stephen king c/d?

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Just keep your hair out of the water and you'll be fine.

― Stuart (Stuart), Monday, 23 February 2004 07:56 (9 years ago) Permalink

"There's an audio CD of the Mist..."

Dude, did you see my post upthread?

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Monday, 23 February 2004 08:06 (9 years ago) Permalink

Haha, no. Amazon still had the CD as of a couple of years ago.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Monday, 23 February 2004 08:10 (9 years ago) Permalink

At 15, C of C, OTM. The Shining, Christine, The Stand, and It. And Misery.

I stopped caring before the first chapter of Delores Claiborne ended (tho that movie was good).

― weather1ngda1eson (Brian), Monday, 23 February 2004 08:58 (9 years ago) Permalink

Yeah, Bachman books - classic. The 4 stories in "Different Seasons" are pretty good. The only one not made into a movie was my favourite - The Long Walk. Basically a near-future-reality-show concept piece. Very simple: 100 people (mostly young) start walking down a highway. If you drop below 4 miles per hour, you get a warning. After the 3rd warning, you are shot dead (the military follow your progress). Last one alive "wins" (you get whatever you want). I almost hope reality TV goes this way someday...

― Rob Bolton (Rob Bolton), Monday, 23 February 2004 10:07 (9 years ago) Permalink

Yeah, Salem's Lot and The Mist scared the piss out of me as a young'un.

― Rob Bolton (Rob Bolton), Monday, 23 February 2004 10:08 (9 years ago) Permalink

You could just take them out of the running instead of shooting them. Some people might argue that only the threat of death can provide sufficient motivation to determine the "real" winner. Anyway, 4mph isn't very fast.

― Stuart (Stuart), Monday, 23 February 2004 14:14 (9 years ago) Permalink

Average normal pedestrial walking speed is like 3.375 mph.

― Stuart (Stuart), Monday, 23 February 2004 14:17 (9 years ago) Permalink

Are you getting Different Seasons confused with The Bachman Books, Rob? The Breathing Method is the only story out of DS that wasn't filmed: The Running Man is the only one of BBs that was.

Short stories: great. Dark Tower also good in principle (the first one was only good enough to get me vaguely interested in the seond one, which was great), but if it turns out that I'd have to read all his other books to understand the next volume, I'll be pissed off.

You have to reckon he's jumped the shark when he starts making TV miniseries of all his longer stories, including The Shining. Apparently the film was fine, but not what he was looking for.

And Christine to thread!

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 23 February 2004 14:37 (9 years ago) Permalink

Good things about Stephen King:

1. The Shining
2. The Strand was good as I recall though the middle 500 pages dragged a bit
3. He wrote some book about dragons. I forget what it was called but dragons are so awesome.
4. His short stories I think are generally excellent, and much different from his fiction. They're published in the New Yorker and other such magazines quite often. He had an excellent one about highway restroom graffiti.
5. Also he got hit by a truck, which is so crazy. Then he wrote lots of memoirs about being hit by a truck. The one celebrity we have in the whole state of Maine gets mauled by a drunk driver. I thought we should have put his giant creepy head on our state quarter, but apparently that wasn't taken into consideration.

― j c (j c), Monday, 23 February 2004 14:45 (9 years ago) Permalink

The Stand I mean. The Strand is a bookstore I have to go to this afternoon. Apologies.

― j c (j c), Monday, 23 February 2004 14:46 (9 years ago) Permalink

least scary element in a bad s.k. novel: killer coke machine in the tommyknockers. course, he was high on coke at the time, so it makes sense. i kinda love the fact that he doesn't remember writing cujo. If you had asked me what the great american novel was 20 years ago i would have said The Stand. I love everything up until the novel he doesn't remember writing. it was touch and go after that. hate when he takes a short story idea and adds an extra 700 pages a la Insomnia.

