# So what's your opinion of Stephen King? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 7, 2010, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-your-opinion-of-stephen-king/552915 "2010-09-07T13:52:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-your-opinion-of-stephen-king/552915/121 "2010-09-08T22:42:12Z")
> [@norinew](#): > > > [@CalMeacham](#): > > > > The story was included in **The Bachman Books** , as two others have already noted. AFAIK, it has never been collected in any other anthology. > > Actually, the book was _Different Seasons_, which was a collection of four novellas; they were (iirc) _Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption_, _Apt Pupil_, _Breathing Lessons_ and _The Body_ (later turned into the delightful Rob Reiner film _Stand By Me_). That’s a different anthology. As seen in the link I provided, The Long Walk is part of **The Bachman Books** , which includes Rage, Roadwork & The Running Man. > [@](#): > > Wow – that Stephen King is even better than I thought. His prose flows so smoothly that you thought a collection of FOUR _novels_ was a collection of short stories! Heh. Well I notice that on the cover _now_, but when I read that book I was probably around… 12-13 years old and thought that one book was one book, and if one book contained several stories it was therefore a collection of “short” stories. I really don’t remember it being that many pages though! The other three included were much less, maybe 100 each at most. ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-your-opinion-of-stephen-king/552915/122 "2010-09-08T23:12:26Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > [ > That’s a different anthology. As seen in the link I provided, The Long Walk is part of **The Bachman Books** , which includes Rage, Roadwork & The Running Man. True enough. My mistake. :smack: Actually, _Rage_ is probably my favorite Bachman book. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-your-opinion-of-stephen-king/552915/123 "2010-09-08T23:15:37Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > > [@Ruby Sees](#): > > > > And it made me crazy that he kept calling the Golden Snitches something like Sneetches. I don’t begrudge him making an honest mistake or a typo, but come on editors! Change it! > > I always understood that as being a bit lost in translation between universes. That’ll happen when you have all these similar worlds on different levels of the tower, do ye ken it? I agree. (Cracks a can of Nozz-a-la and catches the KC Monarch game on the tube) Thankee BIG BIG ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-your-opinion-of-stephen-king/552915/124 "2010-09-08T23:49:27Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Literature professors hate King, thinking him the literary equivalent of McDonald’s. He’s instantly accessible and plays for emotions and writes splashy genre fiction. **But he has an exceptional ear for dialogue and a keen feel for the soul of 20th (now 21st) century Middle- and lower-class American life.** Not all of his stuff is genre. I think it’ll come to be appreciated properly, but not until he’s been long dead. I think this is his greatest gift. He has an uncommon knack for incorporating pop culture references/dialogue that Americans can readily tap into that make his books so successful. I also think he’s a very good descriptive writer, and good at creating believable characters, whether they be good or evil. The ending thing is his biggest weakness, but I don’t feel as let down by them as many others do. His best book to me is _The Shining_, which I also think is the best movie adaptation of his books. Honorary mentions go to _Stand By Me_ (story and movie), _Shawshank Redemption_ (story and movie), _The Green Mile_ (story and movie), and The _Dark Tower_ series, even if it contained the ultimate act of hubris by including himself as a direct component of the story. I love the guy. One of my favorite short stories is the story _Everything’s Eventual_ from the book of the same name. I LOVE that short story. I could go on in his defense, but I’ll stop now. ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-your-opinion-of-stephen-king/552915/125 "2010-09-09T01:11:37Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > One of my favorite short stories is the story _Everything’s Eventual_ from the book of the same name. I LOVE that short story. Oh, man, me too! I was _ridiculously_ pleased to see the character of Dinky Earnshaw turn up in the last _Dark Tower_ installment! And of course, that same collection of short stories included the uber-creepy _1408_ as well as _The Road Virus Heads North_. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-your-opinion-of-stephen-king/552915/126 "2010-09-09T01:27:33Z")
