Thoughts on Stephen King?

[Your_Fairy_Wish_Prince]

I enjoy horror that tickles the spiders in my head and his early work did that, the only thing I have read that compares to his fledgling novels is The Ritual (dont let Netflix fool you, they butchered the movie adaptation) that book is creepy as fuck.

King also strayed away from writing about monsters, be they ghosts or people. I mean don’t get me wrong the ending to IT and Desperation were fucking stupid as fuck, but I will admit the beginning and middle were fantastic.

And I am sorry, but Dr.Sleep is dreadful in my opinion, it makes me glad I listened to it and didn’t waste time actually sitting and reading it its a subpar “sequel” to one of his greats.

Mr. Mercedes should have ended with book one. The second book has nothing to do with the first book or third book in the series and End of Watch just got too stupid for me I couldn't finish it.

The ONLY recent book of his that creeped me out was Duma Key and I have a sneaking suspicion he wrote that in his addict years and squirreled it away

 

[Chan Fan]

You know, something that has and does bother me about King's works ever since I read Rose Madder is that he often writes about abusive relationships.

Off the top of my head there's an abusive relationship in: Gerald's Game, IT, Insomnia, The Dark Tower (several either shown or described), and many in his collections of short stories such as Night Shift, Skeleton Crew and Hearts in Atlantis (I think there's one in Four Past Midnight? I can't remember I read all this shit in high school) and of course the aforementioned queen of these in my opinion is Rose Madder.

Those are just the ones I've read, but usually in my opinion, said abusive relationships are well-written. For instance: its nail-biting in Rose Madder when the main character is trying to figure out how to escape her neighborhood without anyone thinking something's up and alerting her creep husband. Another example is the scene where Beverly escapes her abusive husband in order to get back to Derry in IT.

Now, the thing that bothers me is King's wife. She's stayed with him faithfully for decades now. Even when they were broke, even when he was on tons of drugs and an alcoholic.

I mean, put the pieces together. Those spousal abuse scenes are probably so well-executed because the man at the typewriter probably was the one to do shit like that in the first place. I know this is borderline #MeToo but you have to admit its a very likely theory given how fucked up their early time together was.

This is definitely something he writes about a lot but I've noticed he writes a lot about violence in general. There is a violent beating scene at the end of The Body and if I recall correctly there were a few mentions of prison rape in Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. There is plenty of violence in Misery and Needful Things as well. So the theme is a bit more general in all of his books but I agree, the spousal abuse in his books was always the hardest for me to read about (and my personal reason for steering clear of Rose Madder.)

 

[Titanic Cow]

I really enjoyed The Dark Tower series. I didn't really keep up with King much beyond that, but I knew he was a popular writer and people enjoyed his works. When the Dark Tower got a movie deal (And Idris Elba was pinned as the lead), I was perplexed to see Steven King's comments regarding Roland's race not mattering, something I found to be strange when another character both mistrusts and insults him because of his skin colour for almost two books. If there's something I've really come to dislike over the decade, it's the lack of artistic integrity in a lot of authors and artists. I don't know if King is a coward that fears reprisal from his audience or that he didn't want to fall into the trap of saying "Well, Roland should be white, he's a white character" and angering the progressives, given you couldn't even say "It's OK to be White" around that time. It's disappointing, really.


So yeah, I like some of his work but, I'm unimpressed with some decisions he's made. That said I still respect him all the work he's done, he's obviously pretty influential.

 

[L50LasPak]

When the Dark Tower got a movie deal (And Idris Elba was pinned as the lead), I was perplexed to see Steven King's comments regarding Roland's race not mattering, something I found to be strange when another character both mistrusts and insults him because of his skin colour for almost two books.

You know who should have played Roland if you had to pick a black guy?

Keith. David.

He's a bit on the older side, but so is Roland. He's an awesome badass. And you know what else he's got? He's got the voice. The man narrated an entire documentary on the Bible and has been in so many great horror movies I can't even count them. Whenever I hear his voice, I stop and listen because that man is a legend. And to my knowledge he's still acting.

The primary issue I had with Elba is actually that he sounds too British. He sounds like a fucking English Tart. No. Roland is supposed to be a commanding figure! Samuel L. Jackson could have fucking done better in that role.

 

[A Grey Cat]

You know who should have played Roland if you had to pick a black guy?

Keith. David.

