the lean mean Buddha machine

a blog for The Long Walk by Stephen King

[the-lean-buddha]

things Art Baker has canonically done:

- beaten up a drunk man to impress a girl - ignited several of his own farts - blown a raspberry at the United States military - insulted a kindly-looking old lady

things Art Baker has not canonically done:

- gone 24 hours without taking a shit

[bluedoor7dawn]

I’m just gonna post some random things

[the-lean-buddha]

It's lovely to see your designs of Parker, Barkovitch, and Scramm! I particularly love Barkovitch here, especially with his smug look and his rainhat. I also love how Parker gets a middle finger instead of his number since it's never given canonically. And Scramm's eyebrows!!

[realcardiac]

I normally don't post this kind of thing, but I did some fanart for the amazing fic april by @ninety6tears. Absolutely spot-on characterization (book characters, so be warned if you've only seen the movie) and very lovely worldbuilding. I used this scene as an excuse to play with backlighting, which I don't draw a lot.

[the-lean-buddha]

This is one of my favorite tlw fics and I think you've captured the atmosphere and emotions in that scene so so well!

[kneesocks-hq]

Art is a better man than me, because if I grew up in poverty in shithole dystopian America and said I wanted the cash prize and some mfer said "erm actually rich people don't enter the kingdom of heaven" i would have tripped him up

[the-lean-buddha]

this made me laugh out loud but I do want to add that Garraty doesn't know how his family would have stayed afloat if his six-year-old brother hadn't died, so it's not as though he's speaking from a place of privilege here

[bluedoor7dawn]

And one thing I find sad is that they changed the chemistry between 🌙🐰 from yeah thats a valid point hes got there to WHEN YOU TALK ITS JUST ALL GARBAGE

[the-lean-buddha]

Amazing art as always! I especially love McVries' face here, and the inclusion of the foodbelts. I like Stebbins' shirt being striped, too! Really suits him.

These two would be a great blunt rotation

[47-61]

I'm so furious. Lionsgate just plagiarized Pat Coston's hints for movie promotional material and he's being so nice about it but I'm ticked off.

They at least could have given him credit or reached out to him!! Damn!!

Look at both links in this post my jaw is on the floor. This is so blatant and rude

[the-lean-buddha]

Damn, that's really copied word-for-word in most cases. Pretty shitty of whoever was in charge of this.

[47-61]

how the hell did barkovitch stay the only intact character

they for sure cut out the gay. slams my phone on the griund and snaps my skateboard in half

THEY FULLY JUST FORGOT OLSON AND PUT BARKOVITCH TWICE

[the-lean-buddha]

Combining Stebbins and Scramm into one character was not on my bingo card. Not a fan of that, conceptually.

Seems like McVries' mutual hatred for Barkovitch has been given to Parker, since McVries seems to be much more mellow in the movie.

Very interesting that Barkovitch originally seemed to be one of the most different characters from his book incarnation, but is on track towards being the most faithfully adapted.

I can't reconcile Baker's character in the book with the rocket ship wish, but as its own thing, that's kind of cute.

I think I've lost interest in watching this by now. I just don't like the angle they're taking with it. Seems like it'll be a good movie on its own merits, though.

[the-lean-buddha]

This new article gives us some more insight into what McVries will be like in the movie.

Jonsson plays a fast-talking, charismatic, and empathetic young man named Peter McVries, who has a troubled past. “He’s a really interesting character to describe, because he’s kind of mercurial in nature, but he’s also a man of his hands. He’s a very practical, rough-and-tumble kind of guy, but he’s also a bit of a drifter. You can’t quite place him,” he says. “You don’t know where he’s come from or where he’s going, and that was part of the fun. More than anything, he loves to love, and he’s extraordinarily generous—which, when you’re walking a lot, that trait really helps.”

Again, quite different from the book in some ways. Similar in others. Overall it seems that McVries in the movie will be much healthier, more mature, and open to love than McVries in the book.

Not a fan of the change myself, but it'll be interesting seeing how it changes his dynamic with Garraty. I doubt his relationships with Olson or Barkovitch will be at all like they are in the book because they both rely on McVries being volatile, a little sadistic, and probably projecting quite a lot.

I hope they kept his wit.

[the-lean-buddha]

Abraham and Collie Parker: a compilation (The Long Walk)

Collie Parker dropped back between Garraty and McVries. Pearson and Abraham moved away a little. [...] Parker shifted his glance to McVries. “Piss on you, Jack,” he said, and moved up again toward the vanguard.

“What an unreal bastard,” McVries said glumly.

“No worse than Barkovitch,” Abraham said. “Maybe even a little better.”

---

Abraham and Collie Parker were lackadaisically discussing the merits of four-barrel carbs.

---

A sign on top of the station wagon read: DOM L’ANTIO LOVES ALL LONG WALKERS—FREE WATERMELON!!!

Several of the Walkers, Abraham and Collie Parker among them, broke for the shoulder at a dogtrot.

---

“I love everybody!” Abraham bellowed. His grinning face was streaked with pink watermelon juice. He spat three brown seeds into the air.

“Goddam,” Collie Parker said happily. “I’m goddamned, goddam if I ain’t.”

---

"So a month later—I’d forgotten all about the whole thing—I get a letter saying I qualified. I damn near creamed my jeans.”

“And you went through with it?” Collie Parker demanded.

“Yeah, it’s hard to explain. The thing was, everybody thought it was a big joke.” [...]

“You could just die laughing, right?” Collie said.

Abraham looked at Parker for a long time. “The Founding Father is not amused,” he said hollowly.

---

“Shut up!” Abraham yelled. “Shut up, you little prick!”

Barkovitch stopped, then began to sob.

“Go to hell,” Abraham muttered.

“Now you did it,” Collie Parker said reproachfully. “You made him cry, Abe, you bad boy. He’s gonna go home and tell his mommy.”

[the-lean-buddha]

Obviously, not everything can be in the movie, not even close. So instead of asking which parts of the novel you want to keep, I’m wondering what parts of the novel you want to cut. For me, Harkness, who only really seems to be there as an early Musketeer before Abraham, Parker and Stebbins. As there’s less time for character moments in a movie, Harkness’ existence means less for everyone else. And I don’t know for sure, but I reckon all anyone remembers about Harkness is that he wants to write a book. The only things that are lost from Harkness’ removal are the death of a significant character before Olson, and the first real dread that comes from the realisation that a protagonist will die soon. But with the faster pacing of a movie, I don’t think either of those are all that necessary. Also, if not every character can be in this, then I’d much rather Harkness and Davidson and Gribble are axed than anyone else.

[the-lean-buddha]

can confirm in 2025 that nobody ever listens to me

[the-lean-buddha]

Abraham and religion: a compilation (The Long Walk)

It was Abraham, 2. He was tall and disjointed-looking; he walked in a perpetual shamble. “I think we all might take a moment or two to stop and think about whatever kind of sex life there may be in the next world.”

“I get Marilyn Monroe,” McVries said. “You can have Eleanor Roosevelt, Abe old buddy."

Abraham gave him the finger.

---

“Let this ground be seeded with salt,” McVries said suddenly, very rapidly. “So that no stalk of corn or stalk of wheat shall ever grow. Cursed be the children of this ground and cursed be their loins. Also cursed be their hams and hocks. Hail Mary full of grace, let us blow this goddam place.” McVries began to laugh.

“Shut up,” Abraham said hoarsely. “Stop talking like that.”

“All the world is God,” McVries said, and giggled hysterically. “We’re walking on the Lord, and back there the flies are crawling on the Lord, in fact the flies are also the Lord, so blessed be the fruit of thy womb Percy. Amen, hallelujah, chunky peanut butter. Our father, which art in tinfoil, hallow’d be thy name.”

“I’ll hit you!” Abraham warned. His face was very pale. “I will, Pete!”

“A praaayin’ man!” McVries gibed, and he giggled again. “Oh my suds and body! Oh my sainted hat!”

“I’ll hit you if you don’t shut up!” Abraham bellowed.

---

“God will punish him,” Hank Olson was blaring with dead and unearthly assurance. “God will strike him down.”

“Shut up or I’ll strike you down myself,” Abraham said.

---

“Jesus, how do you keep going?” Abraham asked, and there was a kind of religious fear in his voice.

---

The crowd’s cheers rose in volume again, and a ghostly green sign came out of the darkness: INTERSTATE 95 AUGUSTA PORTLAND PORTSMOUTH POINTS SOUTH.

“That’s us,” Abraham whispered. “God help us an’ points south.”

---

Scramm looked at them dumbly, then shook his head slowly from side to side. “Why’d I have to get sick? I was going good, I really was. Odds-on favorite. Even when I’m tired I like to walk. Look at folks, smell the air . . . why? Is it God? Did God do it to me?”

“I don’t know,” Abraham said.

---

“Why’d you take off your shirt?” he asked Abraham suddenly.

“It was making my skin itch. It was raising hives or something. It was a synthetic, maybe I have an allergy to synthetic fibers, how the hell should I know? What do you say, Ray?”

“You look like a religious penitent or something.”

[bluedoor7dawn]

[the-lean-buddha]

The Long Walk trailer thoughts

Looks like most characters are going to be pretty different to their book counterparts. McVries and Barkovitch in particular seem to have very different energies here. I'm interested in seeing more of this Barkovitch, but I can't shake my pessimism that they've missed the point of McVries and his fucked-up twisted pain and longing. At least they kept the scar, sort of.

I like Tut Nyuout as Baker. He only has one line in the trailer but he's got that sweet, earnest southern-ness down. I wonder how many of Baker's haunting aspects will be kept by the movie.

No opinion yet on Ben Wang as Olson. "Hank Olson's the name, walking's my game" was delivered much more casually and less cockily than I expected. But I like "Smile, boys, you're on candid camera!" We'll see.

Stebbins isn't at the back, which annoys me. It looks like he's going to be a very different character in general.

Harkness looks like he might end up being a better character in the movie than the book, and Curley too (because he's barely a character in the book). I doubt that will be the case for any of the other boys.

Joshua Odjick didn't get any lines as Parker in the trailer, unfortunately. He was the one I was most looking forward to.

I have pretty much nothing to say about Cooper Hoffman as Garraty.

[the-lean-buddha]

I think Roman Griffin Davis is playing Curley in The Long Walk.

He isn't in the pictures of the full cast later in the movie, and Lawrence has said that the first death will be surprising because "he doesn’t seem like he’s going to be the first one to go." In the book, the first death is Curley. The first musketeer death is Harkness, but Gonzalez is Harkness (weirdly, because there's no Pearson or Scramm or even Abraham).

So there's my prediction.

[the-lean-buddha]

LOOK WHO WAS RIGHT

(me)

[the-lean-buddha]

I think Roman Griffin Davis is playing Curley in The Long Walk.

He isn't in the pictures of the full cast later in the movie, and Lawrence has said that the first death will be surprising because "he doesn’t seem like he’s going to be the first one to go." In the book, the first death is Curley. The first musketeer death is Harkness, but Gonzalez is Harkness (weirdly, because there's no Pearson or Scramm or even Abraham).

So there's my prediction.

[the-lean-buddha]

The Long Walk characters are very different in the movie

As per the Vanity Fair article:

Garraty in the movie is "certainly the most big-hearted" of the Walkers. Which he isn't at all, in the book. He's very close to a few people, but if anything he seems less attached to his friends than McVries does (see: Harkness, Scramm, Pearson, Parker), and he's less caring towards random people than Baker. Mostly Garraty is motivated by curiosity when he talks to other Walkers. He's kind of an asshole to most people.

The article also says that Garraty "enters the race to get vengeance on leaders he despises, pursuing the wishes of his resistance-minded dad". Which in the book, he absolutely doesn't. His entire character revolves around repression, guilt, and insecurity that motivates him to join the Walk. It has nothing to do with vengeance. This isn't a small change - it makes Garraty's character, and the entire story, completely different.

Hoffman adds that "Garraty believed wholeheartedly that his father was fighting for the exact right thing, and his father could do no wrong", but Garraty goes into the Walk in the book thinking that his father is an idiot, or at least naive. He also explicitly says later that he didn't miss his father after he was Squaded. So Garraty in the movie will be very different, and the movie will apparently be a story of political rebellion.

"Jonsson, who’s 31, brings a more hardened and mature presence to McVries", but McVries is not even remotely mature in the book. He's full of teenage angst and emotional immaturity and a twisted sense of loathing towards himself and everything else. It doesn't look like he has that prominent scar in the movie, either.

Baker is black in the movie. In the book, he was a night rider for two years. Go figure.

This is Stebbins in the movie. Go figure.

So overall, I can't see any of the three main characters being at all similar to their book counterparts. Baker still has a shot, because the night riding isn't a core part of his character, but given the track record so far I'm not very optimistic.

Also, the numbers are random now! Garraty is still #47 and Barkovitch is still #5 but the others have changed, even Baker, for some reason.

Also, apparently Mark Hamill "brings complexity and and even some vulnerability" to the Major. To the Major. what

The only thing I'm excited for is Joshua Odjick as Parker, because this here is a very Collie Parker expression.

[the-lean-buddha]

When Stebbins gets under Garraty's skin after McVries' death, Garraty remembers McVries' advice from much earlier in the book, as well as McVries' joke that Garraty would win.

Barkovitch put on his insulted look and moved away.

“He’s some hot ticket,” Garraty said.

“Don’t let him get under your skin,” McVries replied. “Just concentrate on walking him into the ground.”

“Okay, coach.”

McVries patted Garraty on the shoulder. “You’re going to win this one for the Gipper, my boy.”

-----

“Let it go, then,” Stebbins said, and smiled winningly. “If there are such things as souls, his is still close. You could catch up.”

Garraty looked at Stebbins and said, “I’m going to walk you into the ground.”

Oh, Pete, he thought. He didn’t even have any tears left to cry.

Unlike Garraty, I have more tears left to cry. This little detail breaks my heart.