The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Trivial Pursuits => Arts & Entertainment => Topic started by: Pedro Picasso on October 04, 2004, 07:40:35 pm
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I'm reading the last of Stephen King's Dark Tower series. Prior to starting this series last year, I had never read anything of King's. Now I've read or listened to six and a half of seven Dark Tower books, and by gum, I need a cadre of bibliophiles to discuss it with. Unfortunately I'm intimidated by the idea of reading actual Stephen King forums and the like.
1. I'm not finished with this last one yet.
2. Those people might be creepy.
Any King fans here?
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I enjoy King perhaps more than is good for someone who occasionally sort of claims to be sophisticated, sort of, but I have yet to start the Dark Tower. I've read enough of his para-DT material (Black House, big chunks of Insomnia) to be interested, but I got about thirty pages into The Gunslinger and stopped for reasons I have totally forgotten. Maybe I should take another stab at it.
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I've been with the Dark Tower books since I first read The Gunslinger in Junior High. I got really pissed off at the six year break between The Waste Lands and Wizard and Glass, but I didn't dislike W&G as much as a lot of my friends seemed to. I'm currently about halfway through the last book.
I haven't enjoyed the last couple of Dark Tower books as much as the first couple (as a matter of fact, I think it's been downhill since The Drawing of the Three), but they've been entertaining enough for me to at least see it through to the end.
Already something has pissed me off in the last book, but I don't want to be a spoiler, and I am only halfway into it, things still could change.
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The Gunslinger (the first book) is different from all the others. It's darker and more menacing. It creeped the hell out of me. None of the rest of them are like that. It's like he lightened the hell up after that one.
If you really feel bad about descending to the level of popular horror fiction, read On Writing. It's fun, and it'll make you feel like the dude's an old friend somehow. You wouldn't snub your friend's books.
I might. I have a friend who self publishes what he calls 'anime-prose'. Problematic.
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I love the Dark Tower stuff. I'm reading Wolves of the Calla right now. There's a little something that connects back to the DT in almost everything King has ever written.
When and if you decide to read more King, based on your DT experience, I suggest the following:
The Talisman
Black House
Eyes of the Dragon
The Stand
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Recommendation for Black House thoroughly seconded. It's technically a sequel to The Talisman, but I read it before Talisman and had no problems following the narrative; it's also co-written by Peter Straub, so if you're ambivalent about the "King voice," you'll find something far different here.
(Fair warning: Black House is very creepy, IMHO one of the creepier King books I've read lately, and deals very heavily with crimes of brutal violence against children. Steer clear if that sort of thing really gets to you in a non-fun way.)
Recommendation for On Writing also seconded. I've always liked King writing "as himself" and about his own life; he's always seemed like the sort of guy it would be a pleasure to know, and knowing his personal voice and attitudes has carried me through a few books that I seriously wouldn't have bothered to finish otherwise (Dreamcatcher, anyone?).
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I liked Dreamcatcher.
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I read It recently. It was really good, but if the ending didn't ruin the book for me, the movie did. I think the next of his works I read will be Misery. I have a feeling that Va is going to get very interested in Salem's Lot shortly.
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I thought the It movie was really great righ up until the ending, which was SUCH a letdown.
Ditto with The Stand.
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I liked Dreamcatcher.
I ended up liking it all right too, but there were points in which it was a very hard slog. I think it suffered particularly from a very Kingian problem -- the book is made or broken by your connection to the characters and their mindsets, because the plot at points strains suspension of disbelief to its breaking point. (Parasitic fungal ass-weasels?) I had the weird effect of watching a group of people who were very realistic and whom I really liked and were rooting for -- and watching them be sympathetic in the midst of a truly hallucinatorily bizarre plot-shaped object. It was a strange experience.
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I've already read 'Salem's Lot. I've read the majority of King's work, though most of it I read quite a while ago. As it happens, I found a hardback with The Shining, Carrie and 'Salems Lot for $5 in the bargain stacks at B&N, so I've read those fairly recently.
