Stephen King

[Orrex]

[RedStateShame]

1. Wait. Was that the guy that wrote that one about...

...the recovering alcoholic writer living in New England when some object that normally doesn't have malicious intent inexplicably went on a spree of bloody, horrific malicious intent, and some child had some magical power to stop said malicious object? Yeah, I think I remember that one...

[ghostsofgiants]

2. I've never read his books...

The Shining is one of my all-time favourite films though, and I was pretty impressed with 1408. Carrie was decent. His remake of Riget, Kingdom Hospital, was pretty lame though, especially if you'd watched Riget first.

[ceile]

17. Oh, gosh, The Kingdom remake was awful.

If I was von Trier I would have pitched a fit!

[IndianaJones]

3. Cain Rose Up. great story. nt.

[BarenakedLady]

4. He knows how to spin a story for sure

Sometimes seems to get in a rut (or maybe my reading too many in row makes it seem so). I often need to take breaks from his work. He is good at what he does though.

[skygazer]

5. I really like a lot of King's stuff

And don't particularly like a lot of it. I think he's very good at several things - one of the things I like is his dialog which always sounds very natural. A lot of writers do very stilted dialog.

And he has a knack for sucking you into stories that are just absurdly beyond believable and making them believable. I love his short stories.

Down sides - I think he has a tendency to make some stories too long, as if he can't bear to cut any of his own words. Some of them got rather tedious to me because of that and I like long books, if they have something substantial to say.

But for the most part, I like King. I don't think he takes himself too seriously which I like and he comes up with some really original ideas.

[MissMillie]

6. When he gets something right, he really gets it right

I just don't think he does that very often.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

7. A man that has some good stories.

His writing itself is pretty poor (at least compared to literary greats). He's very long-winded, an unnecessarily so. He goes way too far to create a picture for the reader and doesn't allow the reader to do some of the work him/herself. And his themes are often incredibly repetitive and superficial.

That said, he has written some great stories.

[ForrestGump]

10. My thoughts, too

Not perhaps the greatest writer (very, very good, though, and -- as noted above -- he's great with dialog) but a superlative storyteller. I like most of his stuff that I've read. He seems a righteous dude, too, I must say.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

8. I voted for literary genius.

I think a hundred years after he's dead people will consider him a national treasure.

:shrug:

[Fire Walk With Me]

9. He's like Brian Eno.. Sometime it -really- works, sometimes it doesn't.

[jpgray]

30. No pussyfooting

:P

[XemaSab]

11. It takes lots of talent

to scare the living piss out of people. :o

[RedStateShame]

12. Or a good government department designed to do that.

Tera-terra-terra-terra-terra-terra-terra-terra-terra-terra-terra-terra-terra-terra....

[XemaSab]

13. I was completely over the whole terra thing by September 12

:eyes:

[Starbucks Anarchist]

14. Talented writer.

I haven't read him for awhile, but what I did read was very good.

[MilesColtrane]

15. Stephen King needs an editor.

He needs someone to tell him that every word he writes isn't necessarily a gold nugget.

[wildhorses]

26. exactly...too wordy. he jumped the shark

somewhere after the stand...for my personal tastes. and that was a wordy book. with a good editor his genius might come 'shining' through ;)

[redqueen]

16. He's one of my favorite authors.

I don't think he'll get his due till he's dead, sadly... he has a few quirks but his storytelling skill is undeniably great.

[MrCoffee]

18. can you turn a decent phrase and still be a hack?

somehow King pulls it off.

[Debi]

19. I'm still afraid of clowns thanks to that fucker Pennywise!

I think IT was his scariest book :scared:

[mtnester]

20. He will someday be a national treasure...his biggest flaw, if you want to call it a flaw

is getting so wrapped up in his stories himself that it is hard to end the thing. Sometimes his endings piss me off royal....but I understand. The Long Walk....amazing stories, but the ending was hateful, unorganized and really pissy. It was as if he could not find any other way to end it.

My favorites? Shawshank Redemption, The Long Walk, The Talisman (and its spin offs,. boy did I expect Jack and his entourage to make an appearance in the final book of the Gunslinger series...sadly, it did not happen, I just think he did not have the heart) and the Dark Tower series. Some of his short short stories are incredibly disturbing (Popsy comes to mind right away)The Stand...oh the many, many trains.

[graywarrior]

21. In addition to being a great writer, he is a great guy.

Trust me....I know.

[mtnester]

23. You can sense that about him

by his forwards...

So, I am also a tad jealous of you there young pup.

[graywarrior]

25. Chrikey, I ain't young.

*snort*

[mtnester]

27. I know that sweetie

neither am I.....but age is relative, so everyone gets a young pup or little miss from me occasionally...and it DID make you crack a smile :)

[graywarrior]

31. Indeed, you did make me smile.

:hippie:

[Drunken Irishman]

22. He might not be a literary genius, but...

He has had the biggest impact on the horror genre (whether in movie or story) since Bram Stoker.

I mean think about all his stories that have either influenced, or resulted in some of the scariest horror movies of all time:

The Shining
The Stand
IT
Carrie
Creepshow
Cujo
The Dead Zone (movie and TV series)
Christine
Firestarter
Children of the Corn
Misery
Salem's Lot
The Green Mile
Apt Pupil
Dreamcatcher
Cell (awesome book, BTW; in production)
The Mist (in production)
And of course most recently, 1408.

Whether you like his works or not, you can't deny he's influence. How many modern day authors can say they've had so many books turned into great movies like King?

[Taverner]

24. He does what some writers seldom do. Write.

A writer writes. My argument is that so many writers put out one book every 5 years. That's not really a writer. Stephen King, in the 80's and 90's, put out a book a year pretty much. That's a writer.

I like his stuff, but whatever arguments you could level at him, he walks the talk.

[ok_cpu]

28. I vote genius

And I firmly believe if his career moved toward literary fiction and not genre, a lot more people would think the same.

He's like a great natural athlete - think Jim Thorpe, Bo Jackson, etc. He'd be great at any "sport".

[jpgray]

29. Very imaginative, often entertaining pulp writer, but not a "great" writer in the literary sense

Same category as Dumas, in other words. :D

[NewWaveChick1981]

32. My husband sort of looks like Stephen King.

He's a much bigger guy (taller, broader shoulders, etc.), but he's been told many times he looks like Stephen King. :P

As for King's writing, well, that's another story....:)

[DU GrovelBot]

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[angrycarpenter]

34. love the stories hate the endings

Ive read them all. His descriptive powers are almost superhuman but it always seems as if he hurries the ending. Its like A 1000 mile car trip with an unexpected head-on collision at the end.

[Left Is Write]

35. I don't think he's a hack, but I haven't read anything he's written

in the last 15 years. All of my Stephen King books are pretty old.

[bridgit]

36. A competent writer, very...