Stephen King

[tracydani]

Originally posted by Skillian@6 May 2003 - 18:47


Two of my favourites were written by Stephen King writing under the name Richard Bachman: The Running Man (nothing like the movie), and particularly The Long Walk.

I have to go with The Stand for full books and I second both choices below for short stories. I always recomend theses three to people who may think they wouldn't like SK


I am always really tired after reading the long walk too. The story really gets me.


P.S. This Bookworld was a nice thing to come back to. What a way to end a vacation

[hobbes]

Originally posted by MagicNakor+9 May 2003 - 06:40--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (MagicNakor @ 9 May 2003 - 06:40)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteBegin--stoi@9 May 2003 - 03:50
Maybe he done like Magicnakor suggested and changed his style, but to me its a turn for the worst.

That was just speculation, really. I seriously doubt he has, because he&#39;s still raking money in hand over fist. As I said after that comment, "Why fix what ain&#39;t broke?"

[/b][/quote]
Part 1:

I think, at this point, Steve is not writing for the Benjamins. Not hacking them out for spending money. I think ideas well up inside of his mind spontaneously and this is how he decompresses himself. He acts a transcriptionist for the bard of story.

I don&#39;t mean to discredit the effort he must put forth to write the book, but rather to say that he has access to a "source" which most of us can never tap.

Hardwork and practice can only get you so far and this is what separates the virtuoso from the hack (Dean Koontz).

[hobbes]

Part 2:

I understand how people can get frustrated in reading King, as I have noticed one irritating tendency.

It is his pattern of teasing us in, then backing up to introduce all the characters. He never describes the character, but rather relays a story about him from which we can get to know "what he is about". The classic case of this was "IT", 5 main characters, each with about 100+ pages of getting to know that character and his relationship to the story which is about to unfold. So 600 pages in, the story begins.

This is a tendancy, but not the rule. But I have thought to myself, here we go again, lets meet the cast.

[FuNkY CaPrIcOrN]

Needfull Things.

[hobbes]

Originally posted by Skweeky@8 May 2003 - 19:30
My favourite is &#39;The shining&#39;, no doubt, and also that book about these kids that find a corps in the woods (can&#39;t remember the title right now)

But I don&#39;t like Stephen King that much either, I must agree that his work isn&#39;t really original. They&#39;re all variations on the same theme (is that even an english expression? )

Part 3:

How he can be considered unoriginal is lost on me. If you see a theme, tell me what it is.

His theme really is that he touches us where we are human, he varies genres (horror, sci-fi, adventure, drama) as the mood strikes him.

King really knows how to make you feel comfortable with him as his stories often give very personal information about him. He will talk about intimate things that he could never learn from research in the library, but only from personal experience. It is a general understanding that everyone masturbates, but no one talks about it, personally ( How many people have started a conversation with, "Anyway, I was masturbating at my computer last night, when this terrible noise came from outside....). He does, and this gloves off approach makes the experience intimate.

We all know his core:

Salems Lot (Jerusalems Lot)
Carrie, Cujo, Christine ( the "pop" years)
The Shining
Pet Sematary


And his Sci-Fi side:

I hate sci-fi- never picked one up


But he has written books which make people say, "King wrote that, I never would have guessed".

The body (Stand by me)- This is just about curiosity and adventure
The Shawshank Redemption- A male bonding movie, best ever.

I think there are many King books that people never pick up because he has been stereotyped as a horror guy. He is more about the story, than the genre.

Geralds Game is a rather unique start to a book. Man handcuffs his naked wife to bedpost in their secluded summer home as part of a sex game, then falls over dead of a heart attack. Ok, your naked, handuffed and isolated. Oh, by the way, he left the backdoor open, too. Anyway....Action.

Needful Things has a very clever mechanism for developing the story. It is a story about good and evil, but the way in which the finally conflict blossoms is much more interesting.


Anyway, I am having trouble finding the right words to describe King so I will sign off with this. King is a great storyteller who makes the reading experience personal. He uses multiple genres to discuss topics dear to him, that being the central emotions that connect us all and make us human. The story itself is just a vehicle he uses to address them.

[RedRival]

The Shining and the 2 carrie books.
I read the Green Mile and thought i was bit lengthy but the movie was alright.
I liked the compilation of stories, bah I borrowed the book but I forgotten the name...it was a new publication though.

Now that you guys mention Stephen King, I was wondering...
I remember watching a show on TV, I think it was The Stand but not absolutely sure. There were this weird eaters or something that are devouring the Earth&#39;s surface but eating off the land etc...

I think it&#39;s a Stephen King story...not sure. The last episode had this guys escaping on a aeroplane when the airport and runway was being eaten off. Okay this sounds corny and I&#39;m not absolutely sure whether it is a Stephen King production in the first place.

Watched The Shining too which seems a lot creepier than reading...

[Grim]

Answer to RedRival
It was called "The Langoliers"
Read that book so long ago i forget how long. As always, the books are always better than the films.

P.S
Stephen played a very very weenie part in this film. At the airport when that carckerjack was having his halucinations, Stehpen was sat at the big dining table, did anybody else notice this?

[RedRival]

no, I hardly remember the film. I was about 11-12 years old then.
But the throught of the world being consumed kinda of struck me a little and left me an impression.

[Grim]

Originally posted by RedRival@11 May 2003 - 12:58
no, I hardly remember the film. I was about 11-12 years old then.
But the throught of the world being consumed kinda of struck me a little and left me an impression.

So your are aboot 18 now. The film was made in 95 & the book was written in 1990. It was a short story in "Four Past Midnight". I must have read that when it first came oot. I started reading when my wife left me in 85, it was the only way to get her from my mind (woe was me ), i was so much in love with her.