Ep 188 The Mist
episode
Two Guys to the Dark Tower Came: A Podcast about Stephen King and His Books
1h 8m
2 speakers
8 chapters
transcribed 1 month ago
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What is the episode’s introduction and premise for discussing Stephen King’s “The Mist”?
Welcome, everyone, to Two Guys to the Dark Tower Came, a podcast where we discuss the characters and connections in the ever-expanding universe that revolves around Stephen King's Dark Tower. I'm Jay Russo. And I'm Sean McCurr. You can email us at twoguysdarktower at gmail.com. To support the show, spread the word with a podcast review on your favorite podcast app. And you can buy merch at store.twoguystothedarktowercame.com. In this episode, we'll cover the novella, The Mist, found in Skeleton Crew.
Let's start the show! Following a strong thunderstorm in Maine, artist David Drayton, his son Billy, and neighbor Brent Norton head into the town of Bridgeton for groceries. While in the shopping market, a strange mist rolls in, engulfing the store. After a stock clerk goes outside and is grabbed by giant tentacles and dragged away, and eerie creatures appear in the mist, the few dozen people in the store realize they are trapped. But should they be afraid of the monsters outside or the ones inside?
Sean, thank you for pronouncing the name of the town the way you did. I was not sure how to pronounce Bridgeton, Maine, so I had to look it up. I had to watch a few local news reports to make sure I got it right. Here are some locals saying the name of their own town, and it is in fact Bridgeton, as in Bridges. So you say it is a town of many bridges. Okay. And so it is. And apparently it's a very pretty place to visit at any time of the year.
Well, except for after a thunderstorm.
Yes.
Yes, indeed. I didn't realize it was a real town. This is an unusual case because King doesn't always use real towns. Yeah, this is a real town, Bridgeton, Maine. Let's learn a little bit about The Mist in our publication history. This was written in the summer of 1976 for an anthology of news stories being put together by his agent, Kirby McCauley. And he says, Jay, that he couldn't come up with an idea For the anthology. But then he was in the market and his muse suddenly shat on his head. Okay. He says, this happened as it always does, suddenly with no warning. A muse shitting on your head. I guess that's how you come up with it.
That's how he thinks about being struck with inspiration is shit on the head. I mean, what happens when he gets good ideas?
Yeah.
He said he wrote half the story that night and the rest the following week, which is impressive only because this is a 150-page novella. Quite long to sort of bang out half of it in a night. And the whole thing in a week is pretty impressive.
It is almost as fast as Drayton writes the story himself.
On the Host Health Stationery. That's right. He didn't even have a word processor typewriter. So he wrote in the summer of 76. It wasn't published until 1980 in an anthology called Dark Forces, which the anthology as a whole won a World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology. And I guess it's a pretty influential anthology among people who have cited it as a – inspiration was Clive Barker saying once he read that, he realized he could do anything in his books of blood. There was no restraints being held back on him. And others have said in addition to regular horror writers like King and others, there were some literary writers like Isaac Singer and Joyce Carol Oates who also brought stories to it. So it had this sort of literary bent with some weirdness to it as well as horror writers.
So it has a pretty
Thank you.
big follow. There was a 20th anniversary edition that came out and it like sold out super quick. They had like illustrations and stuff. So I've never seen that anthology, but it sounds pretty cool. King also mentions that what we read in skeleton crew is an edited version of what appeared in dark forces. I did a little bit of research and a few people said that there's no real significant changes, just words here or there. So I was, I was going to wonder if there's anything different. But, There wasn't. Were there like chocolate covered paydays in the original or something like that? Yeah, he made up some stuff. And this is the longest story in Skeleton Crew by far.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the episode’s introduction and premise for discussing Stephen King’s “The Mist”?
0:12–5:03
2
How was “The Mist” originally written and published, and what anthology first featured it?
5:03–10:49
3
What key plot events kick off the story – the storm, the grocery store, and the mysterious mist?
10:49–18:52
4
How do the characters split into factions and why does the “Flat‑Earth Society” group matter?
18:52–28:22
5
What role does Mrs. Carmody play as the religious fanatic and how does she influence the crowd?
28:22–36:12
6
How does the Arrowhead Project/“Thinny” theory explain the origin of the mist and the monsters?
36:12–44:10
7
What are the hosts’ final thoughts on the story’s themes, ending, and its place in King’s bibliography?
44:10–52:08
8
What fun extras, media adaptations, and “Other Worlds Than These” recommendations are discussed at the end?
52:08–1:08:28