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I re-read the Shining yesterday and holy gently caress I'd forgotten how great that book is (it's been YEARS since I last read it). Anyone who hasn't read that book get off your rear end and go get it NOW.
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May 9, 2013 01:50
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iostream.h posted:I re-read the Shining yesterday and holy gently caress I'd forgotten how great that book is (it's been YEARS since I last read it). i finished my re-read a week or two ago. it's just as good today as it was when i first read it.
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May 9, 2013 02:32
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iostream.h posted:I re-read the Shining yesterday and holy gently caress I'd forgotten how great that book is (it's been YEARS since I last read it). Re-reading it now and I'd forgotten how much obnoxiously heavy-handed foreshadowing is at the beginning.
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May 9, 2013 02:34
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Just started Nos4r2. It might as well be a Stephen King book so far, and that's before any of the apparently overt references to King's work. It's pretty good, too.
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May 9, 2013 14:26
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iostream.h posted:I re-read the Shining yesterday and holy gently caress I'd forgotten how great that book is (it's been YEARS since I last read it). I actually just started reading it for the first time, but I keep losing momentum because the prose is distractingly bad in places and it takes me out of the story. Hopefully once the story starts rolling I'll be able to ignore it.
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May 9, 2013 15:26
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You have any specifics about the bad prose cuz I've never had that problem reading the book.
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May 9, 2013 15:35
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I'd have to dig up my copy when I get home, I just remember an early chapter where Danny is in bed had some pretty horrible adverb abuse. It's probably nitpicky stuff, but I've put a few books of his aside recently because little things like that annoyed me. Maybe it's something about me that's changed more than any variance in his prose, because I read four or five of his books back-to-back a few years ago and enjoyed them all without many reservations.
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May 9, 2013 16:09
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Junkenstein posted:Nos4r2 I spent like a minute trying to figure out what Stephen King book this was an acronym for 
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May 9, 2013 22:21
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...of SCIENCE! posted:I spent like a minute trying to figure out what Stephen King book this was an acronym for Me too. Except maybe not a minute because I am fluent in 1337. Seriously though what is that and did China Mieville write it?
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May 9, 2013 22:25
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NOS4A2 (NOS4R2 in England because they don't speak correctly) is the latest book by Joe Hill, King's son. It's good and very King-like. He even mentions sodium vapor lights.
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May 9, 2013 22:38
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The book makes heavy use of Gerard Manley Hopkins' notions of inscape and instress (mostly inscape) so it is de facto excellent. (I'm 1/3 through and so far it's pretty darn good.) EDIT: Also, there's a bunch of references to David Mitchell, too. This book owns. DirtyRobot fucked around with this message at 04:21 on May 11, 2013 |
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May 9, 2013 22:47
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I'm going to definitely pick that one up, I wasn't too big on Heart Shaped Box but I thought Horns was absolutely astonishing. I have a feeling the movie adaption is going to make me really sad.
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May 10, 2013 06:11
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Halfway through Desperation, and am I the only one who had to roll his eyes at the fact a "world famous writer" is stuck with the rest of the people? I mean, I get they need a cocky rear end in a top hat to provide some flavor with the characters, but really? King uses the "write what you know" method almost to a fault, and I laud him for it, but so far I am not seeing any reason to insert specifically a "world famous writer" into the story outside of maybe some tongue in cheek self awareness.
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May 11, 2013 16:52
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crankdatbatman posted:...but so far I am not seeing any reason to insert specifically a "world famous writer" into the story outside of maybe some tongue in cheek self awareness.
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May 11, 2013 16:57
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iostream.h posted:Have you read the Dark Tower series? Any time an author inserts themselves into the story marks the jump the shark moment for a book/series.
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May 11, 2013 17:21
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iostream.h posted:Have you read the Dark Tower series? I'm not so much considering the self awareness in Marinville as King himself, just the fact he has to have either a teacher, a writer (sometimes "world famous"), or a combination of both in every one of his novels. Even stories like this one where there is no need for such a character (although again only half way through, maybe he'll write the bad guy to death) and the insertion sticks out so much that it hurts the story to a degree.
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May 11, 2013 18:03
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golgo13sf posted:Any time an author inserts themselves into the story marks the jump the shark moment for a book/series. Counterpont: Clive Cussler's books are so over-the-top ridiculous that he manages to pull off writing himself into lots of them. There's one where the hero is stranded in the middle of the ocean, but Cussler just happens to be sailing through the area and rescues him. The entire Dirk Pitt series is insane poo poo like that; after an aerial dogfight feature two rare vintage planes where Pitt's plane is filled with children from a local orphanage, the author showing up makes perfect sense. I only read one of the Dark Tower books, but it doesn't really seem like a setting where a self-insert would fit in well. I grew up in Maine, so it's tradition to read at least 5-10 Stephen King novels. There's a few greats like It and Dead Zone, but he really does write the same thing over and over again, with diminishing returns. Oh, it's a book about a haunted <blank> in a small town with a paranormal history. Oh and there's a lot of references to classic rock lyrics, and an overly detailed description of young children having sex. *yawn* His short story collections are fantastic though. crankdatbatman posted:I'm not so much considering the self awareness in Marinville as King himself, just the fact he has to have either a teacher, a writer (sometimes "world famous"), or a combination of both in every one of his novels. Even stories like this one where there is no need for such a character (although again only half way through, maybe he'll write the bad guy to death) and the insertion sticks out so much that it hurts the story to a degree. This isn't really unique to bad writing. F. Scott Fitzgerland, Ernest Hemmingway, Charles Dickens, Sylvia Plath, and Kurt Vonnegut are just a few examples I can think of off the top of my head where a lot of their work is heavily based on their own experiences or essentially autobiographical. It does come off as jarring sometimes when King does it though.
