Thoughts on Stephen King?

[UnclePhil]

I blazed through 11/22/63 and I'm about to finish Doctor Sleep. Gotta say, I think the old man's still got it after all these years. He spins a good yarn, and is great at suspense and laying out plot threads. He does well enough to keep me reading his books from cover to cover, even the ones he didn't write using mountains of cocaine. All the review quotes talking about "terrifying!" and "chilling!" are horseshit, though. Stephen King's books are violent and gruesome, not scary.

As far as criticisms, they're ones I've always had. For instance, I never liked when his stories detoured into Dark Tower world building shit. If there's no reference to the Crimson King, then the demon or cult or whatever is almost guaranteed to speak the Dead Language at some point. Stop that. He's always been an advocate of the "write what you know" truism. Drunk writers abound; the amount of money they have runs parallel to where he was in his career at that point. Oh, and the van accident. Holy shit did that break his brain and was every book about some vehicular manslaughter after that.

Finally, he's always been weird every time his prose gets around a pubescent child or black person. I'm not calling him pedophilic and certainly not a racist (I don't speak NeoGAF.) Just saying it's awkward.

 

[Tranhuviya]

He killed John Lennon.

 

[Graffiti canvas]

Something something "11 yr old pulls a train in the sewer"

 

[Jerry_ smith56]

Probably the next Weinstein, I mean our pedo alarms rang loud and clear when a guy admitted he liked the scene and my pedo alarms sounds for the guy who wrote it.

 

[Pepito The Cat]

Probably the next Weinstein, I mean our pedo alarms rang loud and clear when a guy admitted he liked the scene and my pedo alarms sounds for the guy who wrote it.

Do you realize that "It" was written more than 30 years ago and it is the only instance in almost 60 published books the guy had anything pedo related on them? I'm not defending him, he is definitively fucked up in the head (Dr. Sleep is a good example of that) but I don't think he likes CP.

 

[Jerry_ smith56]

Do you realize that "It" was written more than 30 years ago and it is the only instance in almost 60 published books the guy had anything pedo related on them? I'm not defending him, he is definitively fucked up in the head (Dr. Sleep is a good example of that) but I don't think he likes CP.

In the end of the day he still wrote 10 pages of underaged characters having an orgy.

 

[Pepito The Cat]

In the end of the day he still wrote 10 pages of underaged characters having an orgy.

Well, 30 years late but you're onto him. Try doxing.

 

[UnclePhil]

Something something "11 yr old pulls a train in the sewer"

Christ, that scene.

I was age-inappropriate 12 when I read it, same as the characters in the book, and I remember skipping several paragraphs to get it over with. Even then I knew there was something weird and wrong about it.

But of course the defenders of that scene say it was totally warranted. He foreshadowed and set it up throughout the book. There was literally no other way for the children to reunite in the power of friendship so they could destroy the clown spider from outer space.

No, not his best. Not at all.

 

[Deadpool]

I want to preface this by saying I like the idea of child sewer orgies...

Site memes aside, I like to compare Stephen King to McDonalds. It's greasy and not healthy, but sometimes you crave it and it's pretty damn good every once in a while. I tend to enjoy his short stories over his novels though tbh,

 

[XYZpdq]

I want to preface this by saying I like the idea of child sewer orgies...

Site memes aside, I like to compare Stephen King to McDonalds. It's greasy and not healthy, but sometimes you crave it and it's pretty damn good every once in a while. I tend to enjoy his short stories over his novels though tbh,

I'm pretty sure King compares himself to McDonalds in similar terms.

My parents had a bunch of his works through... I think Misery or so. I've read a few of his books. Doubleplus The Stand, Through The Eyes of The Dragon, Thinner, Pet Cemetery, a bunch of the short compilations. Not bad, was good for killing time in school.

 

[GentlemanFaggot]

He's the best author whose books are sold in grocery stores.

 

[Varg Did Nothing Wrong]

If we go by amount of books read he's my favorite author. He has a talent for writing gruesome action and sometimes sex in a way that doesn't come off terribly cheesy, but I don't think I've ever really been scared by anything he's written (maybe Misery for having an insane serial killer bipolar woman as the main villain).

I think the Stand is pretty cool, I'm actually reading the Dark Tower books right now (currently halfway through book 3 after multiple false starts and not getting through all of book 1). My favorite? Possibly the Talisman. Maybe something else tho.

Regarding his supposed pedo-ness: he has sexual content starring underaged kids quite a lot in his stories but in most cases its not flagrant. There's a kid who is in love with his teacher in Needful Things and imagines them fucking. There's Nazi rape dreams and high school fucking in Apt Pupil. There's possibly more than one homosexual pedo in the Talisman. And the list goes on. Really tho in most cases its just treated as something that happens to kids that are 10-17 years old. Its dumb to not talk about it because most kids do have sexual experiences, either alone or with others, in that age range.

 

[Karl der Grosse]

His short stories are very good. His novels are very hit-or-miss. In general his early novels are better than the recent ones.

 

[AnOminous]

His writing was better when he wasn't so famous that editors were afraid to cut about a third of what he writes, because that's about the proportion that is utter shit.

It's not that he's incapable of good writing, it's that he's incapable of telling his shit writing from his good writing.

This is why editors exist.

 

[Elwood P. Dowd]

What nobody asked for, but you're getting anyway. My :autism: inspired rating of King novels, from worst to best, on a scale of 5.

Special award to Rose Madder as hands down the worst novel I've ever finished that I was reading voluntarily. And I've read Hogg. Whether it was Insomnia followed by Rose Madder or vice versa I don't remember, but it was those two books in a row that put me off King for a long time. For some reason I picked up Hearts in Atlantis some number of years later and liked it. Meaning I guess I've gone from fan to hater to eh, maybe, WRT to King. Last novel I tried from King was Duma Key, and I DNF'd it.

Spoiler: Size and Autism.

Oh, and speaking of Stephen King :autism:, anyone else seen this before? I've read most of his stuff, and even I can't follow it.

Spoiler

Finally, why not a music video for the full autism experience?

 

[Taily Puff]

I tend to enjoy his short stories over his novels though tbh,

He's really at the top of his game when it comes to short stories, because he's really incredible at coming up with fantastic interesting creepy ideas, but he's really bad about knowing when to shut up about them. His short stories and novellas are awesome because of how much they leave for the reader to put together and build on in their own head. His novels can be really good, but they have a tendency to shit the bed and then you have to decide if it's really worth seeing what else they have to offer.

Desperation was actually a pretty great first half of a novel. Then it meandered away from what made it interesting and turned into some weird feel good story about redemption, but the person being redeemed was a kid who'd never really done anything wrong, and the whole thing just fell apart.
Gerald's Game messed my shit right up.
Hated "It".
Eyes of the Dragon is pretty much perfect.

Generally though his short stories are all worth reading, because you can get the point out of them without the thrill of the concept getting bogged down in characters not suited for the tale. The Jaunt is high on my list of things that stuck with and haunted me personally. And every single thing from Night Shift is top notch, Quitters Inc, The Ledge, I Am The Doorway, even that goofy story about an assassin fighting toy soldiers (maybe especially that one).

Special award to Rose Madder as hands down the worst novel I've ever finished that I was reading voluntarily.

I first read Rose Madder when I was 14 or 15, and I absolutely hated it. I thought it was chaotic garbage with no point and none of the characters appealed to me. Something inspired me to re-read it as an adult and it actually became one of my favorite books. I love Rose, I love what motivates her and I thought overall the novel was a really good portrayal of how victims can end up blaming themselves for the abuse they suffer. The organization that helped her out was a little heavy-handed in the way it was handled, but Norman was a legitimately horrifying villain even without the supernatural stuff that creeped into things by the end (and I enjoyed the psuedo greek flavor of that), and I also really liked the summary about how the cycle of abuse is the hardest thing to stop.

That's me personally though. I generally agree with your list where I've read it, but I'd put Rose Madder as a 6, Gerald's Game as a 4, and Tommyknockers way way lower. I also couldn't get through The Stand for some reason. I tried. I even like disease riddled post apocalyptic wastelands. I just couldn't make a dent in the 487,000 pages of it before I needed to do something else.

