Category: Storytelling

How Good of a Mythos Story is The Stand? Is it GOAT?

In a moment of what I thought was levity last fall (November 2020, a time of heavy chaos, seriously – was that the craziest month of  my entire life? Except for Sept 2001? Whew, what a world) I had the totally bonkers idea to read Stephen King’s The Stand, Complete and Uncut (clocking in at nearly 1100 pages) and report on whether it is the Greatest Mythos Story of All Time. I’m done with my reading and reporting now, so let’s see where I landed.

Since then, I recorded audio book reports that you can listen to on the Miskatonic University Podcast Patreon feed, even if you’re not a Patreon backer. (I love Patreon but their UI is tough as shit to navigate – here’s the link to my podcasts if you want to listen.) Over the course of 25 12-20 minute podcasts, I reviewed the book in ~50 page chunks, and I’m proud of the work I did, having never done anything like that before. As I’m just finishing up the last episodes now, I thought I’d write my final report here and use that to clarify my thoughts.

Next I put a framework around my hypothesis, outlining my theory:

  • Randall Flagg, the main antagonist of the story, had been identified as an avatar of Nyarlathotep, a key god in the Cthulhu Mythos
  • Inclusion of Flagg then makes the Stand a Mythos story, and it may have further Mythos themes and constructs
  • The Stand is (or rather was) my favorite King novel, and, having read it twice before, I knew that it was an epic tale of good versus evil – so it was great in length and scope

My hypothesis was that, as a epic Mythos story, it was the Greatest of All Time, and that it should be revered as such. So – what did I find? I’ll explore three components to this hypothesis as I build my evidence and conclusion.

[Spoilers for the Stand follow for sure]

First – the story is definitely great, in size and scope *and* quality. It’s really a massive story and as only the third or fourth book that King published, it’s amazing what he accomplished. Basically he destroys America and builds cities of Good and Evil out of the rubble. King said he wanted to write a story at the scale of the Lord of the Rings, and he does it. But it’s not only massive in its scale (both the book and the story) but it’s REALLY GOOD. Seriously, there’s a reason why it’s got two mini-series and is such a key piece of King’s bibliography — it’s an epic tale with massive stakes, a full ensemble cast, and a dark vision of a future that, at least when it comes to how we react to a deadly flu, resembles our world in more ways than one. So yeah, it’s GREAT.

But is it a Mythos story? Is saying that Flagg is an avatar of Nyarlathotep sufficient to make it a Mythos story? Well, let’s go with the assumption that – yes, if Flagg is a Great Old One, then the story should be examined in that light. But what does actually mean to be a Mythos story? I watched an argument unfold on Facebook (I know, crazy right?) when I suggested that it was a Mythos story — one person saying it’s a fight between Good and Evil (and really stated as such) so that’s NOT Mythos, and another saying, Uh, Yeah King is a HUGE Lovecraft fan and that his stories are about personal horror (which they definitely are) and that’s all you need to be a Mythos story. For me, orientation is somewhere in between.

A Cthulhu Mythos (or Lovecraft Mythos, or Lovecraftian, or Existential Horror, however you want to slice it) isn’t just about how the antagonist identifies themselves, but rather is about the questions at the center of the story. Mythos stories (if we’re tracing them back to Lovecraft as the source) are about Unknown Horrors and our interactions with them. “Cosmic Horror” (yet another phrase we can use) centers on two key principles to its stories:

  • The universe is vast and we as humans do not understand all that inhabits it (the Cosmic side)
  • The truth of the universe is so terrible (usually due to the other beings that are out there) that to understand it would drive us insane (the Horror side)
  • Both of these are rooted in a fear of the unknown – Mythos stories then are about unanswered questions, and leave lots of room for the imagination to run crazy… this is why we like these stories

So I believe that the Stand is a great story as well as a Mythos story, but is it the Greatest of All Time? Examining Flagg as the propagator of evil for the story, we rely on him to deliver both the cosmic and the horror. Unfortunately, it’s not his greatest showing.

He certainly gets off to a good start. For the first half of the book or so, Flagg mostly appears in people’s dreams as a terrible dark nightmare, wolves and weasels, and a force to reckon even as the world is being destroyed by Captain Tripps. When he’s in this shadow-dream form, Flagg is extremely efficient and competent as a Mythos force. He is intangible and distant, and communicates terror via the Same Dream to Everyone! It’s a great unifying force when the group of survivors realize they’re all having the same dreams of the same terrible Evil Force.

But when Flagg shows up to start running Las Vegas in his post-apocalyptic world, we get to see him run an operation, and even when he still does evil things, a lot (if not most) of the mystery is revealed, and that is enough to diminish his power as an evil force. Once we find out what kind of bad guy Flagg is, he loses most of his powers of horror.

Even Mother Abigail, in her final hours, pulls out some crazy miracle talk and white magic that proves she is not just an ordinary old woman. She ends on a very high note that, as an emissary for God, proves that she still holds mystery and magical powers that no one understands. Abigail herself finishes strong when Flagg does not.

