"How foolish it is to write, what a pitiful bulwark against the world's hard realities and bitter home truths. How terrible to say 'This is all I have.'"
I've been working my way through Stephen King's complete works for nearly 3 years now (I know. I know) and I'm about 2/3 of the way through. I'm not trying to say this to impress you (although, that is a total of 43 books so far, so BE IMPRESSED) but to try and show you how ridiculous it is that I read The Plant. This book actually didn't make it onto my original list because Wikipedia told me that it was unfinished (which is true) and so I figured it could be skipped and forgot about it. THEN my internet friend who is also reading All The King (because we're cool like that) asked if I was going to read The Plant or Dreamcatcher next.
And, because I have really unfond memories of Dreamcatcher (I can't be specific about it, because I don't really remember much about it, but I do remember that I hate it) I grasped at any opportunity to put off reading it whilst still moving forward with the King thing.
So, The Plant. Wikipedia was correct about it being unfinished, but there's still a fair bit to read and it has quite a few merits that I think make it worth a read. It was originally published on Stephen King's website, in six separate instalments, where people were asked to pay $1 per part via the honour system (the whole thing can now be downloaded for free on Stephen King's website here) but was never finished, possibly because King said he'd stop writing it if the amount of paying customers fell below 75% (which they did) or possibly for some other reason I can't even be bothered to make up right now. Maybe bunnies.*
ANYWAY. The Plant. It's an epistolatory start-of-a-novel** set in New York City- a place I'm not convinced King is very fond of based on previous experience and this book especially. A small publishing company that's failing has gotten on the wrong side of an INSANE cult member/terrible writer, and for his revenge he sends a plant (THE Plant) that has all kinds of powers that are pretty complicated. To wit- the plant actually does good things for you, UNTIL certain things happen to it, when it turns on you pretty fast/possibly eats you (the story, as it is so far, ends before the plant turns bad, which was obviously going to happen, so I can't really tell you exactly what it does. But I'm sure it was nasty.)
If I'm honest, The Plant takes a long time to get going, which is especially frustrating when you know there isn't that much of it. Probably the first three instalments aren't that great (although, each section does have a cliffhanger at the end of it, as all serial novels should) or at least aren't very action filled or thrilling. But, to be fair, that's not something I would have noticed if there had been more story, or it at least wouldn't annoy me so much.
The second half, though, is where things really pick up, and there are so many things hinted at and just begging to be developed that it makes me want to go over to Maine and shake King a tiny bit and make him WRITE THE REST. DO IT NOW. The end of the sixth part is especially intriguing because there's a big shift in... things, and I can think of a few different ways it could go from that point, all of them good and one of them especially interesting. Basically I'm writing the rest of the story in my head because I can't really leave it where it is. Too too much to think about.
The Plant is free, takes only a few to read, and is much better than I remember Dreamcatcher being. It's obviously the only choice if you're reading all of his stuff and you don't want to read Dreamcatcher, but I think it's also worth your time and attention even if not. Unless you're someone who CAN'T leave a book unfinished (because this will drive you crazy), it's an interesting, fairly scary tale of ambition and botany and publishing that you can carry in your brain and attempt to continue in your own time.
Or we can all do that thing where we harass Stephen King in Maine/on twitter. You decide which.
*I got basically alllll this information from Wikipedia. Just covering my arse here, plagiarism-wise.
**Half-novel? I don't know how long the whole thing would have been...
I kind of want to read this because woooo King, but only half a book that is unlikely to ever be finished? I'm pretty sure it'd end up driving me mad with all the wondering.
ReplyDeleteBut then again, free and a tale about ambition and botany...but then it isn't finished...It'd be like waiting for the next season of BB and then AMC canceling 6 eps in.
But in the wondering, you can make up your own story and decide what would/should happen and there's no one there to MESS IT UP (I feel like this is a bitter thing to say, when mostly I just take books as they are, and don't really go 'well, that clearly shouldn't have happened etc') But yeah. I was unsure about it too, but I ended up pretty much enjoying it. But maybe that's just because it was better than Dreamcatcher haha.
ReplyDeleteOkay but if it leaves me twitching and not sleeping because of all the not knowing then I'm hounding you with emails and tweets at 4am.
DeleteI have never even heard of this one, and I thought I knew King pretty well! I am going to have to check it out!
ReplyDeleteBTW, Dreamcatcher is my least favorite book by King (at least of everything that I have read so far, which is about 2/3). It is the one case that I prefer the movie to the book actually!
You definitely should! I mean, it's free and not very long, so even if you don't like it, you haven't really lost very much money/time.
DeleteDreamcatcher annoys me SO MUCH. I think because it *could* be good (like, at the start, the relationship between the four dudes has SO MUCH potential) but no. Nope. It's mostly just fart descriptions. And pooping. Interesting that the movie is good (or just better?) though, I might have to check it out.
Oh yes, the Dreamcatcher! I hated that one, too. I think it's the worst SK book, I even gave away my copy...
ReplyDeleteSo, unfinished? It does sound interesting though, so if he ever finishes it...
GAVE AWAY your copy?! I may hate it, but I feel like I *need* to have all the books on my shelves for, um, posterity or something? I might just be crazy.
DeleteAnd yep, unfinished. I'm not sure we can rely on SK to ever finish it, but it's still a fairly good read on its own.
Hey, cool! Someone talking about "The Plant"! I didn't think anyone ever talked about this book anymore.
ReplyDeleteI'm a huge King fan, and read the installments of the novel when they were released. Once all six were out, I printed the whole thing out -- front-to-back, no less -- and had it bound into a library-style hardback (like the kind they sometimes bind collections of magazines into). And there it sits on my shelf to this day, right between "On Writing" (one of the very best King books) and "Dreamcatcher" (one of, I would have to agree, the very worst).
Which seems appropriate, both chronologically and quality-wise. I don't think "The Plant" is a great novel, by any means; but it's got its charms, and I'd love for King to return to it one of these days.
I have seriously never seen anyone else talking about it, so hiiiii!
DeleteI am very very impressed that you printed out all of the pages and had them made into a book- now THAT'S dedication. I just have it on my kindle, but there you go. I definitely agree that The Plant isn't GREAT, but it has a lot of potential so it's disappointing that it is (and will probably remain) unfinished. Because things just. got. interesting. You know?
King seems to have been spending the past few years reworking ideas he's been holding onto for decades (Under the Dome, 11/22/63, Joyland) -- so who knows, maybe he'll get the bug for The Plant again at some point soon.
DeletePersonally, though, I don't mind that it's unfinished. I mean, seriously, there are, what, fifty or so finished King novels? Call me crazy, but I kind of like the fact that there's also an unfinished one. It'd be different if it was unfinished due to his death; instead, this seems to be one that he simply couldn't crack all the way open. He was chugging along fine, and then just hit a wall of some sort. That makes it unique and interesting, and so it's special for those reasons.
Maybe that's just my superfan side trying to rationalize it, I dunno.
"I'm not going to try to impress you...but be impressed." Ahahahaha good job.
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking if King decides to finish this I'll read it. Otherwise I'll just get annoyed that it took so long to get going and then when things get interesting the story stops. Do not like.
But but but what if he never finishes it and you never read it and gahhhhh! Although, I mean, I guess we'll know if he's finished it or not when he dies (NOOOO) and THEN you can make your decision. Because apparently I'm taking your 'nope' as a 'maybe'. Weird...
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