Pedro, Misery is one of his best. I love when his stories don't involve any supernaturalism, just plain old human craziness.
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Pedro, Misery is one of his best. I love when his stories don't involve any supernaturalism, just plain old human craziness.
I look forward to reading it. I think fantasy shows more about humanity than most people realize (and I'm not talking about those paper-thin Star Trek episodes that fix all our society's ills within 40minutes). But I also agree that it's really neat to just delve into weird stuff that could really happen (or has really happened).
One thing that bothers the hell out of me is that the more of King's I read and the more I hear about his writing from others, the more it seems like he was much more talented before he sobered up.
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Yeah, Wolves has made it evident that King has spent some time in AA meetings. That's the church my dad belongs to, so I'm familiar with the scriptures.
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Interesting piece of info I read earlier today...
Richard Kelly, the guy who wrote and directed Donnie Darko has voiced a wish to bring The Dark Tower to film, and Stephen King (interviewed briefly regarding lyrics from Hurt appearing in the final part by the nin hotline (http://www.theninhotline.net)) has said he can't think of anyone better.
I have no real idea what this whole Dark Tower thing is all about...
I have never really liked King, mainly because while I think he has great ideas, I don't like his delivery. I did quite like some of the one centred around some wierdo turning up and causing a storm... I also was appalled by Kingdom Hospital. I utterly fail to understand why he wrote himself into what in it's original form was a great series. It went from being interesting and strange to being incredibly boring.
But anyway, the Dark Tower stuff does sound pretty interesting and I will probably check it out at some point, when I've gotten round to getting to the new Stephenson stuff and the new Mitchell (which is Booker shortlisted I think, and his first two were outstanding novels - finest debut ever for sure).
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I think I've read every book the dude wrote up till the late 90's. I need to re-read the first three of four dark towers and then catch up with the rest. except for thing problem i have is that i don't want to be seen reading a king book in public. i know, i know....shut up, i don't want to hear about it. i think i'd rather try to flirt with my current crush while wearing a magic the gathering t shirt. but really, when you see somebody reading D. steele or j. grisham on the bus or whatever what does that tell you about that person? do you do all your book shopping in the fuck*ng airport?
anyway, my favorite is the long walk, which is in
"the bachman books". other favorites are the shining and insomnia. the stand was one of the longest books i've ever read ( i read the extra long version one summer)
just last night i saw king get interviewed in the middle of the sox/ yanks game cuz he was in the crowd.
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I have no real idea what this whole Dark Tower thing is all about...
The Dark Tower series is roughly about a Knight-errant-Cowboy (later accompanied by jive-talking New York friends) and his lifelong journey through a dying world to see if there really is a God.
Think of a gun-slinging Jedi knight that looks like a grisled Clint Eastwood. That's pretty much what the books are about.
And you know that movie trick where a person runs across a bridge or flight of stairs that's falling apart, and every time their foot leaves a step that step falls off into the darkness? That's what this guy's world is like. Every time he leaves a town, it always falls all to hell just as he skips out. As if it was teetering and his passing through was enough to tip it. The first four books are like that.
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I have never really liked King, mainly because while I think he has great ideas, I don't like his delivery.
That's pretty much exactly my position. Great concepts, some pretty lousy execution. I haven't read a ton of King because I get frustrated with him. I think I'd like him better if his characters weren't so two dimensional and predictable.
I loved On Writing. It made me admire him as a man and a writer. But his stuff just doesn't click for me.
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The first thing I ever read by Stephen King was a short story that I happened on in an anthology. I was fascinated and totally gripped by it - something about a small town in Maine invaded by a strange fog. And then, it had no end. I can't remember exactly but it was as bad as 'it was all a dream' - I think it ended saying that this whole description was, like, being written by this person who was now going to leave the papers there where he was writing and try to get out of the town.
