# Stephen King: Good or not? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 22, 2002, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-king-good-or-not/144343 "2002-12-22T06:41:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SmileyDeath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb8c5e/32.png) [@SmileyDeath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmileyDeath)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2002, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-king-good-or-not/144343/1 "2002-12-22T06:41:09Z")
I’d like to hear what you think oh him and or his books. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2002, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-king-good-or-not/144343/2 "2002-12-22T06:45:57Z")
There’d be more “gore” than “goo” in his books, surely? 🙂 Besides, I think this should be in Cafe Society forum, **SmileyDeath**. Might pay to ask the mods for a move. ---
**Author:** ![grendel72](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/91b2a8/32.png) [@grendel72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grendel72)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2002, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-king-good-or-not/144343/3 "2002-12-22T06:46:04Z")
I think he is quite goo. ---
**Author:** ![SmileyDeath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb8c5e/32.png) [@SmileyDeath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmileyDeath)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2002, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-king-good-or-not/144343/4 "2002-12-22T07:26:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ice Wolf \* > \*\*There’d be more “gore” than “goo” in his books, surely? 🙂 > > Besides, I think this should be in Cafe Society forum, **SmileyDeath**. Might pay to ask the mods for a move. \*\* Ok… ---
**Author:** ![SmileyDeath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb8c5e/32.png) [@SmileyDeath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmileyDeath)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2002, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-king-good-or-not/144343/5 "2002-12-22T07:32:35Z")
I sent a email to Czarcasm. Although, last time I sent a email to a mod it went unanswered. ---
**Author:** ![reprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@reprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/reprise)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2002, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-king-good-or-not/144343/6 "2002-12-22T07:54:57Z")
Stephen King? **Goo**? Does **Mr Goo** know about this? ---
**Author:** ![SmileyDeath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb8c5e/32.png) [@SmileyDeath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmileyDeath)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2002, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-king-good-or-not/144343/7 "2002-12-22T07:56:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by reprise \* > \*\*Stephen King? **Goo**? Does **Mr Goo** know about this? \*\* Maybe when they move it, change the “goo” to “good”. ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2002, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-king-good-or-not/144343/8 "2002-12-22T08:00:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by reprise \* > \*\*Stephen King? **Goo**? Does **Mr Goo** know about this? \*\* That explains a lot more than it should… ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2002, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-king-good-or-not/144343/9 "2002-12-22T08:15:21Z")
I always thought he was more phlegm. Sometimes he’s rather mucous, though. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2002, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-king-good-or-not/144343/10 "2002-12-22T08:37:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SmileyDeath \* > \*\*Maybe when they move it, change the “goo” to “good”. \*\* As long as you ask them nicely. Maybe promise 'em chocolate. 🙂 Mind you, you might get away with just making the “G” lower-case. From what I know of Mr King’s work, that’d be fairly apt … ---
**Author:** ![Astroboy14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2002, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-king-good-or-not/144343/11 "2002-12-22T11:25:09Z")
For a semi-serious answer: I liked his earlier stuff quite a bit! Of course that does not mean that a thousand years from now people will be calling it “great literature”… but he was a fine genre writer during his early career. I especially liked It and The Stand (even the lengthy original version). However, IMHO[sup]\*[/sup], his more recent work is just disturbing. Dreamcatcher, for example, was an unpleasant reading experience for me. Sort of like chewing on tinfoil… [sup]\*I haven’t read all of his more recent books, so take this with a grain of salt.[/sup] ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2002, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-king-good-or-not/144343/12 "2002-12-22T11:26:46Z")
Goo goo ga choo! ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2002, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-king-good-or-not/144343/13 "2002-12-22T11:37:19Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Astroboy14 \* > \*\* > However, IMHO[sup]_[/sup], his more recent work is just disturbing. Dreamcatcher, for example, was an unpleasant reading experience for me. Sort of like chewing on tinfoil… > [/sup] \*\* In the afterword he says that he wrote it while recovering from that van that hit him so was in a depressed and weird state of mind. He also says his wife hates it. I didn’t like it, but IMO it’s not representative of his recent work. I really like the non-horror stuff he does. My favourite stories by him are **Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption** and **The Green Mile**. Also, any short story he does that either not horror or not physical horror I really like. ---