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 23 February 2004 14:46 (9 years ago) Permalink

Eye of the Dragon - about the prince locked up in the tower who steals threads from napkins and weaves them into a rope using the tiny loom in his doll house.

― Stuart (Stuart), Monday, 23 February 2004 14:49 (9 years ago) Permalink

>Are you getting Different Seasons confused with The Bachman Books, Rob
Yes. Yes I am. It's been a while...

>Anyway, 4mph isn't very fast

True. This is the beauty of the contest. The 100 starters can go on for quite a while before the 1st person is shot, which is obviously a sobering event for the remaining 99. Only after about 48 hours things start to go a bit crazy. People start to freak out, as one would expect. Dunno why that story stuck with me for so long - it's a disturbing concept.

― Rob Bolton (Rob Bolton), Monday, 23 February 2004 14:51 (9 years ago) Permalink

they aren't even advertising this film as by Stephen King, so maybe they've realized that his name attached to a film = box office death these days.
-- anthony kyle monday
then why "stephen king's kingdom hospital"?

-- s1ocki

Stephen King signing on to the Kingdom remake is the only thing that got it made; it's been in and out of production for years, so I assume they're tagging it with his name because they aren't confident in it except as a King vehicle (whereas a Johnny Depp movie is a Johnny Depp movie, and you really don't need the Inspector 13 tag.

I haven't seen Dreamcatcher and don't know if I will, but coming so soon after the extended discussion of "trunk novels" in Bag of Bones (which, love it or hate it, is considerably different in scope, tone, and approach), and King's subsequent accident and public difficulties with returning to writing, I half-assumed it was a trunk novel itself. It certainly reads like one.

― Tep (ktepi), Monday, 23 February 2004 14:54 (9 years ago) Permalink

I recall something about the first story in the Bachman books (Rage) causing a stir because it depicted a fed-up high school kid coming to school with a gun and having a little kill-fest. Apparently it was reading material for a real-life high-school-rage-murder tragedy, but don't recall when/where.

― Rob Bolton (Rob Bolton), Monday, 23 February 2004 14:56 (9 years ago) Permalink

He's great at writing a near-perfect example of a sub-genre. IE Rage is a great "high school shooting" story, The Long Walk is just one beautiful idea, "Survivor Type" is a great cannibal story..

(xpost)

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 23 February 2004 14:57 (9 years ago) Permalink

"Incidently, 'Rage' is the only novel that King admits he wishes he never wrote. Several similar incidents have occured across the United States, and Rage has been mentioned in connection with them. Considering how sympathetic King is to his protagonist, it's easy to see how disillusioned teens could come to identify with its themes"

― Rob Bolton (Rob Bolton), Monday, 23 February 2004 14:58 (9 years ago) Permalink

oh, but classic! cuz even though i don't read his new stuff i still dig him. he's such a kook, and he never makes me cringe really. which is more than i can say for most people who have been in the public eye as long as he has. search:Carrie, Salem's Lot, The Shining, Rage, Night Shift, The Stand, The Dead Zone, Danse Macabre, Firestarter, Different Seasons, Needful Things, The Dark Half, Pet Semetary, Misery, Skeleton Crew, and Thinner (even if you are older than 10-15)

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 23 February 2004 14:59 (9 years ago) Permalink

he never makes me cringe really

No, we have Dean Koontz for that.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 23 February 2004 15:52 (9 years ago) Permalink

Classic, what a way with a trashy yarn! Search: THE LANGOLIERS esp part one of the TV novella. Destroy: Cujo. I mean, it was a bit shit wasn't it.

― Sarah (starry), Monday, 23 February 2004 15:58 (9 years ago) Permalink

That Mist dramatization is floating around on soulseek.

― Stuart (Stuart), Monday, 23 February 2004 16:16 (9 years ago) Permalink

The best Stephen King audio I've heard -- although the person I heard it with says The Mist one is great, too -- is "1408," the haunted hotel room story from Blood and Smoke, his audio-only thing. The first time I heard it was in the middle of the night, in the middle of a ten hour road trip through east Texas and southern Louisiana, which probably added a lot to the overall effect.

