Survivor Type

Last updated
"Survivor Type"
Short story by Stephen King
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre(s) Horror, short story
Publication
Published inTerrors(1st release),
Skeleton Crew
Publication typeAnthology
Media typePrint (Paperback)
Publication date 1982 (1st release)

"Survivor Type" is a psychological horror short story by Stephen King, first published in the 1982 horror anthology Terrors, edited by Charles L. Grant, and included in King's 1985 collection Skeleton Crew . The Robinsonade follows a shipwrecked drug-trafficking surgeon who, left with only a large amount of drugs and no food or resources, resorts to self-cannibalism.

Contents

King considered the idea that came to him to be too disgusting, saying that "[it] goes a little bit too far, even for me". [1] He consulted with a doctor, discussing how long a person could feed on his own body. Even being a famous writer, the author could not get the story published for a long time. Literary critics emphasized the author’s courage, humor and irony inherent in the work, as well as the realism of the events described, though some assessments of the plot were more restrained. The story has been adapted into short films twice, in 2011 and 2012, and as an episode of the television series Creepshow .

Plot summary

The story opens with the following epigraph:

"Sooner or later the question comes up in every medical student's career. How much shock-trauma can the patient stand? Different instructors answer the question, in different ways, but cut to its base level, the answer is always another question: How badly does the patient want to survive?"

Survivor Type is written as the diary of a disgraced surgeon, Richard Pine né Pinzetti, who, while attempting to smuggle a large amount of heroin aboard a cruise ship, is forced to escape when an explosion causes the ship to sink. He relates growing up poor in an Italian-American neighborhood and playing college football (which he hated) to get into a good college and then went on to medical school and in time a successful practice until his illegal distribution of prescription medicines and blank forms led to the loss of his license. He arranged to smuggle heroin from Vietnam to make a large amount of money, which would then be distributed for bribes that would enable him to return to practicing medicine. While encountering a storm in his empty lifeboat, Pine finds himself marooned on a tiny island in the Pacific Ocean whose exact location is completely unknown to him, with very limited supplies and no food. A self-proclaimed "survivor" type, Pine bitterly whiles away the time by using a logbook as his diary, detailing his rise and fall in the medical profession and his determination to survive this ordeal, get even with the people that "screwed him over," and return to prosperity.

Over time, the diary entries become more and more disjointed and raving, revealing Pine's slow mental decay and eventual insanity caused by starvation, isolation and drug use. Determined to hold out for rescue, he goes to horrifying lengths to survive. He eats insects, kelp and seagulls. After fracturing his ankle while attempting to signal an airplane, he amputates his own foot, then realizes he has to eat it to survive. He continues to amputate his own limbs to use as a food source, ingesting the heroin as a crude anesthetic during these operations. His last few diary entries, barely comprehensible, indicate that Pine has sliced off and eaten both legs, as well as his earlobes, and drools uncontrollably as he ponders which body part to consume next. The diary entries end when he cuts off his left hand to eat it and writes "lady fingers they taste just like lady fingers."

Development

In the Notes section of the 1985 short fiction collection Skeleton Crew, Stephen King wrote about the topic of arriving at the story's premise: "I got to thinking about cannibalism one day . . . and my muse once more evacuated its magic bowels on my head. I know how gross that sounds, but it's the best metaphor I know." [2] King later elaborates that he was so interested in the idea that it was all he could think about for days. Hesitant to write anything down, King gained the assurance for the story after speaking with his neighbor, Ralph Drews, a retired doctor who confirmed that "a guy could subsist on himself for quite a while - like everything else which is material, the human body is just stored energy." Dr. Drews's further elaborations became the inspiration for the opening epigraph of the story. [3]

King wrote "Survivor Type" in 1977, but he was unable to sell it for years; he stated that "not even men's magazines would consider this one". [4]

Adaptations

See also

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References

  1. ↑ Grant, Charles L. "Interview with Stephen King" Monsterland Magazine, May/June, 1985.
  2. ↑ Bolotin, Susan (June 9, 1985). "Don't Turn Your Back on This Book". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 October 2019.
  3. ↑ King, Stephen (1985). Skeleton Crew. New York: Putnam. ISBN   0356108163.
  4. ↑ King, Stephen (2010). Danse Macabre. Gallery Books. p. 380. ISBN   978-1-4391-7098-4.
  5. ↑ "Survivor Type Film" . Retrieved September 8, 2016.
  6. ↑ "Survivor type (Kevin Fisk)". stephenkingshortmovies.com. 31 October 2017. Retrieved 22 October 2019.
  7. ↑ "Survivor Type 2017". mubi.com. Retrieved 22 October 2019.
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