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Horniest Manticore
Nov 23, 2013

Hello, you!
Lipstick Apathy
some real fucken writing for your rear end: "What I want to start with is something that comes at me full-bore, like a big, hot meteor screaming down from the Kansas sky. I want the ancient pleasure that probably goes back to the cave: to be blown clean out of myself for a while, as violently as a fighter pilot who pushes the eject button in his F-111."

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Hector Beerlioz
Jun 16, 2010

aw, hec

SunAndSpring posted:

I think you should start with the Greeks and get a good understanding of the foundation of Western literature.

I've read a bunch of those already.

guts and bolts
May 16, 2015

Have you heard the Good News?

Horniest Manticore posted:

updike is overrated tedium, but lol if you think stephen king is anything but a better than average hack. read some loving classics, get some taste

I can assure you that everyone is super embarrassed that they like stuff you don't like, my dude

SurfnTurf
Jun 27, 2005
11/22/63
IT
The stand (unedited with "the kid" character)
Dark tower series
The shining

I've read most of his books and enjoyed all with the exception of the dark half and to a lesser degree Dr. Sleep. Currently reading Needful Things and enjoying the poo poo out of it.

Das Butterbrot
Dec 2, 2005
Lecker.
the wind through the keyhole was the last king book i read and i really enjoyed it

sort of a dark tower spinoff which tells a story that roland told his friends

if you liked the DT books i recommend it

Mooktastical
Jan 8, 2008

SurfnTurf posted:

11/22/63
IT
The stand (unedited with "the kid" character)
Dark tower series
The shining

I've read most of his books and enjoyed all with the exception of the dark half and to a lesser degree Dr. Sleep. Currently reading Needful Things and enjoying the poo poo out of it.

So what was your reaction to the end of The Dark Tower?

opus111
Jul 6, 2014

Hector Beerlioz posted:

Lol, I like him more now.

I just remembered that a family friend went to high school with King.

I've never read anything by him. Where should I start?

'Salem's Lot


The jump in quality between Carrie and SL is like... holy poo poo. His first publication really gave him confidence.

cthulusnewzulubbq
Jan 26, 2009

I saw something
NASTY
in the woodshed.

opus111 posted:

'Salem's Lot


The jump in quality between Carrie and SL is like... holy poo poo. His first publication really gave him confidence.

'Salems Lot is probably my favorite movie adaptation, and I know I'm in the extreme minority there.

SurfnTurf
Jun 27, 2005

Mooktastical posted:

So what was your reaction to the end of The Dark Tower?

I was disappointed, but knew that I would be going into the last book. By wolves of the calla I felt part of Rolands ka-tet! There was just no way to end it satisfactory imo, sort of what people felt at the end of Lost.
Its being turned it into a series. I hope they do it justice.http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-years-ago.html

SurfnTurf fucked around with this message at 04:38 on May 28, 2015

opus111
Jul 6, 2014

The DT 1 - 4 compared to 5 - ...7? Is just depressing. I remember the last book being huge but i remember nothing of it. Up to 4 though I thought it was the greatest thing ever.

TEAYCHES
Jun 23, 2002

opus111 posted:

The DT 1 - 4 compared to 5 - ...7? Is just depressing. I remember the last book being huge but i remember nothing of it. Up to 4 though I thought it was the greatest thing ever.

i remember reading that they got really bad, while i was reading the series. and i thought they were so good that i didnt believe it. refused to believe they could get bad. they were so awesome. esp. book 4 was loving amazing i thought people were just being bitches or didnt get it

then i read the 5th book. woww

dyne
May 9, 2003
[blank]
11/22/63 was fantastic

chemosh6969
Jul 3, 2004

code:
cat /dev/null > /etc/professionalism

I am in fact a massive asswagon.
Do not let me touch computer.
I liked The Stand a lot and was all excited with the mini-series was announced. Then I saw they cast Max Headroom as the bad guy and only made it a couple days in before giving up on it.

doodlebugs
Feb 18, 2015

by Lowtax

opus111 posted:

'Salem's Lot


The jump in quality between Carrie and SL is like... holy poo poo. His first publication really gave him confidence.

salems lot was a really cool movie.

Shuffleboard Shootout
Dec 26, 2006

Tsoukawhat?
King is my favorite author no doubt, I love his fantasy stuff (though there isn't much). I think he should write more of it. I don't think The Eyes of the Dragon gets enough love, it's an amazing fairy tale-esque story.

On the dark tower.. I'm on book 5, (6 if you count wind through the keyhole) and it took about 160 pages before it grabbed me, and currently it's going through a phase where it's interesting and sucks you in but then it flatlines and King goes on some unrelated tangent for two chapters that has nothing to do with moving the plot. It's torture and I hate it but I'm in too deep to quit now.

What was the story in Insomnia where the person in the morgue was still alive? Was that even in Insomnia? Whatever, it terrified 13 year old me.

cthulusnewzulubbq
Jan 26, 2009

I saw something
NASTY
in the woodshed.

Badgers posted:

King is my favorite author no doubt, I love his fantasy stuff (though there isn't much). I think he should write more of it. I don't think The Eyes of the Dragon gets enough love, it's an amazing fairy tale-esque story.

You should try the Great and Secret Show sometime.

Badgers posted:

What was the story in Insomnia where the person in the morgue was still alive? Was that even in Insomnia? Whatever, it terrified 13 year old me.

Autopsy Room Four- contained in Everything's Eventual.

cthulusnewzulubbq fucked around with this message at 05:07 on May 28, 2015

Mooktastical
Jan 8, 2008

Badgers posted:

On the dark tower.. I'm on book 5, (6 if you count wind through the keyhole) and it took about 160 pages before it grabbed me, and currently it's going through a phase where it's interesting and sucks you in but then it flatlines and King goes on some unrelated tangent for two chapters that has nothing to do with moving the plot. It's torture and I hate it but I'm in too deep to quit now.

You're right at or just past the point where the "sucks you in" parts officially start to go away, and the torture/sunk cost bits just get worse and worse until it's just this long wet fart that you can smell and taste

Shuffleboard Shootout
Dec 26, 2006

Tsoukawhat?

cthulusnewzulubbq posted:

You should try the Great and Secret Show sometime.


Autopsy Room Four- contained in Everything's Eventual.

Looks neat, I'll pick it up on my Nook. Never read any Clive Barker.

That's it! I had forgotten I'd ever read Everything's Eventual.

Mooktastical- I'm a little over halfway through now, and yeah, pretty disappointing coming from Wizard and Glass and Wind Through the Keyhole. I don't know what happened, it feels like after 4 books he's struggling to come up with content and is just putting pen to paper for the sake of words being on lines (akin to the way you would bullshit a research paper in high school or college). I don't mind the side story because it ties in well with the quest, I just wish he could have kept the momentum. Anyways I'm done with my DT bitching. I think once I'm done I'm checking out Salem's Lot, because I really dig Callahan and his story.

Mooktastical
Jan 8, 2008

Badgers posted:

Looks neat, I'll pick it up on my Nook. Never read any Clive Barker.

That's it! I had forgotten I'd ever read Everything's Eventual.

Mooktastical- I'm a little over halfway through now, and yeah, pretty disappointing coming from Wizard and Glass and Wind Through the Keyhole. I don't know what happened, it feels like after 4 books he's struggling to come up with content and is just putting pen to paper for the sake of words being on lines (akin to the way you would bullshit a research paper in high school or college). I don't mind the side story because it ties in well with the quest, I just wish he could have kept the momentum. Anyways I'm done with my DT bitching. I think once I'm done I'm checking out Salem's Lot, because I really dig Callahan and his story.

You'll like Salem's Lot. Sorry I brought DT up in that manner, I thought from the bit I quoted that you'd read all of them and would've seen something I didn't or something.

Also, half the reason I keep pitching The Talisman is that it was (iirc) written when DT was an idea for a story, and it touches on the multiple worlds thing in a way that's both super engaging and integral to the plot. I read it before starting on DT. You'd probably like it too, if you haven't read it already.

Shuffleboard Shootout
Dec 26, 2006

Tsoukawhat?
It's all good, I still can't wait to see what the ending actually is, the other SK thread has pretty much told me it's going to be awful, but I really have no idea what he's going to throw at me.

WILDTURKEY101
Mar 7, 2005

Look to your left. Look to your right. Only one of you is going to pass this course.

SunAndSpring posted:

I think you should start with the Greeks and get a good understanding of the foundation of Western literature.

old greek comedies are mostly dick and fart jokes

Shuffleboard Shootout
Dec 26, 2006

Tsoukawhat?
King was probably a Greek writer in a past life then, and all of his characters were obese. *rips fart, is fat*

TheWeepingHorse
Nov 20, 2009

People like to preemptively attack Stephen King for perceiving himself as a Man of Letters, or whatever, but nobody really does, and he doesn't, either, and to be honest, he's still a better Man of Letters than many people who are taken more seriously. He is no more or less respectable than Raymond Chandler or Philip K. Dick. He's a genuinely great writer - it's just that he's a "genre writer". His books are not heady political tomes written under an authoritarian regime, nor are they philosophical dramas about The Human Condition. His best books are fine yarns, well-written, often with well-drawn characters.

IMHO, the eye-rolling at Stephen King has more to do with the fact that "books intended for adults, written to entertain, but not in an airplane reading kind of way" is a shrunken niche. People are much more likely to watch TV to get their story fix. Nowadays, a much greater proportion of popular reading is either YA lit, or mystery/thriller/romance/fantasy series books. I have nothing against either of those niches. I'm just saying, there aren't many other popular writers who are writing self-contained stories intended for adults. Much more of the literary universe is directed "above", with Serious Event Novels, or "below", with franchises intended to be enjoyed by 13-year-olds and/or people stuck on airplanes.

Again, no disrespect whatsoever meant to YA lit, series novels, or Serious Event Novels. I'm just saying that Stephen King is a bit of a lone holdout. This puts him in a weird place, culturally.

TheWeepingHorse
Nov 20, 2009

Clive Barker is underrated. He wasn't "the future of horror", but he's made some terrific books. The Great and Secret Show, Weaveworld, The Thief of Always, and Sacrament are all terrific, as are the Books of Blood. People were disappointed that his career didn't go as they had predicted, but in retrospect, he deserves kudos for doing his own thing.

My wife says that his YA stuff is rather keen as well.

Dia de Pikachutos
Nov 8, 2012

TheWeepingHorse posted:

Clive Barker is underrated. He wasn't "the future of horror", but he's made some terrific books. The Great and Secret Show, Weaveworld, The Thief of Always, and Sacrament are all terrific, as are the Books of Blood. People were disappointed that his career didn't go as they had predicted, but in retrospect, he deserves kudos for doing his own thing.

My wife says that his YA stuff is rather keen as well.

I quite enjoyed Weaveworld and TTOA, but I do find that his work tends to be a bit hit-and-miss.

Wicker Man
Sep 5, 2007

Just like Columbus...


Clapping Larry
He helped contribute to some neat vidjya games.

Cosmik Slop
Oct 9, 2007

What's a hole doing in my TARDIS?


Anyone read "Revival"? I bought it recently when I had some time to kill while waiting for car repairs. I thought it was pretty good. He kept the supernatural to a minimum (until the very end, where he kind of wrote himself into a corner and had to double down on the grotesque).

As a kid/teenager, I read huge swaths of his stuff. Probably 95% of everything he wrote up until maybe Insomnia (even struggling through "Gerald's Game", which was the first work of his that struck me as creepy but not in a good way. To his credit, he hasn't really gone back to that tone since, as far as I know). One quality of his that I really fell in love with early on was his ferocious humor. I loved when he had Pennywise, a nameless, unspeakable horror from beyond, say "I'm here to rob all the women, rape all the men, and learn to do the Peppermint Twist!" Or when Larry Underwood wonders if Rita's still dead, rotting away in a tent, and then thinks Where else would she be? Golfing at Palm Springs with Bob Hope? His best works had me laughing my head off while simultaneously staying up late out of fear. That's a really potent double-whammy for an author to achieve.

TheWeepingHorse posted:

People like to preemptively attack Stephen King for perceiving himself as a Man of Letters, or whatever, but nobody really does, and he doesn't, either, and to be honest, he's still a better Man of Letters than many people who are taken more seriously. He is no more or less respectable than Raymond Chandler or Philip K. Dick. He's a genuinely great writer - it's just that he's a "genre writer". His books are not heady political tomes written under an authoritarian regime, nor are they philosophical dramas about The Human Condition. His best books are fine yarns, well-written, often with well-drawn characters.

Basically, he's on the same cultural wavelength as rock and roll. He seems to get the cretinous, rebellious, outrageously fun aspect in way other horror writers completely don't. Especially in his early stuff. As far as pure, eybrow-arching merit, he probably couldn't measure up to T.C. Boyle, let alone William Faulkner. But you can't exactly smoke weed and crank the Brandenburg Concertos at a garage party, either.

Lil Swamp Booger Baby
Aug 1, 1981

The Tao Jones posted:

Anyone read "Revival"? I bought it recently when I had some time to kill while waiting for car repairs. I thought it was pretty good. He kept the supernatural to a minimum (until the very end, where he kind of wrote himself into a corner and had to double down on the grotesque).

