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Did Stephen King predict the future in "the running man" (lemm.ee)

submitted 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) by [email protected] to c/books

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Did he? Or was it like that even back then? I'm reading this book, and it's like a carbon copy of our world in the US nowadays. I keep yelling "oh my god, this is basically happening right now!!!" Not as blatant and (I don't know the word) as in the book, but essentially the same. The book is like now, but on steroids (to explain the word I'm missing). The divide/polarization, the police brutality, the pollution, corporations and exploitation, the government's overreach..... Etc, it's all here now.

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[–] macarthur_park 32 points 4 days ago (12 children)

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.

[–] atomicorange 9 points 4 days ago (10 children)

Let’s hope “The Stand” isn’t next.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago (8 children)

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.

[–] macarthur_park 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I highly recommend it. The stand is one of those novels I reread every few years.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Which one do you think is better deadzone of the stand?

[–] macarthur_park 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

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.