He's a bit on the older side, but so is Roland. He's an awesome badass. And you know what else he's got? He's got the voice. The man narrated an entire documentary on the Bible and has been in so many great horror movies I can't even count them. Whenever I hear his voice, I stop and listen because that man is a legend. And to my knowledge he's still acting.

The primary issue I had with Elba is actually that he sounds too British. He sounds like a fucking English Tart. No. Roland is supposed to be a commanding figure! Samuel L. Jackson could have fucking done better in that role.

I've never read the dark tower books so I can't speak for the blackwashing of the gunslinger but yeah if they wanted a badass cowboy in a longcoat why DIDN'T they get Keith David?

Steven's Best work in my opinion is no doubt the stuff he wrote from the 70s to the 90s. Everything since then is hit or miss. I got joyland as a Christmas present one year and a lot of reviews on the back said it was a great return to form for him and I agree. Sleeping beauties sounds like it was the point where king went woke bit seeing as he co wrote with his son it's hard to say who put more emphasis on the feminism the book aspouses.


And yeah the guy has a serious case of Trump derangement syndrome, and it's clear he's mainly going after him to stay relevant with readers other than those older than 50-60 who loved his work 30-40 years ago.

 

[Chan Fan]

I've never read the dark tower books so I can't speak for the blackwashing of the gunslinger but yeah if they wanted a badass cowboy in a longcoat why DIDN'T they get Keith David?

Steven's Best work in my opinion is no doubt the stuff he wrote from the 70s to the 90s. Everything since then is hit or miss. I got joyland as a Christmas present one year and a lot of reviews on the back said it was a great return to form for him and I agree. Sleeping beauties sounds like it was the point where king went woke bit seeing as he co wrote with his son it's hard to say who put more emphasis on the feminism the book aspouses.


And yeah the guy has a serious case of Trump derangement syndrome, and it's clear he's mainly going after him to stay relevant with readers other than those older than 50-60 who loved his work 30-40 years ago.

I really enjoyed Joyland as well (one huge plot hole but the rest was so good I overlook it)

 

[TaimuRadiu]

There's some hospital show he made that also uses it, and purposely makes the guy who hit him an awful person. I'm pretty sure that was after the guy had been killed.

Stephen King definitely did not have the man killed.

I'm saying right now Stephen King did not use his connections in Pedowood to find someone to get the man killed.

I regret never starting much of Cujo because I figure an entire book written on drugs would be quite interesting.

That would be most of the good American novels.

Go read On The Road or Atlas Shrugged, two books (and, dare I say it, Great American Novels) literally written on meth.

I don't think he was an alcoholic but not much was actually known about his personal life. A lot of people view his writings as autobiographical but I doubt all that shit in Moby-Dick went down.

Bartleby is probably as close as we're going to get for an autobiography of the man.

 

[Shield Breaker]

You know who should have played Roland if you had to pick a black guy?

Keith. David.

He's a bit on the older side, but so is Roland. He's an awesome badass. And you know what else he's got? He's got the voice. The man narrated an entire documentary on the Bible and has been in so many great horror movies I can't even count them. Whenever I hear his voice, I stop and listen because that man is a legend. And to my knowledge he's still acting.

The primary issue I had with Elba is actually that he sounds too British. He sounds like a fucking English Tart. No. Roland is supposed to be a commanding figure! Samuel L. Jackson could have fucking done better in that role.

The only problem I have with making Roland black is that there is a character in the later books who is not only explicitly black, but has a problem with Roland for being white. Were they going to make her white and make her call Roland uppity?

 

[SmileyTimeDayCare]

This is definitely something he writes about a lot but I've noticed he writes a lot about violence in general. There is a violent beating scene at the end of The Body and if I recall correctly there were a few mentions of prison rape in Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. There is plenty of violence in Misery and Needful Things as well. So the theme is a bit more general in all of his books but I agree, the spousal abuse in his books was always the hardest for me to read about (and my personal reason for steering clear of Rose Madder.)

I really hope King dies before his wife because I think she'll spill some gourmet beans.

 

[Caesare]

I agree, Gerald's Game was just too long. I forget exactly how long it was but wasn't it something like 40 pages where the lady is reaching for a glass of water? I ended up not finishing that one.

Yeah the straw bit went on forever. At one point she mentions the random shit on that bookshelf she could reach from the bed and I remember thinking "I hope this entire situation doesn't end with her making a crude straw out of something" but then it did. Soon as King mentioned the cardboard insert from the magazine that the husband liked to use as a bookmark, I knew that was going to come into play pretty soon. Unfortunately, "pretty soon" meant another 19 pages.

