Dear Stephen King, please write an updated version of Danse Macabre. The horror genre needs a new overview.
I am not...I am not the damsel in distress. I am not some case. I have to work this. I've lived in a cave for 5 years in a world where they killed my kind like cattle. I am not going to be cut down by some monster flu. I am better than that. What a wonder...how very scared I am.
Fred ,'A Hole in the World'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Atropa - Aug 11, 2011 4:49:33 pm PDT #15969 of 28293
The artist formerly associated with cupcakes.
Amy - Aug 11, 2011 4:50:27 pm PDT #15970 of 28293
Because books.
Oh god, what Jilli said. That's one of my favorite books, period.
Atropa - Aug 11, 2011 4:51:44 pm PDT #15971 of 28293
The artist formerly associated with cupcakes.
I used that book as a checklist when I first read it. I read every book he recommended in it.
DawnK - Aug 11, 2011 4:55:44 pm PDT #15972 of 28293
giraffe mode
Floating Dragon
Oh GOD yes! I swear I slept with the light on for 3 nights.
When I was a kid/tween there was a couple of anthology books published under Alfred Hitchcock Presents name, man there were some scary stories in them. I read those till the bindings were ragged.
Anne W. - Aug 11, 2011 4:56:59 pm PDT #15973 of 28293
The lost sheep grow teeth, forsake their lambs, and lie with the lions.
Amy, I'll second that statement on Floating Dragon. I read it over twenty years ago, and there are still images and ideas from that book that haunt me.
Amy - Aug 11, 2011 4:59:05 pm PDT #15974 of 28293
Because books.
I'm trying to remember the other one he wrote that killed me. Crap.
Ginger - Aug 11, 2011 4:59:10 pm PDT #15975 of 28293
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda
I'm not sure which his scariest is!
As my answer, I will admit that, when I finished Salem's lot at 3 a.m., I got up, went to the kitchen and made sure there was garlic.
Amy - Aug 11, 2011 5:02:57 pm PDT #15976 of 28293
Because books.
Julia, If You Could See Me Now, and Ghost Story were all fantastic, but it was If You Could See Me Now that really haunted me.
§ ita § - Aug 11, 2011 5:09:05 pm PDT #15977 of 28293
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
I never got very far into the horror genre, but maybe it's because I don't think some of the horror stories as horror, and stick to mostly what blends easily into fantasy.
However, Steven King? That's my kind of hack. And I call him a hack just because of his volume, and a bit of the recent lack of editing. Because he can turn a word, and there's some sick-assed shit in his head and he knows how to get it across.
Basically, I like wordsmithing in all my fiction. The more the merrier, as long as the story doesn't suffer for it (there's some Delany I'm reading where I have no idea what's going on, but I go back to it periodically because it's really beautiful).
Amy - Aug 11, 2011 5:17:01 pm PDT #15978 of 28293
Because books.
Stephen King has always seemed very straightforward in his style to me. He's generally conversational and down to earth, but he's also very honest about the horror he imagines, and he always manages to make it real and immediate, which is sometimes more important than wordsmithery, especially in a horror novel.
That said, I think he doesn't get enough credit for his skill, although I also agree he's a hack, if you define a hack as someone who will try almost anything, and write some workmanlike stuff as well as some more thoughtful pieces.