> [@Fir\_na\_tine](#): > > > [@Dogzilla](#): > > > > I believe the last book in that series was the last King book I read. The ending pissed me off so badly (actually, inserting himself into the story as a character pissed me off to no end), that I actually threw the goddamned book across the room when I finished it and have not picked up another SK book since. Fucker. > > > > 😃 > > _ **Dogzilla,** _ you really need to read _Duma Key_. It will restore your faith in SK. Seconded. This book was just such a joy to read. > [@](#): > > His dialogue (real or in character imagination) is the best part of any SK book. For me, the best scene in _The Stand_ is where Fran gradually comes to realize she needs to bury her Dad before he rots in the summer heat! I’ve read a lot of post-apocalyptic fiction (basically every book in the genre I can get my hands on), and I don’t think anyone else has done as good a job at describing the slow, then speeding up collapse of society. He did a marvellous job at focussing on both the big picture and individuals at the same time. I think one of the scenes that stands out the most for me in _The Stand_ was Stu’s escape from the hospital. He was so close to being immune to the virus, then slowly dying of hunger because no one thought to unlock his door… ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-your-opinion-of-stephen-king/552915/127 "2010-09-09T02:01:06Z")
Like previous posters, I was flummoxed by the poll because of its single tense. For the first part of his career, I sucked up everything he wrote. In the mid-eighties, I think he had some substance problems, and started to crank out very formulaic stuff: “What if [insert familiar thing] was trying to _kill you?_” books, most of which were relatively readable anyway. (Except _Pet Sematary_, the less about which is said, the better.) I got re-excited when he started on _The Gunslinger_, which took some good ideas he got from Peter Straub and ran with them. Fresh, and well-written. Well, the first book. Each successive installment became more pointlessly painful, and I stayed well the hell away from Stephen King for a while. I still check in once in a while, but he’s hit and miss. I seem to remember a self-assessment of his writing as “the literary equivalent of a cheeseburger-and-a-side-of-fries.” I don’t think it’s false modesty. I bought the hardcover of _The Dome_ because it was absurdly cheap on Amazon as a promo. ($7, I think?) This was like his eponymous burger: a real whopper which left me with a left me full of regret and a desire to purge. The last thing I remember enjoying unambiguously was _Dreamcatcher_, and it suffered from clumsy prose – it seemed like it was made to be adapted into a cheesy sci-fi movie. When _Cell_ came out, my boss-at-the-time read it and insisted on keeping me updated on his progress. Stephen King needs a beefy, assertive (and possibly armed) editor, and/or strong medication for his graphomania. He can be brilliant, but there is just too much shit to wade through. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-your-opinion-of-stephen-king/552915/128 "2010-09-09T02:30:59Z")
> [@Fir\_na\_tine](#): > > > [@Dogzilla](#): > > > > I believe the last book in that series was the last King book I read. The ending pissed me off so badly (actually, inserting himself into the story as a character pissed me off to no end), that I actually threw the goddamned book across the room when I finished it and have not picked up another SK book since. Fucker. > > > > 😃 > > _ **Dogzilla,** _ you really need to read _Duma Key_. It will restore your faith in SK. > > His dialogue (real or in character imagination) is the best part of any SK book. For me, the best scene in _The Stand_ is where Fran gradually comes to realize she needs to bury her Dad before he rots in the summer heat! Absolutely… but stop before the end. When the suitor was waiting in the kitchen, the UPS man rang the doorbell (in the real world). I seriously almost peed my pants. Stop before… um, stop before they go on their expedition, because after that it really sucks balls. But before that, it’s really very good. ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-your-opinion-of-stephen-king/552915/129 "2010-09-09T02:50:45Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > I think one of the scenes that stands out the most for me in _The Stand_ was Stu’s escape from the hospital. He was so close to being immune to the virus, then slowly dying of hunger because no one thought to unlock his door… I think you’re conflating Stu and Lloyd. Stu escaped when a hospital administrator came to kill him, Lloyd was reduced to eating a rat and part of a fellow inmate before the Walking Dude let him out. And yes, I’m quite sure about this–I had my traditional biennial reading of the book just a couple months ago. (Yes, I’ve read the book every two years or so since I was 14. It’s part of my life cycle.) I also just want to say that Stephen King is responsible for the nearest I have ever come to having a stroke. I was reading _Pet Semetary_ in the middle of the night, and had just gotten to the part where the evil resurrected cat is trying to kill the guy, glaring at him with its glowing eyes and all. At that point I glance up, and there’s these two glowing cat eyes glaring in the living room window at me. After a few seconds I realized our cat must have snuck outside earlier in the day and was ready to come back in, but for that first moment I damn near pissed myself. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-your-opinion-of-stephen-king/552915/130 "2010-09-09T03:08:52Z")
Anybody else think the early short story, **Quitters Inc** , was all kinds of effective because it used 0 supernatural stuff? ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-your-opinion-of-stephen-king/552915/131 "2010-09-09T03:10:48Z")
> [@CrazyCatLady](#): > > > [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > > > I think one of the scenes that stands out the most for me in _The Stand_ was Stu’s escape from the hospital. He was so close to being immune to the virus, then slowly dying of hunger because no one thought to unlock his door… > > I think you’re conflating Stu and Lloyd. Stu escaped when a hospital administrator came to kill him, Lloyd was reduced to eating a rat and part of a fellow inmate before the Walking Dude let him out. And yes, I’m quite sure about this–I had my traditional biennial reading of the book just a couple months ago. (Yes, I’ve read the book every two years or so since I was 14. It’s part of my life cycle.) > > I also just want to say that Stephen King is responsible for the nearest I have ever come to having a stroke. I was reading _Pet Semetary_ in the middle of the night, and had just gotten to the part where the evil resurrected cat is trying to kill the guy, glaring at him with its glowing eyes and all. At that point I glance up, and there’s these two glowing cat eyes glaring in the living room window at me. After a few seconds I realized our cat must have snuck outside earlier in the day and was ready to come back in, but for that first moment I damn near pissed myself. No, I meant Stu almost got trapped in the locked isolation ward, which would have been a real kick in the pants since he was immune to the plague. ---
**Author:** ![AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-your-opinion-of-stephen-king/552915/132 "2010-09-09T06:19:47Z")
Crazy Cat Lady, your story cracked me up! Oh, and I HATED HATED Lisey’s Story. I never even TRIED to reread it. ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-your-opinion-of-stephen-king/552915/133 "2010-09-09T06:30:25Z")
> [@CrazyCatLady](#): > > I also just want to say that Stephen King is responsible for the nearest I have ever come to having a stroke. I was reading _Pet Semetary_ in the middle of the night, and had just gotten to the part where the evil resurrected cat is trying to kill the guy, glaring at him with its glowing eyes and all. At that point I glance up, and there’s these two glowing cat eyes glaring in the living room window at me. After a few seconds I realized our cat must have snuck outside earlier in the day and was ready to come back in, but for that first moment I damn near pissed myself. Heh. I almost had a King-induced stroke, too! I was absolutely no more than 17, maybe only 16, reading _The Shining_ in my mother’s room. I was lying across the bed on my stomach, facing away from the door. I’d gotten to the part where the topiary hedges come to life, and my Aunt, who apparently had a sadistic sense of humor, crept into my mother’s room very, very quietly, and tickled the sole of my foot. :eek::eek: I think the hole might still be in the ceiling. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-your-opinion-of-stephen-king/552915/134 "2010-09-09T11:27:24Z")
> [@](#): > > I also just want to say that Stephen King is responsible for the nearest I have ever come to having a stroke. I was reading Pet Semetary in the middle of the night, and had just gotten to the part where the evil resurrected cat is trying to kill the guy, glaring at him with its glowing eyes and all. At that point I glance up, and there’s these two glowing cat eyes glaring in the living room window at me. After a few seconds I realized our cat must have snuck outside earlier in the day and was ready to come back in, but for that first moment I damn near pissed myself. A guy I worked with told a similar story – he was reading _Cujo_ in bed, and looked up to find a Saint Bernard in his room. It was his neighbor’s dog that had somehow gotten into his house. I definitely would have had a heart attack. This is the kind of thing I generally classify as “Way too good to be true”, but he swears that it really happened. ---
