/lit/ - Literature

Steven King is so ugly that he should never have been born.

As a horror writer, yes, very much, nothing he ever wrote is scary or chilling in any sense.
As a story-teller, he's lost his touch, and should just quit, but a lot of his material is actually good.

His ideas are okay, but goddamn does his prose get lazy.

>>2539660

Yes, but he's not bad. I liked his "On Writing" memoir more than any of his actual horror.

>>2539682
aye. it's good shit unless you are an adverb.

>>2539660
I can't stand his writing.
It's incredibly tedious.

>>2539660

I loved the style of "IT".

>>2539660
yes

>>2539660

He should get back on cocaine.

>>2539660
He's why I first started reading for real when I was a kid so I guess that's cool.

Oh yes.

i've only read The Green Mile
good book i guess
planning on reading more of his books and his Dark Tower series once i get more money

I wonder what he sold his upper lip to the Devil for.

Of course.

>>2539682
Yes many agree it's the best thing he's written. I liked his backstory,.. some of his advice definitely don't fit me as a writer, but it was an enjoyable read.

Isn't that Stephen Hawking?

>>2539936
>buying books
Library or steal, if your library doesn't have the books you want. Stephen King has plenty of money, you won't hurt him by not buying his books.

The Eyes of the Dragon is the only good book by I've read. So I'd say so.

I read Salem's Lot, and frankly, it just wasn't scary. It wasn't necessarily bad, just not good in terms of a horror novel.

His story ideas are better than his writing. Also he tends to greatly over-estimate the extent to which we are interested in his nostalgia for the 1950s.

For example, 11/22/63 would have been better set in 1910 - 1914, and been about the efforts of the main character to avert the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and thus change the course of the 20th century. That would have been a truly alien situation for a 21st century person, and been quite interesting. But no, that would have not afforded King a chance to reminisce at great length about his childhood

Cujo - HOW FUCKING SCARY CAN A DOMESTIC DOG BE!!!?

>>2539936

Read the first 3 and I guess the 4th one. At least read the start and end of the 4th one to get closure for the 3rd.

Avoid the 5th and 6th, and under no circumstances read the 7th. It's like Crystal Skull compared to the first three Indy movies. Just imagine your own ending to the saga and you'll do a much better job.

Children of the Corn was decent

>2012
>Not recognizing Stephen King as the greatest writer of all time.

ISHYGDDT

tl;dr - Butthurt haters gone hate.

Absolutely.

>>2540212
Literature babby detected.

>>2539677
Wrong! I was terrified when I read The Jaunt, and I don't frighten very easily, but King's idea of what happens to the wake and conscience mind during teleportation kept me awake for days.

I really enjoy a lot of his short stories. His novels stopped being good after the eighties, with the exception of The Dark Tower series. Like someone else already said, he needs to get back on the coke and the booze.

I do love Misery though.

Overrated? By whom? The critics have always hated him. I don't think he writes great literature, but he's good at what he does. I mean, he writes popular fiction. Would you rather read Stephanie Meyer? *shudder*

By the way, has anyone else read his son's books? I'm in the middle of Horns. Not bad.

From a review of King's "On Writing" on Amazon:


"How to write like Stephen King" (his real "On Writing")

Be a child in the fifties. Fall in love with "The Twilight Zone" and its writers and many other greats of the time. Watch all the great sf and horror movies and TV shows. Haunt the paperback racks. Read especially Richard Matheson's stories, novels,watch his screen and TV writing. Acknowledge he is your great inspiration. Then steal the bejesus out of him and so many others. Too many examples to list here.Wait for the next generation. Steal from older better writers your current young readers are rarely familiar with or haven't heard of. Rip off, badly, Rod Serling's "Odyssey of Flight 33", among others, piece it into "The Langoliers." Have plane passengers in time warp say things like "this is just like that Twilight Zone." Of course it is, you scmucks, that's where King stole this from. Tack on a Theodore Sturgeon story to this--and another bestseller. Take, among so many of his rip offs of Matheson, the sixties story, "The Distributor", couple it with Charles Beaumont's "The Intruder" and you have "Needful Things." Steal and trash an episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", warp it with ridiculous plot turns and trash "Old Joe Cotten" in the process.

(con't)

How sad so many of King's readers will never read the real works, of which his is a very pedestrian rehashing. Whenever anyone asks King if he has gentle feelings, he says time and again, "Yes, I have the heart of a nine year old boy. I keep it in a jar on my desk." That is an outright steal from Robert Bloch, a far better writer who was hurt so much of his life by con artists. Why Matheson does not call King on these things baffles me. How Harlan Ellison, whose brilliant creative fearless mind is an encyclopedia of all he's read and who is eager to nail re-treads doesn't lambast this rather glumpy writer also is very puzzling. How King can do this, especially to his prime inspiration, Matheson, make a ton of money off work that is stolen,seems to lead one to expect a great lack of conscience. Oh yes, Stephen hasn't ripped off, to my knowledge, Matheson's "The Shrinking Man". Tabitha did that with her first novel, "Small World."

>>2540909

I guess they aren't a fan.

>>2540911
yep.

One star - http://www.amazon.com/review/R32HDN3S2B91BO/

He seems to be someone who frequents /lit/, though, with the sense of superiority by having read the classics and 'legends.'

>>2540915

Apparently he really liked Hearts In Atlantis though.

Which is understandable, that's King's best book.

>>2540918
So... it's safe to say he has good taste.

I wouldn't say he's over-rated. His books sell very well but he's hardly a celebrated author. Even he acknowledges that he's not a great writer. Personally I enjoy him as a bit of pulp. He spins a good yarn usually and that's all I want sometimes.

>>2540906 me again. I don't get all the vitriol. I mean, if you don't like it, don't read it. It can't be all things to all people without becoming pablum Pic related. It's my favorite fantasy series. I never recommend it to anyone. You know why? They'll hate it. Donaldson's prose sometimes makes you feel like you're dragging your eyes across a cheese grater, and it's depressing as fuck. I still like it. Why? Because it speaks to me. Maybe all the Goober-Pea eating trailer park people love what King writes because it speaks to them. *shrug* I dunno.

>>2540923
...goddamn green text. I'm an idiot. Shit in my mouth and smear it in my wizard beard...

>>2540923
My Dad has read all of those books that are out currently and I'm thinking about getting into reading again for the first time since highschool.
I was just curious what is /lit's opinion on these books?

>>2540942
Have you read any of the new (final) series?

>>2540946
Are you talking about Lord Fouls Bane?
I haven't read shit besides textbooks in over 3 years besides one time a couple of years ago I got about half way through the first book and then stopped for some reason. feelsbad
My Dad has all of the series that is currently out, there is like 1 or 2 more books coming?

Contrary to popular opinion, Stephen King is actually a decent writer. The Stand, IT, The Long Walk, The Shining, etc are all good novels.

The most recent book I liked from him was Under the Dome. Unfortunately the ending sucked like many other endings he's wrote.

>best living author
>overraeted

>>2541448

>CAN'T SPELL OVERRATED

>>2540970
Sorry about the long delay. Lord Foul's Bane is just the first book of the series. It's the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever, and it's depressing as fuck. But, still...my favorite. There's one last book due out in 2013, if Donaldson doesn't die by then. The books/series are:
First Chronicles:
Lord Foul's Bane
The Illearth War
The Power That Preserves

Second Chronicles
The Wounded Land
The One Tree
White Gold Wielder

Final Chronicles
Runes of the Earth
Fatal Revenant
Against All Things Ending
The Last Dark (2013)

Like I said, it's depressing as fuck, but it's probably one of the best fantasy series ever written.