# On Stephen King
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-stephen-king/412108
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [July 17, 2007, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-stephen-king/412108 "2007-07-17T10:25:21Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 5
### Author:  [@storyteller0910](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/storyteller0910)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2007, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-stephen-king/412108/81 "2007-07-18T14:35:15Z")
Hey, just out of curiosity, what did y’all think of _Lisey’s Story?_
I hated it, and I’ve never hated anything King has written before; I even enjoyed _The Tommyknockers_ and loved the ending of _The Dark Tower_.
I feel like I missed something, so if someone in here enjoyed it, I’d be interested to hear differing opinions.
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### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2007, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-stephen-king/412108/82 "2007-07-18T14:39:49Z")
I couldn’t stand the main characters way of talking. I actually lost the book and never bothered to look for it.
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2007, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-stephen-king/412108/83 "2007-07-18T15:10:28Z")
Here you go, **storyteller** : [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=394200&highlight=lisey's](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=394200&highlight=lisey%27s)
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### Author:  [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2007, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-stephen-king/412108/84 "2007-07-18T16:17:48Z")
[QUOTE=Rubystreak]
Just to be clear: I wrote the post about King’s allegorical symbolism in _Pet Sematary_. I never attributed it to my own analysis and gave credit to King for articulating it. Then **Anaamika** had to make sure you knew it wasn’t my original thoughts. Not sure why anyone having a snit over it was necessary. ::shrug::
[/QUOTE]
Because sometimes I’m 31 going on 4. Sorry.
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### Author:  [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2007, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-stephen-king/412108/85 "2007-07-18T16:26:03Z")
[QUOTE=storyteller0910]
Hey, just out of curiosity, what did y’all think of _Lisey’s Story?_
[/QUOTE]
It was all right, but like _Blaze_, not something I’m probably going to read again.
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### Author:  [@CapnPitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CapnPitt)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2007, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-stephen-king/412108/86 "2007-07-18T17:20:41Z")
I’m just chiming in to say what other folks said about King really being a master of the short story. I really wish he’d write more of them. “The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet” was really good, but my all-time favorite short story ever is “Survivor Type.” Man, what a great story. Probably as great as ladyfingers.
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### Author:  [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2007, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-stephen-king/412108/87 "2007-07-18T17:27:27Z")
[QUOTE=beowulf573]
Frank Darabont is finishing a movie version of [The Mist](http://imdb.com/title/tt0884328/) right now. I have high hopes for it.
[/QUOTE]
Amazing. I first heard this was coming, but trapped in Development Hell, literally over 10 years ago. Never thought it would see the light of day.
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### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2007, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-stephen-king/412108/88 "2007-07-18T17:44:39Z")
One SK short story that really gave me the willies was [**Jerusalem’s Lot**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem%27s_Lot_%28story%29). (Note: NOT the novel, **'Salem’s Lot**!) It can be found in the collection **Night Shift**.
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### Author:  [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2007, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-stephen-king/412108/89 "2007-07-18T18:02:33Z")
[QUOTE=ShelliBean]
And just to reiterate: Cell sucks. A lot. Like a porn star. Like a porn star that had a Dyson surgically implanted in her mouth and a pool filter in her ass (anyone here a Palahniuk fan?).
[/QUOTE]
I loved **Cell** and I thought **Haunted** was a great big pile of meh (especially “Guts”). A few of the other short stories in Haunted were good, but the linking story was awful.
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### Author:  [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2007, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-stephen-king/412108/90 "2007-07-18T18:49:16Z")
ShelliBean, I understand your obsessive need to finish the series. Here are my suggestions. First, realize that nothing will ever compare to the utterly unique, otherworldly, poetic awesomeness of the original book. I still like to go back and read just that, every once in a while.
Second, realize that book 5 doesn’t move things forward much, but if you go in with the right attitude, it’s kind of a cool story.
Third, prepare for King to work out some of his own issues in a very obvious way in 6 & 7, and be ready for a serious decline in quality.
Finally, when you get toward the end of the last book, IIRC, you come to what could be the end of the series, and King even has a note saying that you could stop reading there. Do yourself a favor, and stop reading there, for a few weeks at least (I know ferdamnsure I couldn’t have just skipped that last bit). Treat that ending as the end, and see what you think. Then once that has percolated through your brain, you can read the last, extra chapter. (And then, if you’re like me, do everything possible to erase all memory of it.)
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### Author:  [@ShelliBean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShelliBean)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2007, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-stephen-king/412108/91 "2007-07-18T19:13:36Z")
Oh dear god I have to finish this now. OK. Looks like a trip to the library across town it is.
Oh, and **Justin**? Them’s fightin’ words, son.
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### Author:  [@Emotionally\_Unavailable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emotionally_Unavailable)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2007, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-stephen-king/412108/92 "2007-07-18T19:23:24Z")
[QUOTE=ivylass]
Were these occasions where he was making an appearance, such as a book signing, or did you just happen to bump into him at a restaurant?
[/QUOTE]
one was at a political function where he was shilling for a candidate and the other was in a bar in Orono.
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### Author:  [@beowulf573](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulf573)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2007, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-stephen-king/412108/93 "2007-07-18T20:18:34Z")
I first read Salem’s Lot while in the eighth grade, I had trouble sleeping for weeks because I was certain Hubie Marsden was hanging in my closet. Until recently I read everything he wrote and loved it, though recently I’ve chilled on his work. I’m not sure if it’s because he’s running down or I’ve just read too much of his work and am no longer surprised by his stuff. But for a good twenty-five years he scared the bejebbus out me and I loved it every step of the way.
