persona non sequitur

a review of media by a slightly jaded baby boomer.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

 WHY STEPHEN KING'S CUJO BITES THE BIG ONE

Firstly the book was an interesting read. It was only settling back into one's mind did some of the overlooked logic gaps become apparent.

Cujo was a rabid Saint Bernard.  He terrorized a woman and her asthmatic child who were trapped inside of a Ford Pinto. All the character could do was whine and scream. She even locked the doors in an effort to keep the dog out.

I have encountered three rabid raccoons while I've lived out here in the boonies. When an animal has rabies, it dehydrates. It gets weak. It lashes out at changes of light and shadow.  It loses it balance easily. Often the hind legs stop functioning.  It is attracted to noise.

Why didn't the woman trapped in the car do one of the following actions:

 A) Roll down the window, and when the dog stuck its head in, roll it up and choke it. Car windows are hard to break. 

B) Roll down the window and use the cigarette lighter to blind it?

C) Roll down the window after getting the tire iron out of the back and bashing and gouging out the eyes and blinding the dog with it. Some Pintos were hatchbacks and could be accessed from inside the back seat to the boot of the car and obtain materials. (Depends on the model...)

D) Strap Stephen King into a Pinto and let him sweat it out in 90 degree weather.

My wife and I watched the movie. She knew what a Pinto was and how they were made and thought out loud: "No, no, no, no!!!"

 In the movie the kid lives. In the book the kid dies.

Either way, too much suffering for so little thinking.


Labels: , ,

2 Comments:

At 6:56 PM, Blogger Pagan Topologist said...

A factual gap, Robert...not all Pintos were hatchbacks. The one I owned from 1980 until 1986 just had a conventional back seat and a trunk. So far as I know, there was no feasible way to get to the trunk from inside the car. The hinge on the trunk door was below the window.

 
At 3:38 PM, Blogger Robert Whitaker Sirignano said...

Corrected that a bit for you.

Believe me, seeing a woman helpless in a car with a sick dog lumbering around and not even thinking about going for its eyes just strike me as one of those moments that belongs in the "good old days" where women were supposed to be helpless and shriek a lot.

She could even has ripped the little door of its hinges where the maps are stored and used that as a weapon.

Stephen King says he doesn't recall writing this book because he was blasted with a combo of cocaine and beer while writing. That might explain some things...

 

Post a Comment

<< Home