Stephen King Discussion

[The Thompsons]

Great video, King has a great sense of humor about the whole thing with Kubrick. I haven't read Dr. Sleep just yet, I'll have to try and pick it up sometime.

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

It will be released in 2013 so you have time.

[The Thompsons]

Ah I see, nice to here King talk about his experiences first hand about Pet Sematary as well. Good thing I didn't go too far as I want to hear his thoughts about 11/22/63 after I've read it, I'm really looking forward to it.

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

11/22/63 was very good, highly recommended.

[Mozy]

Maximum Overdrive, the whole thing, but seriously these scenes:





I don't have access to it, but the bathtub scene from The Shining was also very disturbing.

[Handsome B. Wonderful]

11/22/63 was very good, highly recommended.

Heard it was great.

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

Heard it was great.

It really was both as a standalone novel and as a tie in to "IT" as I mentioned briefly.

Speaking of tie ins I finally got around to resuming "The Dark Half" tonight and I kinda wish I had read it before "Needful Things."

The Dead Zone
Cujo
The Dark Half
The Sun Dog(Novella in Four Past Midnight)
Needful Things

These books really should be read in this order.

[The Thompsons]

Good suggestion, I'll have to try that sometime.

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

I mean as a stand alone they are all fine but you get spoilers in the later ones so...

EDIT: Well even Cujo has a pretty big spoiler from The Dead Zone in the first few pages now that I think about it...

[comeau]

I actually did just finish reading a Stephen King book, Rage. It's a bit hard to find these days, because King had it pulled from publication in the mid 90s after a couple of incidents reported to be influenced by the book(it's about a shooting in a school), even before the rash of shootings that started with Columbine. Still a good read.

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

Ah yes, that one is currently only available as part of "The Bachman Books" which is out of print but easy enough to find used. I've wanted to read it due to the reputation he gives it but haven't gotten around to it yet. There's a very short story in"Skeleton Crew" that he wrote in 1968 with a similar main idea. It is called Cain Rose Up....very disturbing read.

[CeetjeBeetje]

I've heard King actually preferred the ending to The Mist that Darabont came up with for the movie but it might just be a rumor.

Really? Interesting, I would freak out if someone changed my creation after it's finished. It happens all the time in movie-world I guess and King has a lot of books that made it into movies.

From what I can remember reading about it, Kubrick pretty much just took the story and did what he wanted with it. One of King's main objections was to the casting of Jack Nicholson. He thought Jack already gave off the 'crazy' personality from the start, when it was supposed to be a slow buildup cause by the house. Personally, I think the movie stands up on its own pretty well though; possibly better than the book.

The movie is really good, but I still like the book better though. The visions of Danny are more gorey and I really liked the garden animals scene.
For the movie, I think Nicholson is a great choise, he's an awesome actor and did the role justice. Even though he looks like a crazy evil guy from the start, I guess you'll get that with Jack no matter what

[do what donny dont does]

It really was both as a standalone novel and as a tie in to "IT" as I mentioned briefly.

Speaking of tie ins I finally got around to resuming "The Dark Half" tonight and I kinda wish I had read it before "Needful Things."

The Dead Zone
Cujo
The Dark Half
The Sun Dog(Novella in Four Past Midnight)
Needful Things

These books really should be read in this order.

You are correct

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

I've read more of "The Dark Half" but still have a lot to go. I'm taking it slowly but it isn't a bad book or anything.

[iambobdole1]

Just read that recently. It's a bit slow to start, but it gets really interesting by the end.

[do what donny dont does]

I've read more of "The Dark Half" but still have a lot to go. I'm taking it slowly but it isn't a bad book or anything.

Great book

[do what donny dont does]

I have a question, which came first, the book Salems Lot, or the short story Jerusalems lot? I think the short story was in Night Shift. Both are amazing. Just trying to settle an argument with my friend.

[iambobdole1]

Pretty sure it was the short first, which was then developed into the novel. Best way to check would be to look at the copyright date though.