**Author:** ![Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bc8723/32.png) [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-your-opinion-of-stephen-king/552915/135 "2010-09-09T12:14:06Z")
> [@LVBoPeep](#): > > Although I see the complaints about _It_, I didn’t care so much about the insect-inspired ending. The characters of the children and their lives outside of the horror they were living were very well-done, especially Ben and Beverly. I loved Ben and still want to find him and give him a big hug. I don’t know about the others posting here, but for me it wasn’t the spider. It was the incredible skeeviness of a grown man writing about a group of 12 year olds having a gang bang in order to defeat the monster. I still can’t believe he got away with writing that. I chose the second option. I think he’s generally very good. If he’s junk food, he’s fresh-made fried chicken and biscuits from Mama Dip’s, whereas other popular writers are much more akin to corporate drive-thru fare. I actually think the comparisons with Shakespeare aren’t out in left field. Both are deft entertainers aiming at pleasing the crowd. Both can be highly derivative, but so brilliant at reshaping an old idea it doesn’t matter. And where Shakespeare was a master at crafting language, King is a master at crafting characters. His people are so real and relatable - that’s truly an achievement. ---
**Author:** ![Ninja\_Lauren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/46a35a/32.png) [@Ninja\_Lauren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ninja_Lauren)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-your-opinion-of-stephen-king/552915/136 "2010-09-09T13:02:52Z")
_Salem’s Lot_ was the first book I ever read from the adult section of the library, and ever since then I’ve loved King. He can make the most innocuous thing terrifying, and I love it! _The Dark Tower_ series has got to be my favorite, along with _The Stand_ and _Pet Semitary_. _Gerald’s Game_ was good too. I agree, I haven’t liked his newer stuff as much. I hated the ending of _Cell_. _Lisey’s Story_ was pretty lame, though I made it through. I also made it through _Duma Key_, barely. But hey, no one’s perfect! I don’t like to many movie versions of his work though. His writing style and word usage is what gives the creepy factor in most of his stories, and it just doesn’t translate well to t.v. _Needful Things_ was a good book, but the movie was horrible! I also liked his Richard Bachman books. I read (and liked) _The Regulators_, but I had no idea they were the same person for the longest time!:smack: ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-your-opinion-of-stephen-king/552915/137 "2010-09-09T13:22:21Z")
> [@outlierrn](#): > > Anybody else think the early short story, **Quitters Inc** , was all kinds of effective because it used 0 supernatural stuff? King has written tons of stuff with no supernatural elements. Anyone who doesn’t thing _The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon_ is damn fine writing is a big old poopyhead. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-your-opinion-of-stephen-king/552915/138 "2010-09-09T13:24:19Z")
I have only enjoyed a few of his works. Most that I have tried, I put down and didn’t look back. I liked _Thinner_ and _Fire Starter_. ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-your-opinion-of-stephen-king/552915/139 "2010-09-09T13:59:46Z")
I’d say hack, but he writes excellent short stories. You just need to keep him away from novels, preferably with something electrified. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-your-opinion-of-stephen-king/552915/140 "2010-09-09T14:22:13Z")
> [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](#): > > …I don’t know about the others posting here, but for me it wasn’t the spider [in “It”]. It was the incredible skeeviness of a grown man writing about a group of 12 year olds having a gang bang in order to defeat the monster. I still can’t believe he got away with writing that… Yeah, that was a real “Huh? \*WTF?” \*moment for me. I didn’t understand that at all. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-your-opinion-of-stephen-king/552915.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-your-opinion-of-stephen-king/552915.md?page=8)