Wondering if I am correct in thinking that Stephen King's older material is better than newer creations.
Also significantly underrated by university lecturers...
>>8026172
That's like saying my current shit isn't as good as yesterday's shit. It's still shit.
I did enjoy Salem's Lot, though.
>>8026184
The Shining is a classic!
>>8026172
I think his short stories are pretty good.
Im a bit ignorant and i found about stephen king like a couple of weeks ago. I started reading Cell two days ago and its a very interesting book.
>>8026205
Cell is good, fantastic start, peaks considerably halfway through and there's some great paranoid scenes but I think he falters slightly at the end. No spoilers, my opinion.
A good sized book about to be make into a John Cusack (spelling?) movie.
>>8026172
king is rated correctly.
"I’m a salami writer. I try to write good salami, but salami is salami." ~ Stephen King
>>8026243
Well if he's admitted it then it's hard to disagree! I'm currently reading Danse Macabre, he really knows how to pay homage to other creators.
>>8026172
If you're a 13 year old boy or a girl then this shit must be very interesting for you. But nobody cultured enough would go about reading this shit. That's a real shame if you read him in your 15+
>>8026199
why are you so stupid?
>>8026334
I've just finished a degree.
If you are to write fiction well then isn't it better to have a better grasp of the full scope of literature, Shelley, Twain, Poe, Haggard, King?
>>8026172
>Also significantly underrated by university lecturers...
I generally just make my peace with retard containment threads but go fuck yourself
>>8026362
Well it was either a screenwriting module or WOMENS WRITING.
>>8026358
Jesus fucking God no.
“One can never read too little of bad, or too much of good books: bad books are intellectual poison; they destroy the mind.
In order to read what is good one must make it a condition never to read what is bad; for life is short, and both time and strength limited.”
You sure as shit haven't read everything good so why the fuck would you waste time on trash? If you're a chef do you have to get food poisoning before you cook good food? Do firefighters have to watch a few buildings burn before they save one?
Seriously what the fuck is happening with /lit/ today?
>>8026358
>I've just finished a degree.
In what, English? If so, jesus christ academics are in a bad state.a transparent lie, anyway, so the point might be moot
>If you are to write fiction well then isn't it better to have a better grasp of the full scope of literature, Shelley, Twain, Poe, Haggard, King?
No, why would you do such a thing? Literally no reason to think that reading bad authors would at all benefit good writing.
Anyways anon went so far as to specify 15+. Personally, I read a few of his books in middle school. Liked them then. Wouldn't dream of revisiting them now, because I'm not brainless.
>>8026375
Not at my school. Sounds like what someone who has never been near a campus but browses /lit/ and /rk9/ all day would say about university arts courses.
>>8026389
I'm sorry, I sucked a plethora of dicks in the past so the semen must have stuck in my brain.
lit is too pleb for steph op
>>8026414
i find it deeply troubling that the idea of fellatio is used as an insult to the supposed receiving partner
it's sexist
If you had to read only one of his books, you go read The Dark Tower 2.
Go read that book and tell me that man isn't fucking amazing.
Most of his other books have awful endings. Like the dude ran out of steam and said "fuck it, its gonna be a bestseller anyway".
>>8026504
saying that it's sexist
is homophobic
>>8026334
>mfw reading Count of Montecristo, Bag of Bones (SK) and El Aleph (Borges) at the moment
Lol, nigga please, just because Bloom hates his guts doesnt mean he is not entertaining
>>8026548
thats black
>>8026548
¿Porque no los dos?
I read a lot of his novels as teenager. They got me used to long books and really commit to them, because you sometimes have to wait a while for a really good part. I eventually got bored with his writing but he has been instrumental in developing my love of reading, which has grown to be a pretty big part of my life. Thanks Stephen King!
http://www.ew.com/article/2007/11/09/stephen-king-whos-cool-and-whos-not
>this thread
>Not understanding there is a pack of troglodytes waiting to tear apart any writer who isn't called classic
>The only reason they don't shit on the classic writers is because they can use them as ego boost and tell themselves they are smart for reading a book
Stephen King is a dime novel salesman, and dimes have been adjusted by inflation.
No matter how stupid his plots can be, or lazy his ideas, (they can be god awful) he's found success writing greasy popcorn, and that really pisses off the self proclaimed "patrician" who thinks himself sophisticated and "not like the other girls" because his tendency to think he's smart for reading classic books is a trait most often found in high school girls who want to prove they arent dumb.
Said patricians are mad because they aren't the ones who made a successful life writing things people enjoy instead of just nitpicking and using as egotistical stepping stones on a Anasazi Cave painting internet board
>>8026767
Both sides are shallow. If those who liked King really wanted to have discourse on him, they would extrapolate on what they find good about him, convincing (or at least silencing) their detractors by default; but as they only like him on a surface level, all they get is surface level slights. The oppositors, of course, are not much more intelligent, as they spend their time as you described, when they could be discussing things they actually liked or reading, or questioning the plebs properly so as to make them see either what good they saw in the author or what other things they could be reading that are better, rising the standards of the board without real effort.
So don't give in to this shit, property, you seem smarter than that. Remember: rage is a precious resource.
>>8026830
I'm not enraged, and I did explain what I liked about him. I'm merely shitting on the shitposters as my internet habit has taught me to do.
>>8026767
>The only reason they don't shit on the classic
Lol no, Bros K is fucking amazing.
