I HAVE THE BEST IDEA
― duped and used by my worst Miss U (President Keyes), Thursday, 4 May 2017 14:03 (seven years ago) link
The Stand is another great example. Humanity succumbing to an unstoppable disease and the breakdown and subsequent attempts at rebuilding society, compelling stuff. Mystical and ill-defined battles between supernatural forces, not so much.
i read the first few hundred pages of the stand (the first stephen king i'd ever read in adulthood) in basically one sitting on a long flight a few years ago and was totally enraptured
on the flight home it started veering hardcore into the psychic grandma / good vs evil stuff and i was like 'nope, i'm out'
― gnaw on my meat oreo (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 4 May 2017 14:05 (seven years ago) link
Yeah, I mostly remember good things about all the societal collapse stuff and felt that the later chapters were a bit of a trudge, but I'm going to try to stick it out to the end.
― how's life, Thursday, 4 May 2017 14:07 (seven years ago) link
i used to watch Pet Sematary the movie at sleepovers i remember it really creeped me out
Same here. The scene with Zelda was legitimately the most disturbing thing I'd ever seen. I'm still beyond creeped out by it
― Evan R, Thursday, 4 May 2017 14:31 (seven years ago) link
xp I remember the original, edited edition of The Stand as being significantly less bad in its second half than the "Complete and Uncut Edition," which restores about 150,000 words (!) from his original manuscript.
― Brad C., Thursday, 4 May 2017 14:31 (seven years ago) link
― surm, Thursday, May 4, 2017 9:19 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Movie terrified me as a child to the point where I had regular nightmares about several characters (Zelda, obvs, but also Paxcow--and yes I know he was a 'good guy'--and the kid in the flashback scene who they had to burn alive in the house). I watched it as an adult quite a few years ago, with my gf, who had never seen it. I gave her the obligatory disclaimer: no, seriously, this movie, is really, really scary.
But we laughed right through it. The acting in that film (which I didn't notice as a child, obviously) is truly some sub-soap opera shit (Fred Gwynne being the exception that proves the rule). I know she is a child actor and low hanging fruit and all but the daughter in this film really does give one of the all-time worst performances in a film I have ever seen.
― Wimmels, Thursday, 4 May 2017 14:35 (seven years ago) link
Yeah same experience last time I watched it. It's become super campy, but to me I'm fine with that. The entertainment value is still there. And Zelda still unnerves the shit out of me, not so much because of effects anymore, but because of the narrative of guilt and tragedy surrounding her
― Evan R, Thursday, 4 May 2017 14:39 (seven years ago) link
http://hotteahotbooks.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/zelda.jpeg
― Evan R, Thursday, 4 May 2017 14:40 (seven years ago) link
http://nypdecider.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/zelda-feeding.png?w=642&h=428&crop=1
― Evan R, Thursday, 4 May 2017 14:41 (seven years ago) link
ok, yeah, you're right, those scenes are still pretty disturbing. The one in the dream where she actually gets up form the bed and approaches...egads
― Wimmels, Thursday, 4 May 2017 14:53 (seven years ago) link
wow, kellyanne conway's looking great xp
― gnaw on my meat oreo (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 4 May 2017 14:57 (seven years ago) link
I've said it before, possibly itt, but the scene where gage gets run over is genuinely one of the funniest things I've ever seen
― in a soylent whey (wins), Thursday, 4 May 2017 15:01 (seven years ago) link
racheeeeeeeellllllllllll
http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view7/4878102/pet-semetary-zelda-o.gif
― Evan R, Thursday, 4 May 2017 15:01 (seven years ago) link
xpost A kid getting hit by a car is one of the most genuinely horrifying things I can imagine witnessing, but I find a similar scene from Twilight Zone: the Movie to be one of the funniest things I'VE ever seen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3033DQeYfY
― Jigsaw Pizzle (Old Lunch), Thursday, 4 May 2017 15:18 (seven years ago) link
I've told the story before, but I read that recent time travel one that got made into the Franco miniseries. I thought it was OK, but yeah, maybe 200/300 pages too long? Anyway, it was the first King book I'd read in maybe 30 years, and it occurred to me that I had never read The Stand before, so I start into that one. And I just can't do it. I hate the dialog, I hate the writing, everything. And then I noticed I'm reading the director's cut or whatever, which is some 400 pages longer than as it was published, and I think, man, if no one complained about the book being too short when it came out, let alone that it felt like an entire other book's length too short, then ... it probably didn't need those 400 pages put back in.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 4 May 2017 15:48 (seven years ago) link
That said, I used to watch Maximum Overdrive on cable all the time, so what do I know.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 4 May 2017 15:49 (seven years ago) link
I can't imagine being any kind of King fan and not liking The Stand, that just doesn't compute for me. That said, like many King books it's overlong. I've read it twice, original and update, and didn't care for the re-do.
