Post #3: Book 1 Project

An idea for a fan experience to promote 11/22/63 by Stephen King is an 11/22/63 theme park.  There could be different areas in the park based on the different places Jake lived in in the past.  The different areas of the park could be Derry, Jodie, Fort Worth and Dallas.  The park could include thrill rides as well as restaurants based on diners from the late 50’s and early 60’s.  The thrill rides could be based on the events in the book, such as when Jake tried to stop Frank Dunning from killing his family.  During September and October, there could be haunted attractions.  An example this could be Sadie’s house when John Clayton broke into it and tore it apart before slashing her face and holding her hostage.  This part of the book is very creepy and it would be a good thing to use to scare people.  There could be pillars around the park that have actual information about the Kennedy assassination on them.

This idea came from many different parts in the book.  The idea for the restaurants comes from the many different restaurants Jake visits in the past and the descriptions of those restaurants and the food served there are included in the book.  An example of this is when Jake has a root beer at Kennebec Fruit Co. in 1958 in Maine and says, “He filled it from a tap and I could smell the root beer, rich and strong.  He scraped the foam off the top with the handle of a wooden spoon, then filled it all the way to the top and set it down on the counter.”  The idea for a haunted attraction came because the book is very disturbing at parts and adding haunted attractions could increase the amount of people interested in coming to the park.  An example of how the book can be creepy is when Jake says, “There, written in her own lipstick, were two words in letters three feet high: DIRTY ****.”  The idea for the pillars with actual facts and information about the assassination came because there are many is a lot of actual information about the assassination in the book.  Before Jake goes into the past, his friend Al tells him a lot of facts about the assassination and about Lee Harvey Oswald that are interesting and those facts as well as other facts should be included in the park.  Also, in the book, Jake encounters many people who were actually involved in the events leading up to the assassination, such as George de Mohrenschildt, who was a good friend of Lee Oswald.  At the point in the book when Al is giving Jake his mission, he says, “…somebody tried to kill General Edwin Walker… same rifle, ballistics proved it.”

This idea could greatly increase the audience for this book.  People could hear about the theme park and want to read the book before going.  They could also go and become very interested in the JFK assassination by learning facts about it.  This could lead to them wanting to read the book to get a different perspective on the assassination.  People who are already fans of the book would definitely want to come to the park to go through some of Jake’s experiences.  This would add more fun to the experience of the book and it would encourage fans to continue reading books by Stephen King.  Also, a lot of people would think the book is really cool because it has its own theme park.

This is an example of a diner one might eat at while at the theme park: