Personally, I'd rather stab myself in the eyeball than use a port-a-potty. I don't care if I'm the first person to use it. There is no level of cleanliness that would ever convince me to step foot inside one of these foul chambers. As far as I'm concerned, they are tiny vestibules of torture, just waiting to trap an innocent asshole inside its gaping maul of death.
Stephen King's short story (recently published in the latest issue of McSweeney's, which is where I found it) "A Very Tight Place" does nothing to dispel this view. It's about a man who...you guessed it...gets trapped inside of one of these devilish contraptions. The story features nary a ghost, creature, or any other supernatural force -- and yet, it's one of the most harrowing pieces I've read in a long time. It's also quite funny, as our main character is literally reborn due to his ordeal, which he handles a lot better than I would. (For the record, I would handle it with a lot of uncontrollable crying and screaming. There'd probably be a lot of vomiting also.)
"A Very Tight Place" will appear in his collection Just After Sunset, which will be released this fall. In the meantime, you can find it in the current issue of McSweeney's, which also features stories by Larry Smith, Jim Shepard, Ashlee Adams, Liz Mandrell, and Mikel Jollett.
Stephen King's short story (recently published in the latest issue of McSweeney's, which is where I found it) "A Very Tight Place" does nothing to dispel this view. It's about a man who...you guessed it...gets trapped inside of one of these devilish contraptions. The story features nary a ghost, creature, or any other supernatural force -- and yet, it's one of the most harrowing pieces I've read in a long time. It's also quite funny, as our main character is literally reborn due to his ordeal, which he handles a lot better than I would. (For the record, I would handle it with a lot of uncontrollable crying and screaming. There'd probably be a lot of vomiting also.)
"A Very Tight Place" will appear in his collection Just After Sunset, which will be released this fall. In the meantime, you can find it in the current issue of McSweeney's, which also features stories by Larry Smith, Jim Shepard, Ashlee Adams, Liz Mandrell, and Mikel Jollett.
3 comments:
Oh my god. Leave it to Stephen King to come up with such a nasty topic for a story. I'm dying to read it! :)
I will have to find that story. Like you, I have no love for port-a-potties.
Trust King to take what is a perfectly ordinary event like using a porta-potty and turning it into a frightfest. I don't mind using one IF I desperately have to 'go'. Just the thought of what he'd write about getting stuck in one, already gives me the shivers!
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