The Stephen King Thread - Part 1

[redhawk23]

I'm reading 11/22/63 and it's pretty good so far. I'm liking the connections with [BLACKOUT]It[/BLACKOUT] that he put in there.

I don't mind the detour to Derry, but I think he goes a bit to far by including some characters.

 

[Marvolo]

Pet Semetary is one of the most unnerving things I've ever read. Its really unpleasant.

This seems to be the general consensus even from King himself. I just hope I haven't set my expectations too high. I'm expecting some wicked stuff to go down. The cat is already giving me the wiggins.

 

[Marvolo]

Finished Pet Sematary. Some thoughts:

In the introduction King says that the story was born from an event in which his own child nearly got into the road and the "what ifs" if his child had gotten into the road. That's the gods honest truth of the matter cause this book is like one of those dark "what ifs" cranked up to 11. The way the book follows a fairly normal set of days with this family for the first half of the book and then just wollops you with Gage's death and the aftermath is unsettling. Apart from the Church stuff 80% of the book reads like a family tragedy. It doesn't feel like a supernatural ghost story until that last 20% and even then i wouldnt call it that. That stuff at the end on the surface is supernatural, but there is something much deeper that King was getting at I think. I just cant quite put my finger on it. It is more like a metaphor for the insanity that can grip a grieving family leading to the ruin of the whole unit leaving it a half alive shell of its former self stumbling around clumsily . I expected ghosts and weird shenanigans throughout, but what I got was a lot darker. I wouldn't call this book scary. Its sad and depressing it anything.

 

[DeGenerate10]

Just started reading the Shining. They just arrived at the hotel. I feel like it was pretty slow leading up to that point though.

 

[Rodrigo90]

Keep reading, things will soon pick up

 

[jonathancrane]

Rodrigo90 is correct.

Oddly enough, I feel that the Shining has not had the perfect adaptation yet: Kubrick made a terrifying film, but is quite removed from the source material. King penned a faithful adaptation, but due to the medium (network tv) it lacked the punch that Kubrick's film had.

Bit of trivia regarding Kubrick's film: according to an essay in one critical volume on King I found in my school's library, Kubrick (allegedly) spent around a million trying to get the hedge animals to work, but after they failed to work, he switched to the maze instead.

 

[squeekness]

That was back before CGI, lol. It would be easy now.

 

[:eek:]

Stephen King's 'Doctor Sleep' Revisits 'The Shining' — Nearly 30 Years Later

http://www.aarp.org/entertainment/books/info-08-2013/stephen-king-doctor-sleep-excerpt.html

 

[redhawk23]

Finished the second Dark Tower book, The Drawing of the Three. I really liked it. It really captures what I've always seen as King's strengths but then kind of takes them to their logical end.

Though it has been exacerbated in recent times, King is often known for not quite sticking the landing with his endings, or for meandering in the middle. Essentially he doesn't completely plot things out or know where things are necessarily going to end up. He follows his characters where they want to go, and that is where I think his true strength lie, in his characters. Even if the character themselves isn't the most memerorable, their headspace always feels real. King often delves into the backstories of even the most minor characters with little vignette flashbacks that almost work as short stories in and of themselves. His portrayal of internal thoughts is for my money the most accurate that I've seen in any writing, the way a song can get stuck in your head, how you can latch on to little quotes and apply to them your own meaning

I bring this up because with the Drawing of the Three, the focus is almost entirely upon character, the only plot, such it were, Roland trudging north up a beach to find a series of dimensional doors, is almost just a bare frame story for introducing the other characters and their lives.

 

[Whiskey Tango]

My mom hated Drawing of the Three, her biggest complaint and the element she always brings up is that the beach part with the lobsters seemed to go on and on forever. I think it's just that she hated [BLACKOUT]Roland losing his fingers, hehe. She hated he Stand because he killed off her favorite characters in that one too[/BLACKOUT]

And that speaks to King's characterization, imo.

I think DotT is the best overall book in the DT series myself, and by a pretty wide margin.

 

[Whiskey Tango]

For my part, my quest to read and collect King in hardback, in order, continues.

I'm a little off. The Backman books, particularly Rage, are going to prove hard to find affordably. And The Stand was next on my read list, but I've read it over half a dozen times, the last of which was last year, so I feeel safe in skipping it for the time being.

So I read Rose Madder, and I remembered loving it back when it came out in the 90's, and I loved it just as much now. And no one ever mentions it among King's best and while it might not make my Top 10 it's damn close. Very underrated.

If they make a movie, I feel like whoever plays Norman might have a shot at Kathy Bates as Annie Wlkes fame.

And so I move onto Dead Zone, the LAST 'classic' King book I haven't yet read, which is kind of depressing.

 

[Piper Maru]

Hurry up and read Dead Zone, you're missing out!

