stephen king c/d?

Huh, I'm not sure the original version of The Stand has been released electronically. What the hell, George Lucas?

whose best works are either a) short stories/novellas or b) his book on how to write.

would argue in c) his non-fiction book on horror history

otm

Danse Macabre? is that the one? I dug that

Yeah; the 2 chapters on horror movies are a really great overview of the state of the art c. 1981.

oh yeah Danse Macabre was amazing

the alternate death scene from 'Salem's Lot, brrr

How are Everything's Eventual and Just After Sunset? I've only read his early collections of shorts.

Holy shit. I'm not even going to call this a spoiler, because this is fucking stupid and any writer should know better, especially a writer who had ample opportunity to leave this out, but, well ...

The expanded edition follows this with a brief coda called "The Circle Closes", which leaves a darker impression and fits in with King’s ongoing "wheel of ka" theme. An amnesia-stricken Flagg wakes up on a beach somewhere in the South Pacific, having somehow escaped the atomic blast in Vegas by using his dark magic. There he begins recruiting adherents among a preliterate, dark-skinned people, who worship him as a deity.

Fuck this book, just going to listen to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUPbQi78WHI

sofatruck, Just After Sunset is superb.

loved danse macabre. the "horror/terror/revulsion" breakdown still helps organize my thoughts about the genre. also made me feel inadequate about my page rate.

i use that breakdown ALL THE TIME when explaining how horror works to peeps that dont watch 11 horror flicks a week like me.

also i really dug 11/22/63 and highly recommend it. lots of nice nods to his little universe w/o getting obnoxious, only real criticism was that the ending (like often/always) was lame.

ohhhh, THAT coda to The Stand! So stupid I had completely purged it from my memory. Yet another reason the origial was just fine as was.

omg I had no idea he did that coda

that's insane

srsly anyone ITT who hasn't read the original Stand -- go, now, READ IT IMMEDIATELY

purge this terrible revisionism from your brainholes

^^^^^

like, there's parts of the original that are still kinda bad and cringey...but at least it's somewhat innocent and of its time rather than being updated with even WORSE moments by someone you'd expect to know better

actually strike that

I don't expect him to know better :)

SK was on a legitimate hot-streak with Just After Sunset, Under the Dome, Full Dark No Stars, and 11/22/63. But Joyland ain't no great shakes and Doc Sleep, well.

I just bought Joyland from the supermarket cause of this thread

He doesn't have the reservoir (or rails of coke) to sustain a good long streak like the old days

That's seriously awesome that you bought Joyland from a supermarket! How it should be bought. It's not bad, it's just the essence of inessential.

it was £3.85

it's kinda sweet the belief that king has in these corny images: taking your "girl" to the "fair" in your "ride"

listening to "rock n roll" on the "radio"

Those are many of the reasons Christine works so well for me; he's totally into that corn.

the coda to the extended version of The Stand never bothered me for some reason, partially I think because Flagg was leaving a situation where he was being revered as a god so the colonial dickishness was somewhat undercut for me

and also, the biblical plague had to have been global, right? and you don't know how much time has elapsed. idk I'm making excuses for him but it never struck me as being that bad either, at least compared to some of the other shit he's got away with

Does the short vers of the stand include the rmde wtf sequence where a bunch of naked black military guys are executing dozens of ppl on tv? That seems like the epitome of the better-left-out.

I believe so, yes.

i read the expanded version of 'the stand' during a two week journey across ireland twenty years ago. i should probably have spent more time relishing my first opportunity to be served alcohol in a bar free from the shackles of amerikkkan law but oh well.

the stand is absolutely incredible during the plague chapters, thoroughly horrifying and grim stuff. as per usual i wasn't down as much w/king's simpletons and overweight flopsweat crazies and rednecks. my favorite character is probably lloyd henreid, iirc.

I like the "second plague" passages where he describes all the immune people who died as a result of their own stupidity or of accidents.

Yes, those are great. Similar to the passages in IT where people get wiped out by the big storm.

ya thats what i remember most

i think i'm totally w/king's style when he stays grounded, it's when he gets a bit 'pentecostal' that his flaws become more apparent to me.

Have we ever done a thread on the Stand miniseries? Man, the casting in that thing was all over the frigging map.

Not that I've seen her in much ("Don't Shoot Me") but Laura San Giacomo will always be Nadine to me.

jamey sheridan was an unusual choice in a lot of ways but pretty excellent. and miguel ferrer, ray walston, shawnee smith, all good picks!

the simpleton from TV's 'coach'! great typecasting.

Shawnee Smith was great! Gary Sinise was good, both Ringwald and Nemec were TERRIBLE.

Wish they hadn't eliminated the Larry/Rita storyline, or Larry's whole thing with Joe/Leo.

so many people I know love that mini-series but I have a hard time watching it -- everyone but Tom (aka the voice of Patrick from Spongebob <3) are just kinda facepalm and awkward to me

i was happier with how they looked in my head

Yeah, as is generally the case. I was a huge Molly stan, so even though she's not how I pictured Frannie, I didn't think she was terrible. Haven't seen it since it's original airing, though, so time may not be kind.

IIRC I was super excited and, as the miniseries went on, the anticipatory grin on my face slowly morphed into an incredulous reality-denying "no really, it's just on the verge of getting good" rictus as a tear rolled slowly down my left cheek

Parker Lewis pretty good though IIRC

yeah I forgot he was in it -- he was good

but it just felt like wall-to-wall hasbeens, especially when it came out.

same with IT, when they did that. Like, I dig John ritter generally, and JohnBoy Walton's fine and all but that whole thing felt kinda lame, especially hearing them say some of the lines out loud

My memory of Parker Lewis is that he was terrible, and also saddled with badly rendered TV-zits.

I think The Stand, It and even Shining miniseries are satisfactory for what they are; an attempt to rein in extremely sprawling novels for mass market television, none of which come close to the "joys" I got from the books. Maybe I'm just easily pleased!

so three years ago the wikipedia description of the "climax" (hiyo) of It was

They finally come upon Its lair, where it resides in the form of a giant spider, and, in what appears to be the Ritual of Chüd, Bill injures It and It flees. Lost in the sewers, the Losers realize that they have lost their purpose as a group, their common enemy, and as a way to bring them together again so they can escape, Beverly has sexual intercourse with the boys.

according to me upthread. today it's:

They finally come upon Its lair, where it resides in the form of a giant spider, and, in what appears to be the Ritual of Chüd, the Losers encounter It and its natural enemy, The Turtle. Bill defeats It with some advice from The Turtle and It flees deeper into Its lair. The Losers then gradually realize that they are lost in the sewers, and that with their common enemy having fled they have lost their purpose as a group, and begin to succumb to panic. In order to stop the group from panicking, Beverly has sexual intercourse with each of the boys.

a subtle difference

"Boys, boys! You're losing it! Here, break off a piece of my magic punani."

good old bev