/lit/ - Literature

Yes

Who is this guy?

The Long Walk is probably the best take on the 'teenagers compete for survival' sort of story that is around.

It's much better than stuff like Battle Royal or the Hunger Games, although that isn't saying much. The fact that the kids are not directly fighting each other highlights the social problems of a story like that much more.

Other than that, sure. His stuff isn't that well written but some of the concepts and plots are interesting and it tends to be very film-able, which might be something you're into. A lot of PKD's short stories are pretty badly written too.

>>4929127
No

>>4929433
Agreed.

Go for The Long Walk or his short story The Mist, in his collection The Skeleton Crew

>>4929433
Gonna second this. The Long Walk is really good. I also enjoyed It and Salem's Lot.

I think he's good when talking about institutions or the Estate. The Long Walk, The Fugitive and the short story Quitters, Inc. are enjoyable.
But that's it. They are airport-summer-reading kind of good.

Danse Macabre

I recently started the stand and it has become one of my all time favorite books. Really good stuff

Depends what you're into. If you're looking for fine literature then no, his writing style isn't awful, but he's more of a competent storyteller than an artist. If you're seriously into horror, most of his stuff is worth reading as it ranges from very good horror to forgettable, but usually enjoyable and above average for the genre. For most people, it's worth trying his best rated stuff, but not worth reading everything he's ever farted out unless the concept appeals to you. He's wrote a lot of stuff about an alcoholic writer and the inhabitants of a small town being terrorised by some kind of evil, so it does get formulaic.

The man can write.

I think that if he didnt make the big mac and fries comment the lit hipsters wouldnt deride him so much.

King is, ultimately, an effective and imaginative story teller, who doesnt pretend to be anything but.

>>4929948
Yet another butthurt faggot who thinks people read "difficult" books to spite his illiteracy

>>4929964
>that retort
why on the defensive so suddenly? you seem bitter. it's not your butt, is it?

>>4930006
>Whine about the fact that you like a shit author for 13 year olds
>HURRR UMAD RITE?

Wow

>>4930032
Get a load of this guy.

I liked Under The Dome, sue me.

>>4930032
son, you have to describe the symptoms. is the pain constant? is it sharp or dull? go ahead and get hold of a mirror to take a look back there. feel free to post pics.

I like how people get this upset over the fact that he for the most part sucks and is for kids. That retard wrote more than I am now to announce how I've offended him here today.

>>4930115
Damn it was actually slightly less.

CONFOUND IT, NOW I'M SHITTER SHOAH'D BY VIRTUE OF MY VERBOSITY

>>4930115
>That retard wrote more than I am now to announce how I've offended him here today.
What are you even saying? What is this sentence?

>>4930121
>shitter shoah'd
what the hell is going on here?

>>4930099
I plan to.

the long walk and the running mam
/thread

He wrote a small amount of good stuff and a whole pile of mediocre rubbish to pay his electricity bills.

>>4929420
Steven King, popular genre fiction writer.

>>4930923
More like to pay for his cocaine and scope mouthwash

I will never ever ever ever ever understand why he didn't like Kubrick's version of The Shining.

>>4930934
Because it wasn't faithful obviously, what do you not understand about that? The film is great but it's certainly not like the book.

>>4929420
Andy "Flatlander" Morin, producer for the experimental hip-hop trio, "Death Grips."

>>4930934
Probably because he got assmad that Kubrick made it his own artistic statement. Which is retarded. If I go watch Inherent Vice and it's the same as the book scene for scene I'll be a little mad.

The only time I approve of this is Fear and Loathing as it is literally a word for word retelling of the book minus one unimportant scene but it also has visuals and since it's trippy the film medium is (imo) better.

Rage in the Bachmann books.

That's it.

>>4930923
He's just a really, really good and original pulp fiction writer. Still pulp fiction though, not literature.

>>4930931
He claims the only books he wrote for money were his earlier ones, like carrie He said he really hasnt needed money since the late 70s. He said even the books that turned out to be shit, there was a reason why he wanted to write it, something that interested him but unfortunately didnt work. And after he wrote them, whats he supposed to do? Just throw it away? if he could get them published he would maybe somebody will like it. It's hard to argue with that philosophy. Apparently he has about 40 novels just laying around that he's never been able to get published.

As for his work, the stuff he wrote in the 70s and 80s is pretty good for the most part. Anything post 1990 has been garbage. I think "It" was a great fucking book. I just finished "The Stand" and good lord was that horrible.

>>4930964
I like him as a person as in he gives good insights, seems quite funny and definitely has fresh ideas and a solid foundation of what it is to "be human". I just dislike his novels because the pacing is always terrible and I just like other things now.

His short stories are still great.

