Thoughts on Stephen King?

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Ex Cummunicated Sasser HD said:
I wrote him a like 8 page letter when I was about 12, after reading The Long Walk, and he sent me a 1st edition copy of the Bachman Books back, (that still had RAGE in it), signed: Your Friend, Richard Bachman, R.I.P, and a cool hand typed letter that he replied to a lot of my 12 year old dumb questions with. Don't like all his work, especially the more fantasy stuff, but for me, he's the only author I've managed to get through a large book in one sitting. (mainly because you can skip a lot of the fluff if you are familiar with his style).

My favourite of his was Dolores Claiborne, until Desperation came out. The first half of that book really fucked with my young head, and it's a shame the second half isn't as good, and The Regulators wasn't great either. It was nice that the 2 first editions match the artwork though.

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I read the The Regulators a long time ago and liked it pretty good, it was pretty different than his other works, sadly I've yet to get around to reading Desperation, but you gotta love those covers.


What I find funny about the Carrie movie is in the opening scene Stephen King's credit is right to next to some girl's 70s bush.
 
Pointless Pedant said:
His TDS ranting on Twitter is pretty hilarious. Especially that he wrote a book called The Gunslinger but now demands that guns be banned on a regular basis.
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He's pretty much keeping up with the joneses as far as his politics go. Anything other than the most shrill version of liberalism is discouraged in the entertainment industry these days. He's always been a fairly sheepish man in that regard, which is probably how he gets so many movie deals even compared to other bestselling authors.
 
You know what I think is a big missed opportunity for King? He needs to write a novel not set in the US.

Not counting fantasy worlds like Dark Tower I believe the only thing he's written set in a different country is the short story Crouch End, which was set in London and it at least answers the question of what the rest of the world is like in King's universe and yup, scary stuff goes on outside the US too, but that seems like it should be explored further than just one short story, it'd be something different.

The weeb in me would love for example would love to learn what Japan is like in Stephen King's world, what kinda crazy shit goes on there?
 
Manwithn0n0men said:
the ones he co-wrote with cocaine?
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Yes, actually. On a different point, I think The Running Man is by far the best novel he's written. It's because it's almost pure action, not exposition, unlike his big bloated novels that weigh in at five pounds.
 
Dom Cruise said:
You know what I think is a big missed opportunity for King? He needs to write a novel not set in the US.

Not counting fantasy worlds like Dark Tower I believe the only thing he's written set in a different country is the short story Crouch End, which was set in London and it at least answers the question of what the rest of the world is like in King's universe and yup, scary stuff goes on outside the US too, but that seems like it should be explored further than just one short story, it'd be something different.

The weeb in me would love for example would love to learn what Japan is like in Stephen King's world, what kinda crazy shit goes on there?
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There was a short sub-plot in "The Breathing Method" in which a senator claims he has "something I found at my Virginia place, I've shot it, stabbed it, can't kill it, it's in the trunk of my car".
I wanted King to elaborate on THAT, but he just left us hanging.
Pet Sematary was one of the few books that scared the shit out of me, I was a new mom at the time, and couldn't help but put myself in Louis Creeds' shoes.
But in all, I fell like he's starting to run out of ideas, and the last book of his I enjoyed was Eyes of the Dragon.
The TDS is getting tiring, and he's made some remarks about military personnel that have angered me. He's one of those fools that thinks he's superior because he went to college.
 
Karl_der_Grosse said:
Yes, actually. On a different point, I think The Running Man is by far the best novel he's written. It's because it's almost pure action, not exposition, unlike his big bloated novels that weigh in at five pounds.
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If you want a book whose primary author is "cocaine", that's literally it

He wrote that under 48 hours
 
I had similar issues with Under the Dome that I did with Bag of Bones. King sets up a truly unsettling tone and atmosphere, but the big reveals and denouements left me disappointed to the point where I wish he had just left things vague instead of clarifying everything. Part of me wonders if he’s concerned with pissing off his mainstream fan base by not tying everything up. I know people would point to The Dark Tower’s ending to counter that, but that series has a much smaller readership compared to King’s other work.
 
Someone in a Tree said:
I had similar issues with Under the Dome that I did with Bag of Bones. King sets up a truly unsettling tone and atmosphere, but the big reveals and denouements left me disappointed to the point where I wish he had just left things vague instead of clarifying everything. Part of me wonders if he’s concerned with pissing off his mainstream fan base by not tying everything up. I know people would point to The Dark Tower’s ending to counter that, but that series has a much smaller readership compared to King’s other work.
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That also reminds of Duma Key, great setup and mystery, great, unique setting for him (a Florida island) but the denouement is disappointingly lame and should have been left more mysterious.
 
It would be cool if Stephen King wrote about Japanese yokai and make them more horrific.
I only read a little bit of the first chapter of "The Tower." One deviantartist posted a journal about how they tried to finish "The Tower" books, but ultimately quit.
I also did not finish watching the movie adaptation of "Carrie".
 
Pointless Pedant said:
His TDS ranting on Twitter is pretty hilarious. Especially that he wrote a book called The Gunslinger but now demands that guns be banned on a regular basis.
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That's kind of common among big-name celebrities and media creators.

Sylvester Stallone's a huge anti-gun guy but you'd never know that watching his movies where he frequently plays characters who kill people with guns. Same thing with Matt Damon, who's anti-gun but is famous for playing Jason Bourne.
 
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Duncan Hills Coffee said:
That's kind of common among big-name celebrities and media creators.

Sylvester Stallone's a huge anti-gun guy but you'd never know that watching his movies where he frequently plays characters who kill people with guns. Same thing with Matt Damon, who's anti-gun but is famous for playing Jason Bourne.
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Or someone asks Rosie O'Donnell if she will give up her armed bodyguards/security, and she says no, she's a CELEBRITY and needs armed security, because, you know, crazy stalkers and Trump fans.
But we're just little people and don't need guns for OUR security.
 
Cheesegirl78 said:
Or someone asks Rosie O'Donnell if she will give up her armed bodyguards/security, and she says no, she's a CELEBRITY and needs armed security, because, you know, crazy stalkers and Trump fans.
But we're just little people and don't need guns for OUR security.
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To be fair, Stallone's anti-gun stance was because a personal friend of his was shot to death, so I think his reasons are a bit more justifiable than the rest of Hollywood's.
 
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