The Tommyknockers
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
|
| Author | Stephen King |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | One Plus One Studio |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Horror |
| Publisher | Putnam |
| Released | 1987 |
| Pages | 558 |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-399-13314-3 |
Contents |
[edit] The Novel
The Tommyknockers is a 1987 horror novel by Stephen King. While maintaining a horror style, the novel is more of an excursion into the realm of science fiction for King, as the residents of the Maine town of Haven gradually fall under the influence of a mysterious object buried in the woods.
In his autobiography, On Writing, King attributes the basic premise to the short story "The Colour out of Space" by H.P. Lovecraft. It also draws fairly obvious parallels with the classic 1956 movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers and the 1959 novelette The Big Front Yard by Clifford Simak. King wrote the book during a period of acknowledged substance abuse, and has written that he realized later on that the novel was a metaphor for that addiction.
The writer and critic Kim Newman has cited another influence on the novel, saying that in it King had "more or less rewritten Quatermass and the Pit,"[1] a 1950s BBC television science-fiction serial. This influence was also picked up on in The Times newspaper's review of the book on its release.[2]
The mysterious object turns out to be a long-buried alien spacecraft stumbled upon by Roberta (Bobbi) Anderson, a writer of Wild West-based fiction. Once exposed, the spacecraft begins releasing an invisible, odorless gas into the atmosphere which gradually transforms people into beings similar to the aliens who populated the spacecraft. It also provides them with a short-sighted form of genius which makes them very inventive, but does not provide any philosophical or ethical insight, instead provoking psychotic violence (on the part of people like 'Becka Paulson, who kills her adulterous husband by fatally rewiring the TV, killing herself in the process) and the disappearance of a young boy (David Brown, whose older brother Hilly accidentally makes him disappear with a customised magic act).
The book's central protagonist, a poet and friend of Bobbi Anderson's named James Eric Gardener, who goes by the nickname "Gard", is a man with left-leaning, liberal sensibilities who is apparently immune to the ship's effects because of a steel plate in his head, a souvenir of a teenage skiing accident. Unfortunately, Gard is also an alcoholic. His relationship with Bobbi deteriorates as the novel progresses. She is almost totally overcome by the euphoria of "becoming" one with the spacecraft, but Gard increasingly sees her health worsen and her sanity disappear. The novel is filled with metaphors for the stranglehold of substance abuse, which King himself was experiencing at the time, as well as for the dangers of nuclear power and radioactive fallout (as evidenced by the physical transformations of the townspeople, which resemble the effects of radiation exposure), of unchecked technological advancement, and of the corrupting influence of power. Government agencies are uniformly portrayed as corrupt and totalitarian throughout the book, and Bobbi and Gard themselves are led into thinking that they can use the ship's "power" as a weapon to overthrow such authority figures.
Seeing the transformation of the townspeople worsen, as the local police constable, a journalist, and an eccentric old man are killed or worse when they pry too deeply into the strange events; Gardener eventually manipulates Bobbi into allowing him into the ship, activates it and launches it into space, resulting in the deaths of most of the changed townspeople (and himself) but preventing the possibly disastrous consequences of the ship's influence spreading to the outside world.
The book takes its title from an old children's rhyme:
- "Late last night and the night before,
- Tommyknockers, Tommyknockers, knocking at the door.
- I want to go out, don't know if I can,
- 'Cause I'm so afraid of the Tommyknocker man."
King himself wrote the second verse; and claims to have heard the first verse when he was a child.
[edit] The Miniseries
A TV miniseries based on the novel was shown in 1993. The miniseries, starring Jimmy Smits as Jim Gardner and Marg Helgenberger as Bobbi Anderson, differs quite a bit from the novel.
Differences
- In the book the aliens are seen, albeit dead - it is the residents of Haven who begin to turn into aliens. In the miniseries, in addition to the residents of Haven turning into aliens, there are real aliens found inside the ship who appear to be dead...at first.
- In the novel, the Becka Paulsen character is also killed when she murders her husband by rewiring the TV. In the miniseries, Becka kills her husband, but ends up in an insane asylum.
- In the novel there are some backstories at the high school that were entirely removed from the miniseries; including one involving a lesbian teacher.
[edit] Trivia
- On a trip to retrieve batteries, two Haven Tommyknockers in the process of becoming pass through Derry. One of them, who is exhibiting severe withdrawal from Haven's atmosphere, claims to see a clown "with silver dollars for eyes." This matches the description of King's titular character from It.
- At one point, when contemplating how to enter Bobbi's shed, Gardener ponders using an axe, "like Jack Nicholson in The Shining". This creates somewhat of a paradox, as The Tommyknockers is connected, through the fictional town of Derry, to King's novel It--where Dick Halloran, a character from the The Shining, makes a cameo as a real person.
- Blind Guardian has a song off of their album Tales From the Twilight World called "Tommyknockers". The song is based on the book, and includes the first verse of the Tommyknockers rhyme as part of the chorus
- In The Stand, a wild-west themed novel is mentioned as being written by a woman in Haven, the location where The Tommyknockers takes place. It's very likely that the woman in question was Bobbi Anderson.
- In Hearts in Atlantis, the artist Phil Ochs is referenced repeatedly in the novella of the same name, due to his inspirational "I Ain't Walkin' Anymore (The Draft-Dodger Rag)" and that he hung himself. Ron Cummings, a fellow poet, makes a reference to Phil Ochs when a slot opens in a poetry group due to the suicide hanging of one of the poets.
[edit] Editions
- ISBN 0-606-04113-3 (prebound, 1987)
- ISBN 0-451-15660-9 (mass market paperback, 1988)
- ISBN 84-01-49998-4 (hardcover, 1992)
- ISBN 84-01-47465-5 (hardcover, 1999)
- ISBN 0-399-13699-1 (hardcover)
