11/22/63

11/22/63 by Stephen King Promotional Tour

                On the 49^th anniversary of the legendary and historically impactful assassination of JFK, join award winning author Stephen King as he leads you first through the life of the assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, and then to a fully acted reenactment of what happened that fateful day when the path of America’s future was forever changed.

                First the day will start in Fort Worth Texas, where Lee Harvey Oswald, his wife Marina, and daughter June lived in the years leading up to the assassination. Learn more about Lee’s life and see where he lived and worked, as Stephen King leads you through his life. Next you will head to Dallas on a tour bus where you will be able to eat lunch and talk to other history buffs about the impact of JFK’s assassination. Once you arrive you will again visit the places that Lee Harvey once walked and then will head over to the Dallas airport to trace the steps that the president and the first lady made on that fateful day. Once you arrive at the Dealey Plaza, you will watch a full reenactment of the fateful shooting and the events immediately following that day. After the event you can go up to the 6^th floor of the Texas School Book Depository where there is a museum about the shooting. Stephen King will be at the museum signing his new book 11/22/63 that revolves around that fateful day of the shooting. There will also be discussions of conspiracy theories that surround the day, and how the future could have been changed if JFK hadn’t been killed that day.

                This event will be useful in promoting the book because it will attract a wide variety of people to come to the event. I would predict that three main types of people would be attracted to this event, those that love history and are interested in the 1960’s time period, those that are conspiracy theorists and like to talk to others about their theories and may enjoy talking about the consequences of time travel, and those that already enjoy Stephen King’s books and would enjoy meeting him and getting his new book signed.

This event connects to the novel because the whole premise of the novel is about one man’s attempt to change history by going back in time to 1958 and living in the past for five years for one reason only, to save the president. In the beginning  of the book Al Templeton, who got Jake to do this job, told Jake, “If you ever wanted to change the world, this is your chance. Save Kennedy, save his brother…Get rid of one wretched waif, buddy, and you could save millions of lives.” (King 69) The waif that he mentions is of course, Lee Harvey Oswald. If Jake kills him, and saves Kennedy, they hope that they could change history and make the world a better place than it is now. By going to the places that Lee lived gives people more of an insight to what Lee was like and why he did it. Lee did not live in good neighborhoods and was very much a communist. “The elbow-to-elbow shacks with their steps of crumbling cinderblock and their broken windows blocked up with pieces of cardboard.” Lee blamed the United States government for him being so poor and not being able to hold a job and idolized Cuba. I would hope that by going to the places that he lived and learning about him that people would start to understand more about him and feel more connected to the end of the day. Lastly the book really talks about the effects of time travel and conspiracy theories surrounding the day, especially near the end of the end. In fact near the end of the book, Jake mentions that his past alter ego had become part of an conspiracy theory after his involvement of that day. “In the forty-eight years since the assassination attempt in Dallas, Amberson had become a near-mythical figure. Savior, or part of the plot? People had actual conventions to discuss it…it was impossible for me not to think of all the conspiracy theories that had sprung up around the version of Lee who had succeeded.” (King 815) This event could be attractive to people that enjoy conspiracies because this is one of the biggest events that has many conspiracy theories around it and getting to talk to other people who enjoy those theories and read how one author thinks the past could’ve been changed if that day didn’t happen could be very interesting, especially if they accept that on that day, Lee was acting alone.