The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet

2025-10-06T13:03:42Z

2001:99A:80E:3A00:C9E0:B185:893E:FF2A: /* Plot summary */

{{Short description|Short story by Stephen King}}
{{redirect-distinguish|Fornit|Fortnite}}
{{DISPLAYTITLE:''The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet''}}
{{Infobox novella | 
| name = The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet
| author = [[Stephen King]]
| country = United States
| language = English
| image = [[File:Ballad Bullet.jpg|220px]]
| published_in = ''[[The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction]]'' (1st release), ''[[Skeleton Crew (short story collection)|Skeleton Crew]]''
| publication_type = Magazine (1st release)
| publisher =
| genre = [[Fantasy]], [[Novella]]
| media_type = Print (Magazine & [[Paperback]])
| pub_date = [[1984 in literature|1984]]
| english_pub_date =
| preceded_by =
| followed_by =
}}

'''''The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet''''' is a [[fantasy]] [[novella]] by American writer [[Stephen King]], first published in ''[[The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction]]'' in 1984<ref name="fiction"/> and collected in King's 1985 collection ''[[Skeleton Crew (short story collection)|Skeleton Crew]]''<ref name="kobak"/> as well as the 2000 collection ''[[Secret Windows]]''. The title is in reference to the narrator's belief that [[insanity]] is a sort of "flexible bullet": it will eventually kill, but how long this process takes, and how much damage the bullet does before the victim finally dies, are impossible to predict.<ref name="beahm"/> Since the publication of this story, King has occasionally used the term "flexible bullet" to describe insanity, in reference to this story.

==Plot summary==
The main character is Henry, fiction editor for the struggling ''Logan's'' magazine. Henry receives an unsolicited [[short story]] called "The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet" from up-and-coming novelist Reg Thorpe, and considers the story to be very dark, but also a masterpiece. Through his correspondence with Thorpe, Henry learns of—and, due to Henry's own [[alcoholism]], comes to believe in—Thorpe's various paranoid fantasies. Most notably, Henry and Thorpe believe that their typewriters serve as homes for Fornits, tiny [[elves]] who bring creativity and good luck. The story, told from Henry's perspective as he relays it in [[anecdote|anecdotal]] form at a barbecue, concerns Henry's descent into Thorpe's madness. Meanwhile, Henry also struggles to get Thorpe's story published, despite the fact that ''Logan's'' is in the process of closing its fiction department.

==Connections==
In the television mini-series ''[[Nightmares and Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King|Nightmares and Dreamscapes]]'', a fornit's symbol can be seen on a letter in the story "Battleground".{{cn|date=February 2024}}

==Major themes==
{{Unreferenced|section|date=February 2024}}
{{original research|section|date=February 2024}}
Madness is the chief theme of the novella. The narrator is asked to tell a story about a young author who is driven insane by early acclaim. After naming and debating the merits of [[Sylvia Plath]] and other novelists, the narrator reveals to the audience his own personal experiences with insanity. Henry's drinking makes him susceptible to Thorpe's fantasies about Fornits and "They,"- shadowy antagonists never described in detail persecuting Thorpe and his Fornit.

Henry confesses that he experienced a drunken hallucination where he met and communicated with his own Fornit, making Henry an [[unreliable narrator]].

The narrator, Henry, is a recovering [[alcoholic]]. Much of the novella describes how Reg Thorpe's delusions, although unrelated to alcoholism, mirror and amplify Henry's own irrational and self-destructive conduct. This could be considered a case of [[folie à deux]].

"The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet" shares a common theme of fear of [[nuclear power]] with Stephen King's novel ''[[The Tommyknockers]]''. While at a literary party, the protagonist of ''The Tommyknockers'' delivers a drunken rant about the dangers of atomic power. This is of course similar to Thorpe and Henry's fears of [[radium]] crystals and [[radiation poisoning]]. The novella mentions the case of [[the Radium Girls]] as an example of society's ignorance of the dangers of nuclear power.

As the novella is the story of a story told at a house party, "The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet" is a [[frame tale]].

==See also==
* [[Stephen King short fiction bibliography]]

==References==
{{reflist|refs=
<ref name="beahm">{{cite book |last1=Beahm |first1=George |title=Stephen King from A to Z: An Encyclopedia of His Life and Work |date=September 1998 |publisher=Andrews McMeel Publishing |isbn=978-0-8362-6914-7 |pages=15–16 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2BcECkYB7uoC}}</ref>

<ref name="fiction">{{cite magazine |last1=King |first1=Stephen |title=The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet |magazine=Fantasy & Science Fiction |date=June 1984 |volume=66 |issue=6 |pages=6–48 |url=https://archive.org/details/Fantasy_Science_Fiction_v066n06_1984-06/page/n5/mode/2up}}</ref>

<ref name="kobak">{{cite news |last1=Koback |first1=Jim |title=Skeleton Crew |work=Kirkus Reviews |date=May 15, 1985}}</ref>

}}

==External links==
* {{isfdb title|id=48969}}

{{Skeleton Crew (short story collection)}}
{{Stephen King}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ballad of the Flexible Bullet}}
[[Category:1980s novellas]]
[[Category:Fantasy short stories]]
[[Category:Novellas by Stephen King]]
[[Category:Works originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction]]

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The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet