stephen king c/d?

"I read the Mist today, and boy was it scary!"

If you can find it, there's a audio dramatization of the Mist available on cassete. The cool thing about it is that it's in three-dimensional sound, which gives the story an extremely spooky effect.

This is so true. His were the first "adult" books I got into reading, as a kid. (I remember learning about most aspects of sex -- except the nuts and bolts, of course, which my mom taught me -- from Stephen King books.) And I think he made for a pretty good segue into the more usual fiction, when I became a preteen... (Because, y'know, he writes about couples and relationships and people musing about their lives and all that shit... just with monsters.)

And I remember "It," which I read in sixth grade, as being one heck of a great book.

I think his stuff in the last decade or so is unbearable nostalgic crap, I still think his first 15 years had a few genuinely great novels (The Dead Zone and Pet Sematary seem to stand up the best) and a boatload of really scary scenes (the Lincoln Tunnel sequence in The Stand, Ben's Hubie Marston nightmare in 'Salem's Lot).

At this point, though, I'd wager that most of his stuff made for better movies, at least when real directors (as opposed to Frank Darabont) were at the helm. Carrie, The Shining, and Christine are all way beyond the source material. And Cujo, The Dead Zone and 'Salem's Lot are all great movies in their own right.

Dude, did you see my post upthread?

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

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!

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.

>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.

-- 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.

(xpost)

No, we have Dean Koontz for that.

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)

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.)

Except Rose Madder and Gerald's Game.

Pretty much everything in Detta Walker's voice rivals the sex scene but that one's on a whole new level.

Theres a dark tower prequel short story about a vampire nun tugging roland off in a tent y/n?

As per last post, at this stage king is probably better writing boomer nostalgia via punk rock horror but leaving:

i. monsters
ii. characters with disability
iii. characters with weight issues
iv. poor characters
v. child sex

out of it entirely

Uh what does that leave

Non white characters I beg

Jesus yes sorry

Just fellas walking in the woods, can be post apocalyptic if he likes, thats all

y'all wanna see a deracinated body?

i want him to do a full boomer feverdream with wall to wall springsteen, dylan & creedence songs & old cars & washed up musicians & jaded ex-hookers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEYjZB0K5sI

whoa

!

legendary flop if you're unfamiliar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrie_(musical)

Early in the 21st century, playwright Erik Jackson attempted to secure the rights to stage another production of the musical, but his request was denied. Jackson eventually earned the consent of Stephen King to mount a new, officially sanctioned, non-musical production of Carrie, which debuted Off-Broadway in 2006 with drag queen Sherry Vine in the lead role.

Similarly, other unofficial spoofs have been staged over the years, most notably Scarrie! The Musical, Carrie White the Musical and Carrie's Facts of Life, which was a hybrid of Carrie and the American sitcom The Facts of Life.

In 2018, a high school production of the musical is the focus of "Chapter Thirty-One: A Night to Remember" episode of Riverdale. The Riverdale cast album of the musical was produced via WaterTower Music.

Carrie's Facts of Life, which was a hybrid of Carrie and the American sitcom The Facts of Life

I'd workshop that title a little more, but that sounds brilliantly funny.

https://i.imgur.com/ynUGYez.png

I've read that book three times and I still forget some of that shit.

lol

It's also why I can reread books and rewatch movies. I forget things.

― Three Rings for the Elven Bishop (Dan Peterson), Thursday, January 20, 2022 2:33 PM (three weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

I don't usually post pictures of myself, but today is an exception. pic.twitter.com/IvuiH3QVZv

— Stephen King (@StephenKing) February 28, 2022

If those are actually SK’s bookshelves then i guess believe he actually likes all those books he writes blurbs for.

Shit, that's just his "to blurb" shelf for March.

Is there anything in the recent run that actually sticks the landing as well as 11-22-63 did? I kinda feel like picking something up. The Institute had some raves - anyone read it?

Yeah, I dug it. It definitely felt like a pastiche of his greatest hits, tho

^^^^

I enjoyed The Institute, but yeah

i still need to read Revival

My wife says the holly gibney related books are all good (esp the outsider) and co-signs on The Institute

The Outsider is pretty good but it definitely doesn't stick the landing

^^ otm. Oddly enough, I thought the HBO adaptation actually managed to slightly make the landing less terrible.

Gibney is such a fucking horribly written character it’s a real handicap to every story she’s in (as I recall the outsider is ticking along fine until exactly that point)

Now to take a big sip of coffee and see what he’s working on next

Yeah, The Outsider (TV version) ended slightly better than the book, but the book was better in just about every other respect.

Revival is really good.

The last several books I read (Sleeping Beauties, Institute, Outsider) were satisfying in their way but very much felt like extruded King product

Revival is my favourite King book since 11/22/63

I consider it one of his best endings, not alone in that but opinion is somewhat polarised

It’s not too long so it’s worth finding out for yourself!

i have it, so will def give it a go on that recommendation:D

The first in the trio of Hodges Det Ret books (Mr. Mercedes) is very good. The next book is pretty solid! The last book I cannot recommend,

I mean... I will cuz you you told me to, but I have no idea who that is so I'm just picturing a fish on a roller-coaster.

— Shawn Nutting (@ZackGavin2) September 8, 2022

the best fans

i picked up the new one, “Fairy Tale”, from the library this weekend … it’s got me hooked early, loving it so far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zuiVwFNEqc

update: I read Revival and didn’t love it.
The dedication to Mary Shelley let me know what the upshot would be from the start, and i got annoyed waiting and waiting for the other shoe to drop like honestly waiting til the last three chapters drove me NUTS

i liked the childhood stuff early on though, and the pastor’s “fuck u god” sermon was a+

I'm not quite sure what to make of Fairy Tale. I thought the pacing and plot progression were all over the place. But it had some great sequences - the first walk through the abandoned city was fantastic, and the waiting room build-up to the "Fair One" was the most intense, horrifying thing he's written in a long time.

perlstein on stephen king as the writer of the great death of democracy novel: https://prospect.org/culture/2024-02-14-cultural-artifact-meets-the-moment/