Welcome back to Inconstant Reader, the feature column that explores Stephen King’s books in the order they were published — sort of! A ‘mirror’ novel with Desperation, it comes from deep within Richard Bachman’s archives.
WARNING: We can’t regulate the flow of spoilers in this here article, pardner.
Richard Bachman was dead to begin with. Following his outing in 1985, her alter ego Stephen King brutally killed him off like so many of his creations. His official bio stated that he died suddenly from “cancer of the pseudonym, a rare form of schizonomia.” The incident inspired The Dark Half, but the legacy of ‘twinning’ remains strong in THE REGULATORS.
Released as a novel in late 1996, the official line was that the manuscript was discovered by Bachman’s widow in a trunk (foreshadowing some of the basis of the later Lisey’s Story). In reality — at least our version of it — the book started its life as a screenplay called The Shotgunners for filmmaker Sam Peckinpah, the luminary behind such classics as The Wild Bunch and Straw Dogs. Of course, Peckinpah died during the creative process, which would put the last version of that screenplay at around 1984.
The book came out over a decade later, opening in Wentworth, Ohio with the bloody vision of a paperboy begin gunned down by someone in a red van. The other residents of the street seek shelter, while author Johnny Marinville finds that his attempts to call the police are mysteriously blocked. As the book unfolds, it becomes evident that a being called Tak — currently in possession of an eight year old autistic boy named Seth — is causing the event. The vans are derived from his favourite show MotoKops 2200, while the street transforms into an old west town based on Seth’s love of the western movie The Regulators.
If you’ve not read Desperation, which was published earlier in 1996, then THE REGULATORS may seem like it has stepped straight out of the ether. In fact, it’s probably stepped out of something closer to the todash space that exists between King’s universes. Desperation — which also involves a small ka-tet of people battling Tak — ended with the destruction of a space around an ini, or well of the worlds. All of the main characters return here, except they have been recast or take on new physical forms. David and Kristen Carver, who were young siblings in Desperation, appear here as husband and wife. Collie Entragian is still a former cop, but he gets a heroic redemption before meeting another ill fate here.
The concept of a ‘mirror’ novel is one King has played with several times, from the eclipse-based twinning of Gerald’s Game and Dolores Claiborne so the more directly multiversal companions of The Talisman and Black House. Yet where Desperation was infused with a kind of spirituality, there’s a definite mean streak to its mirror. Indeed, the Bachman pseudonym lets us partly recall Rage, another King book that was built around a shooting spree. However, while King has deliberately let Rage go out of print, the western motifs and connects to The Dark Tower have perhaps kept THE REGULATORS closer to the hearts of Constant Readers.
There still a lot to like about THE REGULATORS. It’s a book about a psychic vampire from outside our world, a ka-tet of good guys, a mirror universe and the concept of fate. It’s a Stephen King book through and through, and an interesting experiment in telling parallel stories.
Next time, Inconstant Reader digs into the dark half of King’s Bag of Bones, an award-winning spin on Rebecca. While you’re here, go check out Batrock.net, where my buddy Alex Doenau is running through this Stephen King adventure with me.
