Slade (Stephen King)

Infobox short story |
name = Slade
title_orig =
translator =
author = Stephen King
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Western parody
published_in = "The Maine Campus" (journal)
publication_type = serial short story
publisher =
media_type =
pub_date = June through August 1970
english_pub_date =
preceded_by = Graveyard Shift (in Night Shift)
followed_by = The Blue Air Compressor "(unpublished)"

"Slade" is an early short story (about 5,200 words) by Stephen King. In 1970, he originally published it in eight installments in a student paper ("The Maine Campus"). It's a Western parody about gunslinger Jack Slade, who protects a damsel in distress against some outlaws.

The story

Gunslinger Jack Slade comes to Dead Steer Springs, called upon by Sandra Dawson, whose farm is threatened by the outlaw Sam Columbine – he wants to sell the land to the railroad. But in fact, everything is a sham: Sandra turns out to be Slades ex-girlfriend – who he believes dead. She couldn't get along with Slade anymore and connived with Columbine to kill Slade. Both, however, didn't take into consideration that Slades is prone to wearing bullet-proof blue underwear (with nice flowers). Slade, playing possum after a duel, shoots both conspirators. Then he needs a joint, before he sets out for future adventures.

=Connections to "The Dark Tower"=

Even though Slade is, of course, a much shallower and most of all much less serious character than King's later creation Roland Deschain, Slade can be considered a first test run for the famous gunslinger:

*Like Slade, Roland pines for his lost love (Susan Delgado).
*Both smoke whenever possible.
*Both always hit what they shoot at.
*Both only speak when necessary and are used to journeying alone.
*Like the gunslingers in "The Dark Tower" (see especially "Wolves of the Calla"), Slade feels the obligation to help if called upon.
*Near the end of the Dark Tower-series, Roland must find out that he is only a fictitious character conceived by Stephen King. Slade is aware of that, too, but doesn't make a fuss about it. When Sandra exclaims that he arrived in time to save her, he says, "I always do. Steve King sees to that."

External links

* [http://www.stephenking.com Official Stephen King website]
* [http://www.horrorking.com/unpubnovels.html Stephen King's rare stories]