Welcome to Gaia! ::

It's not in a tittle but there are threads about authors in general which have a lot about him. I said in a different one today that I own 31 and 1/8 of his books and I'm pretty sure I've read almost everything he's ever written. I LOVE Stephen King. He's around, you've just gotta read in the threads is all. (Though you're right he deffinately deserves his own thread.)

That makes me happy. I read the whole series between ages 17 and 18. ^^ (I'm 19 in a few weeks.)

I definately agree with you there. I think Dark Tower is his best work ever and I'd say that's more fantasy adventure than horror... I suppose things like "IT" and "The Tommyknockers" could be called horror, but even that's more thriller isn't it? And "Misery".... god even "Carey" wasn't really horror. At least I don't think so.... Then again I've been reading his stuff since I was like 7 or 8.... and watching horror movies like Nightmare on Elmstreet way befor that... Maybe I'm just desensitizied?

archangel1772, I'm of the same opinion. Everyone says "oh, I don't read his books, I'm not into horror." and I just feel like smacking them. Eyes of the Dragon wasn't a horror novel, the Dark Tower series isn't horror, The Talisman isn't horror, and neither is Black House. Even Insomnia isn't horror!
Hell, I've been reading his books since I was 8 years old, and I started with one thats supposed to be, or so it says on the back, his most terrifying novel when it was released. But Pet Sematary didn't even come close to frightening me.
The Stand is more post-Apocalyptic, rather than scary. Same with Cell, though thats more of a different spin on Zombies in general.


Ishcumbeebeeda, I started with the first one, and read it all in order. I was hooked. Though I did read a few books between each of the seven. Including Black House, Insomnia, The Dark Half, 'Salems Lot, Eyes of the Dragon, and IT.
I now own about 25 of his 60+ novels and short stories, including a few Bachman books. I'm trying to get my hands on Blaze and Liseys Story, actually... But I haven't had a chance to take the hour-long bus ride to the Chapters on the other side of town. (We've got over 200,000 people, and only one Chapters! What the ******** is up with that?)

Hi, I love Stephen King's stories. I never read Dark Towers but I readt TOmmyknockers, IT, The Langoliers, Room 1408, a sgort story, Talisman, The Shining, and a lot more that I can't remember right now. I saw IT when I was about 11 and it scared me half to death. I wouldn't go into a bathroom or wash up in a sink without having the door cracked for over a week. The Shining was also quite possibly the scariest movie I ever saw.

As for Carrie, I think that actually borders on sci-fi / fantasy because it concerns psychokinetic powers unlike anything we have in this resent reality. Christine might also be considered sci-fi perhaps because it's sentient car.

heart Dreamcatcher is my favorite. Tommyknockers has a lot of hidden symbolism.

He is an excellent writter and storyteller BUT his novels go on forever and ever when sometimes he should just quit. Also, he gives a lot of detail that is nice if you really really care, but otherwise make it boring. This is why a lot of critics won't take his work seriously. rolleyes

I'm going to have to a a "multiple spoilers" warning to the title. >.>

Those scenes are not needless (though I have not read Desperation or Everythings Eventual yet), Stephen King doesn't include things in the story that his Editor doesn't believe should be there. If those scenes were boring, or needlessly gory, then the Editor would have picked them out.
Richard oozing and dieing was a very integral scene, because it was meant to evoke a pain in your heart. Which would be relieved by the main character saving his life, with the Talisman. You had to see the pain and disgustipation wrought upon Richard by the Blasted Lands that somehow missed Jack all together.
And poor Rich was one of my favorite characters, when I was younger, when I first read the book (at age 9, just after my birthday, and a few months after I'd read Pet Sematary). That scene had a very lasting effect on me by way of empathetic feelings, and sorrow. I don't think I had felt so strongly about a character in a book before then.

What Stephen King does, by typing up scenes like that, is pull on the very strings of your heart and subconscious. They aren't needless, they're powerful and evoking. I want to be able to do with my writing to others what Stephen's done to me with his; make you laugh, cry, shudder with disgust, or squirm and squiggle in your seat.

When I read a book, I don't see it as needlessly descriptive, or pointlessly gory. I see everything included in the pages as important, and sometimes even symbolic. Every thought, every description, every scene I see as something special, and, especially in Stephen King's work, I love all the depth and background, every description, so that I can literally see them characters, places, and happenings in my minds eye. Mostly this is because I think in images and pictures, rather than words, when I'm trying to write or roleplay, and so it looks to me they do that same things, only better than I can.

Also, with a book like Talisman, it may or may not have been King writing that particular scene. It may have been Peter Straub (who is another author whose work I thoroughly enjoy). Though I do believe that was King's scene, since I think Straub mostly wrote the ones in the Territories.

Anyways, I'm not asking you to like him, or even trying to force you to. You have your opinion, I'll have mine. I'm just saying that those same scenes that you see as pointlessly graphic, I see as wonderfully disgusting visions that further my descent into the story, and the minds and emotions of the characters. I'm the kind of person who uses descriptions like those to complete the "movie in my head".