As the coronavirus pandemic goes from bad to worse, Stephen King has stepped up to give the world a big apology over the fact it feels we're all living through one of his horror stories.
Specifically, King is making reference to The Stand — his 1978 classic that tells the story of how a deadly influenza strain causes an apocalyptic pandemic, killing off almost the entire world's population. And while King previously downplayed the comparisons between the coronavirus pandemic and The Stand, he's taking things a bit more seriously at this point.
"I keep having people say, 'Gee, it's like we're living in a Stephen King story,' King told NPR. "And my only response to that is, 'I'm sorry.'"
Previously, King wrote on Twitter, "It's not anywhere near as serious. It's eminently survivable. Keep calm and take all reasonable precautions."
Now, though, King said a pandemic like the one we're living through right now was "bound to happen."
"There was never any question that in our society, where travel is a staple of daily life, that sooner or later, there was going to be a virus that was going to communicate to the public at large," he said in the NPR interview.
All that being said, King sounds like he's coping okay with things just fine.
"What I'm living with and what I suspect a lot of people are living with right now is cabin fever," he said. "But to be in the house day after day, all I can say is I've made wonderful progress on a novel, because there's really not too much to do and it's a good way to get away from the fear."
King continued: "It's not panic. It's not terror that I feel, that I think most people feel, it's a kind of gnawing anxiety where you say to yourself, I shouldn't go out. If I do go out, I might catch this thing or I might give it to somebody else."
King recently pushed up the release of his new short story collection If It Bleeds, and The Stand is currently being developed into a new TV series, though at this point it's unclear when it will ever see release. In addition to featuring Marilyn Manson, the show for CBS All Access will star James Marsden, Amber Heard, Greg Kinnear, Odessa Young, Henry Zaga, Whoopi Goldberg, Jovan Adepo, Owen Teague, Brad William Henke, Daniel Sunjata, Alexander Skarsgård, Nat Wolff, Eion Bailey, Katherine McNamara, Hamish Linklater and Heather Graham.
Specifically, King is making reference to The Stand — his 1978 classic that tells the story of how a deadly influenza strain causes an apocalyptic pandemic, killing off almost the entire world's population. And while King previously downplayed the comparisons between the coronavirus pandemic and The Stand, he's taking things a bit more seriously at this point.
"I keep having people say, 'Gee, it's like we're living in a Stephen King story,' King told NPR. "And my only response to that is, 'I'm sorry.'"
Previously, King wrote on Twitter, "It's not anywhere near as serious. It's eminently survivable. Keep calm and take all reasonable precautions."
Now, though, King said a pandemic like the one we're living through right now was "bound to happen."
"There was never any question that in our society, where travel is a staple of daily life, that sooner or later, there was going to be a virus that was going to communicate to the public at large," he said in the NPR interview.
All that being said, King sounds like he's coping okay with things just fine.
"What I'm living with and what I suspect a lot of people are living with right now is cabin fever," he said. "But to be in the house day after day, all I can say is I've made wonderful progress on a novel, because there's really not too much to do and it's a good way to get away from the fear."
King continued: "It's not panic. It's not terror that I feel, that I think most people feel, it's a kind of gnawing anxiety where you say to yourself, I shouldn't go out. If I do go out, I might catch this thing or I might give it to somebody else."
King recently pushed up the release of his new short story collection If It Bleeds, and The Stand is currently being developed into a new TV series, though at this point it's unclear when it will ever see release. In addition to featuring Marilyn Manson, the show for CBS All Access will star James Marsden, Amber Heard, Greg Kinnear, Odessa Young, Henry Zaga, Whoopi Goldberg, Jovan Adepo, Owen Teague, Brad William Henke, Daniel Sunjata, Alexander Skarsgård, Nat Wolff, Eion Bailey, Katherine McNamara, Hamish Linklater and Heather Graham.
