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Everything's for Sale
With my latest model, «Everthing's for Sale,» I return, once again, to the literal world of Stephen King, more precisely, to his famous novel,«Needful Things.»
This work sets the stage for the finale of my planned King trilogy, in addition to my earlier models, «Welcome to Derry,» and «Nightfall in the Lot.» It once again takes the viewer to a sleepy American small town – a well-known setting, where King loves to portray the small and larger human abysses.
The story the model is based upon is essentially a tale of seduction and manipulation. As is often the case, the tragedy begins in the most unspectacular place imaginable, namely, the town's newly opened antique and curiosity store. It is where every inhabitant finds his or her personal heart's desire – at an astonishingly low price. The catch: Each purchase requires a small, at first glance, harmless prank, that each buyer is supposed to play on a neighbor.
Needless to say, the shopkeeper is anything but an ordinary businessman. The web of pranks, intrigues, and carefully fomented hostilities he spins between the townspeople is based on a perfidious game, at the end of which there can only be losers.
What always impressed and fascinated me about this particular story is its timelessness and general validity. The portrayal of the ultimate destruction of this community of citizens, who are step-by-step seduced by their greed and venality, by manipulation and suggestion, bears the characteristics of a classical drama, as well as those of a parable. As a stage play, the story could be staged epochal, as well as modern-minimalist; the plot could just as easily be set in modern Japan as in ancient Greece – all variants would still be instantly understood and would be equally effective.
This effect is probably due primarily to the fundamental questions that the novel inevitably raises and that in which every reader will probably find themselves in one or another highly uncomfortable way.
As an example, I will mention here only three here:
«For what kind of incentive would you yourself be willing to sell your moral principles and personal ideals ...or perhaps make an exception for just one time?»
«How much do we actually know about our neighbors – and how much do we only think we know? And most importantly: How can these selective images be used against ourselves?»
«How much can purposefully stoked fear, pain, and despair corrupt the way we think and feel ...and decide?»
It is questions like these that make the thirty-year-old novel seem more relevant than ever, especially these days. It was books like this one that sensitized me at a young age to ask these kinds of questions in the first place and (almost more importantly) to always keep them in mind.
That is why, for my realization of the story, it was particularly important to me also to portray its very essential characteristics, its mutability and its transferability. However, this can hardly succeed by merely recreating the novel's scenes and settings, for that kind of visualization contrast is needed.
So, I made the ambitious plan to adapt this particular story twice: Once in the, «classic» version, visually close to the novel, the second time in a clearly modernized and updated version. Both interpretations, classical and modern, will later stand back-to-back to form the whole together.
What you see here is the first part, the classic version, which should be very familiar to lovers of the novel. The construction of the second, modernized version, will start in the next few months. Looking back on the last year, there is a lot to work with.
Everybody who would like to delve a bit deeper into the history of origin and the crafted backgrounds of the model will find a lot of pictures and in-depth explanations in the WIP-documentation. And of course I'm always delighted to receive feedback via Facebook, the contact function or my brand new guestbook.
With that in mind, welcome to the tranquil little town of «Castle Rock»: