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/lit/ - Literature

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File: 56 KB, 401x599, The_Stand_Uncut.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
6910374 No.6910374 [Reply] [Original]

100 pages into this. What do I expect, lit?

>> No.6910377

>>6910374
expect alot more pages.

>> No.6910380

>>6910374
A poorly thought out mess that starts relatively strong and peters out about halfway through.

>> No.6910386
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6910386

>>6910374
Start swimming,

>> No.6910394
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6910394

>>6910374
Several hundred more pages of Stephen King's scintillating prose and erudite use of intertextuality.

>> No.6910418

IT was better imo. i've read it probably 3 or 4 times.

i read the full version of the stand once, and started the version of it as it was originally published. longer version is worth the extra 300 pages, considering how long the "short" version is. don't remember much specifically, but i feel like it had a weak ending.

>> No.6910420

>>6910374
If you're lucky, you got the original edited edition.

I really like king, but i found this book unbearable. It's 600 pages too long, nothing really interesting happens, the characters are uninteresting and bland, and guess what? At the end....there is no STAND.

The worst is the 300 pages or so of them rebuilding that town, nothing at all interesting happens except a dumb, uninteresting character slowly goes over to evil and then sabotages everything. Wow, didn't see that coming.

Seriously dude, put the book down, don't ever pick it up again.

>> No.6910426

>>6910420
The buildup to the outbreak is legitimately interesting.

>> No.6910427

Why is this considered a master piece if it sucks?

>> No.6910429

>>6910426
That's like, what? The first 50 pages?

It's arguable, but ok, fine, i'll give you it. The other 950 pages are shit.

>> No.6910437

>>6910420
There were a few cool and/or amusing bits so I wouldn't say nothing interesting happens but overall it does feel like a huge waste of time.

>> No.6910438

>>6910374
A lot of wishing you'd bought the edited version. That rambling thing reminds me why I like King's short stories/novellas best.

>> No.6910447

>>6910418
It was really good, but even that had a lot of pointless, uninteresting parts. I think he could have cut 100 pages out of that book without really changing anything.

The stand could have made a good short story....or poem, maybe a novella at best.

>> No.6910573

>>6910394
Is "On Writing" worth reading? I've never really read King, and I know /lit/ considers him a hack, but he must have some worthwhile insight on the craft of writing considering he's written and sold so many books

>> No.6910579

>>6910573

It's an entertaining memoir and a maybe half-useful writing guide. It's more practical than insightful.

>> No.6910583

>>6910427
I've never met anyone who considered The Stand a masterpiece.

>> No.6910594

>>6910573
"On Writing's" Advice
[more than half of the book is just his autobiography and little entertaining anecdotes from his life, which is admittedly pretty entertaining but not advice]
1. Read a lot and write a lot. Do it 6 hours a day or you're a scrub.
2. Put your desk in the corner of your writing room because you're a maladjusted nerd if your desk is in the center of your writing room.
3. NEVER plan for ANYTHING. Just listen to rcok and roll music and like, write your book, man. It will end up where it ends up.
4. No one can teach you how to write.
5. Don't use adverbs.
6. Don't describe things to excess.
7. Have your wife or some other person read your books.
Uhh...
what else was there...

>> No.6910620

>>6910594
do lots of drugs and drink a lot, then quit cold turkey

>> No.6910625

>>6910594
That's about it.

I like the book, but I think a lot of the advice he gives is pointless. Like....if you couldn't figure this shit out yourself then you probably were never meant to be a writer anyway. The only real thing i learned was about adverbs, but that was more minor advice than anything. He basically just taught me to use them only when necessary (which he doesn't really say but...whatever, i'm going to stop typing)

>> No.6910634

>>6910620
It's cool to relapse if you get ran over by a van, though.

>> No.6910641

>>6910594

Don't forget that the passive voice isn't something to be used.

>> No.6910663
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6910663

>>6910641
>the passive voice isn't something to be used.

>> No.6910675

>>6910594
He did say one interesting thing about editing--
He advised finishing a draft of the book, then putting it on the shelf for 6 weeks to get it out of your system, and then returning to it to edit with fresh eyes so you can "kill your darlings."

>> No.6910676
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6910676

>>6910573
Guy who posted it reporting in. It's a fun read and may give you a little insight into how much writing may demand from you. It's a little disheartening to see that King put in so much time from such a young age and is still pretty much a hack all around. Some of the advice is bad, as other posters have pointed out. King's novels are known for rambling later on, and having weak endings, which makes sense when he advises you not to plot anything out. All told, it's a memoir worth reading of a hard-working man doing the best he can in the arts.

The best part is near the end when he just voices his butthurt about getting ran the fuck over by a van while walking down the side of a rural road, probably coked up or drunk. He calls out the guy who hit him by name and castigates the state of Maine for letting him regain his drivers license.

>> No.6910685

>>6910579
>>6910594
>>6910676

Sounds like an entertaining memoir with some solid advice mixed in with his weird bullshit personal preferences. I'll give it a read.

>> No.6910686

It's like 80s Fallout.

>> No.6910701

>>6910685
He does give some odd advice. Like he says he used to insist on writing 10 pages a day. Odd for one that he counts by pages, not words. Later he said he used to write 5,000 words a day, but has slowed down to around 2,000 now in his old age.

1,500-2,000 words a day is average for most writers. I guess if you want to slam out a ton of shit books, then yeah, 5,000 a day might be best.

>> No.6910704

>>6910676
I like it when he realizes he's gone too far with a shit story and just goes HAM with the cheese to force it to a conclusion.

>"The Library Policeman"
>I'M GOING TO KILL YOU WITH A BALL OF LICORICE YOU GHOST... ERR.. NO VAMPIRE ... NO WAIT ... PEDOPHILE!! ERR SHAPESHIFTER SPACE ALIEN!!!! DIE!!!

There are merits to his unplanned style. It gives rise to unconventional plot structures where he teases a direction, abandons it, then takes it up again later, then just spergs the fuck out trying to force everything into some kind of coherence.

>> No.6910729
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6910729

>>6910418
'It' is better definitely. It's actually fucking creepy.

The Stand has great characters, like Andros, but the whole thing just ugh that fucking ending. At least in It the ending makes sense/is consistent w/reality.

>> No.6910738
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6910738

>>6910374
He bites off more than he can chew. It starts out gripping and promising, laying out a huge, rich universe of promise--and then he realizes he has to crunch everything back down into a satisfying conclusion, and it becomes really bland and contrived as characters are killed off and possibilities pared down.

He outright says in "On Writing" that he was seriously considering dropping it because it became too unwieldy near the middle, and he decided to just hack his way out with a machete instead.

>> No.6912021

The tv adaptation was better.