The Works of Stephen King

[ladymadonna]

^ ITA. The Regulators and Desperation were the last two books of his that I read all the way through, and even then, I've only read them once each.

I used to LOVE SK. I stayed up all night one time to finish Pet Sematary. I've read The Stand about 10 times. Ditto for Misery, Carrie, IT, Cujo, Christine, and The Shining. I even really enjoyed Needful Things.

It's like he just lost whatever it was that he had when he had his accident. Sad.

[huntergrayson]

Does he still have a column in Entertainment Weekly?

Yes and it is really annoying. Wing Chun and FTer's hate of it is spot on. Because it's like the most obvious things ever, combined with a folksy, "Uncle Stevie" act. His latest backpage column made the amazing discovery that the DVD extras for big-budget movies are often cheap, crass and conceived solely to sell. I know. Because I expected Meet The Fockers and Day After Tomorrow to give me insight into brilliant filmmaking. Lame.

Doubly so because he says "special editions" and alternate endings and such are often a ripoff and y'all informed me of "The Stand:Expanded Edition - Complete and Uncut!" rewritten 13 years later.

[monsterzero]

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

It was the part where he started giving the reader an autobiography of himself thanks to his car accident and he both started rewriting/ignoring his own history ("Hey, I did cocaine in the '80s, but enough of that!") and then talking about the accident. And while I know events like that can change your life, I think putting them into the guise of a book that supposedly teaches you how to write is both bad taste and quite a plea for attention. It annoyed me because I had to read it for a composition class and thus was forced to listen to some aging hasbeen writer (this was around 1999-2000) blab on and on about his own damn life. The sad thing is that five years after the fact I still can't remember if the book even said anything worthwhile about writing. Shit, it was so awful I gave the teacher my recommendation for a writing book: Bradbury's 'Zen and the Art of Writing.' Yeah, it doesn't teach you any mechanics of the writing process but damned if it isn't entertaining. More enthusiasm-based than pathos 'oh look, me die one day' bullshit.

Yes and it is really annoying. Wing Chun and FTer's hate of it is spot on. Because it's like the most obvious things ever, combined with a folksy, "Uncle Stevie" act. His latest backpage column made the amazing discovery that the DVD extras for big-budget movies are often cheap, crass and conceived solely to sell. I know. Because I expected Meet The Fockers and Day After Tomorrow to give me insight into brilliant filmmaking. Lame.

King probably thinks he's a filmmaking genius as well since he was buds with George Romero back in the '80s. You know, when he did 'Maximum Overdrive' and had to be helped when the crew realized he didn't know what he was doing.

[Deleted]

I'm a fan (note my screen name).

I read On Writing on my own and enjoyed the bits about actual writing. I could relate to a lot of what he said about where his ideas come from. Like, you take Character A from that grocery store down the street, combine it w/ Character B from back in college, and then drop them into Situation C that you saw on the news that night. I also liked the "boys in the basement" mentality of putting a story together. I don't know, I guess I'm just odd for liking it.

I think everything he wrote before The Dark Half was excellent and creepy. Once I read The Dark Half, though, I could feel a noticeable change. I've always wondered if he quit drinking and drugging right around then, and can't seem to put a story together w/o the outside influences. If that's true, that's pretty sad, since he'll probably enver write anything as good as Carrie or The Stand again, if he stays sober.

[Deleted]

I'll admit I've only read a couple of his novels. I'm not especially a fan of his. Some of his short stories (novellas?) were pretty good, though. One thing that really struck me about them (especially since I've just been rereading some Ray Bradbury stuff, and which is true for him as well) is the thread of nostalgia that runs through much of his stuff. You know, boyhood and summertime in the 50's, the smell of freshly cut grass and bubble gum, childhood friendships, etc. Maybe it's just the two of them, or maybe lots of male authors are into the whole nostalgia thing.

[zacandmax]

I like Richard Bachman MUCH better.
I like King but always felt (especially in his later stuff) that his ego was out of control.

[treyother]

Now that I've found my copy of On Writing, I'm going to re-read it looking for what you were talking about, Monster Zero.

Somehow I missed the cocaine reference the first time.

[monsterzero]

I remember he says it quite openly about him going into rehab in the '80s. As for the Bradbury comparison, you do have a point. Both Bradbury and King are two writers who started in a specialized field and then evolved into what we could call Great American Writers in which they wrote damn fine stories that didn't fit into their previous work. Only difference is that while Bradbury seems to have a bottomless pit of enthusiasm that leaks through his work, King petered out and went back to the genre writing that doesn't have the heart in it that he wishes it to have.

[Deleted]

Whoa, he screwed up the Dark Tower?

Well... the ending is anti-climatic to say the least.

SPOILER: Click to show

What with the story starting over again. That and he kills all my favorite characters and of course he writes himself into the story. Car accident and all.

Does anyone else think that he should just leave the guy who hit him alone and just stop writing about him? Everytime SK writes about the incident the driver's IQ drops 5 points. It's getting to the point where I feel sorry for the guy.

[monsterzero]

Does anyone else think that he should just leave the guy who hit him alone and just stop writing about him? Everytime SK writes about the incident the driver's IQ drops 5 points. It's getting to the point where I feel sorry for the guy.

Fixation is never a good thing. Maybe old Steve there is having some issues with Acquired Narcissism Disorder (check the Oprah thread for more on that) and his constant reference back to the accident is his reaction to the world finally becoming back to 'reality' for him. And seriously, why he decided to ruin the only good thing he had left to his creative name is beyond me. I was going to get into it but now I'm thinking it's best if I saved my money, read the summary on Wikipedia (if one exists), and calling it a day for SK there.