― I don't really like any of these albums (Dan Peterson), Thursday, 4 May 2017 15:56 (seven years ago) link
oh ffs stephen
The twenty-fourth floor was taken up by the executive offices of a Japanese camera company. Larry walked up and down the halls for almost twenty minutes, looking forhis mother and feeling like a horse’s ass. There were plenty of Occidental executives, but enough of them were Japanese to make him feel, at six-feet-two, like a very tall horse’s ass. The small men and women with the upslanted eyes looked at his caked forehead and bloody jacket sleeve with unsettling Oriental blandness.
― how's life, Thursday, 4 May 2017 16:58 (seven years ago) link
eurgh
― gnaw on my meat oreo (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 4 May 2017 17:00 (seven years ago) link
wow that's a long tweet
― flappy bird, Thursday, 4 May 2017 17:02 (seven years ago) link
Between mouthfuls of mu shu pork, a samurai attempted to dispense ancient Chinese secrets about how to get the bloodstains out of his jacket. He gingerly stepped over the tiny businesspeople as they took off their suit jackets in preparation for their afternoon kabuki performance and managed to sidle out the door just as the sound of a gong signaled the beginning of their Tet celebrations.
― Jigsaw Pizzle (Old Lunch), Thursday, 4 May 2017 17:17 (seven years ago) link
lol
― how's life, Thursday, 4 May 2017 17:31 (seven years ago) link
When you open the book there's a microchip embedded on the page that makes a loud "goooooooong" sound.
― Lauren Schumer Donor (Phil D.), Thursday, 4 May 2017 17:32 (seven years ago) link
tbf to stephen, larry is (iirc) a total asshole so maybe this is just king supplying yet more supporting material for his asshole case file?
reaching pretty far for that one tho
― gnaw on my meat oreo (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 4 May 2017 17:39 (seven years ago) link
I've been listening to that consequence of sound podcast at the gym - I appreciate their enthusiasm, it's a nice counterpoint to the haters podcast I listen to, but they are way too forgiving imo and they really bend over backwards to excuse pretty blatant racism like the above (they also need to watch their levels; I think I have permanent ear damage from all the times that woman bellowed into the mic). I like that they devote like 40 minutes per episode to taking king to task for his gross and horrible descriptions of women's bodies & whatever he thinks sex is, not so much that they devote a whole hour to *reads generic anti-trump tweet* "pretty good zinger there mr King"
― in a soylent whey (wins), Thursday, 4 May 2017 17:40 (seven years ago) link
Yeah, the tweets section is pretty intolerable. I also noticed that they would really go in on him over his sexism, but for the most part haven't touched on much racism. They did spend a few minutes on the "negroid lips" remark from Sometimes They Come Back iirc.
― how's life, Thursday, 4 May 2017 18:01 (seven years ago) link
that they devote like 40 minutes per episode to taking king to task for his gross and horrible descriptions of women's bodies & whatever he thinks sex is
this does not sound remotely appealing in any way
― Wimmels, Thursday, 4 May 2017 18:36 (seven years ago) link
It's p fun tbh; most of the segment is just them reading out passages and loling, no additional commentary needed
― in a soylent whey (wins), Thursday, 4 May 2017 18:43 (seven years ago) link
He fumbled with his viscous turkey leg and, with a gibbering moan, wedged it between her squamous hamhocks. The sensation was not unlike that of cramming a fistful of pizza dough into a public toilet. They thrashed their supple, ashen bodies against one another like two frightened ponies who've been tied together and thrown out of a plane.
