Welcome to SLOW READ, where we tackle the books you’ve always wanted to read at a pace you can handle.

Hosted by Sarah Stewart Holland and Laura Tremaine

We are currently reading The Stand by Stephen King (unabridged version)

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If you prefer to read instead of listen, below is a cleaned up transcript of the episodes as well as links to all the books and Substacks we mentioned in this episode…and several fun bonus links and videos!

Mentioned in this episode:

The Shack by William P. Young

Two Old Women: An Alaska Legend of Betrayal, Courage and Survival by Velma Wallis

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

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Sarah: I might cry recording this chapter.

Laura: Why?

Sarah: Because I loved it so much. I cried reading it. I just loved it.

Laura: Well, this is why we dedicated a whole episode to just this chapter.

Sarah: That was very wise of us. And by us, I mean you.

Seminal Moments and 500 Pages of Lead-up

Sarah: We separated this chapter out because it is such a seminal moment in The Stand. Oh, my gosh. I love her. Do you?

Laura: Yes. She is like a literary icon.

Sarah: I am obsessed. I loved every word of this chapter—okay, that’s not true, there were a couple words I didn’t love—but she feels so real. I struggle to say “character” because I just want to say “woman.”

Laura: This is the first time in the book where we finally get to know more about her. She’s kind of only showed up in dreams so far. Finally, we’re seeing that the pandemic isn’t the villain, really. Campion isn’t the villain. We’re starting to get what people mean when they say The Stand is a story about the battle of good and evil.

Sarah: Let’s start where the chapter starts: Mother Abagail at her house in Nebraska, playing her guitar on the porch. We’re starting to find out her theology. On the first page, she says, “God brought down a harsh judgment on the human race.” What’s so striking is that she has such acceptance and calm about what has happened.

Laura: And you found it peaceful as opposed to detached?

Sarah: English doesn’t even have the right words for this, because “detachment” has a negative connotation. But it is an acceptance of what you can control and what you cannot. I thought that was just emanating from her.

108 Years of Perspective

Laura: In this round of reading, I did notice a complete lack of grief. She realizes everybody is dead—her grandkids were checking on her, but she hadn’t seen them since February.

Sarah: Listen, in my mid-40s, sometimes I don’t have energy for big emotions. When I’m 108? My grandmother is about to turn 90, and I grew up with a bevy of great-grandparents. I have spent time with 100-year-olds, and this rang completely accurate to me. When you get to the point where death would be a relief, it changes everything.

Laura: I did think there was a lot of attention paid to her bodily functions. We really talk about her going to the bathroom, her prunes...

Sarah: Because you’re so grounded in your body! Think about how visceral labor is, or when you have a cold. It occupies so much of your capacity. By the time you’re 108, are you kidding me? It takes so much of your time just to move your body and manage it.

Laura: It makes her very human, whereas Randall Flagg is jumping around in time. We’re not out here talking about Randall Flagg having to go to the bathroom. It makes them unequal.

The “Magical Negro” and the Nebraska Grange

Laura: Did you have thoughts about her portrayal of being an old Black woman? There’s the “magical Negro” idea that comes up in any deep dive into King’s work.

Sarah: It felt like she’s magical because of her faith and her age, and not her race. Her race was a part of her, but not the “magical component” of her identity to me. Her dad was a pioneer—the first farmer allowed into the Nebraska Grange, which I had to look up.

Laura: I looked it up too! It was like a social union that worked to get legislation in favor of farmers.

Sarah: Right. So she came from hardy, pioneering leadership roots. My only quibbles: one, the “sexy” talk. I’ve kicked it with centenarians, and I’m not sure that’s language they would have used. Secondly, she would not have been a Republican. Hell no.

Laura: That is an interesting choice. I don’t know if that was a way to bridge some divide he was making.

Sarah: No Black person—okay, not zero, but the Black populace of America was widely devoted to FDR. The idea that she would have thought he was a communist? Dude, you did not do your history research here. Farmers loved FDR too. Her party identification was completely unnecessary.

The Weasels and the Eye

Sarah: I have to mention the scene where she walks to the neighbor’s and the pack of weasels show up. I don’t like that part. Did you think it was literal?

Laura: King does this in several stories—your biggest fears come to you. She was bitten by a weasel as a child, so they showed up in a pack. What I liked was her inner dialogue. She thinks, “I’m gonna have to give them this chicken,” but then she just tries the power of her word. She cries, “Get out!” and they draw back.

Sarah: But in that moment where she’s in communication with a higher power, she’s also opened up to Randall Flagg. She sees him as this big red eye watching her.

Reluctant Leaders and the “Best Year”

Sarah: Then the guests arrive. I thought it would be Nick, but it’s Ralph, and a little girl, and Olivia and June. I said, “Who are these ladies?” I’m a little gun-shy because of old Julie Lawry.

Laura: I love that we meet Ralph Brentner. He’s the only one who has decided cars are the way to be! I’ve been waiting for this. He’s driving a tow truck with a good CB radio.

Laura: And we see Nick wrestling with why he is the leader. Everyone else can speak; he requires an interpreter.

Sarah: But you want a reluctant leader! Reluctance is like giving George Washington. You don’t want someone who’s itching to be in charge. Both Mother Abagail and Nick are reluctant because they know the cost. She says, “We’re not all going to make it.”

Laura: She says the Dark Man is the purest evil, but he ain’t Satan. He too answers to God.

Sarah: I just love her honesty. She says her only answer to “Why?” is “Where were you when I made the world?” I’m crying again. I love that she’s not Randall Flagg; she doesn’t have a concrete understanding. She just has faith.

Foreshadowing and affirmations

Laura: I also hitched on the conversation about sex. She looks at the young girls and their birth control pills and says they’ll never know the thrill of not knowing if you created life.

Sarah: I think she’s sending out flares about what life is like on the other side of this as you’re rebuilding without modern conveniences. My favorite line—and I can’t believe a 27-year-old dude wrote this—is:

“A warm night like this... it made her remember her girlhood again. With all its strange fits and starts, its heat, its gorgeous vulnerability as it stood on the edge of the mystery. Oh, she had been a girl.”

Laura: My favorite is her affirmation: “I’m Abagail Fremantle Trotz. I play well and I sing well. I do not know these things because anyone told me.” I love her so much.

Sarah: Next week, we are discussing Chapters 46 through 48. The second half is action-packed.

Laura: We’re going to go talk about the “best years of our lives” in the side quest. We’ll see you on the other side.

Sarah: See you on the other side.

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