King makes Flagg fallible, which is important for an antagonist, but in doing so he becomes too human and normal, and not mysterious enough. We get to see and understand his challenges, his temper, his dislike of “good people” and, perhaps most telling, his lack of leadership. The best/worst example of this is when his righthand-man Lloyd realizes that he (Lloyd) has been left out of the loop operationally, and that this whole thing would have worked better if only Flagg trusted him to actually run the Vegas operation!!

That Flagg’s downfall is based on his ability to govern New Las Vegas is both startling and hilarious, neither of which should be a key component in the Greatest Mythos Story of All Time. In humanizing Flagg, King removed his mystery, which diminishes all of the story’s power as a Cosmic Horror piece. By the end of the book, Flagg’s mistakes (and his successes) are no more than the ruler of a failed military state.

Another point of note for my reading of this — I was about halfway through the book when the attack on the US Capitol took place on January 6th, 2021. I watched this crazy bullshit failed insurrection from just miles away and wondered “What have we wrought?” Relating that attack to Flagg’s world of sin in New Las Vegas had me realize that Flagg really isn’t evil enough. Especially in the second half of the book when it’s about the new world and Flagg is setting up his empire, and we see some of his followers have  doubts — watching the Cult of Trump seeking to execute members of US Congress in real time really affected my perspective to what can make a charismatic figure evil.

Yes, the Stand is definitely a story of Good versus Evil, and it’s massive in scope and theme. And it’s very, very good. The pacing and characters and setting and execution are all very much above par. King’s work is a masterpiece in epic storytelling, and in the end I was glad to have read it. I examined it through multiple lenses and came out the other side having a much greater respect for King as a storyteller and writer. If you’ve not read it, I highly recommend it.

However, it’s not the Greatest Mythos Story of All time, and I’m not even sure it’s a Great Mythos story. With so much mystery revealed starting about halfway through the book, it loses its cosmic horror tone and moves onto something more practical — a tale of Good versus Evil, and a race to get home in time for a baby to be born.

So that begs the question – what is the Greatest Mythos Story of All Time? Frankly, I do not know. Is it one of Lovecraft’s works? Or something by one of his peers like Clark Ashton Smith? A disciple like Ramsey Campbell? I’m partial to Campbell’s Severn Valley works and wonder if one of his could top it all?

I was hoping to find that the Stand was GOAT, because of its size and scope, but maybe following the idea that the key to quality Cosmic Horror is unanswered questions and mystery, a shorter story might deliver the goods. If you have a recommendation, let me know. I’m still on the hunt.

On Providing Choice to the PCs

I started my 5th Edition D&D campaign last week and am very excited for it. It’s been a while (well, two years) since I started a new campaign, but, more importantly, I’ve invited a bunch of close friends to join me weekly on Roll20, with shorter hours (more on this later), which will make it very easy to keep going on a regular basis. With a consistent gaming schedule, I find I can focus my efforts on prepping and running the game instead of worrying about whether enough players will show.

But for me, running a campaign isn’t just about gaming. It’s about taking an opportunity to flex my storytelling muscles at the same time I’m having fun in a game. I can’t help but use the opportunity for running a game to find the story components and engage with those as much as possible. And it’s even more important in a game like D&D, where the story elements aren’t as pronounced as, say, in a Dungeon World, Fiasco, or FATE game (which are more rooted in story out of the gate).

So if I’m taking the effort to learn and explore storytelling in my 5th edition game, there’s no better place to start than at the beginning. And having just begun my game, I want to identify all the places I can get the team working on these elements, and it starts with PC introductions. But it’s not enough just to make the PCs’ various histories important to the game’s present — you need to make it matter with choice. Choice is one of the fundamental aspects of storytelling in that it fundamentally creates characters — when characters make a choice, they show their true colors and instincts. And the harder the choice, the more interesting the story. Does Luke join Darth? Does Frodo keep the Ring? Does Neo take the red or blue pill? Without choice, story is nothing.

For the first session, I came up with a list of choices for each PC (one each) to make that will inform their own personalities and loyalties. Each choice had something to do with the old world versus the new world. In the campaign introduction, the group has been recruited by Lord Silverhand of Waterdeep, but the PCs also have their own factions and other personal allegiances — will they turn their back on their old world connections or move forward into their new futures? Will they accept their new responsibilities blindly or do they second guess why they’ve been hired? How will they approach this new mission in light of their personal backgrounds? These are all interesting choices that give color to characters.

The best games and campaigns are rooted in choice. One of the most classic RPG campaigns of all time — Masks of Nyarlathotep for Call of Cthulhu — opens by giving the PCs multiple choices on how to approach the game with a large handful of clues and information. Out of the gate the PCs have agency to determine their own direction in the game and I believe this set of choices (which ultimately follows the group throughout the game) helps cement the campaign as one of the all-time greats.

As a game master, it’s your job to set the tone of your game — the earlier, the better. Yes, we’re playing out of the box 5th edition D&D, but we’re also playing in my game, and I like stories, the bigger, the better. I don’t want to just crawl through the dungeons or wilderness and not give opportunity to let the story be about the characters and their choices. Just giving the PCs these introductory choices — just one quick choice along with one scene bringing them into the world — set the tone and gave each player something to latch onto. I think it was a good start.

I’m interested in all the ways we can actively bring storytelling elements into our RPGs. What other ways can we allow players and PCs to make choices?