― Tep (ktepi), Monday, 23 February 2004 16:31 (9 years ago) Permalink

the langoliers is really cool too.

i mean the thing with stephen king is he's really good at writing really readable stuff, and he has some neat ideas, but man oh man does he repeat himself. which is kind of interesting in a way, i guess. it's like he applies whatever good idea he has to the basic mold of "writer in maine" and lets it rip.

(obviously that applies more to the novels)

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 23 February 2004 17:02 (9 years ago) Permalink

you know what else is good? "the juant"

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 23 February 2004 17:09 (9 years ago) Permalink

sorry, "the jaunt"

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 23 February 2004 17:10 (9 years ago) Permalink

a good man, a quiet neighbor ( even though he doesnt tip the pizza boy)

― kephm, Monday, 23 February 2004 17:20 (9 years ago) Permalink

And Christine to thread!

Me?

I like him. I haven't read the new Dark Tower book yet, though. I've neglected literary pursuits quite badly of late. The revised version of the first volume is a big improvement, BTW.

(There goes my resolution not to post. Ego can be terrible.)

― ChrissieH (chrissie1068), Monday, 23 February 2004 21:31 (9 years ago) Permalink

Bag of Bones is my favorite of all of them - then The Green Mile - after that, well, fuck it, I loved them all.

Except Rose Madder and Gerald's Game.

― luna (luna.c), Monday, 23 February 2004 21:33 (9 years ago) Permalink

3 weeks pass...

Am reading the Dark Tower series right now. Currently sucking down the 3rd book, and will probably go pick up the 4th before the week is out. Interesting evolution between the 1st two books in the series, as they were seperated by 20 years and almost a completely new quality of writing.

― Kingfish Cowboy (Kingfish), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 20:33 (9 years ago) Permalink

classic for inspiring his doppleganger garth merenghi

― pete s, Tuesday, 16 March 2004 20:37 (9 years ago) Permalink

I saw Secret Window on the Weekend, and aside from being another story about an isolated writer, it was pretty good. Mainly cuz of J.Depp and J.Tur though.

― The Huckle-Buck (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 20:39 (9 years ago) Permalink

dud if you are over 13

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 20:39 (9 years ago) Permalink

I only read the first two dark tower books, I liked them (the first more than the second), are the rest better? Does it feel like it's building into a massive, thread-tying, career-summation sort of masterpiece? Or just a longwinded yarn that doesn't go anywhere?

― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 20:42 (9 years ago) Permalink

Argument for the classic -- providing inspiration to Brent Hanley, whose script for Frailty showed it, and very well at that.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 21:02 (9 years ago) Permalink

Classic for about 3/4 of the story, up until he realizes that he can't get himself out of the corner he's written himself into and slaps on an abrupt, unsatisfying ending in an attempt to meet deadline.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 23:54 (9 years ago) Permalink

aka 'the Neil Stephenson Disease'

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 01:05 (9 years ago) Permalink

The ending to the Dreamcatcher novel was so bad I refuse to see the movie. I figure it could only get worse.

While on a v. short enforced vacation a couple of years ago, I tore through a couple of his early novels. Firestarter was much better than I was expecting, Carrie was OK and then Dreamcatcher was awful.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 01:09 (9 years ago) Permalink

he has been compared to melville (i think it was the nyrb?) as a writer who can't help but cram everything he knows about anything into his novels. i like that about his writing a lot, i'm usually a bit disappointed when the protagonists finally get around to confronting the monsters and we're dragged away from all the little snapshots of life in semirural maine.

his short stories are, of course, the bomb. his novels usually have the equivalent of two or three short stories crammed in there by way of exposition or introduction. those parts are great too.

gotta agree on the endings, though. tacky! and he does have a bit of a tendency to repeat himself, both in and between works.