Exactly! After he sobered up there were no underage gang bangs in the sewers like IT, no rabid St. Bernard's trying to kill a mom and her son, no social outcast girl with a religious whacko mom with telekinetic powers, and generally nothing but this Dark Tower bullshit.

Was he clean by the early 1990s? Because Gerald's Game came out in 92' and there's some really vulgar stuff in that book, one scene in particular. I'd say it's a lot grosser and hit's you harder than the group sex in IT, even though it's alluded to early on and many times throughout the book. It would have been sufficient to justify the woman's mental problems through those earlier allusions without having a flashback/dream scene where her trauma was described in detail.

The only part that bothered me (and it's really not a spoiler) is that there is a description of a boy being tied up and he keeps talking about the pressure the rope put on his testicles and that was needlessly uncomfortable to read about. Same with the scene in IT where Beverly has to pee really bad and it gets worse and worse as the scene progresses. It might add urgency to the scene but I'd rather not have to read about it.

Yeah King does this in probably every one of his books. He thinks he's being clever but he's not.

I didn't finish Cujo either but went into it rather blind but when I realized so much of it was from the dog's perspective it just got too sad. Might have been a great book but it wasn't something I wanted to read once I realized what it was going to be about so I'm neutral on that one.

I regret never starting much of Cujo because I figure an entire book written on drugs would be quite interesting.

I didn't know that Cujo was largely written in the dog's POV, or that he wrote it while under the effects of drugs, but these factors are kinda making me want to check it out now. I always remember seeing it on the bookshelf in my parents home as a child and thinking of it as "the scary dog book" because that's what my older sister said it was.

 

[L50LasPak]

or that he wrote it while under the effects of drugs,

Its infamously the book he claims not to remember writing due to the effects of cocaine. Now that may be an exaggeration because he does like to talk like a comedian at events, but the timeframe holds up.

Fun fact, King admitted that he used to use cocaine so much he would jam cotton swabs and Q-tips up his nose because it was bleeding so badly and he wouldn't even feel it; he was just annoyed by the blood dripping down his face. So I think him forgetting an entire book is easily that possible.

"the scary dog book"

That's pretty much all it is. And it gave everyone in my family nightmares so apparently its some good shit, presumably like the good shit it was written on.

 

[The Littlest Shitlord]

I thought it was Tommyknockers that he didn't remember writing at all and called "the book that coke wrote"? Or is there more than one?

 

[eternal dog mongler]

The primary issue I had with Elba is actually that he sounds too British. He sounds like a fucking English Tart. No. Roland is supposed to be a commanding figure! Samuel L. Jackson could have fucking done better in that role.

I'm here to sling guns and chew ass, and I'm all out of ass.

 

[Pomniman]

Go read On The Road or Atlas Shrugged, two books (and, dare I say it, Great American Novels) literally written on meth.

Or Gravity's Rainbow if weed and acid are more your speed.

 

[L50LasPak]

I thought it was Tommyknockers that he didn't remember writing at all and called "the book that coke wrote"? Or is there more than one?

He said somewhere he didn't fully remember much of Tommyknockers but at the same time he was admitting that the quality of that book dips really bad in the second half and was probably talking more about that.

 

[Mad Asshatter]

Of King's books, I liked 'Pet Semetary' and 'Cujo' the best. 'It' was kind of good, I liked it for the most part, just could have done without the gangbang scene.
'Christine' was alright, and 'A Buick 8' was quite lulzy bad.

Of the movies based on them, it depends. The Chapter 1s of both It iterations were really good, the Chapter 2s tended to suck, but the newest It's sucked more.

Cujo still holds up quite well, so no complaints there.

For Pet Semetary, both iterations had strengths and weaknesses. The newest iteration had a lot more creepiness to it. The stuff with the dad combing the hair of the dead girl, the unnatural way she acted, was much better then the first one where it tried to be 'funny' in parts.

However, the older one had the better creepy atmosphere with the burial grounds themselves. Somehow It kind of feels more surreal and eerie when you see it plainly during the day, verses when you see it at night.

However, the biggest gripe I have of both movies is that there should have done a bit more on the Wendigo. Yes, there is a picture of it in the newer movie, but other then it just showing up and 'souring' the ground, why is it there? In real life AmerIndian lore they tend to be a creature directly linked with cannibalism, so unless it's some King woo I am missing, it just starts looking like one simply wandered across the all-you-can-eat buffet of a lifetime, stuck around, then people started inventing 'ominous' reasons why it does anything.

