He doesn’t have anything against the appeal to the masses factor. He thinks King is a crappy writer–popular or not.
It has to be said that King creates boring characters that vary naught from book to book. Why, Why dammit does the male protagonist almost always have to be an author or poet? I know they say you should write about what you know but that is just annoying.
I reread the Tommyknockers and The Regulators back to back (hey they were on the bookshelf that way) Gard and John Edward Marinville. I am saying nothing.
Interesting. Insomnia is in the top three of my favorite King books. It’s probably all the Dark Tower references.
Kill Bill was a piece of crap. Any filmmaker who says that continuity errors are on purpose because they’re an ‘homage’ should be hung up by his…
but I digress…
If you’ve lost interest in King… don’t read him anymore. If you think his work is dreck… then find something else.
AND MY GOD PEOPLE! READ THE DARK TOWER BOOKS! Theom you’ll find male (and female) protagonists that are FAR from authors or poets. Insomnia: Ralph is not an author or poet, he’s retired, and I don’t remember from what. The Stand: There’s a singer, does he count? and, oh look! Both of those are Dark Tower related. Hmmmm.
In the forward to Wolves (I think) he talks about when he goes to readings and asks how many people have read one of his book and 99% put up their hands. Then he asks who’s read of the Dark Tower series and 60% put them back down. (I’m paraphrasing here).
Interestingly, I’ve found my interest in King waning as his attention to the Dark Tower universe waxes. I’ve read every one of the Dark Tower books through Calla, and I don’t remember much beyond “Roland” and “gunslingers,” frankly.
I’m not slagging them – I don’t recall that they’re badly written, and they weren’t hard to finish – but personally I don’t think they’re his finest moments. And it annoys me how they’ve metastasized throughout his other books. Black House is the most recent case in point – great first half, but once the Dark Tower marginalia kicked in, the book went haywire and I stopped caring.
And Kill Bill was not a “piece of crap” under any aesthetic system I’m affiliated with, but I don’t usually care about continuity errors.
I’ve been reading King since 1980 and have read (and re-read) everything he’s written (Ok, that’s a lie. I read only the first two ‘Dark Tower’ books, and just do not enjoy them).
He is losing his touch. ‘Hearts in Atlantis’ blew – ‘Dreamcatcher’. . .oh Gaaawwwwddd that was bad.
‘From a Buick 8’ was passable (though I won’t read it again).
I can believe it that he’s bitching about sales. He seems to be a huge egomaniac (he switched publishers a few years ago because he wasn’t getting as much advance money as another author – something like that).
When I tell people I like reading Stephen King, I aways make it a point to say “The old stuff”.
However, his short stories are still great.
Just for the record, I think that ‘Dolan’s Cadillac’ is one of the best short stories I have ever read in any genre.
And I’d buy more books if they hadn’t gotten so darned expensive. I remember when a $5 bill in my pocket meant I could go to the bookstore and have a nice selection of books to choose from. Now it doesn’t even get me something out of the ‘books no one wanted’ crate.
I had a friend give me the Dark Tower series to read while I was recouperating from surgery. I worked my way through it, and it was real work. Too bad I wasn’t on medication for the last two books - they were more painful without opiates. I do not get this series at all. I’m with **Interrobang!? ** - as soon as that stuff started showing up in Black House, it completely became a self-aware “Look at me, I’m still Stephen King” moment that ruined the story.
King is actually not a crappy writer; he’s wildly erratic. For every literary gem like “The Reach,” there is a “Mangler,” a story so stupid it made me laugh out loud at 14. For every Shining and Salem’s Lot, sections of which contain some of the most graceful writing you’ll find in a popular novel, there is a… well, take your pick.
It’s cool, Lissa. I, too, know the compulsion to hoard the printed word. And as soon as I make my millions, oh the hoarding that will ensue!
Actually, I’m mostly annoyed at King for attempting to tie nearly every single one of his books into his Dark Tower series. I’m convinced that he helped ruin Black House that way (and probably strong-armed Straub into going along with it–although that’s just a WAG), and it definitely made me roll my eyes when it happened in his Hearts in Atlantis. (Or, on preview, what both singular1 and ** Interrobang!?** wrote.)
That said, I’ll probably stick with the Dark Tower series until the end. But personally, I think his best writing ended with It.
Steven King is a very gifted man, but everyone knows he was NEVER normal by any stretch to the imagination, and his imagination is scary. Imagine spending 5 minutes inside his head? I try to take that into consideration when taking in what he has to say. Good rant, though, Singular1.
I agree. What King really needs is an editor, and of course he’s too egotistical for that.
I can understand where King is coming from, because I don’t read (well, don’t buy) as many books as I used to. But the reason certainly isn’t that I’ve grown lazy(er) or decided to replace my reading-time with boob-tube time. It’s more because I’m really a little tired of the book industry and it’s love for trade paperbacks.
Jeez, I can remember when most of the books I read cost less than $5, but now even the short mass market paperbacks are going for $7 or above; but if I’m unfortunate enough to want to read something that’s been deemed ‘classic,’ I’ll have to shell out $12-17 for some pain-in-the-ass, inconvenient trade paperback (I’d like to have been there at the board meeting where the concept of the TP was first introduced… All the incoveniences of the hardbound copy, without any of the durability! Same lack of durability of the mass-market paperback, without the convenience of small size! Hey, we’ll charge near-hardcover prices for it too! Guys, I think the trade paperbacks gonna be a trrriumph!) .
Example, the last two books I bought were Grendel and I am Legend. They are both what, 180 pages? There’s no way that a two book purchase that I can finish in a night’s reading should be costing 25 or 30 dollars.
Now even some of the crap I read just to fill time is coming out in a Trade Paperback edition between the hardcover release and the M-M paperback release! Screw it, I give.
Sorry to gripe, but I’ve been bugged by this for awhile, now.
Peace,
-J