Stephen King was one of the authors I loved when I was a teenager and read to get away from all the Harry Potter faggotry but rereading some of his stuff now a days it's a mixed bag.
Some older titles really need an editor. IT and especially The Stand (and it's mind numbing 400 additional page turbo directors cut edition) come to mind. Really wish Flagg won over those limp wristed dorks from Free Zone.
His current output feels like a parody of himself. Cell was the first time I never bothered to finish one of his books I started.
Course he still has a solid body of work like Misery, Dead Zone, Firestarter and The Shining, one of the rare books that actually creeped me out while reading.
I thought Cell was a a decent potboiler, if you remember at the time it was rumored he was going to retire after the final Dark Tower novel, 2005 was one of the few years without a new novel outside of a Hard Case Crime spinoff.
So Cell at least signified he was back.
I also want to add, I enjoyed 1408.
Both the short story and movie
Yup, 1408, both story and movie, are great.
I've only read a few King books but I remember a scene in Cell where he spent several paragraphs describing the swing of a fat, black man's cock as he ran down the street and I felt like that was a good insight into his mind as a creative.
lmao, don't remember that.
Anyone read Dedication? I think it's in Nightmares and Dreamscapes. Jesus CHRIST, how does this TDS motherfucker not get cancelled over racism?
It's LIDERULLY the story of a black hotel maid who goes to a hoo doo woman (his words), to find the real "father" of her child who becomes a published author.
If you think the It orgy scene is fucked up, read Dedication because this black woman cleans the hotel room where this white (racist--her words) famous author stays. And every time the author either fucks some woman or jacks off in bed, the black woman
Goes.
and.
licks.
up.
his.
spent.
jizz.
off.
the.
sheets.
And "somehow" that makes this guy the boy's NATURAL TROO AND HONEST FATHER even though the real father is the black woman's black husband who dies in the story.
Yikes, I forgot about Dedication.
I wonder what he was trying to say there?
You know what the worst part of it is? That senile old Boomer fuck already had an entire outline, complete and ready-to-go, for the entire Dark Tower series, by book 2 or 3. He claims he "must've lost or misplaced it" over the years and years he kept his fanbase waiting George RR Martin style while he fucked about doing whatever, but that he went forward with completing the series regardless because it "probably wasn't worth a shit anyway".
i dunno about you, but I'd have rather he not've finished it at all than the 3+ books of borderline incoherent painmed swill we actually got.
It really is terrible what happened with the Dark Towers given that King really seemed like he was going somewhere with book 3.
Now that I think about it, the ending to the Dark Tower was probably worse than It simply due to the time put into it and how goofy it was ("santa claus is throwing snitches at us! Quick! Doodle a picture of him my blond mute and erase all but his googly eyes!") but I excuse it simply because even King knew how stupid his ending was.
Yup, it was so lame, The Crimson King is supposed to be the ultimate evil of King's multiverse... and it's an old guy going "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"?
I like King the same way I like cracker barrel or seinfeld. Its nothing out of the ordinary in terms of structure or imagery or concept, but it's done in a good comfy quality where you let the mistakes slide and enjoy his really good descriptions of mac-n-cheese.
That's a very good characterization of him as a matter of fact, the real genuine talent he has is simply his very digestible, easy to read writing style, that's not something that's actually easy to do.
I actually really liked that book mostly for being a bit more nutty than what he usually makes. The idea of a senior citizen talking to aliens with scissors about saving the messiah is just a fun idea all around.
Indeed, it's a refreshingly weird, unique book, the only issue is the hamfisted politics with anti-abortion characters.
Insomnia should have been a small preview of how the Dark Tower actually ended, to be honest. That bit describing Patrick's drawing of the Crimson King peering down at Roland still striding toward the doors of the Tower undaunted through the field of roses should've been a page straight out book 7 instead of the absolute farce we got. "Tricksy" my big white ass, Steve. You throw away perfectly good material to spew drivel.
Indeed, Insomnia has a better confrontation with the Crimson King than Dark Tower does.
