I've been skimming the book, I don't have time to read it straight through.
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rikajessie — 12 years ago(March 26, 2014 02:59 PM)
I like those scenes too! I was reading them as I skimmed it. When I get time I want to try to read the whole thing. I like the part where Arnie's driving and the radio starts playing news from the 1950's. Unlike in the movie where it just seems old songs just come on the radio, there was an actual oldies station that was modern, but just played old songs, and sometimes that's all Christine would get. And in this case, it was even playing news from the 50's which Arnie knew was bizarre. It was kind of neat the way King showed Arnie's thoughts about this.
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MissEFierro — 10 years ago(July 19, 2015 02:44 AM)
I'm late I know, but I'm rereading the book now, it's one of my favorites. When Roland's brother talks to Dennis about the little girl, he mentions that she's choking and they didn't know about the Heimlich maneuver back then, and that Roland was punching her stomach to try and get her to throw up and holding her upside down. So it seems that he was actually trying to save her, but just wasn't able to. Not like Arnie, who didn't help Leigh, I think he was too far gone, he didn't go around to the other side of the car until the man opened the door and took Leigh out and gave her the Heimlich maneuver.
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sascha-17 — 10 years ago(August 14, 2015 02:17 AM)
Been a while since I read it the last time, but it's pretty clear in the book that Christine wasn't "born evil" as in the movie. The assembly-line scenes were created for the movie and aren't based on anything from the book.
In fact, she's sold to Arnie by Roland himself - who then dies (off page IIRC) a short while later. In any case: In the book, Christine is possessed by Roland's evil spirit. IIRC there's even a scene where the narrator (Dennis) sees Roland's spirit behind Christine's wheel.
Another detail from the book that was left out (more or less) was that Christine had to be kept moving in order to re-generate. That's why Roland was wearing a back-brace (which they put on his brother for the movie): At some point, he had ruined his back pushing Christine around to "repair" her. The same happens to Arnie in the book and he also starts wearing a back-brace. Another detail to illustrate his transformation into "Roland 2.0".
S. -
rikajessie — 10 years ago(August 14, 2015 07:07 PM)
That's interesting, thanks for the explanation.
I wonder if the movie would have been better if Roland had been more of a player in it.
I also wondered if Christine in the movie was trying to frame Arnie for the Darnell murder. I could see Christine punishing the three bully students, because they had trashed her, but Darnell gave Arnie a place ro board Christine. The cop was seeming to think Arnie was dangerous with all the deaths of people Arnie knew, and even Arnie says "why" about the Darnell murder.
So in the book, was Roland really trying to ruin Arnie, I get he was sort of possessing Arnie, but was he also jealous and setting Arnie up for a fall? -
Colonel-T — 9 years ago(November 11, 2016 12:53 AM)
I've seen this point debated a lot on various sites and forums, with some believing that Christine wasn't "alive" at all in the book, and that everything she did Roland LeBay was actually responsible for. He simply used the car as a sort of "doorway" back from death to possess Arnie.
I've never agreed with this view at all. There are many indications in the novel that Christine had a personality and will of her own.
Here are some examples:
"Christine
or the terrible female force that animated her
would know Leigh wouldn't last long and she, Christine, would be around when Leigh was gone."
In the below excerpt, she is clearly acting under her own agency. No sign or mention of LeBay at all:
"By nine-thirty, when Christine's headlights suddenly came on in Will Darnell's deserted garage, cutting a bright arc through the interior blackness, Libertyville had totally shut down, except for the occasional cruising ploughs.
In the silent garage, Christine's engine gunned and fell off.
Gunned and fell off.
In the empty front seat, the gearshift lever dropped down into DRIVE.
Christine began to move.
The electric eye gadget clipped to the driver's sun-visor hummed briefly. Its low sound was lost in the howl of the wind. But the door heard; it rattled upward obediently on its tracks. Snow blew in and swirled gustily.
Christine passed outside, wraithlike in the snow. She turned right and moved down the street, her tires cutting through the deep snow cleanly and firmly, with no spin, skid, or hesitation.
A turnblinker came onone amber, winking eye in the snow. She turned left, toward JFK Drive."
There are other examples, but it seems to me in the novel that LeBay and Christine both had what you might describe as "extraordinary" qualities that were perhaps greater together than the sum of their partsand perhaps Arnie had something of this too, at least enough for LeBay's discorporated spirit to exploit. -
rikajessie — 9 years ago(November 14, 2016 08:08 AM)
Thanks for the explanation and the book excerpts!
I agree with you.
I wonder if King based Christine off James Dean's car. There's a story that a couple of friends of Dean's got a bad feeling as soon as they saw the car. -
Colonel-T — 9 years ago(December 02, 2016 06:37 AM)
You're welcome! Yes, I've read about the curse of James Dean's Porsche, I wouldn't be surprised if it was an influence on "Christine", particularly as she was a product of roughly the same era.
I've recently listened to the audiobook of "Christine" from start to finish (I do a LOT of driving), and there is no doubt in my mind that LeBay and the car were separate entities working in tandem. The notion that LeBay was responsible for everything is just not supported at allbut he was most certainly an accessory.
The big question for me iswas Christine in some way animated/conscious from the start, or did LeBay somehow invest her with those qualities, which then took on a life of their own?