― vahid (vahid), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 01:13 (9 years ago) Permalink

Is it worth buying the Stand? Or does he have other/better post-apocalyptic good v. evil-stylee novels?

(I just started A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius last night and the first 50 pages are making me ill, so I need something new.)

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 01:16 (9 years ago) Permalink

Milo, you are wise to reject that book.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 01:19 (9 years ago) Permalink

"the stand" is not total crap, but large portions of it are near-indistiguishable from crap. his good postapocalypse novel is book i of the dark tower series. the rest of the dark tower series = increasingly pretentious and impenetrable (to me, anyway).

― vahid (vahid), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 01:21 (9 years ago) Permalink

actually the stand is good all the way through the apocalypse and the re-establishment of civilization, then veers sharply into crap with The Final Battle Between Good and Evil.

― vahid (vahid), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 01:22 (9 years ago) Permalink

if you really want a good postapocalyptic novel you should read "a cure for cancer" by michael moorcock.

― vahid (vahid), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 01:23 (9 years ago) Permalink

Vahid speaks wisdom. That and Condition of Muzak are my two faves of the original 'tetralogy' as loosely defined/collated.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 01:40 (9 years ago) Permalink

I've had a lot of teachers and people who were supposedly into "real" literature criticize Stephen King for all kinds of reasons. For me the bottom line is that I've found several of his books, and short, stories, very entertaining so I say classic. "IT" might still be the scariest book I've ever read, as if clowns weren't already creepy enough.

― J-rock (Julien Sandiford), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 02:24 (9 years ago) Permalink

DUD DUD DUD (1% classic for inspiring me to inquire of my grandmother "what's a cunt?" at age 8.)

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 18:16 (9 years ago) Permalink

The last part of "A Cure for Cancer" is just as oddball as "The Stand". Both are worth reading, but I like these kind of stories.

"I Am Legend" by Richard Matheson is a good post apocalyptic story and possibly an influence on The Stand.

The Stephen King novel that I think holds up well is "The Dead Zone", I have read that one a couple of times. "Misery" is also pretty good, but the writer's novel part may get a bit long.

― earlnash, Wednesday, 17 March 2004 19:08 (9 years ago) Permalink

just finished book 3 of the Dark Tower series last night, and will be heading into book 4 tonight.

addictive stuff.

― Kingfish Cowboy (Kingfish), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 20:33 (9 years ago) Permalink

Everyone who mentioned the disappointing endings in SK's novels is pretty much OTM. Some of his short (and many of his longer) stories are better that way (The Mist, for eg). That said, novels like Pet Sematary and The Dark Half are creepier and more emotionally involving (actually upsetting) than they have any right to be, and those Bachman books are truly riveting.

Man needs a fucking editor. But he can make you care a whole hell of a lot (why did that phrase just sound like a King phrase?) about his characters and their interactions (with each other and the "landscape/place").

Many classics: Carrie, The Shining, The Stand, Pet Sematary, It, The Dark Half, Misery, Eyes of the Dragon, Dark Tower series.

Indifferent: Needful Things, Christine, Salem's Lot, Thinner (great twist, tho), the Green Mile, Dolores Claiborne.

Duds: Rose Madder, Insomnia, Dreamcatcher, Tommyknockers, The Regulators, etc.

I think ultimately he'll be remembered/revered/lauded more for his novella collections -- The Bachman Books, Different Seasons, and Four Past Midnight -- than for anything else.

― David A. (Davant), Thursday, 18 March 2004 00:20 (9 years ago) Permalink

Skipping 699 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

This 29 year old would be pretty into 50s music and cars. Nothing to do with nostalgia, they were awesome cars and doo-wop is also awesome.

