Dialing Our Death: A Critical Response to Stephen King’s Cell

While Stephen powerfulnesss Cell readiness be about zombies, the 2006 novel is also a clever interpretation on Americas reliance on technology. Kings setup is that, on the afternoon of October 1, a strange impulse is publicise across Ameri backside cell phone networks. The pulse, when heard by good deal on their cells, immediately renders cell-phone users into murderous, zombie- desire creatures. These throng, kn birth as Phoners, are no long-acting human. The few people unaffected by the pulse, called Normies, attempt to fight hold for survival.King hints heavily that our dependence upon technology will be our undoing. The central characters beat to survive runs secondary to Kings technophobic message. The plot is effectively more distinguished than the narrative it supports. Most of the attention is paid to the pulse itself. The rampaging zombies are given a reason to exist their brains have been literally scrambled like a skillet of eggs (43). Their violent and bloodt hirsty actions are symbolic of what King feels our world is becoming.Even if Kings doesnt think using cell phones and visiting websites will lead to apocalypse or rampages, perhaps he is (at the very least) suggesting that we are becoming skilful as mindless. When the pulse strikes, the Phoners were connected via network. Everyone affected has been linked together. The danger, King suggests, is that our decrease world is not necessarily a good thing. To King, cell phones and the net profit have ceased to be modes of transmitting information. Sharing information is less important than swapping videos and songs with friends now, or having conversations while walking through a park.People look like they are talking to themselves. King feels that technology has left us vulnerable. We tycoon not be vulnerable to a zombie-creating pulse, but we are sure vulnerable to losing our sense of identity and humanity. We are giving ourselves, little by little, over to technology. In Cell, th e mindless Phoners are soon organized into Flocks, which race around in patterns very a good deal like migrating birds. This underscores Kings central fear the marriage of technology and biology. He seems to be profession for a world that exists offline.In his book The Soft Edge, media philosopher Paul Levinson agrees that the fundamental spirit of technology closely recalls mankind. There are legitimate concerns to consider as we move toward an ever-increasing dependence upon the technologies available to us. Levinson states that the wisdom of nature is not eer good for us, insofar as it accommodates hurricanes, drought, famine, earthquake, and all manner of destructive occurrences (150). reputations tendency toward destruction and collapse, also known as entropy, is reflect in technology and, very clearly, in Cell.Like nature itself, destruction is detonate of the nature of technology, King believes. Levinson questions whether technology can have things similar to miserab le ragweed, which must be monitored and controlled. He asks whether ragweed can be controlled without suppressing the dishful and value that emerges right next to it, untended (Levinson 151). His vision is aligned with Kingstechnology has the capacity to destroybut he feels that it can be controlled. Technological systems will not revolt against us, as they do in Cell, but they must be actively watched.Cell paints a scanty portrait of society on the brink of collapseone that people have willingly bought into. In Kings mind, we are ushering ourselves to our own demise, if not our loss of humanity. Something as simple and ubiquitous as a cell phone is turned into a tool of terror. With Cell, King makes us question whether we have established systems for ourselves that are not so much helpful as they are corruptive. His novel is a cautionary bosh about where we are heading as a civilization. When we next solving the phone, King suggests the fate of our own humanity may be calling.