**Author:** ![TVeblen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@TVeblen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVeblen)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2002, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-king-good-or-not/144343/14 "2002-12-22T14:07:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SmileyDeath \* > \*\*I sent a email to Czarcasm. Although, last time I sent a email to a mod it went unanswered. \*\* **Moderator’s note:** Next time try sending it to several mods. Since we do this gig around jobs, families, etc. there are stretches when individual mods aren’t online. If one isn’t immediately available, another will cover. If it’s an emergency, send it to all of us. Moving this to **Cafe Society**. TVeblen, IMHO mod ---
**Author:** ![grendel72](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/91b2a8/32.png) [@grendel72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grendel72)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2002, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-king-good-or-not/144343/15 "2002-12-22T17:13:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Astroboy14 \* > \*\*Of course that does not mean that a thousand years from now people will be calling it “great literature”… \*\* Y’know what. I think future generations will know King far better than any modern “non genre” (as if middle aged white guys whining about their lives wasn’t a genre unto itself) author. ---
**Author:** ![Splanky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b2d939/32.png) [@Splanky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Splanky)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2002, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-king-good-or-not/144343/16 "2002-12-22T18:57:16Z")
I think King is a great author. I’m actually reading The Drawing of the Three (Dark Tower II) right now. Good stuff. I don’t think he is just another big author who spits out books every year. I’ve read many of his books and my only complaint are some are too long! At least he doesn’t drag the books, though; Tom Clancy sometimes drags and it sucks ass. King just writes books with a lot of depth. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2002, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-king-good-or-not/144343/17 "2002-12-22T19:38:31Z")
I love some Stephen King works and others suck wombats. I think the problem is he’s so prolific that quantity sometimes overtakes quality, but there’s definitely quality. The best (imho): Salem’s Lot, Pet Semetary, Carrie, Misery, Dolores Claiborne, Four Seasons (the last three have nothing to do with the supernatural) The worst (again, imho): The Talisman (with Peter Strand), The Stand (had great moments, but the ending was totally unsatisfying), The Shining (although it has gazillions of fans), Cujo, Christine (just plain turr’ble), and Thinner His book “ON WRITING” is fantastic as well- it’s basically writing guide crossed with autobiography. Even though I think he’s had a lot of misfires, I think that King has been royally screwed by the legion of bitter critics out there and wouldn’t be at all surprised if some of his fiction is still being assigned along with Hemingway’s and Borges’ fifty years after he’s dead. Unfortunately he made the unforgivable sin of getting very rich from his works and that pretty much assures not being taken seriously as a “real” author while living. ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2002, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-king-good-or-not/144343/18 "2002-12-22T19:47:33Z")
King’s written books I didn’t care for: Cujo, Christine, Tommyknockers, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. He’s written books I enjoyed, but wouldn’t read again: Rose Madder, Desperation. But, more than any other author, he’s written books that I’ve loved, loved, loved: Misery, The Dead Zone, The Dark Half, The Stand, It, The Green Mile, all of his short story collections, including Everything’s Eventual. The list goes on, but I think you get my point. I like his sense of humor. His phrasing seems a little show-offy at times, but mostly he gets it right. Right now, I’ve been listening to the tape versiion of Stephen King’s On Writing, read by the author himself. Parts are laugh-out-loud funny, and so far, none of it has been boring. Of all the authors I read, he’s the one I’d most like to sit down and have a conversation with. BTW, it always bothers me when people say, “Oh, if you like Stephen King, you must like Dean Koontz”. As a matter of fact, I dislike Koontz very much. I find him condescending. I’ve read several of his books (I did enjoy Watchers) at the behest of my sisters, and almost invariably end up thinking, “That’s a heck of a plot line. If only Stephen King had written it, I bet it would kick ass!” Just MHO ---
**Author:** ![Essured](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Essured](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Essured)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2002, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-king-good-or-not/144343/19 "2002-12-22T22:44:43Z")
Public Service Announcement : Stephen King is not, I repeat not **Goo.** Thank you 😉 [/ PSA] I’m agreeing with **Sampiro.** Some of his work is very good, IMO. And some of it tragically sucks. I much prefer his non-horror works and short stories, though he had a few horror gems. Definitely falls into the ‘good’ category IMO, when he gets it right, it’s excellent reading. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2002, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-king-good-or-not/144343/20 "2002-12-22T23:26:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SmileyDeath \* > \*\*I sent a email to Czarcasm. Although, last time I sent a email to a mod it went unanswered. \*\* Bette lat the neve. Czarcas [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-king-good-or-not/144343.md?page=2)