The Running Man
Raymond Feighery
Prize of Peril'. The main plot of this story and Stephen King's 'The Running
Man' are very similar. Does anyone know when Sheckley's story was published?
I'm fairly sure 'The Running Man' was published (under the name Richard Bachman)in 1982. Also, I heard a while ago that King was accused of plagiarism. Was it
for this story? Apologies if this has already been thrashed to death.
Thanks,
Ray.
john nickles
The story was originally published in "Fantasy and Science Fiction" in
May 1958. It can be found in most collections of Sheckley's works.
For the final word on King's plagiarism, I turn to the book "Harlan
Ellison's Watching", a collection of essays by everyone's favorite
social critic and humorist on the motion picture.
"When the Bachman book first appeared, it drew almost no attention,
because no one knew it was Stephen behind the non-de-plume. But
when it came out. . . I recieved a call from Sheckley.
""Have you read THE RUNNING MAN?" he asked me.
""Yes", I said.
""Listen: I may be crazy," Sheck said, with considerable nervousness
and more than a scintilla of reluctance to rush into judgement, "but
do you see a lot of my story "The Prize of Peril" in that book?"
"I said, "Yes, I see it as being damned nearly the same plot, done
at length".
"A silence passed between us . . . Finally Bob said:
""Well, what do you think?"
"And I said very carefully, "I know Steve, and I know damned well
he wouldn't steal. It's that simple. But Stephen has often said
that he's been inspired by films and stories he's read years before
that slipped down into the back of his head. This might be one of
those cases."
"... I called Steve and we talked; and he said he remembered reading
"The Prize of Peril" years and years before; and he assured me
he'd call Sheckley to work it out.
"That call transpired, and Sheckley later told me he was satisfied
with King's open remarks. The sense I got from what Sheck said, was
that Steve may well have dredged out of the mire of memory the basic
plot of "prize of Peril", never remembering it as an actual reading
experience but transforming it, as all writers do, into the self-
generated conciet that was published as THE RUNNING MAN. . .
"Stephen King does not steal. He's too good to have to steal.
But in the realm of sf/fantasy there are ideas that we rework and
re-rework, recast and refashion, Expand and transmogrify, that become
common coin. . .
"Literary crossover happens. And we all are enriched by it."
--- HARLAN ELLISON'S WATCHING, 1989.
I strongly reccommend this book, by the way. Ellison uses his
reviews of films to comment on the world at large. As always
with Ellison, the reader roars with both laughter and outrage.
Hope this was of help.
John A. Nickles
Standard Disclaimer :Purdue had nuffin' to do with it!
"Plagirise!
Let no one's work evade your eyes!
Remember why the Good Lord made your eyes!
So don't shade your eyes!!
But plagirize, plagirize, plagirize!
But be sure always to call it please--
Research."
The fox so cunning and free
} I have recently read an extract from a short story by R. Sheckley called
} 'The Prize of Peril'. The main plot of this story and Stephen King's
} 'The Running Man' are very similar. Does anyone know when Sheckley's
} story was published? I'm fairly sure 'The Running Man' was published
} (under the name Richard Bachman)in 1982.
Someone's already posted a quite detailed answer to this. However...
} Also, I heard a while ago that King was accused of plagiarism. Was it
} for this story?
No, some nutcase who called herself "Stephen King's Number One Fan"
claimed that she sent him a manuscript for a novel she'd written that
was about a fan of an author who kidnapped that author and held him
prisoner. She claimed King's novel MISERY was plagiarized from her
manuscript.
--
"Great thing about the military: even though you know that
they know that nobody knows what the hell they're doing,
everybody pretends that that ain't so."
--- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, "The Mill", Maynard, MA)
Darin M Powell
In article <32...@nntpd.lkg.dec.com> boya...@ruby.enet.dec.com (The fox so cunning and free) writes:
>In article <1992Jan17.1...@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk>, feig...@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk (Raymond Feighery) writes...
>} Also, I heard a while ago that King was accused of plagiarism. Was it
>} for this story?
>
>No, some nutcase who called herself "Stephen King's Number One Fan"
>claimed that she sent him a manuscript for a novel she'd written that
>was about a fan of an author who kidnapped that author and held him
>prisoner. She claimed King's novel MISERY was plagiarized from her
>manuscript.
An interesting side-note to this discussion is King's
novella "Secret Window, Secret Garden" in the book
_Four Past Midnight_. It's about a famous author who is
accused of plagarism by a man appearing on his doorstep one
day. The author thinks the man is a nut, but things (as usual)
begin to get strange...the author remembers he DID plagarize
his first published piece from a fellow graduate student who
later died in vietnam. There's more to it, but that's the nutshell.
In light of these King-plagarism charges, its a very revealing
read. I don't suggest it means he plagarized anything, but its
an interesting commentary on the whol plagarism bit.
Darin Powell
dmpo...@rodan.acs.syr.edu