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.
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Date: 2013-09-24 09:55 pm (UTC)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.