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

Jerusalem's Lot was indeed in "Night Shift" and according to what I can tell was first published there in 1978 whereas "Salem's Lot" was published 3 years earlier...it is a prequel of it though.

[do what donny dont does]

I thought so, but he thinks its the other way around. He's a huge King fan, so I thought I might have been wrong. Thanks guys.

[iambobdole1]

Jerusalem's Lot was indeed in "Night Shift" and according to what I can tell was first published there in 1978 whereas "Salem's Lot" was published 3 years earlier...it is a prequel of it though.

My bad. I must have been thinking of some other story.

[do what donny dont does]

Now im confused, i just got 2 different answers.

[do what donny dont does]

The problem is, King wrote alot of short stories for magazines, before he started writing novels. I still have yet to find an answer to which came 1st.

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

I know, but as I said "Jerusalem's Lot" was FIRST PUBLISHED in "Night Shift." This means unlike many stories in his short story collections it wasn't published elsewhere first. And since "Night Shift" came out in 78 and "Salem's Lot" in 75 I'd have to think King wrote "Salem's Lot" first. That's not to say he definitely did of course, but based on the information available I would think so.

[do what donny dont does]

Thanks guys. I guess my friend was right. The full book did come out before the short story.

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

I finally finished "The Dark Half" just now. Although I took my sweet time with it the book was actually written quite well I felt. It flowed easily enough and were I not such a lazy bastard I could have finished it much quicker. Having seen the Romero film adaptation I was spoiled on the ending, but felt the book was better overall. As any King fan will likely know this book was written in response to his pen name, Richard Bachman, being revealed. King writes about writers rather frequently and Thad Beaumont comes off as such a tragic character but maybe that's because I know how his life winds up in the future. Alan Pangborn's role here is significant, but he is the protagonist in King's superior follow-up novel, "Needful Things." Pangborn grows by the end of this novel, but he too feels like a victim more than anything else.

I think the book really began to pick up around page 300 or Chapter 20. The way King described the college English Department really took me back to my days as a college student, often arriving 10 minutes early for a class and observing some other Professors from the department interact with each other from their offices. He really nailed that. I think my favorite character in the book was a very minor one: Rawlie DeLesseps He seemed like a very wise elderly gentleman and his keen observation skills while seeming like a bumbling old man to those around him is a character type I've always enjoyed in fiction. I've read he apparently appeared in the King/Romero adaptation Creepshow too though I'm not aware of it having only seen that film in bits and pieces.

Anyway this was an enjoyable read I'd say, and I loved all the descriptions of the sparrows as the emissaries of the living dead, and the talk of the land between the living and the dead. But most of that did come after page 300. Not in my King Top 10 or even 20, but still an enjoyable read.

Well I guess I'll move on to the extremely short baseball story "Blockade Billy" next followed by the even shorter "Morality." I should be able to read those in one sitting very easily. Then I'll be on my last King book I have available to me that I haven't read yet: "Hearts In Atlantis."

[do what donny dont does]

Dont watch the movie. It really sucks. It was a great book, dont watch the movie, it will ruin it for you.

[Pops]

I 1st read It at the age of 11, I would carry it around in my bag everywhere and read it whenever I had the chance. The conent of the book did land me in hot water a few times though, cause one dick took the copy off me and read a passage with naughty synonyms for ladygardens aloud to the whole class. Still a brilliant book and I've read it every summer since, my copy's naturally worn out, but that won't stop me this year.

The Movie terrifies me though, even the DVD menu made me jump!

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

Eh, I'm still not in love with "IT" but I get the praise it gets.

Anywho I read "Blockade Billy" in one sitting this morning. It's a baseball related short story and it was written well but my interest was pretty low. No supernatural stuff to be found but there was a twist fitting of King. I'll read "Morality" next. It is quite literally half as long so...

[Lionheart]

Just started 11/22/63. I'm only about 90 pages into it, but I really like it so far. As much as I like his other stuff, I like that this is a bit of a change for him and isn't a typical horror novel.