The Works of Stephen King

[monsterzero]

Okay, just got back from FUBAR thread and King was mentioned as defending him. Which in turn lead to us talking about King's journeys from bestselling horror writer to befriending George Romero to Pet Sematary to...well, writing bad repetitive stuff, odd stuff like the masturbatory 'I nearly DIED' pap like On Writing and now to screwing up the Dark Tower and blabbering on about pop stars and making rumblings about retiring.

So, what do you think of King? Did he lose it or does his literary career still have some value?

[Deleted]

I like his older stuff, like The Shining and Salem's Lot. Then all his books became bloated -- I don't think anyone dares to edit him these days so he can freely ramble on and on. I recall, for instance, in the book It, there were quite a few pages towards the beginning devoted to a character who, it turned out, you never saw again in the book. It was going into her high school experiences and her thoughts about her life. I was carefully absorbing all this, assuming it would become important somewhere along the line. But, no, there really was no point to it at all.

But where he really lost me was coming out with that "original" version of The Stand. He claimed he was putting back material that had been edited out the first time around but clearly that's bull. He makes pop culture references that didn't exist at the time the book first came out. So obviously, for some crazy ego reason, he pretty much re-wrote his own book. And some of the stuff he added in was nasty:

1) A guy rapes another guy with a pistol, and 2) a roving band of thugs keeps (and visciously sexually abuses) a "harem" of enslaved women.

I spoilered that just in case. It was just so unnecessarilly vile.

[mrsbootsie]

Whoa, he screwed up the Dark Tower? I am halfway through book 4, Wizard and Glass. Please tell me he doesn't go off the deep end with these books, cause I've really enjoyed them up to this point. If he does, I need to prepare myself.

Love 'Salem's Lot and The Shinning. I read them every year in october, cause I'm a dork like that.

[monsterzero]

But where he really lost me was coming out with that "original" version of The Stand. He claimed he was putting back material that had been edited out the first time around but clearly that's bull. He makes pop culture references that didn't exist at the time the book first came out. So obviously, for some crazy ego reason, he pretty much re-wrote his own book.

What gets worse is that he keeps rewriting that book over and over again to make it 'more current.' What's the point? What, does he expect every fan to go out every year and buy another big ass paperback of a book they've read and have again just so they can keep the illusion that the story is just a few short years away? Hello? I remember I had a Scifi/Horror teacher that raved about how neat that was but come on! It's been at least fifteen years since the book came out: what's the point? Gah!

Mrsbootsie, I don't know first hand that he screwed up the Dark Tower but I heard complaints from readers back on the other board about how he somehow did the 'On Writing' thing with it and ruined the whole experience. Granted, this is from someone who hasn't touched a Dark Tower book in about ten years so who am I do say. Just be warned.

Come on, am I the only English student who was cursed to read 'On Writing?'

[mrsbootsie]

Come on, am I the only English student who was cursed to read 'On Writing?'

Not an english major and I haven't read it. But I did write my 11th grade honors American Literature term paper on SK and his use of childhood images to create elements of horror, and how it's illustrative of Bruno Bettleheim's book, Uses of Enchantment. Got an A too.
It took time to convince my teacher that this was a worthy topic but anything was better than having to write about Hawthorn, which she was going to assign me if I couldn't come up with a topic.

I heard that he writes himself into the last Dark Tower book....as part of the story. My mom, who loves the books, told me this enthusiastically. I kind of cringed when I heard it but maybe it won't be so bad.

[goggle]

monsterzero said:

Come on, am I the only English student who was cursed to read 'On Writing?'

My grandpa found that book in his basement, which is full of tons of books noone's going to read. He gave it to me, and it's sitting under my dresser, where I'm not going to read it either.

[marywebgirl]

Does he still have a column in Entertainment Weekly? I remember one of the early ones was a review of Order of the Phoenix, and it was a pretty good review.

[polygal]

My mom got a copy of From a Buick 8 or whatever its called from her book club for free once. She thinks he's a hack and gave it to me. I got five pages in and fell asleep. That was over two years ago. Maybe I'll get around to it this summer if I don't get anything else to read.

Before his FUBAR piece, he had a column in EW that was his picks for summer's biggest movie hits. Most of which were the big budget movies with enough promotion to choke someone.

[treyother]

I read On Writing for myself, not being in college, and found it a bit disjointed, but readable.

I could not finish the first book in the Dark Tower series, and I'm glad I didn't try harder, if it falls apart.

Monster Zero, which part of On Writing did you dislike most? Maybe I should read it again?

[ang]

I think the last thing Stephen King relaesed that I enjoyed was the two books that kinda cross over - The regulators and...Desperation. That was in 96.

I like the older stuff, but one book disturbed me beyond description. Y'know in friends when Joey kept The Shining in the freezer cos it freaked him out?
Geralds Game did that for me. I cant even look at the book in the library, it gives me an awful feeling. I dont know if thats a good thing, to have scared me so thouroughly, or a bad thing.