Stephen King’s Horror Kingdom C1

TOUR OF TERROR

La fantástica, increíblemente prolífica y muy a menudo insana imaginación de Stephen King tiene su origen en un pueblecito tranquilo del estado de Maine, en el noreste de Estados Unidos. Lo visitamos guiados por uno de sus mayores fans.

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GLOSSARY

1 storm drain: alcantarilla 2 to come closer: acercarse 3 to bite off: arrancar de un mordisco 4 themed: temático 5 to depict: describir I t is one of the most terrifying scenes from a horror story: a clown in a storm drain1 invites a little boy to come closer2, and then bites his arm off3 . The clown is, of course, Pennywise, and the scene originated in the imagination of author Stephen King, who included it in his 1986 book, It. Like many of King’s books, It is set in the fictional town of Derry, Maine, which is a reimagined version of the city of Bangor, Maine, where King lives and where part of the 2017 film It was filmed. Every year, Stephen King fans travel from all over the world to Bangor to take the city’s only Stephen-Kingthemed4 tour; they visit the storm drain that inspired the terrifying scene from It and is depicted5 in the film, as well as other sites from other King books and the films that they inspired.

A FAMILY OF FANS

The tour is operated by the Tinkers, a family of Stephen King mega-fans in Bangor. Stu Tinker went to the signing6 of King’s first book, Carrie, in 1974 and developed a friendship with the author. He went on to open a bookstore that specialised exclusively in King books and memorabilia7 , and became an international destination for King fans. Then, in 2012, Stu started doing a Stephen King-themed tour of the city, which his son, Jamie, now operates.

KING IN THE HOUSE

As well as visiting the storm drain from It, participants in the three-hour bus tour al-

Opposite page: Stephen King’s house in Bangor, Maine: This page: a scene from the 1978 film version of Carrie starring Sissy Spacek and directed by Brian De Palma; Bill Skarsgård as the kilelr clown Pennywise from the 2017 film version of It; the author Stephen King in New York City in 2013.

so visit the real-life locations that have been reimagined by King and that play a prominent role in one or more of his books. They go to the cemetery depicted in the 1989 film Pet Sematary, which stars8 Johnny Depp and was based on King’s 1983 novel of that name. And they go to the house where King now lives. If they’re lucky they might even see the author himself, who at the age of seventy-three remains a prolific author. Speak Up talked to tour operator Jamie Tinker. He told us that Stephen King was a family friend.

Jamie Tinker (Amer-

ican accent): My father had a very good relationship with him for years because the bookstore my dad went to to meet Stephen King for

GLOSSARY

6 signing: sesión de firma de ejemplares 7 memorabilia: recuerdos 8 to star: protagonizar

the first book signing ever. In 1991, he bought that store, and Stephen King through doing signings, having conversations with my father, put us on the map as the largest Stephen King collectible book store in the world for twenty years. And then their friendship went on forever.

A REGULAR GENIUS

As Tinker explains, King was both an unusual talent and an ordinary guy.

Jamie Tinker: It’s intimidating, but he’s also the guy you see at the movie theater. He’s the guy you see walking home with a pizza… You just see him out and about9 around town. You say, “Hi, Steve,” and let the guy be a regular guy10. If he’s walking11 his dog, Molly, let him walk his dog. Sometimes on the tours, he’ll see the van12 and he’ll just wave13 to us and then walk into his house. And sometimes, he’s walked past people and they have their back turned14, or they’re not looking at where he is, and he’ll walk right past them15 and right in.

Clockwise from above: Jack Nicholson in the 1980 film The Shining, directed by Stanley Kubrick; the Maine landscape in wintertime inspires the settings for Stephen King’s novels; a garden cemetery.

GLOSSARY

9 out and about: de un lado para otro 10 a regular guy: un tipo normal 11 to walk: sacar a pasear 12 van: furgoneta 13 to wave: saludar con la mano 14 to have one’s back turned: darle la espalda a alguien 15 to walk past: pasar al lado 16 you know cold: sabes bien lo que es el frío 17 shining: resplandor 18 to go insane: volverse loco 19 gate: verja

SOMETHING ABOUT MAINE

We then asked Tinker what inspired King to set his horror stories in Maine.

Jamie Tinker: Steve says, “Write what you know,” and he grew up primarily in Maine. He went to college here in Maine and he has a lake house in Maine. And in Maine, the nature, the setting, the woods, they’re almost their own character. And

very easy to kind of get lost in and see as something that affects our lives and our stories… I mean you get that in L.A. in the traffic. That’ll change your life. You can go clinically insane18 on the roads there. I think that has a lot to it, but he writes what he knows. Wherever he is, he could do it, he’s just spent more time here in Maine than anywhere else. “IN MAINE, WE HAVE THAT TYPE OF WEATHER, climate and terrain that is very easy to get lost in.” they impact the characters in the book almost as though an actual person or an entity would. And if you’re here in the winter, you know cold16. It’s just like in The Shining17 how, up at the Overlook [Hotel], how the weather itself had such an impact. In Maine, we have that same type of weather and climate and environment and terrain that is

GLOSSARY

20 middle school: escuela secundaria 21 garden cemetery: cementerio rural 22 headstones: lápidas

TOP STOPS

And, he says, there are some stops on the tour that people get really excited about.

Jamie Tinker: They love the house. They love getting to the house because the house is the public face of Steve — the house, the gate19... People have been waiting their whole lives to get in front of the house. I would go to Steve’s house and turn left to go to middle school20, so it’s not the same to me. I walked past Steve’s house every day of my life. The tour is great but they want the house. And when they get to that, they get the picture of themselves in front of the house. People love the storm drain, and they love just being in the cemetery. Mount Hope Cemetery is the second oldest garden cemetery21 in America. It was built in 1834. It’s a beautiful, old cemetery that you get to just stand in and look at and see amazing headstones22 .

www.sk-tours.com

SPEAK UP Explains

Pennywise. El payaso más sanguinario de la ficción tiene un nombre algo absurdo que no tiene nada que ver con su esencia maléfica, y que puede traducirse como ‘ahorrativo’. Aunque el propio King no lo ha confirmado, su legión de fans especula que proviene de un viejo proverbio inglés, “penny wise, pound foolish” (literalmente “prudente con los peniques, descuidado con las libras”) usado para referirse a alguien que es muy tacaño con las pequeñas cantidades, pero que gasta mucho en grandes ocasiones.

Pet sematary. Cementerio de animales. No se trata de una errata involuntaria; King tituló esta novela con una transcripción casi fonética de la palabra, tal y como la escribiría un niño que aún no conoce las indescifrables normas ortográficas del inglés. La grafía correcta de la palabra es cemetery.