Stephen King's "Cell" (pgs. 1-204)

So I waited until later to post because I didn’t want to spoil anything part of the book for anyone. Which reminds me: SPOIL ALERT.

So after reading the first two pars of “Cell” by Stephen King I am left somewhat pleased. I am enjoying his rendition of the zombie figure in the technology filled world. His version of the zombie is most like the Romero zombie, I feel, at least in the Part 1. The “crazies” are the drown-like, mindless humans that don’t look any different than they did before, except for the vapid expression. Then as time goes on they get hurt and decay. The blank expression is from the cell phone “pulse” which rebooted their minds. It’s a cool idea that seems to be a commentary about how our lives today are so filled with the newest gadget and how it can simplify our lives, but in turn makes us completely rely on these unreliable tools. It is reminding me a lot of “I am Legend” though which is making the story line predictable, but I am hoping for a surprise twist. I’m still curious as to the significance for the 80s boombox, though, but I’m pretty sure it’s just an extension on the whole technology theme.

This zombie tale seems to be using the zombie to represent technology as what people of our generation seem to fear. With our minds acting like a hard drive and the cell phone being the detonation device, King makes it pretty clear as to what the true protagonist of this story is. I feel like King’s outlook on an-kind is a little bleak, though. Call me an optimist, but I don’t really agree that mankind’s most basic characteristic is anger, and murder. I always saw the human climb to the top of the food chain as a result of our ability to problem solve and experiment, not murder and greed. But again, that’s just me.