I was so angry that I swore never to read anything of his again. I made an exception for On Writing when JL recommended it to me, and it was worth reading. But I will never read the fiction of someone who would do such a thing to a reader.
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except for thing problem i have is that i don't want to be seen reading a king book in public. i know, i know....shut up, i don't want to hear about it. i think i'd rather try to flirt with my current crush while wearing a magic the gathering t shirt. but really, when you see somebody reading D. steele or j. grisham on the bus or whatever what does that tell you about that person? do you do all your book shopping in the fuck*ng airport?
I hear you. I had to take the jacket off of Gardens of the Moon because I didn't want to be seen with anything that trite looking.
I get the same feeling whenever I read something that's too popular or has won a major award. As if people are staring at me thinking, "he's only reading that because it's on the Booker Prize shortlist. How original."
Of course I had no problem carrying the Liberty Meadows book around for a day or two so I guess my geek threshold is variable.
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So I guess I'm the only one who reads whatever the fuck he wants WHEREVER the fuck he wants?
Anyway, people who read Grisham anywhere are pretty much just saying "I don't really like to read books, but if I MUST read something I'm going to choose something that will not force me to consider any ideas that I did not have before reading this book."
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So I guess I'm the only one who reads whatever the fuck he wants WHEREVER the fuck he wants?
Yes. You are the only person in the whole entire world who does such a courageous and notable thing. You god among men!
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The first thing I ever read by Stephen King was a short story that I happened on in an anthology.
Sounds like you're describing 'The Mist'. King seemed to take a perverse pleasure in these type of ambiguous endings. Of course, they kinda fit in with the market he was trying to publish in, too.
This was not an 'ambiguous ending,' this was a total ripoff! A complete breach of the contract between author and audience! 'Ambigious' means there's more than one way to interpret something. This was just nothing with no way to interpret it! No ending at all! He just gave up and stopped writing! It was WRONG and EVIL!
What I can't figure out is, what possessed anyone to publish such a thing? Is there really a market for stories with endings worthy of the writing of a twelve year old?
As you can see, it made a deep and lasting impression on me. I suppose that's what every author is striving for, but I don't think they usually want the impression to be 'I will never spend another dime of my money on this person's books!"
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That sounds like a perfectly accurate analysis of the story as I remember. And to me, that is just cheating and you should get to ask for your money back. I admit that reasonable people could differ on this and given his success they obviously do.
The thing is that it wasn't just the fate of the characters we didn't get to know. It was any explanation of the whole creepy phenomenon. That seems wrong. Maybe this is why I read murder mysteries now and not Stephen King. I want answers, dammit, and I want them by the end of the book.
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So I guess I'm the only one who reads whatever the fuck he wants WHEREVER the fuck he wants?
Nope.
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So I guess I'm the only one who reads whatever the fuck he wants WHEREVER the fuck he wants?
Nope.
well, i did manage to tote around the da vinci code w/o too much shame, and thought it was pretty good, btw. this did not mean i didn't have to defend/expalin myself a few times to certain well-read friends.
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well, i did manage to tote around the da vinci code w/o too much shame, and thought it was pretty good, btw. this did not mean i didn't have to defend/expalin myself a few times to certain well-read friends.
I would never attack you for reading something. But you do get two on the shoulder for thinking Da Vinci Code was pretty good. I've read worse, but not since I passed the eighth grade reading level.
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well, i did manage to tote around the da vinci code w/o too much shame, and thought it was pretty good, btw. this did not mean i didn't have to defend/expalin myself a few times to certain well-read friends.
I would never attack you for reading something. But you do get two on the shoulder for thinking Da Vinci Code was pretty good. I've read worse, but not since I passed the eighth grade reading level.
Da Vinci Code was a decent enough concept it just needed a skilled author. James Swain is the same way. He comes up with an interesting plot and interesting side-facts (if you're into casinos and cheating) but as a writer he blows.
I read his books anyway but the whole time I'm thinking, "I wonder what this would've been like if he gave the draft to a good author."