― Jigsaw Pizzle (Old Lunch), Thursday, 4 May 2017 18:53 (seven years ago) link
Even when I was years away from knowing anything about sex, I strongly suspected that SK's sex scenes were somewhat off.
― Jigsaw Pizzle (Old Lunch), Thursday, 4 May 2017 18:54 (seven years ago) link
I'm sure you'll find my post somewhere upthread about his discomforting habit of sticking in broadly, loud-and-proud racist characters, whose cartoonish lack of characterization often just seems like an excuse to drop N-bombs.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 4 May 2017 18:57 (seven years ago) link
xp So, a "takedown" of the most famous author of all time that anachronistically pokes fun at books nearly half a century old by ignoring context and LOLing at fictional characters' failure to take 2017 liberal politics into account. Sounds delightful
― Wimmels, Thursday, 4 May 2017 19:00 (seven years ago) link
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, May 4, 2017 2:57 PM (three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
fwiw Tarantino is the king of this
― Wimmels, Thursday, 4 May 2017 19:01 (seven years ago) link
I would just like to point out that Old Lunch has quoted three of the most amazing sentences ever written
― Rachel Luther Queen (DJP), Thursday, 4 May 2017 19:02 (seven years ago) link
No, no. I mean - they're godawful descriptions even for their time. I think the CoS people contextualize it pretty well.
xxp
― how's life, Thursday, 4 May 2017 19:04 (seven years ago) link
I don't think that's an actual quote. At least, I hope not.
― Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr, and Violent J (誤訳侮辱), Thursday, 4 May 2017 19:04 (seven years ago) link
I thought Old Lunch was writing those himself as a parody!
Yeah, that was the product of my own diseased mind, so sorry for any confusion.
― Jigsaw Pizzle (Old Lunch), Thursday, 4 May 2017 19:05 (seven years ago) link
in some dimension, Stephen King wrote those words
I choose to believe it was this one
― her squamous hamhocks (DJP), Thursday, 4 May 2017 19:06 (seven years ago) link
"gingerly" was an expert touch.
― how's life, Thursday, 4 May 2017 19:11 (seven years ago) link
Given that my mind was damaged at least in part by reading too much King at too impressionable an age, I think it's fair to give him the credit.
― Jigsaw Pizzle (Old Lunch), Thursday, 4 May 2017 19:13 (seven years ago) link
If I'd referred to a woman's genitalia as 'her sex' I might've set myself up for a plagiarism lawsuit.
― Jigsaw Pizzle (Old Lunch), Thursday, 4 May 2017 19:14 (seven years ago) link
xps look I know it's very important to you that nobody ever say mean things about sexists but the simple fact is that fame aside Stephen King has always written badly about sex and it has always been funny, I don't know what to tell you
― in a soylent whey (wins), Thursday, 4 May 2017 19:15 (seven years ago) link
They thrashed their supple, ashen bodies against one another like two frightened ponies who've been tied together and thrown out of a plane.
― Jigsaw Pizzle (Old Lunch), Thursday, 4 May 2017 19:53
I was about go ask which book this was from, disappointed it's not real, but that's genius Old Lunch.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 4 May 2017 19:22 (seven years ago) link
He writes about sex like someone who can clearly recollect a number of sexual encounters just shy of the number of children he has.
― Jigsaw Pizzle (Old Lunch), Thursday, 4 May 2017 19:22 (seven years ago) link
― Wimmels, Thursday, May 4, 2017 12:00 PM (twenty-four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
oh hey the guy who defends dudes accused of rape because he likes their music also doesn't like people talking about sexism
― -_- (jim in vancouver), Thursday, 4 May 2017 19:27 (seven years ago) link
i am surprise
now put your seatbelt on as you drive 100 yards from stop to stop you dang slob
― -_- (jim in vancouver), Thursday, 4 May 2017 19:28 (seven years ago) link
doesn't like people talking about sexism
I didn't say that at all, but don't let that stop you from your virtue signaling
― Wimmels, Thursday, 4 May 2017 19:35 (seven years ago) link
I just think that CoS podcast sounds extremely boring. sorry