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### Author:  [@MonkeyMule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MonkeyMule)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2007, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-stephen-king/412108/94 "2007-07-18T20:51:34Z")
[QUOTE=Euthanasiast]
How could you not love a book that opens, “The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed”?
[/QUOTE]
Because the last 20 pages made me seriously consider homicide? I mean really I finished that book and thew it across the room and started cursing for about a half hour.
DAMN YOU SAI KING!! DAMN YOUR VERY BONES, DO YA KEENIT!
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### Author:  [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2007, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-stephen-king/412108/95 "2007-07-18T20:55:21Z")
[QUOTE=Gukumatz]
Ditto. You’re _really_ not missing out on ANYTHING. You can, if you have to, read book five, but he really goes off the deep end after that and never recovers. Just trust us, you’ll be pissed at SK if you finished.
[/QUOTE]
Nah, if **NajaNivea** can get past the riddle spouting evil monorail in _The Waste Lands_, he or she can make it through the rest. “Blaine the Train”? “Blaine the Train is a pain”? Honestly… I mean… just …honestly, man. Words fail me. That, for me, was one of the lower parts of the series.
I also want to take a second to defend _From a Buick 8_. What some people don’t like about it is that it has no explanation for events. But that’s exactly what I liked about it, and it was the very point of the book. There are things in existence that can not be explained, and are outside human understanding. The car isn’t evil, it’s not even a car at all. It’s a time/spatial phenomena that we can’t wrap our little simian brains around, and therefore, it’s probably better if the cops keep it hidden in the back of the impound lot so no idiot accidentally rips a whole in the universe by monkeying with the thing. Sometimes weird shit can’t be understood at it’s better to leave it good and well alone. I like that theme.
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### Author:  [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2007, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-stephen-king/412108/96 "2007-07-18T21:01:27Z")
Oh, and on a related note George A. Romero of _Night of the Living Dead_ and _Monkey Shines_ fame is directing the film version of [From a Buick 8](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0485907/) set to be released in 2009. He previously directed one of the better film adaptations of Kings work (which, unfortunately, isn’t saying much) in 1993’s _The Dark Half_
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### Author:  [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2007, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-stephen-king/412108/97 "2007-07-18T21:08:27Z")
[QUOTE=Idle Thoughts]
For the life of me, I will NEVER understand all the hate for _The Tommyknockers_. It’s one of my favorite SK books.
That being admitted, I recently finished _Cell_ and really enjoyed it too.
I’ve read every SK book save for The Dark Tower Series and I really enjoyed most of them. Some however, well…
…like some said in here sorta expressed already, _From a Buick Eight_ stank. It was also God-awful boring. _Bag of Bones_ was a bit better than this but still didn’t really capture my attention like most of his books do. And _Dreamcatcher_ was really great, I thought, but the movie (well, the ENDING of the movie, more or less) sucked extremely. WHY did they have to go and change the ending? Man, do I hate the movie’s ending. The book is much better, IMHO.
[/QUOTE]
You’re not alone on the Tommyknockers, I also liked it.
One book I do seem to be alone on is “From a Buick Eight”. I seem to be the only person who liked it. People, it wasn’t about a demon car from another dimension. it was about how, when we’re young, we look forward to solving all of lifes mysteries but, as we get older we begin to realize that we will die with many, if not most, of them unsolved. It was obvious to me that it was written by a man who knows that he is at the tail end of his life.
It may also have been King’s admission of his difficulties in ending stories. The fact that, when you write about the things he writes about, no explanation of the horror can live up to the reader’s imagination, so maybe it’s just better to leave it unexplained.
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### Author:  [@lisacurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisacurl)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2007, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-stephen-king/412108/98 "2007-07-18T21:22:45Z")
[QUOTE=storyteller0910]
Hey, just out of curiosity, what did y’all think of _Lisey’s Story?_
[/QUOTE]
I thought it was okay, but good god, his editors must be hella intimidated by him these days, or else they know they can put out a printed roll of toilet paper “by Stephen King” and it will be a best seller. There was a good book in there under a lot of twee and annoyance.
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### Author:  [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2007, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-stephen-king/412108/99 "2007-07-18T21:25:20Z")
[QUOTE=MonkeyMule]
Because the last 20 pages made me seriously consider homicide? I mean really I finished that book and thew it across the room and started cursing for about a half hour.
DAMN YOU SAI KING!! DAMN YOUR VERY BONES, DO YA KEENIT!
[/QUOTE]
Not for nothing, but at least he managed to tap into your emotions. Getting you to set it down and say “meh” isn’t really what you want after 8 books either. You cared how it ended.
Unlike me with Tales of Alvin Maker, I was so sick of the damn series by the end I didn’t give a crap how it ended, just that I’d make it through the last book and not have to think about it ever again. (and now I just discovered that Card is writing yet another book for the thing… dammit all!)
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### Author:  [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2007, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-stephen-king/412108/100 "2007-07-18T21:30:27Z")
Humm, apparently my faves aren’t anyone elses - I loved _Thinner_ - it totally creeped me out. Ditto for _Cujo_. Also in my top five are _Gerald’s Game_ (I mean, TALK about a creepy book), _Carrie_ (although it’s gotten a bit of love in here) and _Firestarter_ although I agree that the ending of _Firestarter_ wasn’t all that satisfying.
I just went and saw _1408_ on Saturday night. Keeping in mind that I’m a **HUGE** fraidy-cat, at one point I was so scared I thought I was going to start to cry. Literally. Heh. I’m such a girl.
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