 

[Chan Fan]

Of King's books, I liked 'Pet Semetary' and 'Cujo' the best. 'It' was kind of good, I liked it for the most part, just could have done without the gangbang scene.
'Christine' was alright, and 'A Buick 8' was quite lulzy bad.

Of the movies based on them, it depends. The Chapter 1s of both It iterations were really good, the Chapter 2s tended to suck, but the newest It's sucked more.

Cujo still holds up quite well, so no complaints there.

For Pet Semetary, both iterations had strengths and weaknesses. The newest iteration had a lot more creepiness to it. The stuff with the dad combing the hair of the dead girl, the unnatural way she acted, was much better then the first one where it tried to be 'funny' in parts.

However, the older one had the better creepy atmosphere with the burial grounds themselves. Somehow It kind of feels more surreal and eerie when you see it plainly during the day, verses when you see it at night.

However, the biggest gripe I have of both movies is that there should have done a bit more on the Wendigo. Yes, there is a picture of it in the newer movie, but other then it just showing up and 'souring' the ground, why is it there? In real life AmerIndian lore they tend to be a creature directly linked with cannibalism, so unless it's some King woo I am missing, it just starts looking like one simply wandered across the all-you-can-eat buffet of a lifetime, stuck around, then people started inventing 'ominous' reasons why it does anything.

As far as the book is concerned there was a scene that was meant to be funny at the beginning where Louis has Gage on his back as they walk down to the cemetery and Gage keeps kicking him and grabbing his hair (just being a baby, not intending to be mean) and maybe the part where Ellie says Church was "getting his nuts cut." The creepiest scene in the book (for me) was Louis following Judd to the burial grounds and not being able to see around him but hearing giant creatures moving through the woods. Oh, and the scene where Church was brought back and rubbed against Louis's leg in the garage and he started screaming.

 

[L50LasPak]

'A Buick 8' was quite lulzy bad.

Why the hell are you taking shots at Buick 8? That's a perfectly servicable horror novel!

Regarding movies, as much as everyone says Shawshank Redemption is the greatest movie of all time and its constantly in an epic fistfight with Citizen Kane for that title, I personally say Christine is the best King adaptaion. You have John Carpenter both directing and scoring it, that car is nightmarishly terrifying, the acting is overall pretty good despite being a little dated, and overall its tough to top the effects. The only criticisms you can really level against it is that its a miracle the stunt driver wasn't killed in some scenes due to the blacked-out windows and a bunch of beautiful old cars got completely fucking wrecked in the process.

Actually, you can even credit Carpenter with Buick 8's cover, since there's a famous scene in the film version of Christine where her radiator cover is so smashed up it looks like giant metal teeth. What's on Buick 8's cover? A car with a radiator covering that looks like giant metal teeth.

 

[Cosmos]

Stephen King is not the greatest author who’s ever lived, but I enjoy his work a lot and think he’s talented. I prefer his short stories though, because he has a lot of difficulty ending longer stories on a satisfying note. My favorite short stories are:

• The Jaunt
• The Raft
• The Road Virus Heads North
• Survivor Type
• I Am the Doorway
• 1408
• Suffer the Little Children
• Herman Wouk is Still Alive
• Rainy Season
• Uncle Otto’s Truck
• The Boogeyman

As for his full-length books, I really like:

• Carrie
• Misery
• The Institute
• Rose Madder
• Needful Things
• It
• Firestarter

I’ve been meaning to read more of his full-length novels.

 

[Your_Fairy_Wish_Prince]

As far as the book is concerned there was a scene that was meant to be funny at the beginning where Louis has Gage on his back as they walk down to the cemetery and Gage keeps kicking him and grabbing his hair (just being a baby, not intending to be mean) and maybe the part where Ellie says Church was "getting his nuts cut." The creepiest scene in the book (for me) was Louis following Judd to the burial grounds and not being able to see around him but hearing giant creatures moving through the woods. Oh, and the scene where Church was brought back and rubbed against Louis's leg in the garage and he started screaming.

I thought that the giant creatures where supposed to be skinwalkers? Idk, I could be remembering wrong, I read that book in junior high and that was more than 15 years ago, but somehow I remember the main character blundering through the woods and confusing the moon for the blind eye of a Windigo running with puss.