>>8026958
>No matter how stupid his plots can be, or lazy his ideas, (they can be god awful) he's found success writing greasy popcorn
I feel that's not enough for me though. The "lowest common denominator" is quite spooky as a concept, more so when you think "good writers" are often thought of as "universal writers".
What is this "greasy popcorn", exactly?
>>8027003
W-well, ı try.
The reason King is not "underrated" by university lecturers and 4chan patricians is quite simple. It is all about where an author starts from, their launch point, their aim. The literary artist's aim is an imaginative vision that conveys truths needed to confront human life. The hack writers aim is to craft together and skillfully provoke universal stock emotions, thrills, scares, etc.
So there are many shitty literary writers who fail miserably. And many masterful hack writers who succeed. But that still doesn't launch the latter into the former's evaluative/critical category.
>>8027049
King has achieved this in some of his books. The Green Mile and The Shawshank redemption both highlight depravity and the crippling fear of imprisonment and its effects. Those aren't stock emotions. Those are specific themes. King has also managed to convey a unique kind of fear that feels realistic in his books, with a specific realism that even the greats couldn't achieve. You want to tell me that's just a cookie cutter emotion too?
Often when King's having fun he's just having fun, and those books and stories are small reads which I would describe as a greasy buttery snack that isn't good for you or gourmet, but you enjoy.
When king actually has a good idea, or a thrilling concept, he takes it seriously. He may not be a great American author, but he's also not a hack, and he's done good work in his career.
>>8026225
Gotta agree with this guy. I liked the premise and it had good build up but the ending just pissed me off.
>>8026172
Stephen King's readers are so fucking cringe and pleb. Reading S.K's books is like getting caught watching Pro Wrestling or Monster Truck (okay if you're a kid but cringe when you're past 18)
The Stand is gr8 m8
>>8026184
you're just jello cause he's richer and more famous than you.
>>8027279
>wrestling and monster trucks aren't patrician enough
King's writing is convoluted garbage. One of the only fucking writers that bores me because he spends like 5 pages describing a random object that needs 2 sentences.
It's a shame because his horror ideas are amazing.
I really liked Hearts in Atlantis and Insomnia, I feel like both touched on themes of being unable to really hack it in society and that constant fear of being forcibly taken out of it by some collective human power greater than yourself. The Stand was a great book to read as a kiddo, it was a nice introduction to books with overarching themes set over smaller plot arcs in a long narrative. His other books I've read are a little too similar in that they all start off fairly normal, get pretty spooky, no one understands the protags experience or the cause of the conflict, other people start to understand, and then some kind of face to face conflict leading to a resolution either via a new greater knowledge of the original problem, a hint at the supernaturally cyclical nature of this conflict in that it is unstoppable by the characters and will happen again in that universe, or a deus ex machina in which the solution arbitrarily provided leaves the protagonist in fear and/or hopelessness, but relative safety
>>8027279
The cringe is not in the act.
The cringe is in your fear of discovery.
You are the cringe you feel.
>>8026382
in case you haven't noticed there's this thing called irony
I hear its all the rage these days
honestly the only thing I have against Stephen King
and mind you I haven't fact checked this at all
but a lot of authrs who appear on the Wal-Mart book shelves are instiutions in an of themselves.
Basically I heard that King just writes outlines and sends it to his under writers who flesh out the details. Maybe that wasn't the case when he was first writing but due to his success he's forced to churn out books like no other.
Same goes for dean Koontz, Danielle Steele, and Anne Rice.
>>8026358
Then your degree is a shit tier degree.
Seriously, only neophyte and teenager can think that King worth reading.
>>8026830
And you and the others that think like you are way less intelligent that the oppositors like how you call us.
We are not oppositors of King, we are just making criticism by saying that King is a shitty author that just know how to sell his shit to plebs.
When a stuff is good, we say it's good, when a stuff is bad,we say it's bad. Deal with it if you think that make us less intelligent than you.
>>8028083
weren't alot of the "classics" authors pretty much the stephen king of their day though?
>>8026830
I've heard people wax explications on
Harry Potter
The Hunger Games
Lord of The Rings
Twilight
The Simpsons
I admit you may not find as many people right now extolling the virtues and nuances in Kings work. but
he regularly speaks at colleges
while he is known for horror, he writes other genres as well.
also consider that people don't really talk about king in an academic/literati sense becuase those intellectuals are to busy reading other books that serve as the bulwark to modern education in literature.
But when literary historians of the future want to gaze into the zeitgeist of the 80's and 90's they will study King and his stories.
>>8028110
>When a stuff is good, we say it's good, when a stuff is bad, we say it's bad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgXM3g7J2Cw
>>8026382
What the fuck? How much poison did I get from reading this you faggot?
>>8026172
Germaine from Flight of the Concords could play King in a biopic
I bought a stephen king book for my sister " THe Dome" and she was only 16 - well I didn't know that SK wrote gay shit til I read IT a few years later.
What in The Dome freaked my sister out so much?
>>8030815
He's got the kind of enlarged philtrum you find on an anti-Irish caricature in an 1850s issue of Punch magazine.
>>8030847
dude
girls kind of like gay shit similarly to how men like lesbian shit, not exactly but close
>>8026334
My sentiments exactly.
As I have always thought after reading several of his books, he is comparable to a more drawn out R.L.Stine of goosebumps.
Of course, in lieu of him I must advise the more popular H.P. Lovecraft, as I think it should be a highly advisable fiction work for anyone with any degree of competency.
>>8026362
Lmao.
This.
Stephen King belongs in a children's discount section, and nowhere near a University.
>>8030872
yeah but what kind of gay shit was it?