I'm totally not going to read that 900 book about time-travel Kennedy assassination prevention though. I bet it doesn't even bring up stuff like George H.W. Bush being on the grassy knoll or LHO being a Manchurian Candidate prgrammed by the CIA.

― Frobisher the (Viceroy), Tuesday, 22 January 2013 17:46 (4 months ago) Permalink

yeah sadly devoid of the good conspiracies I'm afraid, lol

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 22 January 2013 17:47 (4 months ago) Permalink

Dang, now I'm thinking about "1922," the novella I mentioned from Full Dark, No Stars. Again, I thought it was one of the best pieces of writing SK has ever produced--but I don't recall hearing much enthusiasm about it from others. Am I alone here?

― The Thnig, Tuesday, 22 January 2013 18:14 (4 months ago) Permalink

I still haven't read FDNS, I need to.

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 22 January 2013 18:19 (4 months ago) Permalink

Yeah i don't have FDNS in my holdings either.

― here is no telephone (Jon Lewis), Tuesday, 22 January 2013 18:21 (4 months ago) Permalink

FDNS is terrific. All four of those stories are real page turners, and definitely had the feel of King in his prime. That last one, which was clearly inspired by the BTK killer? Could not stop reading.

― Gollum: "Hot, Ready and Smeagol!" (Phil D.), Tuesday, 22 January 2013 18:26 (4 months ago) Permalink

I have always liked his novellas and short stories better than his long form work, and FDNS is no exception. 1922 was great, but I liked all of the novellas in that collection.

― Ulna (Nicole), Tuesday, 22 January 2013 18:49 (4 months ago) Permalink

xpost Actually, if you read the afterword, King does construct a conspiracy describing his 2% or whatever suspicion that Oswald wasn't acting alone. But I skimmed it. ;) King's alternate reality does end (briefly) with Hillary Clinton as president, though.

This 38 year old loves doo wop and the stuff that 37 year old listens to in the past. Prolly wouldn't move to Texas and mack on a schoolteacher while I waited to save Kennedy, though. So many other cool places to be!

Another invented thing to make fun of "11/22/63" for (though it also had something I liked): Jake recognizes Vic Morrow in "Combat!" as the guy who is killed 20 years later during the making of "Twilight Zone: The Movie," which seemed to me a little too esoteric for this guy to know/recognize. However! In his segment Vic Morrow plays a racist time traveler sent back to (among other places) Vietnam, which ties into many themes of the book and this thread, which King would call a harmonic convergence.

Hey, serious (spoiler again!) question re: the book: the guys with the cards in the hats? King never explains who they are and what they do, really, and what they tell Jake isn't terribly illuminating or even necessary. So what purpose do they serve in the book? (Which I didn't dislike, just mostly found about 200-300 words too long).

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 22 January 2013 18:50 (4 months ago) Permalink

Read 11/22/63 a long time ago (well before it came out) so I can't remember any guys with cards in their hats. I do remember the dystopic ending felt rushed and shoddily conceived next to the long, loving details given to everything in the 60s.

― The Thnig, Tuesday, 22 January 2013 19:15 (4 months ago) Permalink

The significance to me seemed to be the colors of the card, and that that character was the only other character that was seemingly aware of the timetravel portal thingy -- the 'different guys' was the same guy at different spots on the timeline, marked by the changing color of the tag in his hatband. Though I think the Green guy was maybe a different version of him? The one who was like the guardian or whatever. But he was just kind of a signpost guy to reinforce the dangers of timetravel to Al.
The colors acted like radiation signifiers I think? - green safe/yellow mild/orange bad/black chernobyl

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 22 January 2013 19:27 (4 months ago) Permalink

Yeah, I guess that's why I found him/them unnecessary. (And it is a them, I believe). When Jake went back to dystopian future 2011, he would have immediately seen how badly he screwed things up and gone back to "reset" everything. So really I think the man existed strictly as a convenience to explain why Jake couldn't just go back over and over again. But it never says who out him there or why, if his job was to protect the portal, why he did such a shitty job explaining its dangers. Not that any of that matters, or the source of the portal for that matter, either. But since none of it matters, the man's presence jumps out at me as a distraction, another lazy contrivance. Had he not been in the story at all it likely would have (or could have) played out the exact same way.