 

[:eek:]

Finished the second Dark Tower book, The Drawing of the Three. I really liked it. It really captures what I've always seen as King's strengths but then kind of takes them to their logical end.

Though it has been exacerbated in recent times, King is often known for not quite sticking the landing with his endings, or for meandering in the middle. Essentially he doesn't completely plot things out or know where things are necessarily going to end up. He follows his characters where they want to go, and that is where I think his true strength lie, in his characters. Even if the character themselves isn't the most memerorable, their headspace always feels real. King often delves into the backstories of even the most minor characters with little vignette flashbacks that almost work as short stories in and of themselves. His portrayal of internal thoughts is for my money the most accurate that I've seen in any writing, the way a song can get stuck in your head, how you can latch on to little quotes and apply to them your own meaning

I bring this up because with the Drawing of the Three, the focus is almost entirely upon character, the only plot, such it were, Roland trudging north up a beach to find a series of dimensional doors, is almost just a bare frame story for introducing the other characters and their lives.

I think you can say that King is an honest writer in the sense that he doesn't throw in a lot of twists and turns in his stories just for the sake of trying to surprise the reader. Even The Dark Tower is a rather simple story, in spite of stretching over seven books (eight if you want to count The Wind Through the Keyhole), if you compare it to a lot of other multi-novel fantasy series

 

[squeekness]

For my part, my quest to read and collect King in hardback, in order, continues.

I'm a little off. The Backman books, particularly Rage, are going to prove hard to find affordably. And The Stand was next on my read list, but I've read it over half a dozen times, the last of which was last year, so I feeel safe in skipping it for the time being.

So I read Rose Madder, and I remembered loving it back when it came out in the 90's, and I loved it just as much now. And no one ever mentions it among King's best and while it might not make my Top 10 it's damn close. Very underrated.

If they make a movie, I feel like whoever plays Norman might have a shot at Kathy Bates as Annie Wlkes fame.

And so I move onto Dead Zone, the LAST 'classic' King book I haven't yet read, which is kind of depressing.

My sister got lucky and found Rage at a used books sale. Some folks just don't realize how obscure that story is and let a fine collector's item go. I was lucky and already had a copy before King stopped publishing it.

 

[Sawyer]

NY Times: Stephen King's Family Business

Pretty good read.

 

[Whiskey Tango]

Hurry up and read Dead Zone, you're missing out!

I'm 100 pages in and Johnny's just waking up. I'm hooked! Not sure why I put this one off for so long.

My sister got lucky and found Rage at a used books sale. Some folks just don't realize how obscure that story is and let a fine collector's item go. I was lucky and already had a copy before King stopped publishing it.

I do have it in paperback but hardcover is going to be more elusive. I hit up a fair amount of yard sales and flea markets, tho, so maybe I'll get lucky.

 

[:eek:]

Collector takes Stephen King movie's goblin on ‘tour’

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/life_and_entertainment/2013/08/08/a-popular-prop.html

 

[Whiskey Tango]

Collector takes Stephen King movie's goblin on ‘tour’

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/life_and_entertainment/2013/08/08/a-popular-prop.html

Raimi should have made Willem Dafoe wear that thing instead of the goofy Coneheads helmet.

 

[:eek:]

King on Revival

Posted: August 12, 2013, 14:59:26
Section: Book » Revival

During his recent event at the Mark Twain House event in Hartford, King had this to say about Revival:

The main character is a kid who learns how to play guitar, and I can relate to this guy because he's not terribly good. He's just good enough to catch on with a number of bands and play for a lot of years. The song that he learns to play first is the song that I learned to play first, which was 'Cherry, Cherry' by Neil Diamond. One of the great rock progressions: E-A-D-A.


Thanks to Bev Vincent

 

[DeGenerate10]

Finished The Shining a few weeks ago. I'm really excited for Doctor Sleep.

 

[:eek:]

Two new books finished?

Posted: August 15, 2013, 15:04:40
Section: Book » Mr. Mercedes

Looks like King has finished a first draft of Mr. Mercedes. The moderator posted the following about the book on the official message board:

Finished it last night--was a real page-turner for me. Am hoping not much gets changed in the edits.


She also posted that…


Then I won't mention that I'm thinking about starting Revival next.


Looks like both Mr. Mercedes and Revival are finished. In first drafts at least…

 

[The Navigator]

Two new books? Man, I wish GRRM could write as fast as this guy.

 

[jonathancrane]

To be fair, they are not 1,000 page fantasy texts entrenched in a couple hundred pages of notes, timelines, religions, and of course, family trees...

 

[squeekness]

Two new books? Man, I wish GRRM could write as fast as this guy.

I had always thought King to be a speedy writer of quality books. I found that out when I joined his book club and the treasures just kept coming and coming...

 

[The Navigator]

Found these cool Dark Tower posters: