# Stephen King's "Cell" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 2, 2007, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-cell/386372 "2007-01-02T02:52:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-cell/386372/21 "2007-01-03T14:18:24Z")
[QUOTE=Terrorcotta] Tanks,\*\* featherlou!\*\* The first thing I thought when I read ‘Tommyknockers’ was that he did NOT like the protagonist or many of the other characters and it’s one of the few King books I’ve never read more than once. I felt the same thing with ‘Cell’ and I was real sorry about it. King’s characters are what make his work so readable. [/QUOTE] I actually re-read _The Tommyknockers_ a few months ago and it was rather revealing: the first 100 pages are really nothing but a man (Stephen King) suffering from a number of addictions (cocaine and alcohol being the big two)telling the reader how it is to both fall into an addiction (Robby and the spaceship) and the nadirs of them (Gardener at the poetry reading). Knowing what we (or I, at least) know now about King’s problems in the 1970’s and 80s with substance abuse, _The Tommyknockers_ nowadays makes for a fascinating look at an author working out his addiction problems on the page. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-cell/386372/22 "2007-01-03T14:24:55Z")
I always enjoyed exactly those parts of Tommyknockers for exactly those reasons, though I never gave shit one about the aliens. ---
**Author:** ![Bibliovore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Bibliovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bibliovore)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-cell/386372/23 "2007-01-03T14:39:48Z")
I’m normally a huge Stephen King fan, but I was so disappointed by \*Cell \* that I didn’t even finish it. It just seemed like a half-hearted rehash of \*The Stand \* and the characters were nowhere near as realistic or as engaging as King’s usual standard. His magical ability to portray regular people in fantastic or terrifying situations is, for me, one of the very best things about his writing and one of the most compelling reasons he should get a lot more credit that he has done to date. Stephen King at his best is \*Literature \* with a capital _L_, but \*Cell \* didn’t live up to that. It feels like something he cranked out in a hurry. I still plan to read everything else he’s written and I’m about 3/4 of the way through \*Lisey’s Story \* (and enjoying it). Let’s hope that his return to form is a permanent one. ---
**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:** [January 3, 2007, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-cell/386372/24 "2007-01-03T21:11:17Z")
From Orson Scott Card’s Introduction to _Ender’s Game_ (pp xviii and xix): > [@](#): > > I have a master’s degree in literature, and in writing _Ender’s Game_ I deliberately avoided all the little literary games and gimmicks that make “fine” writing so impenetrable to the general audience. All the layers of meaning are there to be decoded, if you like to play the game of literary criticism - but if you don’t care to play that game, that’s fine with me…since a great many writers and critics base their entire careers on the premise that anything that the general public can understand without mediation is worthless drivel, it is not surprising that they found my little novel to be despicable. If everybody came to agree that stories should be told this clearly, the professors of literature would be out of a job, and the writers of obscure, encoded fiction would be, not honored, but pitied for their impenetrability. HAH! I have always felt that literature should be something that you can just pick up and read, without needing a degree in Critical Deconstruction of the Novel, but Orson Scott Card really nailed it for me. I know what I like, what moves me, what makes me think, and what makes me want to give up on the book because it’s too damned much work to read. By Card’s criteria, Stephen King may well be one of the best writers alive, and I would not argue too strongly against that. ---
**Author:** ![Bibliovore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Bibliovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bibliovore)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-cell/386372/25 "2007-01-04T10:36:13Z")
Indeed. I think he’s criminally underrated, and while he’s had one or two turkeys in the past, he’s still a damn fine writer. From his interviews and his non-fiction, he actually comes across as a down-to-earth guy I could just shoot the shit with. On a related note, I recently had the chance to meet him at an exclusive launch party for _Lisey’s Story_ which was being thrown by the publishers, but due to bad traffic and useless directions I arrived about a half-hour after he left. ☹☹☹ I was incredibly disappointed, but my contact at the publishers was sweet enough to send me a signed copy in an effort to cheer me up a bit. If I ever meet that guy, I’d just like to shake his hand and say “Thank You” for all the great stories he’s put out over the years and for inspiring me to write. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-cell/386372/26 "2007-01-04T13:31:39Z")
Me too, **Bookmonster**. ---
**Author:** ![Keweenaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Keweenaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keweenaw)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-cell/386372/27 "2007-01-04T14:51:53Z")
I had just finished reading an excellent Zombie graphic novel series before I also received the Cell for christmas. [The Walking Dead](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Walking_Dead) Wiki link. Online issue available on Image Comics website - [http://www.imagecomics.com/onlinecomics.php](http://www.imagecomics.com/onlinecomics.php) I also enjoyed Cell, but the last third or so was a bit weaker than the beginning. ---
**Author:** ![Terrorcotta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dbc845/32.png) [@Terrorcotta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrorcotta)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-cell/386372/28 "2007-01-04T14:57:29Z")
[QUOTE=JohnT] I actually re-read _The Tommyknockers_ a few months ago and it was rather revealing: the first 100 pages are really nothing but a man (Stephen King) suffering from a number of addictions …\ [/QUOTE] How interesting. It’s only been 20-some years since I read that one so maybe it’s time to try again. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-cell/386372/29 "2007-01-04T15:04:25Z")
[QUOTE=Book Monster] Indeed. I think he’s criminally underrated, and while he’s had one or two turkeys in the past, he’s still a damn fine writer. [/QUOTE] King’s had a lot more than one or two turkeys. He managed to write three or four turkeys just in the Dark Tower series. However, long after he’s dead, he’ll be remembered for his good books, and he has written some truly great books; The Dead Zone, The Shining, Carrie, Cujo, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, The Running Man, and lots of books that were maybe not great but pretty good, like The Stand, It, and more. A hell of a lot of really, really good short stories, too. Nobody remembers Michael Jordan’s _bad_ games. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2007, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-cell/386372/30 "2007-01-06T02:13:44Z")
I believe Stephan wrote this in his downtime on the Sun Coast of Florida. It is a metaphor for the affliction of Natural disaster and the Gulf’s Apocalyptics. The fear nodule, the apocrypha, the wayback, the primal… dates all the way back to the Chicxulub Crater and is masterfully intertwined with modern techno-angst. I think it is masterful, but his ending was edited away. Or maybe this is just King’s techno-manifesto, perhaps a morality tale and warning? “Giving the zombies psychic powers” was consistent with his mechanism, the “brain wipe”, and his universe… **The King Universe** , that place where time and space meet in an apex of pandemonium. The powers of the mind are relevant and powerful, but hearts prevail. I tellya his approach to apocalyptic zombiedom is more believable than a virus or chemicals, ferchrissakes. It’s just couched as the EM theory. What other Author can connect viscerally like that chapter. I do believe it was lacking but within context. Important, even. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2007, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-cell/386372/31 "2007-01-06T03:50:32Z")
“Chicxulub Crater”? Huh? ---
**Author:** ![Turek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/turek/32/18782_2.png) [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2007, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-cell/386372/32 "2007-01-06T12:14:13Z")
[QUOTE=AuntiePam] “Chicxulub Crater”? Huh? [/QUOTE] I’m not claiming to having the slightest clue what the post was talking about, but here’s an explanation of the [crater](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicxulub_Crater). ---
**Author:** ![Incubus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c68b51/32.png) [@Incubus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Incubus)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2007, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-cell/386372/33 "2007-01-06T16:43:06Z")
What bugged me was that they never explained what the Pulse was. At least with some zombie stories, it is generally explained as a virus, or something supernatural. Was it an accident? A government experiment gone wrong? Who exactly was the Stanford Man? ---
**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:** [January 6, 2007, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-cell/386372/34 "2007-01-06T16:52:26Z")
I have always admired and respected Stephen King, not only for his good works ( **RickJay** left out Misery and Thinner), but for the many bad things in his life he has overcome (growing up dirt poor without his father, abject pioverty before he sold “Carrie,” booze and drug addiction and the hideous accident that almost killed him. He has a good marriage and has raised three good children. His wife Tabitha is a damn good writer in her own right. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2007, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-cell/386372/35 "2007-01-06T17:02:36Z")
Like some others have mentioned, I thought it started off well as an amusing, somewhat satirical take on a zombie story (and cell phone rant), but once the zombies got psychic powers I started losing interest. I think it was a mistake for him ever to try to take a zombie story seriously. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2007, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-cell/386372/36 "2007-01-06T17:07:24Z")
[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas] I have always admired and respected Stephen King, not only for his good works ( **RickJay** left out Misery and Thinner), [/QUOTE] “Misery” was indeed excellent. I’ll respectfully disagree with “Thinner.” ---
**Author:** ![Weirddave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Weirddave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirddave)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2007, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-cell/386372/37 "2007-01-06T17:30:10Z")
[QUOTE=RickJay] “Misery” was indeed excellent. I’ll respectfully disagree with “Thinner.” [/QUOTE] Bah. I liked “Thinner”. “Misery” was garbage. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2007, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-cell/386372/38 "2007-01-06T17:43:49Z")
_Misery_ was much better than _Thinner_. Realistic horror is always more scary than anything supernatural. I also think that _The Running Man_ is a tight little, underrated classic. The movie version with Ah-nold is a travesty. ---
**Author:** ![Club\_33](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@Club\_33](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Club_33)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2007, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-cell/386372/39 "2007-01-06T19:59:48Z")
I really got sucked into this book, found myself reading it at all hours of the night, was raving about it to friends. And…was completely disappointed in an ending so abrupt that I sat there for a few minutes in utter disbelief. It seemed as if he just got tired of the story and decided to end it. While I like King, I much prefer Koontz for this type of story. ---
**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:** [January 6, 2007, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-cell/386372/40 "2007-01-06T20:13:14Z")
I’ve said more than once on these boards that King’s weakness is his endings. We’re just lucky a giant spider didn’t come out and eat all our heroes. Hey, wait, maybe the pulse CAME from a giant spider from outer space! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stephen-kings-cell/386372.md?page=1)