Rage by Stephen King | The Book You're Not Supposed to Read

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After the Virginia Tech shooting, we were assigned Rage as a class reading. We stopped mid-Shakespeare unit and read the whole book in one week. Our only assignment was to discuss our feelings about the book and to talk openly about being sophomores. It was the poorly received by the parents but the stories my classmates told during that unit will stay with me forever. It’s one of the reasons I became a teacher.

It's like blaming somebody who murders their wife and son on "it's because he read The Shining." Not to mention the prom scene in Carrie is similar to a school shooting. Blaming events on fictional media like books, movies, or video games is ridiculous.

As a librarian I can say you’re absolutely correct. Censorship only leads to interest, often times in materials that had little to no interest from younger people in the first place.

Stephan King donated $24,000 to our household when my husband had cancer. It’s a grant for established musicians who fall on tragic or debilitating health issues. I was able to quit gigging for two years to take care of him, and now he has been cancer-free for 8 years!

Fun fact: King would use the incident of being discovered as Bachman as an inspiration for his novel, The Dark Half (1989)

“They found something in my book that spoke to them because they were already broken.” That’s some powerful shit right there and massive kudos to King for pulling it from the shelves.

When I was an edgy teenager filled with my own angst and rage, I found the Bachman Books collection, which included Rage at the time. It helped me get in touch with my anger and frustration and actually get over it, so I've never understood King's decision. I get he didn't want to inspire more teenage violence, but Rage did the exact opposite in my case and I assume many others.

The way Stephan King handled Richard’s death was so bad ass for anyone who is a celebrity. He not only gave the fan an interview but allowed that fan to publish a story of how he ousted one of his favorite writers. Stephen King is the GOAT

As Oscar Wilde once said, “The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.” This is why horror is such an important genre for people to read in general. It forces people to confront and reflect on dark subject matter so that they may learn and grow from them. Many of the darkest stories of all time from the works of Stephen King to manga like Berserk have helped me mature and grow in many positive ways.

King said he stopped Rage from being published by itself after a few close calls were found with his book in their locker. It certainly begs the question of what an artist owes to society, and if society can blame artistic works for inspiration. I personally think King was very magnanimous to remove a book he had the right to make money off of, but that he didn't necessarily have to.

I find it hilarious that King questioned if people were following the hype or was he writing good stories. Madness, he's one of the most entertaining authors of all time.

I read Rage back when King wrote it as Bachmann. Great book, ahead of it's time. I was reading King when I was 12, now as an adult in my mid 40's, I find it ironic my parents let me read his books, but wouldn't let me watch rated R movies.

Ironically I actually read this book in math class during high school after borrowing it from a friend. I started high school 2 years after Columbine so the story hit a bit different at the time, especially because 9/11 had also recently occured. The lesson I took back then was that everyone is screwed up and only once we all realize it, admit it and work throught it, can we really move on. That maintaining the status quo for the sake of appearances holds back many of us from healing and it is up to us to change that status quo into one that focuses on healing.

This makes me wonder, how many school shootings did Rage prevent? As in, how many boys who might have become Charlie Decker instead read the book, felt understood, and it was enough to live out their violent fantasy vicariously?

In my opinion Mr King is brilliant. His way of describing things and his imagination is phenomenal.

I can remember sitting in a classroom during a shooting drill in elementary school. We turned off the lights and closed the blinds. And I remember thinking in my child brain rather matter of factly how the bad guys would think that it’s a holiday or the school was closed and that’s why no one’s there. Even at a young age the situation was so normalized. I’ve read some novels about school shootings but I hadn’t really heard of stuff written before it became as culturally relevant.

I've been a King fan since 1985, reading Salem's Lot for the first time when I was 13 years old. It was a few years later when I received a copy of the compilation "The Bachman Books", thus being introduced to King's work under his pseudonym. It included the story "Rage", and I was often struck by the idea that the story wasn't about what it was about. The extreme situation depicted, of violence and hostage-taking, was merely a convenient plot contrivance to explore teen angst in large, and how the pressures and absurdities at such a time in one's life can make even the most stable among us feel as if we're going insane. It's easy to see (particularly as I, too, read "Rage" during that time in my life) how the story resonated with extremely damaged psyches.

I remember finding the Bachman books at a used bookstore back when I was a sophomore. I had to admit that I loved the story of Rage. I even did book report and presentation on it in class. My teacher was shook for sure and let me know that book was actually banned years ago.

I’m super proud to say that I’ve got a mint condition copy of “The Bachman Books”. It starts with Rage. I got it for $4 at my local thrift store. I don’t even want to risk opening it to read it, because I don’t want to dirty/crease the pages. It literally looks like nobody has even opened it before. It’s in better shape than any others pictured online. It’s a first edition hardcover too.