Re: the vampire rules. In Dracula, there is a scene where Jonathan Harker is back in London and recognizes a blood-rejuvenated Dracula on a street in broad daylight! I have no problem playing with the vampire legend. After all, invention and imagination are the hallmarks of fiction, are they not?
Re: The Stand. The ending was a literalDeus ex machina ending in which God’s hand arises and blows up Las Vegas! King might as well have written (… and then they were all run over by a truck. The End)
I might also mention Ramsey Campbell, another British writer who has created some very unsettling stories.
I read one of Richard Matheson’s stories. “Red”. I will never read another. I will post the plot summary if anyone is curious, but rest assured that it was the most grotesque, horrifying, and off-putting story I have ever read, or ever care to.
I like many of Stephen King’s books, although certainly not all. Ray Bradbury does absolutely nothing for me. I read “Something Wicked This Way Comes” and didn’t find it to be particularly scary or horrifying. Or interesting, for that matter. I like Poe, but again, his stories haven’t really managed to terrify me. Well, with the possible exception of “The Cask of Amontillado”, because the notion of being walled into a dungeon forever really freaks me out.
Apart from that, I guess I’m just not really into horror stories. Blame Richard Matheson, if you must.
Hmmm…Matheson violated the Vampire Rules in “I Am Legend” from which they made the movie-which-has-almost-nothing-to-do-with-the-book “The Omega Man”. It was a very good book. I’ll have to change my mind…
I also thing it is interesting that Poe, who defined poetry as “the rhytmic creation of beauty” wrote “Annabel Lee”.
Poe not scary? I guess. His stories are just dated, IMO. The Telltale Heart scared the bejesus out of this 11 year old boy. And The Raven, read by a good reader (a nun :)), was pretty unsettling.
I haven’t read any of his works since I was a teenager, so maybe my tender youth influenced their effect on me.
I’m pretty much of the ‘pop’ category of reader, I guess. “I don’t know art, but I know what I like” describes my tastes. The Omen scared me. I had to take a couple of breaks while reading that one, and go for a walk in the real world. And I read it after seeing the movie. Too close to my catholic upbringing.
Peace,
mangeorge
carnivorous, to which “folklore” are you actually referring to? Cecil’s research into vampire folklore led to a world where no two vampires are killed the same, why would you conclude that they live the same? As well, you accuse King of simultaneously creating his own brand of vampire then of being a hack? I would think using the tried-and-true is the bigger hack, but I’m being defensive too so there you have it
And I, too, had a problem with Tommyknockers. First attempt I think I got into about 250 pages of it, put my bookmark in, and promptly lost interest. About 6 months later I picked it back up right from the bookmark and found, much to my chagrin, that the book got terribly interesting. It still remains as a favorite of mine.
“It”, however… I tried that sucker three times and never found it interesting.
As to Cecil’s research, I can only refer to what a person said about Mr. Spock quoting Sherlock Holmes as an ancestor; Sherlock Holmes isn’t real! Cecil’s cool, but if he and Bram Stoker were drowning…
I admit that after the mention of Richard Matheson the rules can be changed and still have a good story. I though I accused just Robert B. Parker of being a hack, but I’m easy, I’ll include King too, if I didn’t.
Hack I think is more like “they never saw them again”, using a Twilight Zone plot and books longer than Charles Dickens that I think should have been novellas.
I will again, have to respectfully agree to disagree about King and about The Stand in particular. I liked it. I will continue to like it. And I’ll continue to re-read it. But then again, diversity is what makes the world interesting. I just won’t buy a copy for you for Christmas.
However, in the interests of accuracy, there are actually two different endings to The Stand: the original version ends differently than the uncut version put out years later. (In fact, there were a number of other things which King changed before the release of the uncut version in an attempt to update it.) If I have a beef with the book at all, it’s that I would have preferred to have the uncut version without the updated cultural references. However, the uncut version did contain several scenes that made some of the references I had thought were unclear in the original publication make more sense.