As a kid/teenager, I read huge swaths of his stuff. Probably 95% of everything he wrote up until maybe Insomnia (even struggling through "Gerald's Game", which was the first work of his that struck me as creepy but not in a good way. To his credit, he hasn't really gone back to that tone since, as far as I know). One quality of his that I really fell in love with early on was his ferocious humor. I loved when he had Pennywise, a nameless, unspeakable horror from beyond, say "I'm here to rob all the women, rape all the men, and learn to do the Peppermint Twist!" Or when Larry Underwood wonders if Rita's still dead, rotting away in a tent, and then thinks Where else would she be? Golfing at Palm Springs with Bob Hope? His best works had me laughing my head off while simultaneously staying up late out of fear. That's a really potent double-whammy for an author to achieve.


Basically, he's on the same cultural wavelength as rock and roll. He seems to get the cretinous, rebellious, outrageously fun aspect in way other horror writers completely don't. Especially in his early stuff. As far as pure, eybrow-arching merit, he probably couldn't measure up to T.C. Boyle, let alone William Faulkner. But you can't exactly smoke weed and crank the Brandenburg Concertos at a garage party, either.

No.

Cosmik Slop
Oct 9, 2007

What's a hole doing in my TARDIS?



YESSSSSS

Max Hammer
Jan 3, 2008

ANTIFREEZE!!!
Ah, in early on a Stephen King thread. Why is it that in these type of threads no one ever mentions my two favorite King books: Firestarter and The Running Man? Now, I know someone mentioned Running Man on the first and second page, and I have to give credit for that, but it's a rarity that it's mentioned. I am a die-hard King fan, read almost everything he has churned out, even the piles of poo poo. But Firestarter is far and away my favorite book of his, and it never makes people's top 5 list. Well, here's mine:
Firestarter
The Running Man
Salem's Lot
The Dead Zone
Pet Semetary

(IT would be the next one if it was a top 6 list) :coolspot:

Max Hammer fucked around with this message at 18:01 on May 28, 2015

Applewhite
Aug 16, 2014

by vyelkin
Nap Ghost

opus111 posted:

I have under the dome to read next, which I'm looking forward to a lot.

Might want to dial back your expectations a little bit.

Applewhite
Aug 16, 2014

by vyelkin
Nap Ghost
IT and Pet Sematary are legit the only books where I got scared from reading IRL.

His other books have great tension and I felt scared for the characters, but those two made me feel scared for myself.

thathonkey
Jul 17, 2012
should I read Dark Tower series even if I have been more or less spoiled on the ending?

FlimFlam Imam
Mar 1, 2007

Standing on a hill in my mountain of dreams

thathonkey posted:

should I read Dark Tower series even if I have been more or less spoiled on the ending?

Most of Stephen King's work have terrible endings, King admits that it's not about the ending but the journey. So yes, take the journey.

abigserve
Sep 13, 2009

this is a better avatar than what I had before
The shining is really good and I read the whole thing cover to cover on an 8 hour flight once. I still get goosebumps thinking about the elevator pulling up and the party hat being in there like ghosts are real you guys are hosed

Flowers For Algeria
Dec 3, 2005

I humbly offer my services as forum inquisitor. There is absolutely no way I would abuse this power in any way.


let's talk about his real masterpiece, Under the Dome, and it's fabulou TV adaptation starring Hank Schrader from Breaking Bad

Haverchuck
May 6, 2005

the coolest

lets see a million paragraph rebuttal then moron. Oh its not about video games? nevermind

yeah I eat ass
Mar 14, 2005

only people who enjoy my posting can replace this avatar
Everyone seems to hate the dark tower ending and I did too at first (at least partially because I had read so much complaining about it beforehand), but after about the 10th reread of the series I have begun to like it. I thought the ending after the "stop reading it here rear end in a top hat" brow-beating thing he does was far better/more meaningful than the ending from Susannah's perspective. The only disappointment in my opinion about the last book was the crimson king and the patrick danville character in general, but CK is kind of lame once he actually shows up in every book he's in so I don't think it's the dark tower's fault, he's just a bad(ly written) character. Maybe I've just conditioned myself to like it and it's not "actually" good but who cares.

opus111
Jul 6, 2014

under the dome is bad? It's 1000 pages which is usually his mark of quality for me :(

I've got revival too, maybe I should read that next instead.

It's not worth engaging with people who scoff at king for not being highbrow, they're just idiots.

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hemale in pain
Jun 5, 2010




i read the shining and thought the movie was better even though the hedge monsters were cool.

i also read the first dark tower novel but it was an old copy which is much better tbh because he doesn't edit the main character into a pussy bitch

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