Stephen King Told Us Masks Don't Work In His Fake TV Pandemic 'The Stand'
Masks Don't Work Said The TV News Reporter In Stephen King's TV Mini-Series Version of His Fantasy Novel The Stand.
Horror honcho Stephen King creates tales which are anything but subtle. It’s a safe bet to say that universally he’s regarded by his fans as nothing but shocking. In his dozens of horrific novels, feature film scripts and TV projects, he always pulls out the wacky, crazy and downright fearful.
For one of his most popular works, the novel Carrie, King crafts a hair raising story of a bullied teen pushed way past the breaking point. Carrie White pulses with a psychic fury fueled by her developing womanhood. At tale’s end, psychic psycho Carrie reigns bloody revenge on all those about her. It’s safe to say from that fiction alone, Mr. King knows batshit crazy and absolutely wallows in it.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, watching films about an actual global plague can feel both timely and completely surreal. Fittingly, during this global scare, King’s most realistically scary tale has to be his epic novel, The Stand.
But what’s curious is despite all the mask wearing we’ve been advised to do during our real life version of Captain Tripps, King told us (through a minor character) masks don’t work during the production of his fake pandemic TV mini-series, The Stand.
No masks in a pandemic? Hmmmmm. Was Mr. King being realistic in his fakery - however much he wished to imbue his, The Stand, with the feel of realism? Or was he just pulling our collective TV watching leg?
Amber Heard Inspired My Article
Thanks, Amber.
Watching you and ex-hubby Johnny Depp duke it out in court over your wild, rocky schlocky defamation case led me to watching your version of The Stand. I still prefer King’s original - he didn’t write the screenplay for this Paramount + version. So, I went back to watch the 1994 version directed by Mick Garris with a screenplay written by Stephen King. And that’s when I saw this scene.
Two characters are playing cards while a TV news report plays in the background on a small television set.
Reporter: Some people have even taken to wearing protection on the street. (Turns to a man wearing a mask) Why are you wearing this mask, sir?
Masked Man: I don’t know. Just feels safer.
Reporter: Okay. Thank you. Katie, the folks at the Atlanta Disease Control Center told me that these masks wouldn’t stop a flu germ with a hangover.
Back in 1994, Stephen King either on his own concocted a news reporter advising - on the advice of his faux Centers for Disease Control - that masks don’t work. Don’t bother with them. Or maybe back in the day while writing the novel, he consulted the CDC who told him basically the same. Masks aren’t going to stop much of anything, so go ahead add a snippet of dialog to support that fact.
So much for freaky fiction. What does King say in real life about real life things like pandemics?
During a Fresh Air NPR interview with Terry Gross, here’s how Stephen King, giddy giver of ghoulish goodies addressed the wearing a mask during a pandemic issue:
You might want to wear a mask. You might not. I'm not going to say that you should. But probably you should - that sort of thing. The thing that that is not addressing is the fact that you don't wear a mask because you're afraid somebody else will make you sick; you wear a mask because you might be a carrier and you might make them sick. So this is a very difficult disease.
We well know the voluminous vicarious thrills provided by a horror hound such as Stephen King. The Stand is yet another one of King’s fear inducing fairy tales, but it’s interesting to see his depiction of the CDC - or at least their pandemic medical advice - during his own fictional flu. King’s great influence over his fans is inarguable. Hopefully those watching this scene advising to ditch masks will remember it’s merely a dramatization - not an accurate nor even practical reenactment of real life. It’s simply plucked from King’s highly polished brand of horror hokum.