As far as the endings…SPOILERS BELOW…
First, The Stand did not end with the destruction of Las Vegas. There was a considerable amount that went on after that; granted, it was definitely the denouement, but there was wrap-up there. Secondly, the uncut version ended with Flagg reappearing elsewhere in the world, without memory (and by the way, if you read Eyes of the Dragon, you’ll see Flagg pops up there, too, as the evil magician of the kingdom of Delain. Also, if you read Eyes, King goes into more detail about what Flagg really is.) The original version ended with Stu thinking about what had transpired, hoping their children and their children’s children would learn from their mistakes but also wondering if human nature was such that it would ever be so. He asks Fran about it, and her response is, “I don’t know,” which clearly doesn’t please her. Not a great answer…but then again, it’s a worthwhile question. Also the one that disturbs me the most about humanity in general, but I won’t go there.
Carnivorousplant, the reason I go through all this is that you seemed to take exception to the line ‘they never saw them again’, and was wondering if by chance you were thinking of a different King book. Hope it helps.
It is said of a group going off into the desert for some reason; but it is a trick, for they survive and the people staying there perish! Oh, how clever!
Sorry.
Tha’s the kind of stuff I find irritating.
I’d like something by Robert E. Howard for Hanukkah, thank ou very much.
Sorry, carnivorousplant, but I still have no idea what you’re referring to. I thought I had a lead on it, but your description of it doesn’t match up with what I thought it might be. Most of the group from Boulder that goes to Las Vegas does not survive…no trick to it.
Can we respectfully agree to disagree on this one? Between this and the thread that mentions all the ‘trash’ that people like to read, I’m starting to come to the conclusion that my reading preferences are most akin to some of my dog’s more nauseating ideas of things that are fun to eat. (I never thought of myself as an intellectual giant, but I’m starting to feel about…oh…a millimeter high about now.)
Just for that, I’ll not only get you a Howard but a Haggard for Hanukkah, but I’ll throw in something by Isaac Bashevis Singer to round it off. How’s that?
The scariest book I’ve ever read is Pet Semetary by King. The thing about King (sorry) is that when he has a good idea he can do absolute wonders with it. The idea behind Pet Semetary, needless to say, is very good in a horrific sense. And dealing with dead kids and pets for the person who is ultimately responsible for them is probably the most terrifying thing out there. Zombies running around? Eh… Vampires down the street? Well, time to get some garlic, I guess. Your toddler son run over by a semi? Gulp! Saaaay, why not bring him back! shudder
As the “best” in the field I’d go with Lovecraft. Rarely is he necessarily scray, but it is stuff that stays with you a long time after you read it. I personally prefer his more random works that don’t have anything to do with, say, Yog Sothoth or Nyarlathotep or that Cthulhu chap. Stories like “The Rats in the Walls,” or “The Temple.”
And a current author who was mentioned before, F. Paul Wilson, is one who’s works I try to get ahold of whenever I can. He doesn’t do “horror” so much as supernatural adventure. Fear he generates is often mundane in nature, but has its power in the fact that he makes very likable and realistic characters who find themselves in peril. Repairman Jack, the main character from The Tomb, now has a series of books of his “own” (considering that The Tomb is part of a “cycle” of five books, these new ones are mostly outside of that “cannon”). And he is one of the most likable and enjoyable characters I’ve come across in a long time.
Presumably it’s a reference to the group who travel to Las Vegas from Boulder. Mother Abigail predicts that one of them will never reach there, which naturally leads to an assumption that that person dies, an assumption King encourages. When said person is injured and left behind, he does, IIRC, mention that the others never saw him again (or maybe that he never saw them again, I don’t have the book handy). So yes, it’s a “trick”, playing on the reader’s expectations. But in the context, I would consider that a good thing; after all, the other way around WOULD be hack writing.
However, I would love to be pointed in the direction of more female horror authors. . **[/QUOTE
check out tanith lee. she’s mostly known for sci/fi fantasy, but she also wrote some very dark horror stuff.
there’s a female author named kathe koja who has written some of the most disturbing horror fiction i’ve read in a long time. she’s a more recent writer, but her stuff is hard to find. the barnes and noble here in grand rapids, mich, doesn’t carry her, i had to go to a locally owned place to get her works, but they’re really worth it.
But for me, it (ahem) borrowed too heavily from the classic short story “The Monkey’s Paw”. It’s available for on-line reading here. It’s short and one of the true classics of the genre. Read it, if you haven’t, I’ll continue after some spoiler space.
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As soon as their pet came back from the dead, I knew that one of the kid would get snuffed, one of the parents would use the cemetery on him and bring the kid back with horrific results. I dunno, he just seemed to telegraph it. On the other hand, there was a certain horrible facination with knowing what was going to happen and dreading it.
