I agree that King's short works can be very, very good and very, very scary.
Gimme some milk.
Jayne ,'Jaynestown'
We're Literary 2: To Read Makes Our Speaking English Good
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."
Anne W. - Mar 26, 2004 2:08:11 pm PST #1890 of 10002
The lost sheep grow teeth, forsake their lambs, and lie with the lions.
Pix - Mar 26, 2004 3:58:23 pm PST #1891 of 10002
We're all getting played with, babe. -Weird Barbie
"Apt Pupil" is the scariest King Short story I've ever read. Eek. And way scarier than the movie, I suppose, goes without saying.
Matt the Bruins fan - Mar 26, 2004 4:45:34 pm PST #1892 of 10002
"I remember when they eventually introduced that drug kingpin who murdered people and smuggled drugs inside snakes and I was like 'Finally. A normal person.'” —RahvinDragand
I seem to be more susceptible to unnatural horror than the reality-based sort. As awful as the progression of "Apt Pupil" was, it didn't tell me anything worse than what I'd already read in true life accounts of war crimes.
Pix - Mar 26, 2004 5:51:59 pm PST #1893 of 10002
We're all getting played with, babe. -Weird Barbie
I can see that, and yes, obviously you're right. Real war crimes are much worse. Maybe it was just timing, when I read it.
Frankenbuddha - Mar 26, 2004 6:00:47 pm PST #1894 of 10002
"We are the Goon Squad and we're coming to town...Beep! Beep!" - David Bowie, "Fashion"
A scifi-horror piece called "I Am The Doorway".
Written for his college literary journal. I know because two of my sisters were pals of his at UMO (University of Maine, Orono) and my brother in law was a one-time roommate. I think my family has a copy of that kicking around somewhere. Also, the other one from NIGHT SHIFT that was a sort-of dry run of The Stand (Night Tide, maybe? My copy of Night Shift is buried in my book collection so I can't get to it easily), was published there too.
I also knew about the Bachman psuedonym about 5 years before anybody else. Rage is still a favorite of mine. It was a VERY adolescent acting out novel, but I was in high school when I read it and it hit SO many of the right buttons for me.
Holli - Mar 26, 2004 6:43:43 pm PST #1895 of 10002
an overblown libretto and a sumptuous score/ could never contain the contradictions I adore
The ending of "Strawberry Spring" creeped me right. the fuck. out. Brr. Not to mention the one with the rats, and the one that read like a dry run for Salem's Lot.
Frankenbuddha - Mar 26, 2004 7:52:32 pm PST #1896 of 10002
"We are the Goon Squad and we're coming to town...Beep! Beep!" - David Bowie, "Fashion"
The ending of "Strawberry Spring" creeped me right. the fuck. out. Brr. Not to mention the one with the rats, and the one that read like a dry run for Salem's Lot.
NIGHT SHIFT is a pretty much perfect collection of creep-you-the-fuck-out horror stories. As a novelist, with a few exceptions (Pet Sematary especially), King got to like his characters too much to do horrible things to ALL of them. But in short stories he's a merciless bastard.
Matt the Bruins fan - Mar 27, 2004 6:39:38 pm PST #1897 of 10002
"I remember when they eventually introduced that drug kingpin who murdered people and smuggled drugs inside snakes and I was like 'Finally. A normal person.'” —RahvinDragand
The not doing awful things to his characters wouldn't bother me if it weren't dragged out over 1200 pages. Man needs a ruthless editor like most people need water.
Anne W. - Mar 28, 2004 3:35:47 am PST #1898 of 10002
The lost sheep grow teeth, forsake their lambs, and lie with the lions.
I wonder how much of the trend of guaranteed bestselling authors like King not getting severely edited is the fault of their publisher's greed vs. that of the writer's ego. If the publishing house forgoes the usual editiong process, they are able to get the book out on the market that much sooner, and they don't have to apply as much of the editing cost to the production cost of the book.
DavidS - Mar 28, 2004 7:23:21 am PST #1899 of 10002
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
I wonder how much of the trend of guaranteed bestselling authors like King not getting severely edited is the fault of their publisher's greed vs. that of the writer's ego.
Ego. It takes months to not only prep a book for publication, but there's also a promotion campaign, and you have to list it in catalogs and build interest (even for a big name like King) and handle the orders. There's plenty of time to edit it.