 

[AnOminous]

I agree on Hearts in Atlantis. This was a weird read because I really had no idea what it was getting into it, I was just stuck somewhere with nothing else to do and that book just happened to be there, and because reasons I wasn't really in a position to get anything else. I know it got somewhat mixed reviews, but I found it oddly compelling and just a fun read in general.

Also, I actually think King should direct again. His only outing was, as everyone knows, Maximum Overdrive, which I actually enjoyed even though it's an objectively terrible movie. Still, King was whacked out of his mind on drugs and booze when he did that and despite that, it still shows hints here and there of actual directorial talent. Also the AC/DC soundtrack is one of the best works of the period it's from. That alone rescues the movie from total oblivion.

Also, despite being one of the most prolific writers of novels that get turned into movies (or other works like novellas), if you compare the films to the books, in almost every case, even the good ones, the novel is better. Christine would be a good example of this, and the movie is fantastic, too.

One exception would be one of King's best and most compelling novels, The Shining. King was pissed off for a long time about Kubrick's adaptation, which I always thought was mildly douchey of him. I get that he was upset that Kubrick had disregarded what he considered the core of the novel and, basically turned it into a Kubrick film.

I get this, because the novel was an intensely personal work about King's own demons, whereas the character in the movie was himself the main demon. I get that it's not flattering to be told "No, Stephen, you are the demons."

Still, when someone turns your novel into one of the best movies of all time, you should really say "Thank you" or just STFU if you can't manage that.

Special award to Rose Madder as hands down the worst novel I've ever finished that I was reading voluntarily. And I've read Hogg.

Congratulations, I guess. I've read everything else Delany ever wrote, most of it multiple times, and this was just a shockingly unreadable mass of garbage I've never even tried to read again after failing to get through the first 20 pages.

It's like he took every negative emotion he ever had and put it in the most disgusting form he could manage. A lot of his other writings contain some of these negative aspects, but there's generally a lucidity and beauty to his prose that raises it above any content you might have otherwise found objectionable or even disgusting.

Some writers can pull this off. Most of William S. Burroughs is like this, but unlike, say, Naked Lunch, this lacks the acidic, corrosive wit that made Burroughs at his most horrifying still, somehow, relatable and funny.

I know I shouldn't "review" something I haven't read, but almost anything by Delany has shockingly gorgeous prose, and this thing was an assault on the senses that basically made me say fuck this shit and chuck it.

 

[Taily Puff]

I agree on Hearts in Atlantis.

I've tried to read Hearts in Atlantis twice now and I can't make it click with me. I really wanted to, it seemed like there was something in there I just wasn't getting, but even after two attacks the only things I distinctly remember about it is the old guy telling the kid that jeweled straight razors are for pimps and not for shaving, and something about three card Monte. I'd be willing to be sold on why I'm wrong.

 

[AnOminous]

I've tried to read Hearts in Atlantis twice now and I can't make it click with me. I really wanted to, it seemed like there was something in there I just wasn't getting, but even after two attacks the only things I distinctly remember about it is the old guy telling the kid that jeweled straight razors are for pimps and not for shaving, and something about three card Monte. I'd be willing to be sold on why I'm wrong.

It comes on slow. And it's also in two parts that are only tenuously connected to each other almost by theme rather than by plot. Part of why I continued was I literally had nothing to do but read and literally had nothing to read but that.

All I can really say is it grows on you. You can look through much of it and say (and critics have said) that basically nothing happens, but it slowly creates an atmospheric effect that is, somehow, charming.

After I was done with it, I was glad I had read it.

I would almost compare it to a song rather than a novel. Something like Happiness is a Warm Gun where you have something that is like a bunch of totally different songs shoved together but it somehow works.

 

[Taily Puff]

All I can really say is it grows on you. You can look through much of it and say (and critics have said) that basically nothing happens, but it slowly creates an atmospheric effect that is, somehow, charming.

After I was done with it, I was glad I had read it.

I guess that's what I liked about it but couldn't place what felt wrong when reading it. The atmosphere was compelling but I kept waiting for a shoe that never dropped. I'll give it another try.

To be fair I was reading it right after American Gods and Anansi Boys which are both like nonstop shoe dropping.