Stephen King: A revelation

[yendi]

So I read this article yesterday because folks were talking about the comments King made about The Hunger Games and Twilight that placed him solidly in the "get off my lawn" category of author.

But that wasn't what actually stood out for me from the article. Aside from the absolute lack of need for a sequel to The Shining, the big takeaway was the realization that there's a correlation between King's precipitous descent as a writer and his recovery from alcoholism.

I wrote about King's two phases nearly ten years ago for Bookslut; little has changed since then. He can churn out decent toilet-reading schlock (Cell, Under the Dome), but he's inconsistent, and capable of writing utter crap that gets published because his name is on it (and sells millions of copies and gets turned into a totally-unrelated SyFy series, not to pick on one book in particular or anything). But it's pretty clear that he sobered up right around Tommyknockers, and while things have hardly been downhill since (you can't really write something worse than Tommyknockers*), he's never come close to his early-career heights since.

You know what? I'd rather he be healthy and churning out mediocre shit**. Any fucking day of the week. Mind you, I'd rather he take the Harper Lee route (retirement), or the Thomas Pynchon route (publish only good books every few years) than churn out his pile of crap, but it's not like I have to buy them (I can spend my money and time on his very talented older son and daughter-in-law, both of whom deserve it, even though neither cashes in on the family name***). So no, I don't take back anything I wrote in that article, but my answer to the question at the beginning of the article remains the same: nothing he does changes what he did at the beginning of his career. The fact that he was dealing with some massively horrible shit during that time, though, means that much as I love everything that came from that period, I'd have been okay if he'd gotten healthier sooner.

That said, I'll probably request the new book from the library at some point.

*I wish this statement were actually true. That said, King has generally kept this book as his nadir, even if other writers have written worse.

**Note that correlation does not equal causation, of course. Nor does

***At the Kelly Braffet signing/reading I went to last week for Save Yourself, there were eight fucking people in the audience. Eight! For one of the ten best books I've read this year!

Comments

[marlowe1.livejournal.com]

I really loved Under the Dome, couldn't stand Cell and was not overly impressed with The Shining the last time I read it (a couple years back).

From that experience, I am going to argue that a lot of our experience of reading Stephen King is based on how old we were when we first read him. Or at least for me, I remember loving everything he wrote when I was a teenager and that is partially because I was less discriminating at the time (after all I actually like Terry Brooks and Piers Anthony) but also because he had a particular quality of raw honesty that was more interesting to me as a teenager.

There's also familiarity. Reading a Stephen King book today feels like going to a class reunion but it also feels weird since everyone else has imitated King.

Mostly it's the SNL factor - when it's good, you expect it to be good but when it's bad, you remember the past as much better than it was in order to fit it into the "it's lost its way" narrative. But in truth, there's a lot more give-and-take throughout the career and while the high points are amazing, the low points were always there. The Indian from Firestarter, Cujo, Tommyknockers repeating the plot from Salem's Lot but with aliens, etc.

[yendi]

(Firestarter is actually his only early book that I missed.)

You might have a good point about the age; the golden age of sci-fi being 12, etc. Although I've re-read some of his shorts in recent years ("One For the Road"), and they still seem to hold up much better. And the way he's influenced the field isn't a small deal at all.

It's also entirely fair that someone can have the not-unreasonable high-and-low-point career you describe (and King's post-1989 one qualifies), and without a career like his pre-'89 one to compare it to, it would seem outstanding.

[lurkerwithout.livejournal.com]

Kelly Braffet you say? I'll make sure to look for her book (alongside Owen's). Though I'm also hoping Joe does an anthology collection so I don't have to go around buying them piecemeal. ("Twittering from the Circus of the Dead" was a total gut punch)...

[yendi]

I haven't read Joe's short stuff (other than Locke and Key), but definitely plan to! And yeah, Kelly's awesome. Save Yourself is the current book, but if you're in the mood for something a little more creepy, Josie and Jack works.

