Christine by SK and the reaction of Guys

[gategrrl]

I'd read this a while back, last year, I think. And I went on-line to find other Stephen King fans. I was taken aback a bit by the discussion I saw surrounding this particular book. What was going on? I think I stumbled onto Guy Central For King, because they were talking about the book Christine, which features a dweeby-nerdy high school boy, his friendship with a jock who turns out to be good kid and the only one willing to stand up for the dweeby-nerd, the dweeby-nerd's hot girlfriend, and the dweeby-nerd's evil car, Christine.   

To understand my bafflement at these guys, you have to understand the set-up of the book.  At one point, the evil car Christine influences the Dweeby-nerdy kid when his girlfriend is choking, to let her choke to death as a "sacrifice" to the car, Christine. Fortunately, a passerby sees her choking, and does the Heimlich, and he drives her home. His girlfriend, who'd been *friendly* with Dweeby-Nerd's Jock friend (but not romantically) finally decides her boyfriend is too obsessed with his car, and drops him. She ends up going out with the Nice-guy Jock.  

Here's where the guys on this group just went way overboard (IMO). Instead of noting how the girlfriend only left her Dweeby-nerdy boyfriend AFTER he almost let her DIE, they ignored that plot-point totally, instead railing on about "OMG, his FRIEND STOLE HIS GIRLFRIEND!" 

Um...are girlfriends off-limits to other guys, even after one has tried to kill/let her die?  I guess so, because to this particular group of posters, the only thing that mattered was that the Dweeby-Nerd lost his girlfriend to a Jock (the jock who was his only friend and only protector in school, and a decent guy).  

Truthfully, I found the focus on the girl-friend stealing baffling, when really, what happened to the Dweeby-Nerd's character was more disturbing - his devolution into a psychotic nerd who was willing to let his girlfriend die (simply because he *suspected* her of cheating on him) was horrifying to me. It feels like that is the way many guys think, down in their He-Man centers.  "My Woman Cheated (or I think she did) and Therefore, She Should Die - and so should the Other Guy Who Took Her From Me." What was ignored with the Guys who's posts I read was how by that point in the story, their identifying character had changed into something else. He was still nerdy, to be sure, but he had changed from the caring, likable kid he used to be, into someone you'd cross the street if you saw him.

I went and bought a second-hand copy of Christine, so I'll probably go back and clarify what was going on in that forum - but obviously, King struck a nerve amongst the disenfranchised Guy Nerds of America.  After all, when a guy gets obsessed with his car (or football, or baseball, or what have you) how does he expect to hang onto a woman who expects something human from him - you know, like attention and valuing her as a person? I guess the woman must stay with him by default!

Comments

[moonshayde.livejournal.com]

Either King has tapped into a dark desire that many men hold (as seen on the news) or many of these mail posters are identifying too much with the dweeb-psycho. Meaning, I wonder if many of these posters have been in Dweeb's position, and have constantly felt like they had been given the short-end of the stick. A little too much identification or character-love can cloud judgement. People can miss the point entirely.

See fandoms for more detail.

[gategrrl.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, I think many of the guys at the place I went identified VERY strongly with the weak, nice, nerd -- after all, the nerd may have gone "evil" after getting his obsession, the car Christine, but that doesn't change the fact he was still a nerd, and had the girl. The nerd got-the-girl!

And of course, King hay-wired the usual Jock stereotype by having his Jock friend be a nice kid himself. In fact, the Jock in this book harkens back to Carrie, where one of the popular boys ends up taking Carrie out to the Prom, not because his girl friend asks him to, but because it's the right thing to do and he's a decent kid. Of course, he ended up getting murdered by Carrie. Christine had a lot of the same notes as Carrie.

Now, the next book I want to read and have been hunting for for AGES, is Peter Straub's Ghost Story. Can't find it in Borders, can't find it in the used bookstore...might have to order it through the library. It's never there when I go in!

[amycooper.livejournal.com]

Ugh. That would get me pissed if I ran into it, I think.

[gategrrl.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure where this forum was, either - I might have to hunt it down. But it was a while ago.

[khek.livejournal.com]

I loved Christine when I read it somethingliketwentyyearsago...as a teenager. And what I remember, from a teenage girl's perspective, was that the nerd was shaping up into a really nice guy when demonic Christine took him over. And that she gave him lots of chances to change, but that he wouldn't. And that the relationship with the jock grew as they both banded together to try to save the nerd. That it was his fault that they even got together, because if they hadn't both been friends with him, they would have never had the chance to even get aquainted.

But it doesn't surprise me that nerdy guys see it differently.

[gategrrl.livejournal.com]

That sums it up quite nicely.

Granted, it's a book, but it's still shocking how much males (depending on the age, I guess?) think of women in terms of "property". Of course, there are women who think the same way (Misery goes into that, I think, although I haven't read that).

[betacandy.livejournal.com]

This really interests me because we talk so much on Hathor about what male screenwriters are preaching to their male target audience... and here's a case where clearly the male author was trying to make one point, and this segment of the audience is totally missing it.

Which supports my theory that the target audience is just fucking dumb. :D

Sorry, I did have something more insightful than that, or so I thought, but I totally forgot what it was. I'll, er, stop spamming your journal posthaste.

[gategrrl.livejournal.com]

Nuh uh, you're not spamming. Post!

[betacandy.livejournal.com]

I remembered what it was! *g*

King's point is that the kid allows himself to be corrupted. That's his bad.

The guys you're talking about are probably blaming the friend, the girlfriend, the car - anyone but their boy. I'd guess in real life, when these guys screw up, it's always someone else's fault, too. Which is what I'd expect from an audience that's had the whole culture focused on its wants and urges for decades. It's like the entire culture is trying to spoil these guys, and as a result only the ones who are really, REALLY raised well are going to be anything but horribly pampered children for their entire lives.

[betacandy.livejournal.com]

Er, when I said "That's his bad" I meant the kid, not King.