| The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Author | Stephen King |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy,Novella |
| Published in | The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction(1st release), Skeleton Crew |
| Publication type | Magazine(1st release) |
| Media type | Print (Magazine &Paperback) |
| Publication date | 1984 |
The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet is afantasynovella by American writerStephen King, first published inThe Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in 1984[1] and collected in King's 1985 collectionSkeleton Crew[2] as well as the 2000 collectionSecret Windows. The title is in reference to the narrator's belief thatinsanity is a sort of "flexible bullet": it will eventually kill, but how long this process takes, and how much damage the bullet does before the victim finally dies, are impossible to predict.[3] Since the publication of this story, King has occasionally used the term "flexible bullet" to describe insanity, in reference to this story.
The main character is Henry, fiction editor for the strugglingLogan's magazine. Henry receives an unsolicitedshort story called "The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet" from up-and-coming novelist Reg Thorpe, and considers the story to be very dark, but also a masterpiece. Through his correspondence with Thorpe, Henry learns of—and, due to Henry's ownalcoholism, comes to believe in—Thorpe's various paranoid fantasies. Most notably, Henry and Thorpe believe that their typewriters serve as homes for Fornits, tinyelves who bring creativity and good luck. The story, told from Henry's perspective as he relays it inanecdotal form at a barbecue, concerns Henry's descent into Thorpe's madness. Meanwhile, Henry also struggles to get Thorpe's story published, despite the fact thatLogan's is in the process of closing its fiction department.
In the television mini-seriesNightmares and Dreamscapes, a fornit's symbol can be seen on a letter in the story "Battleground".[citation needed]
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Madness is the chief theme of the novella. The narrator is asked to tell a story about a young author who is driven insane by early acclaim. After naming and debating the merits ofSylvia Plath and other novelists, the narrator reveals to the audience his own personal experiences with insanity. Henry's drinking makes him susceptible to Thorpe's fantasies about Fornits and "They,"- shadowy antagonists never described in detail persecuting Thorpe and his Fornit.
Henry confesses that he experienced a drunken hallucination where he met and communicated with his own Fornit, making Henry anunreliable narrator.
The narrator, Henry, is a recoveringalcoholic. Much of the novella describes how Reg Thorpe's delusions, although unrelated to alcoholism, mirror and amplify Henry's own irrational and self-destructive conduct. This could be considered a case offolie à deux.
"The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet" shares a common theme of fear ofnuclear power with Stephen King's novelThe Tommyknockers. While at a literary party, the protagonist ofThe Tommyknockers delivers a drunken rant about the dangers of atomic power. This is of course similar to Thorpe and Henry's fears ofradium crystals andradiation poisoning. The novella mentions the case ofthe Radium Girls as an example of society's ignorance of the dangers of nuclear power.
As the novella is the story of a story told at a house party, "The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet" is aframe tale.