[hawkmoth.livejournal.com]

I read and loved most of his early stuff...but gave him up after Pet Semetary and The Tommyknockers (dumbest book ever). I did read Cell--which is The Stand with cell phones.

That article--I don't know if King or the interviewer got it wrong about the accidemt he says he's using for new inspiration: it happened on the Taconic Parkway at least 4 or 5 years ago and there was one survivor...

[yendi]

I actually liked Pet Sematary -- it was the last book of his that felt like genuinely effective supernatural horror -- but I also read it when I was 10, which might be a factor.

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

I really though Lisey's Storey was a masterwork. I don't know of anyone who deals with grief better than King did in that story. Duma Key was pretty awesome as well. I didn't even finish Under The Dome, on the other hand.

[michele-blue.livejournal.com]

Lisey's was a highlight, yeah.

As for Duma Key...one of my King theories is that when he sets books outside of Maine, he frees himself from the hoary tropes he clings to so tightly. I've been a big King fan since youth, but people don't really talk like they do in his books, not anymore. The weight of all the Maine /stuff/ really bogs him down. Duma Key was one of his freshest books in, jeez, years.

[yendi]

That's an interesting theory, and enough to make me want to check it out. Although Cell was set outside of Maine, and was still pretty generic.

[ultra-lilac.livejournal.com]

Lisey's story is my favourite of his.
I loved 'hearts in Atlantis' too, and 'the wind through the keyhole' was beautiful. I think he's still got it.
He's always been choppy, but one person's crappy book is another person's favorite story, and I think it's a sign of talent that he hits so many different notes.

[minkrose]

I've literally never read anything by Stephen King because I don't enjoy being scared (and I truly do not understand that common thread of humanity -- I've always assumed this was because I had some deeply frightening experiences in high school and decided I didn't need more of that in my life).

I did listen to On Writing, which I loved dearly, especially since he reads it. It used to be my comfort-fall-asleep playlist. I have a lot of respect for him as a human being, but I'm still not sure any of his books are right for me. I was re-examining this the other day when reading his chapter in Start Here (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17162979-start-here) (reading that has made me super excited about reading again, too.) Interestingly enough, On Writing is one of the 3 books they recommend, which made me happy.

Anyway, I'm glad you linked to this, because I hadn't heard about it, and I enjoyed reading your links. (Also, Andy reminded me that King's Unitarian Minister Daughter Naomi is a personal friend of his family... his mom taught her at some point in Chicago, and she lived in Utica when Andy's family was in Ithaca. The world of UU ministers is not that large, apparently.)

[yendi]

Thanks! And you might enjoy Eyes of the Dragon, one of his non-horror books that's genuinely kind of wonderful (and under-appreciated, imho).

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

I don't read horror so dunno about King. But oddly, Anthony's Xanth seemed to go downhill about the time he started mitigating its sexism.

[polymexina.livejournal.com]

He's been mitigating the sexism? How?

At least in the Incarnations series, he's been ramping it up!

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

I never read anything by Anthony except Xanth. The books with Electra and Nadia seemed like attempts to mitigate or leave the sexism. Also Ivy growing up, and Irene in DRAGON ON A PEDESTAL.

Dunno about later, as I bailed around QUESTION QUEST, because he seemed to be running out of ideas.

[yendi]

I hadn't realized he'd gone back to that series. Given how bad #7 was, I'm amazed anyone wanted more.

[amokk]

Tommyknockers is pretty bad; the only thing I took away is that you can't sneeze in your sleep.

I stopped reading him after Insomnia for a long time, because that one was just plain awful.

[yendi]

Insomnia was the one that chased me for a while, too.

[cissa.livejournal.com]

I don't read King. He needs editing. He has proven himself capable of writing really well... but he usually can't bother to do so. And so I don't read him.

I've read some Joe Hill, and that's been very good.