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Fascist Funk posted:I feel like I'm the only person who enjoyed Regulators more than Desperation. No, you're not. Even with that scene, The Regulators is still way more entertaining, save for perhaps the first few pages of Desperation. Not that either was a masterpiece, of course.
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Jun 1, 2011 21:11
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Ridonkulous posted:But overall it is worth reading. Oh definitely. I didn't mean to imply otherwise, only that it's perfectly acceptable to skip the first hundred pages because holy poo poo no one cares about all that poo poo, Steve.
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Jun 1, 2011 21:59
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For both Desperation and Regulators, I felt they started out well enough. Both came in with a solid bang, and I really appreciated them after what King had been putting out previously (Rose Madder and such). I feel like Regulators went south faster for me. Neither ended up being satisfying to me in the long run. He just didn't keep up the intensity that came from the first bits. It was entertaining to have the mirror/parallel people, but even that really didn't seem to end up being more than a gimmick.
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Jun 2, 2011 02:33
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jfjnpxmy posted:
 I just wanted to thank you for your incisive criticism of the latter three books. I read the entire series throughout college. 5 years later, I've reread 1-3 and am getting through 4 and 5 simultaneously, but I have less enthusiasm to go much further.I liked most of 4 when I first read through it, then at the end, when they come upon the enchanted Wizard of Oz green glass and oh hay look, there's ruby slippers for every one of us, even tiny ones for billy bumbler buddy!!  Hey wait, I forget how they handled Susannah. Did she get little nub-warmers or something?But man, what a nose-dive. That's when the loving pop-culture references got to be too much for me. I can accept some intersect between Roland's world and ours, a few familiar objects appearing, but it was a huge slam to the 4th wall to throw in that god drat enchanted emerald glass kingdom and the hokey ruby slipper scene that followed. I should have counted my blessings considering SNEECHES! HEY LOOK WE BETTER MEET STEPHEN KING HE IS WRITING THIS BOOK WHOA ROLAND JUST CRASHED HIS HOUSE AND GAVE HIM A RIGHT SPOOK SO HE COULD KEEP WRITING WHEW THAT WAS CLOSE! And another thing, I never outright hated that loving billy-bumbler until I started re-reading. God drat, I wish his sacrifice could have just come up when Jake had to face off with the Tick-Tock man so we could be done with him after that so we wouldn't have to put up with 4 more books of Roland: "This is a very dire situation." Oy: "Ire Ichoo shun! " They'll likely never make it far enough to produce a mini-series or movie, but if they do, please god leave out Oy.
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Jun 3, 2011 03:04
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I liked both Desperation and Regulators. Even though I know it isn't a great book, I have read Regulators a few times. It reminds me almost of a Troma film, you know you aren't getting quality, but who gives a poo poo because it is fun as gently caress. I remember liking Desperation, but I can't remember for the life of me how it actually ended, so it must have been pretty forgettable.
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Jun 3, 2011 07:00
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Whargoul posted:I remember liking Desperation, but I can't remember for the life of me how it actually ended, so it must have been pretty forgettable. The writer fills the Tak hole with ANFO and a shotgun shell then hits it with a hammer, blowing it and himself up.
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Jun 3, 2011 12:01
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"The Regulators" was one of the weirdest goddamn books I've ever read. If only because it dwells so heavily on a filthy, severely autistic kid running around in his underwear while aroused because the demon possessing him wants to gently caress his mom--but will only leave his body when he's taking a poo poo. Jesus Christ. Reading "Under the Dome" now. Geez, you'd think that King would have researched what lingo teenage skateboarders actually use instead of dredging up some poo poo that was barely even popular during the 90's. And goofy comic relief characters? Really?
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Jun 3, 2011 19:19
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Just read the part in "Wizard and Glass" where a 16 year old masturbates herself to sleep I almost spoilered that but it doesn't reveal anything. Seriously, What the gently caress was he thinking.
