Salem's lot- Remembering vampires





Vampires are considered as the most celebrated and well-written entities of ancient folklores. A cold pale skin, rolling red bloodshot eyes and ferociously grown pair of incisors in the dark can make you(even if you are an atheist) grab crucifix,wear rosaries and read bible. Like, you can run to escape the shadows till you find the final glimpse of light. Sadly the vampires which are depicted in modern culture are jaw droppingly hot, who can date and make love to humans without going for jugular hickeys, they are least bothered with the growth of their clan and can surprisingly walk in broad daylights. Over the time Vampires are molded and used differently for teen fiction, dramas and movies but honestly screen friendly options  have only mocked the very existence of vampires, nowadays vampires are portrayed as vulnerable and consensual which is exactly opposite of what they originally are. Vampires are maligned evil entities to the core and Bram stoker actually provided the most genuine and frightening account of vampire fiction in the form of Dracula. The only Heir who quintessentially adopted stoker's frightful vision of vampires is Stephen king, by authoring Salem's lot.

Salem's lot is one of the last few stations where vampires were shown as century-old,bloodthirsty and scarily manipulative just as they were meant to be.Now the plot was a not a new one ,in fact it was habitually old but the skillful writing and amazing character work of Stephen King makes it remarkable.Ben Mears a moderately successful writer in search of a bestseller ,visits Jerusalem's lot (a small town in New England) to justify the unnatural events experienced by him during his childhood at Marsten House(believed to be haunted), which stood at the hill overlooking the town. Along with him arrives a strange pair of business partners by the name Richard Straker and Kurt Barlow to open an antique shop in a town,where people are concerned only about bread ,milk and beer.

King has brilliantly described the town and the daily routine of its inhabitants.The pace of the novel grows perfectly when strangeness dissolves into the routine. At first a few and then more people starts disappearing from the Lot,as if the town is living up to its curse by swallowing the living to resurrect the undead .The most horrifying part of Salem's lot is the LOT itself ,which is depicted as the malevolent entity having a history of attracting bad things ,that are beyond human visions and the source of all pervading evil is the Marsten House which stands at a deserted hill,mocking the helpless town over its dreaded fate.

A school teacher was labelled as mad ,when he saw a dead man sitting in his rocking chair, parents got worried that monster magazines were ruining their child's brain ,as he talks about a figure lurking out of his window at nights but the writer is least ignorant of these events as he is already apprehensive about a sinister force taking shape into the Lot  and when few people found their senses credible enough ,they realize that supernatural is way beyond sanity. Reality hits them like a dream as they came to know that Jerusalem Lot's providing breeding grounds to creatures who look good only in fictions and bedtime stories . After sunset ,Darkness latches to the town like an organ ,instead of running , a group of five decides to go all against the ultimate evil as they've got nothing to offer,not to lose.

 

I love Salem's lot because it is an emotionally empowering novel which has the capability to arouse a complex wave of feelings inside you and the way Stephen King has described the town accompanied by its welcoming weathers is just phenomenal.This work can leave you with horrors ,so here's my advice don't look at the windows when you hear scratching noises,don't venture too far when sun gets lost into the skies and never forget to carry garlics along with you .............


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Why you should read Stephen King

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo By Steig Larsson