for film last year and the TV series “IT: Welcome to Derry” becoming both a critical and commercial hit.
Even CSULB caught King fever last semester, with Cal Rep producing “Carrie: The Musical,” based on his debut novel.
For over 50 years, since he first splattered onto the literary scene in 1974, King’s work has stayed firmly in the mainstream. Famously prolific, with 67 novels and 200 short stories, his output is only part of the reason.
Best known for the terror he produces, King is equally skilled at crafting sharp character studies of human behavior. I’d argue that insight is just as responsible for his enduring popularity.
King’s characters are dense and thanks to his overwriting tendencies, readers feel like they know them. Even when their actions are questionable or disturbing, his prose makes their logic – twisted or not – comprehensible.
He’s not called a master storyteller for nothing.
While it’s not my favorite of his works, I’ve recently been thinking about his 1979 novel “The Dead Zone.”
A supernatural thriller, it centers on Johnny Smith, who awakens from a coma with the ability to see the future through touch, and Greg Stillson, a dangerously unstable politician. After shaking Stillson’s hand at a rally, Johnny foresees a future in which Stillson becomes president, triggering nuclear war and decides to stop him.
Much has already been written about the similarities between Stillson and modern political figures, so I won’t rehash that.
Instead, I keep thinking about the climax (spoilers).
Johnny attempts to assassinate Stillson but fails and is killed, but his sacrifice isn’t meaningless. Stillson uses a child as a human shield, is photographed, and his campaign collapses overnight.
In 1979, the most unbelievable part of the story was predicting the future. In 2026, it’s the idea that people would turn on their candidate for any reason. Today, we’d likely see political commentators explaining why that behavior is “fine, actually.”
“The Dead Zone” ends on a hopeful note: Johnny dies, but a collective sense of decency saves the world.
Our current reality feels too bewildering for even a Stephen King book–and isn’t that a scary thought?
Delfino Camacho is a returning student who came back to school in 2021. After completing his Associates degree at El Camino College he transferred to CSULB last year and served as an Arts & Life assistant and returned this year as the Arts & Life Editor for the Long Beach Current. Delfino hopes to work professionally in entertainment, arts, features or photography. He currently lives in Compton in a multi-generational home with his wife, sister, mother, two huskies (Gohan and Robin), and his red-eared turtle, Fishy. When not busy with photos or journalism, he loves to watch movies, haunt thrift shops for old vinyls or comics, or hang out with his wife.