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Jun 4, 2011 00:39
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Girls don't masturbate, King is a sicko
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Jun 4, 2011 00:59
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The Stand is so loving incoherent and ridiculous I hate that people love it. I read it years ago while I was in high school and I will never go near another long King novel again as a result. Let's review: So in the end a giant floating hand of God detonates a nuke in Las Vegas thus destroying the "evil community" and saving the day. Two of the four main characters sent from Boulder to confront Flagg witness this, but they don't play any part at all in setting it up; they just witness some kind of weird divine execution. Trashcan Man delivers the nuke, then God detonates it and that's it. The real problem is that the main characters and even mother Abigail/Boulder itself seem totally superfluous to the story. "God's Will" is arbitrary and silly in The Stand. God doesn't seem to care about things like making sure that humanity stays on the right track or repents for its sins, he just wants them to do what he says. I get the thematic point about symbolically standing in the face of evil etc. but in a world where the Hand of God doesn't routinely descend to put everything right and evil is rarely as incompetent as Flagg turns out to be (more on this in a moment), this feels very unsatisfying. Compare to, for instance, Tolkiens's Silmarillion (the comparison is relevant because King has explicitly drawn comparisons between The Stand and Tolkien's stuff) where the "heroes" also need help to defeat the evil enemy of the world, but it still feels like their actions make at least some kind of difference, for good or bad. The novel's main story lines feel even more incidental because before the nuke incident, Flagg is revealed to be really bad at what he does. It's basically stated that his empire is collapsing around him before it ever gets off the ground, mostly because Trashcan Man sabotages everything and destroys Flagg's ability to actually attack Boulder, meaning the threat had been all but neutralized before the nuke thing even happens. Again, this isn't the result of anything the heroes do, as none of their spies ever do anything important at all. Even Flagg's long running baby-momma plot is ruined; that one he fucks up himself though by getting angry for no important reason and throwing Nadine out of a window. For some kind of extra-dimensional Dark Wizard mastermind, Flagg seems kind of useless and ineffectual. Perhaps the final confrontation was important because God wanted Flagg dead or something. But wait! Flagg doesn't actually die, making the whole story even more pointless. To summarize, The Stand's plot is incoherent, the protagonists do nothing useful, and the major themes are at best badly hampered by the nonsensical story and at worst actually silly. gently caress The Stand.
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Jun 4, 2011 01:52
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I was really somewhat sheltered growing up, so all I knew about the gritty physical and emotional mechanics of mature relationships was what I gleaned from Stephen King books. It's actually worked out really well so far, except my wife flips out at every available opportunity and every few months our childhood emotional traumas are externalized in some reimagined 1950s B-movie monster that threatens our middle-class lifestyle.
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Jun 4, 2011 02:07
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Ogmius815 posted:The Stand is so loving incoherent and ridiculous I hate that people love it. I read it years ago while I was in high school and I will never go near another long King novel again as a result. Let's review: So in the end a giant floating hand of God detonates a nuke in Las Vegas thus destroying the "evil community" and saving the day. Two of the four main characters sent from Boulder to confront Flagg witness this, but they don't play any part at all in setting it up; they just witness some kind of weird divine execution. Trashcan Man delivers the nuke, then God detonates it and that's it. The thing is, I agree with your take on how confused and at times pointless parts of the plot seem to be, except the very things you hate about The Stand are the things I love most about it.
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Jun 4, 2011 02:57
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Ogmius815 posted:The real problem is that the main characters and even mother Abigail/Boulder itself seem totally superfluous to the story. "God's Will" is arbitrary and silly in The Stand. God doesn't seem to care about things like making sure that humanity stays on the right track or repents for its sins, he just wants them to do what he says. I get the thematic point about symbolically standing in the face of evil etc. but in a world where the Hand of God doesn't routinely descend to put everything right and evil is rarely as incompetent as Flagg turns out to be (more on this in a moment), this feels very unsatisfying. Compare to, for instance, Tolkiens's Silmarillion (the comparison is relevant because King has explicitly drawn comparisons between The Stand and Tolkien's stuff) where the "heroes" also need help to defeat the evil enemy of the world, but it still feels like their actions make at least some kind of difference, for good or bad. People seem to forget that the "Hand of God" is first an electric sphere that Flagg uses to kill the guy objecting to the execution of the two protagonists. So had they not been there none of that would have happened.
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Jun 4, 2011 03:44
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And on the 'Flagg being ineffectual' that's just a continuation of a theme that's in a lot of King books: Evil is rarely as powerful as we seem to think it is. And that's not the last time Flagg proves that point.
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Jun 4, 2011 03:51
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I just reread "It" again for the nth time, and started watching the TV series adaptation. What I was struck about in the adaptation is just how incredibly weak everything in there is. I know it's TV, and a heck of a lot of things couldn't be shown, and I know the book is extremely long and a lot of things had to be cut for time, but still. So much of things in It are absolutely ridiculous and gruesome, and that's the whole point. Derry, especially in the flashbacks, is a nightmarish town that's largely the product of an interdimensional monster. A good example of this is when Ben escapes from Henry Bowers for the first time, falling into the Barrens. In the book, Ben gets hosed up by the encounter. The book is very clear. In the adaptation, he's barely touched. The adaptation is just this, over and over and over and over again.
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Jun 5, 2011 01:49
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The forward to the Storm Of The Century screenplay address that issue. Storm itself had a lot of trouble with the ABC Networks Standards and Practices people. They didn't want him to include the words, "Mother of a storm," because it was associated with motherfucker for instance. He also talked about how things like dead bodies with their eyes still open are/were not allowed nor were children in danger which he said is or was the biggest no-go for television. Seen in that light it's a wonder IT was able to be made into a miniseries at all.
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Jun 5, 2011 02:47
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Local Group Bus posted:Seen in that light it's a wonder IT was able to be made into a miniseries at all. I kind of wish it wasn't. (Though Tim Curry was great as Pennywise) IT would be really good as a four parter maybe on HBO or Showtime, and even then they would have to cut a lot out. I suggest the gangbang at the end. I heard somewhere that it was going to get a comic book treatment like The Stand, has anyone else heard this, or is it just wishful thinking on my part.
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Jun 5, 2011 06:50
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You could replace the gangbang with kissing and come out better for it in the bargain. You retain the same point he was trying to make and you remove -- you know.
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Jun 6, 2011 03:42
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Apart from the fact kids refer to sex as "IT" and it's a big scary monster when you're growing up I guess
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Jun 7, 2011 10:48
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The sex scene probably would've worked better if the author had "literary cred" but since it's Stephen King it gets ragged on endlessly. Funny thing is it's probably the only interesting sex scene King's ever written. Most of his sex scenes involve the women hating it and using baby words like "he shot his shoot and it tasted like ickysour", which makes you think both the characters and the author are idiots.
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Jun 8, 2011 10:14
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The amount of times King uses "as slow as cold molasses" in his books and mini-series I'm waiting for that description to turn up during a sex scene.
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Jun 8, 2011 10:32
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Local Group Bus posted:The amount of times King uses "as slow as cold molasses" in his books and mini-series I'm waiting for that description to turn up during a sex scene. When he came his semen was as slow as cold molasses. Like that? I also have a reason to force my way through Under the Dome now, thank you guy that mentioned skateboarder lingo.
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Jun 8, 2011 13:02
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I am rereading Under the Dome right now, and the amount of high-fiving and knuckle-bumping going on in this book is through the roof. These people must all have hand calluses from all the hip greetings they give each other every day. Also has been mentioned, the skateboarding poo poo. And King makes the leader of the skateboarding squad a genius hacker kid extraordinaire but only ever has him do things anyone with a normal working knowledge of a computer could do. He makes flyers for a demonstration and sets up a laptop webcam to broadcast across town, what an amazing technical mind he has! I'm still not giving up though, it isn't as bad as some of his others.
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Jun 8, 2011 17:07
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using the word "mistrustfully". Especially in the Dark Tower. Especially Oy
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Jun 8, 2011 17:25
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ZoDiAC_ posted:using the word "mistrustfully". Especially in the Dark Tower. Especially Oy That's funny because I recall that in On Writing he said that using adverbs was lazy/bad writing... something like that. That and it hardly being a word at all.
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Jun 8, 2011 20:53
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JustFrakkingDoIt posted:That's funny because I recall that in On Writing he said that using adverbs was lazy/bad writing... something like that. That and it hardly being a word at all. On Writing is all about "do as I say not as I do, until you become a popular famous author so you can do as I do".
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Jun 8, 2011 21:35
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The tips in the book are for beginning writers. By the same token I could tell a beginning guitarist "don't play the guitar behind your head" and "don't play with your teeth" and be correct but someone like Jimi Hendrix could do those things and still make good music. Not saying that SK's a great writer, just that breaking general rules doesn't automatically = bad writer.
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Jun 8, 2011 21:45
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Excerpt from 11/22/63 is here if anyone wants a sneak peek. Looks interesting actually. Is that Christine making a guest appearance? Local Group Bus fucked around with this message at 09:57 on Jun 9, 2011 |
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Jun 9, 2011 09:55
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Local Group Bus posted:Excerpt from 11/22/63 is here if anyone wants a sneak peek. I wouldn't think so, as he describes Christine as all-red, and this is two-tone. Man using a spoiler tag for that 
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Jun 9, 2011 15:34
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quote:I came awake with a jerk, hearing someone mutter “Still not too late” under his breath. I realized it was me and shut up.
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Jun 9, 2011 16:56
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Ridonkulous posted:Just read the part in "Wizard and Glass" where a 16 year old masturbates herself to sleep Now I want to know if you have read IT.
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Jun 10, 2011 02:34
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ZoDiAC_ posted:I wouldn't think so, as he describes Christine as all-red, and this is two-tone. Man using a spoiler tag for that Actually, he doesn't. It's white-on-red. Two-tone.
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Jun 10, 2011 03:02
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Ridonkulous posted:Just read the part in "Wizard and Glass" where a 16 year old masturbates herself to sleep Girls definitely don't have the same sexual urges as boys, and certainly would never do something like masturbate. 
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Jun 17, 2011 22:53
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Yeah, any author could write something like that into a story and it wouldn't necessarily be disturbing. There's far, far, more weird sex stuff in the Dark Tower series anyway.
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Jun 17, 2011 22:57
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I'd have to say From A Buick Eight. It was entirely forgettable - even the "climax" of the monster shrimp and the finale weren't very memorable, and way too long stretches of "cop talks about car and occasionally the weird stuff". Also, the descriptions of that cop who gets killed in the beginning were over-described to the point of being funny. (I also kept imagining his kid as Shinji Ikari, for some reason.)
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Jun 18, 2011 00:45
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Locus posted:There's far, far, more weird sex stuff in the Dark Tower series anyway. You mean like when Roland fucks that demon in the first book, then it turns itself into a male demon and then invisibly rapes Susannah and gets her pregnant with Roland's semen?
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Jun 18, 2011 04:51
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Aatrek posted:You mean like when Roland fucks that demon in the first book, then it turns itself into a male demon and then invisibly rapes Susannah and gets her pregnant with Roland's semen? Don't forget how some of the Crimson King's semen got mixed in there as well. The Dark Tower series is weird.
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Jun 18, 2011 05:12
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Aatrek posted:You mean like when Roland fucks that demon in the first book, then it turns itself into a male demon and then invisibly rapes Susannah and gets her pregnant with Roland's semen? I also seem to recall like... uh... someone kissing a particular newborn baby in an inappropriate way? Why Stephen King why And I'm still probably forgetting 20 other things.
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Jun 18, 2011 07:20
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Locus posted:I also seem to recall like... uh... someone kissing a particular newborn baby in an inappropriate way? Gun in vagina. The other stuff didn't freak me out so much, I suppose I just accepted that when dealing with demons/other supernatural beings that messed-up stuff would happen. Same with Roland & Susan - I was just barely past my own teenage years when I read it, and I knew the hormone thing all too well. But the gun-in-vagina thing was just.... ew. edited for awkward wording. April fucked around with this message at 10:38 on Jun 18, 2011 |
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Jun 18, 2011 10:36
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Locus posted:I also seem to recall like... uh... someone kissing a particular newborn baby in an inappropriate way? The nympho Roland meets gets staked in her vagina, I think. It's been too long since I've read it, though.
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Jun 18, 2011 21:05
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