 Hello everybody, E here. Welcome back to Thursday Theorists. Today we are talking about Hearts in Atlantis. I don't talk too much about this book because I don't know how to categorize it. It's always been that way for me. I don't know if I should call it a mosaic novel. I don't know if I should call it a novella collection. I don't know if I should call it a short story collection. I have no idea what to call it. Or a novel. I don't know because he does bring all four, I think it's five. Five stories all back to center in one short story at the end. Some highlights for me of course is the first story because it actually ties into the dark tower just hardcore. I mean that's another thing. It's very odd that the first story with Ted Brodigan and spoilers in case those of you that watched these that have not read these books. Spoilers for the Dark Tower, spoilers for Hearts in Atlantis. Ted Brodigan pops up in the Dark Tower series in the final book of the series, The Dark Tower. And he mentions everybody in this book is Sully John, Bobby Garfield, Carol Gerber, so on and so forth. This is also probably one of the Stephen King books that I have reread the most. This is my edition of the hardcover and it's pretty much falling apart. I don't know. I need to find another one, but I love this one so much. In fact, back here I had this Cheepo, it seems all bent up, Cheepo movie tie and cover. Can't stand movie tie and covers, but I got that one because it was cheap. So I started reading that one instead of this one. Most recently I did the audiobook for the first time. I was not impressed. William Hurt does the audiobook for the first story and the last story and he's not very good. In fact, you can tell through some of his readings that he wasn't 100% sure either how to pronounce something or he actually stumbled on words and he would kind of get going on something else. I don't know who produced it either because there were whole sections that were at different levels as far as the sound was concerned. I was listening to it while I was walking and it was a super pain but for me to have to keep reaching in my pocket and turning the sound up or down. But Stephen King reads the stories in the middle like the Blind Willy one, Heavenly Shades of Night are falling. I can't remember all the names of each one of these and he doesn't harp on the titles of each individual story either. So it also feels and there's no table of contents. So it doesn't feel like a collection. It feels like it wants to be a novel but it's more mosaic novel because all these different stories come together to form a whole. You deal with, at the very beginning you deal with Ted Brodigan and Bobby Garfield. Bobby Garfield is a little boy coming into maturity, puberty not maturity, but coming into puberty and he's got a little girlfriend named Carol and they deal with bullies. It's the typical Stephen King build of Coming of Age story but where it's different is you have the insertion of Ted Brodigan, an old man who is alone, who is just passing through, who rents a room, sublets room from Bobby's mother and there's a very interesting, not really seen but an interesting point that King brings up with the way the world has changed, how people no longer feel safe with an older man hanging out with a younger boy, no matter how innocent it might be, which I completely understand. And I do find it weird also to see an old man hanging out with a younger boy when they're not related and I know that's probably, it's probably not that fear mongering but it's just something that has been you know placed in my head and Stephen King tackles that in this book because Bobby's mother Liz is always worried about whether or not Ted is messing with Bobby. And then you reach the end of the first story and he goes, Stephen King just goes in, just dives in head first into the Dark Tower connection and there's little sprinklings of you know Ted being a breaker and one of certain stories and of course the, and we're gonna get to this with the Dark Tower connections, there is the stuff where the psychic touch and all that that is talked about in here, Ted's power and how he kind of passes it on, which brings me again to how my connection, all of it comes together. When the Tommy knockers Crashland and Haven, spoilers for this one, for Tommy knockers, they end up giving people powers just by being there. You know the more of the ship that is at least the more of this environmental effect changes the people of this town. Ted brought again, again, that when he touches people or just around people, he gives them the ability to sense, to tell the future, the past, whatever has happened and he's a breaker from the Dark Tower universe. This also brings it all the way back to Carrie, to the dead zone, to traumas and to you know possible touches of people that happen to have these powers. In the entirety of Stephen King's universe, I have heard people complain that Stephen King always uses psychic ability and stuff like that to cheat his way through an ending or to make it easier for the characters. Whereas I believe that he had this in mind the entire time, that this world is leaking through into our world and giving people powers. Now why Maine? Why all this stuff in Maine? Because there was the crash landings in Maine. Why did they crash land in Maine? Because you know, you write what you know and he lives in Maine, or for the most part. So you have Pennywise who crash landed in Derry. You have the Tommy Knockers who crash landed in, wow, Haven, sorry, Haven. And you also have the Dream Catcher, which is also in Maine. So those are all my thoughts on the book itself, but the tie-ins, I mean, you can't get any harder of a tie-in than Ted Brodigan being in the Dark Tower series. What I want to know is why? Why this initial character? I'm wondering if Stephen King got stuck on this, like he got stuck with it, and he decided to throw in, to, to connect these worlds to give himself an ending for this first story. But that wasn't it. He continues on with it and tells Sully John's story. He tells, I always forget the guy's name who's blind, who ends up being Blind Willy. And then he tells, and Carol Gerber's story is throughout that also. So why the heavy emphasis on the Dark Tower in this first novella-length story? And then in the rest of the shorter stories throughout the rest of the book, there's really no other mention beyond that. And I do love how he wrapped it up, but I don't talk about it because I don't know how to classify it. I don't know if I want to put it on a top 10 short story list, top 10 novella list, top 10 novel. I don't know, but it is definitely up there. And it's probably the book that I have reread the most other than Stephen King's It. So, did I miss anything? I'm sure I did. I know there's a lot of stuff that I mentioned. I mean, you got mentions of the Crimson King. You got all that stuff it ties in. But I'm gonna let you guys do some hunting and give your stuff down there in the comments section, you know, like we do. So until next time, I have been E, you have been U. This has been another Thursday theory review. I'll talk to you guys later. Bye-bye!