Another question I had was why he needed to stay in 1958 one last time, write out his (this?) story, and then bury it to be maybe discovered in the future. Why couldn't he have just travelled back to his present like the card man wanted and scribbled out his story when he got home? I actually read the end a couple of times and can't figure it out.

All the times in the past he was playing hide the poundcake or whatever I was convinced he was going to get her pregnant with his own parallel universe grandpa or something.

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 22 January 2013 20:21 (4 months ago) Permalink

who out him there, that should read - the green card man does admit he is human, with a name and everything, which is even more confusing.

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 22 January 2013 20:22 (4 months ago) Permalink

While I'm complaining - and this actually jumped out at me as I was reading, well before I had finished the book, as a contrivance that added nothing but confusion and word count: the narrative paradox of having a guy recount in lucid detail his serious brain damage and memory loss. It was disorienting, like breaking the 180 degree rule in film, and it really added nothing to the story save several pages of phony suspense.

What I'm really trying to say is, Steve - Sai - if you're reading this, and I think you probably are, you've had the best editors, and maybe a couple of bad ones, too. You've made your millions many times over. I think it's time to give me a shot reading a draft. You can use whatever words you want, I promise I won't say anything. Just give me a chance to trim the fat a little. Ok? Thanks.

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 22 January 2013 20:39 (4 months ago) Permalink

Answering my own question: yes, the 1963 novel is still 3.99 on Nook. Buying it!

― here is no telephone (Jon Lewis), Tuesday, 22 January 2013 20:47 (4 months ago) Permalink

I think teh cardman is like a timecop from the future sent to make sure ppl dont kill kennedies

― zero dark (s1ocki), Tuesday, 22 January 2013 20:49 (4 months ago) Permalink

etc

― zero dark (s1ocki), Tuesday, 22 January 2013 20:49 (4 months ago) Permalink

$3.99 on Kindle too.

― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Tuesday, 22 January 2013 20:55 (4 months ago) Permalink

Def. worth that, and I mean that without sarcasm.

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 22 January 2013 21:18 (4 months ago) Permalink

1 month passes...

I may have just received an advance copy of a certain SK book coming out in June. Will report back.

― The Thnig, Thursday, 28 February 2013 19:25 (3 months ago) Permalink

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 28 February 2013 19:28 (3 months ago) Permalink

Sweet.

I'm still plugging away on my chronological King (re)readthrough. 2/3 of the way through Cujo presently. The Long Walk (always a favorite back in the day) might be the best thing I've read so far. So pure, so effective. I never got very far into Roadwork as a kid, but I'm glad I read it as an adult. It has a very 'small '70s film' vibe. Like something you'd see on a double bill with Five Easy Pieces.

― Coke Opus (Old Lunch), Thursday, 28 February 2013 20:21 (3 months ago) Permalink

Have finished the Hard Case Crime coming out in June. It's short and sweet and nostalgic, reads like a memoir, and is one of his gentlest books. It is probably the very definition of a minor work, but certainly not without charm.

― The Thnig, Thursday, 7 March 2013 15:28 (3 months ago) Permalink

3 weeks pass...

― ARE YOU HIRING A NANNY OR A SHAMAN (Phil D.), Monday, 1 April 2013 21:56 (2 months ago) Permalink

i thought that was enrico colantoni in the still but i guess it isn't

― attempt to look intentionally nerdy, awkward or (thomp), Monday, 1 April 2013 22:03 (2 months ago) Permalink

Under the Dome aka MRI footage of Michael Chiklis's brain

― carl agatha, Monday, 1 April 2013 22:10 (2 months ago) Permalink

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