Hey, what’s Sun Dog?
… and trying to decide which he wanted more: the camera or the possibility of Manifestation. Or, put another way, whether he wanted the Sun . . . or the man in the moon.
Stephen King, The Sun Dog from Four Past Midnight
Rounding off the collection of novellas is The Sun Dog, the shortest story but also perhaps the most white-knuckle of the collection. Unlike the previous closer to a novella collection, The Breathing Method, this one feels very much of the themes presented so far, whilst being the most thrilling of the four.
The central McGuffin of the story, Kevin Delevan’s Sun 660 Polaroid Camera, is emblematic of the theme running throughout all of these stories: that of time and the past invading the present. Though the camera itself is of unknown origin and its supernatural nature unexplained, a camera is fundamentally a device designed to capture and enshrine the present forever in a fixed state. Pictures are windows into memory, pieces of time frozen to look back onto as fond reminiscences. But King is playing with the idea that past invading the present, and so makes sense that those frozen moments start to move from the past to the now, the past invading the present. After all – we’ve all taken photos we regret later.
It’s a neat twist on the theme that King has been exploring throughout, and the choice of the words ‘Sun Dog’ itself are ripe for exploration. As noted above, a sun dog is the name of a phenomenon where light from the sun is scattered through the icy air, giving the appearance of multiple suns or celestial bodies in the sky. The titular Sun Dog itself is captured and defeated by a black and white polaroid picture, and King has shown his research into camera history with an extensive monologue of how these sorts of cameras work. He must have known that old black and white photography was captured using silver, and that the dog’s transformation into a monster is stopped by an old black and white photographic process… All I’m saying is, it makes sense.
There’s another aspect at play in King’s choice of specifically a Sun Dog. Those with longer memories may recall Danse Macabre, Stephen King’s extensive discussion on horror in which he discusses the difference between Apollonian and Dionysian. At first, the word, ‘sun,’ would suggest this falls under Apollonian metaphor which would seem at odds with the nature of the Sun Dog as an agent of chaos. But a photographic sun dog is a false sun, a reflection of its true self split as demonstrated in the picture above. It’s actually more Dionysian, a chaos cavorting in the light of the moon reflecting the sun. Kevin’s desire for the Sun in the above quote isn’t necessarily a desire for the Manifestation (though he may believe it is at that point), but a desire for order and equilibrium in the face of the chaos and danger the Sun Dog represents. The story then is an expression of King’s belief in the fundamentals of what horror represents: order versus chaos. Admittedly, Kevin is trying to seek peaceful equilibrium in Castle Rock, but you make do with what you have.
The photographs of the sun dog are not only version of the past that invade the present. Though Kevin is haunted by the photographs as representation of the past, his father, John Delevan, is haunted by the mistakes of his past. His bet with Pop Merrill haunts him and informs the actions in the present. However, the important thing with John is that though his past informs his present, he has very much learned from his mistakes and made amends as best as possible. John has grown as a result of his experiences and has come to terms with his past, unlike the other character of the piece, Pop Merrill. Pop’s past is exploitation without consequences, taking advantage of those around him. As a result, when he gets ahold of the camera, it’s more accurate to say that the camera gets ahold of him: the device for capturing the past has caught up with Pop and allows the Sun Dog to make its way in.
The other aspect that has come through in these tales is King’s processing of his addictions, and in John and Pop’s way of dealing of the past we have an exploration of their respective addictions. John is landed in a hole because of a mad moment of gambling. Gambling is one of the classic examples of addiction, and John is able to avoid it, suffering but learning from his big mistake. As a result, he is able to lead his life with a wife and family – not perfect, but happy, content. Pop by contrast enjoys taking advantage of people, selling crap to tourists, the gullible, and the vulnerable (preempting Leland Gaunt in Needful Things). His taking advantage of Kevin is a mark too far in the end. One of the last things he sees himself doing is turning a cuckoo clock from a piece of crap into something he can sell, and dies alone and unloved. As already extensively discussed, this was written during King’s road to sobriety, and King’s exploration of these metaphors are another way for him to process his getting on the wagon and even with the epilogue ending (which is a classic horror ending going back to films such as, to be blunt, Carrie), it shows the optimism he has for himself as the family man.
It’s a great little tale that though may appear simple and linear, has much more being explored under the surface making it a neat conclusion to King’s latest novella collection. It sums up the themes of the collection that King intended, as well as being a neat time capsule of the period and King’s experiences at the time. But we are not done here, as King promises one more Castle Rock story to close things out – we’ll see you back here for Needful Things.
Observations and Connections
The most obvious one to note is that we are firmly back in Castle Rock, first introduced in The Dead Zone and revisited on occasion throughout the years, most recently in The Dark Half but also including Cujo, The Body and a handful of stories in Skeleton Crew. Other locations mentioned include Juniper Hill asylum, which first appeared in It, and King also mentions Harlow in his introduction the story which also appeared in The Body.
Speaking of The Body, the main human villain of this story, Pop Merrill, is the uncle to Ace. Ace is doing time in Shawshank after breaking into a bar called The Mellow Tiger. Sheriff Alan Pangborn, introduced in The Dark Half after the previous sheriff’s unfortunate end, was the one who sent him there. Since that book, Alan has lost his wife and child.
Unsurprisingly given the location and the supernatural villain of the piece, Cujo is mentioned and summarised. If you have plans of reading Cujo, avoid reading this until afterwards as you will get the whole tale in a paragraph. Evvie Chalmers, Castle Rock’s oldest resident, has a niece called Polly who will appear in another book considering how she is introduced. Evvie also appeared in Cujo and The Body, helping Gordie Lachance after Ace Merrill hands him his ass.
Finally, when Pop is running through his list of Mad Hatter events, one mention is of a strange event in a cemetery in Dunwich, Massachusetts. Dunwich was the location of HP Lovecraft’s The Dunwich Horror, but the event described sounds more similar to The Statement of Randolph Carter.
UP NEXT: Back to the beam on our way to the Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands.
Deeper Thoughts for the Horror Inclined 