>>4930968
Yeah, it's arguable. A lot of his Novels are garbage, but a lot of them a pretty damn good. Like i said, stick to the stuff he wrote in the 70s and 80s.

His best work was obviously the stuff he wrote while being a total drunk and drug addict.

>>4930964

So he wrote good novels and short stories for money, and absolute twaddle for pure enjoyment?

>>4931009
Yeah, basically.

That's how it works for a lot of writers. Their earliest stuff is usually their best, because they're actually trying to impress people. After a while they stop caring, and just start writing shitty stuff just for fun.

>>4930947
>Kubrick made it his own artistic statement
Exactly, I feel like a film adaptation should be a statement of the director et. all in its own right and not just a scene-by-scene retelling of the book. Many novelists understand this and King always struck me as a perceptive guy in other respects. I'd be surprised if he hated the movie on that basis.

>>4930937
see above

>>4929420
stephen hawking dumbass

The talisman. Best fantasy book I ever read.

>>4929948
>King is, ultimately, an effective and imaginative story teller, who doesnt pretend to be anything but.
This I read tons of his work including his book on writing. Though I have no inspirations of becoming a writer. The guy has said many times that he's just a story teller. Not some deep and thoughtful intellectual.

>>4929420
Carl Marks

The Stand was pretty good.

>>4932197
>>4929531
Currently reading The Stand and I'm really enjoying it so far.
I have the first Dark Tower book to read after.

Has anyone read 11/22/63? I've talked to a couple people who have finished it and said it's his best book, but they don't read anything outside of pop lit so they're plebs.
I got about 400 pages in, and it started to get to that one weird pacing habit that King's longer books always have, where the character(s) end up doing almost nothing for an in-book amount of several years, an I hate that shit.
Is it worth finishing?

>>4929127
I recently read 'Salem's Lot and it was much better than I expected. It is generally well written barring some passages near the end. The only thing I found annoying about it is how the chapters are divided so frequently, I think this is part of his appeal because the ADD masses can read his books a couple pages at a time.

Needful Things

>>4932337
it's ok, towards the end he really starts to hammer in that time likes to keep shit as is and sends more and more improbable shit in his way to stop the main character

>>4929127
His book "On Writing" was good.
Something something craft.
It actually gives some pretty solid insight.

>>4932422
Ah. I quite enjoyed his first journey into the portal where he hunted his first target, is as good/better than that? And would you say it's worth finishing?

fite me niggas

It.

That all-child orgy scene was really hot.

Different Seasons, particularly Apt Pupil

>>4929420
Destroy-It-Stephen

>>4930121
>shitter shoah'd
Jesus Christ.

>>4930121
>SHITTER SHOAH'D

>>4930121
>SHITTER SHOAH'D

>>4933221
>No Needful things, the GOAT King book
dropped

>>4931328
Karl

King's alright but he's overrated, and definitely not all that scary or disturbing.

>be me
>talking about literature, recommend some fuck up stuff and give a polite warning
>"It's OK, Anon, I read Stephen King for fun."
>mfw people actually think reading Stephen King emotionally unphased is an achievement

>>4934059
I surprised I forgot it.

>>4934731
>mfw I really enjoyed desperation

>>4934747

>>4934731
The Tommyknockers is fucking great. Maybe his most creative one

I think if King had only written The Stand, It, The Shining, Carrie, part of the Dark Tower series, and a handful of good short stories he would be praised way more as being a fantastic writer and taken much more seriously.

He over-saturated the market with his material though. For every good novel he wrote, he wrote 4-5 bad ones. He uses too many of the same tropes and themes throughout his work and often times his leading men have a familiar stoicism and wit that comes off as very Mary Sue. I mean seriously, how many times has he used a writer as a protagonist?

I read a LOT of his shit in middle school through high school. He was my JK Rowling. That being said, I'd recommend reading The Stand and It. Those 2 books will cover the spirit of his work. If you really love him you can always read more but picking 2 of any of his best novels is plenty sufficient.

And the Dark Tower series sucks after book 4. Reading half of a series is dumb so I wouldn't recommend even starting it.

>>4934731
I really liked the running man. But eh.
Where would you you put The Talisman?
I read it and It was a great book in my opinion, but I feel like it was trying to be bigger than it ended up being.

>>4930948

Rage is such a mediocre, amateur story. If there hadn't been controversy around it decades ago it would be forgotten as one of his pulpier/edgier entries. The dialogue is so painfully unreadable.

>>4929127
He's a better writer than all of his haters. I think the hipster crowd hates him because they know that some "storyteller" puts their angsty intellectual pursuits to shame.

>>4934922
>Where would you you put The Talisman?

I haven't read The Talisman, so I didn't include it. And it's a collaboration with Peter Straub, isn't it?