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May 11, 2013 23:07
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golgo13sf posted:Any time an author inserts themselves into the story marks the jump the shark moment for a book/series. The defense presents "Slaughterhouse Five", your honor.
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May 12, 2013 04:06
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little munchkin posted:Counterpont: Clive Cussler's books are so over-the-top ridiculous that he manages to pull off writing himself into lots of them. There's one where the hero is stranded in the middle of the ocean, but Cussler just happens to be sailing through the area and rescues him. The entire Dirk Pitt series is insane poo poo like that; after an aerial dogfight feature two rare vintage planes where Pitt's plane is filled with children from a local orphanage, the author showing up makes perfect sense. Clive Cussler would have been exhibit A in my argument. I enjoyed the books as fun nonsense until he did that, then the books went full retard.
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May 12, 2013 16:06
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Rev. Bleech_ posted:The defense presents "Slaughterhouse Five", your honor. There was an author insert in Slaughterhouse Five? I'm only remembering it in Breakfast of Champions (which I agree was a good one). I've been making strides in Desperation the past few days, and I'm kind of seeing possibly a change of heart in Marinville, as opposed to originally thinking he'd give in to his old vices and be a tool to break up the group. If that's the case, then I guess I can see King using his experiences in conveying the troubles that occur with being a celebrity to help deliver the overall message of the book and can understand it a bit better in this case. Still kind of ham fisted in its approach though.
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May 12, 2013 17:00
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crankdatbatman posted:There was an author insert in Slaughterhouse Five? I'm only remembering it in Breakfast of Champions (which I agree was a good one). The entire BOOK of Slaughterhouse Five is an author insert. The novel is about Vonnegut trying to work through what happened to him during the war. Although more literally the author does have one line as himself during the firebombing of Dresden scene.
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May 12, 2013 17:04
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...of SCIENCE! posted:I spent like a minute trying to figure out what Stephen King book this was an acronym for Salem's Lot, duh.
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May 13, 2013 00:59
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muscles like this? posted:The entire BOOK of Slaughterhouse Five is an author insert. The novel is about Vonnegut trying to work through what happened to him during the war. Although more literally the author does have one line as himself during the firebombing of Dresden scene. That's a really loose definition of "author insert". I guess mostly everything Hemingway wrote was also author insertion as well. But yeah, I looked it up and there was an author insert in Slaughterhouse 5, just not as major as the one in either Breakfast of Champions or the Dark Tower series.
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May 13, 2013 01:06
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muscles like this? posted:The entire BOOK of Slaughterhouse Five is an author insert. The novel is about Vonnegut trying to work through what happened to him during the war. Although more literally the author does have one line as himself during the firebombing of Dresden scene. If memory serves, Billy Pilgrim also notices Vonnegut taking a dump in a POW latrine at one point.
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May 13, 2013 02:08
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I think there's a pretty big difference between an author insert in semi-autobiographical fiction and an author insert in outright-fabricated fiction. The former is "this basically happened to me but names have been changed and events spruced up and condensed to improve the story" while the latter is "none of this really happened and no one is exactly based on anyone I know except for me. Hi everyone!"
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May 13, 2013 02:56
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I'm reading NOS4A2 right now, and so far it's really good and scary. I don't get the comparisons with his father; sure there might be a couple points of convergence (and a couple of sly tips-of-the-hat) and of course they share a genre, but Hill's voice is entirely different. It's even more distinctive than it was in Horns or Heart-Shaped Box. I don't think they're any more similar than many other horror writers. But it is obvious that he grew up around writers, because this is a good tight book, well-polished and a pleasure to read. If anything that's the similarity with his dad, they're both good story engineers. I'm about 1/3 done, it's going slow because I can't read it at night (because I live alone in an old creaky house and I'm a wuss).
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May 15, 2013 05:03
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Rev. Bleech_ posted:If memory serves, Billy Pilgrim also notices Vonnegut taking a dump in a POW latrine at one point. quote:Billy looked inside the latrine. The wailing was coming from in there. The place was crammed with Americans who had taken their pants down. The welcome feast had made them as sick as volcanoes. The buckets were full or had been kicked over.
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May 15, 2013 10:12
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I passed a building on the way to work this morning that had "PHONER" graffitied on it on several places. Could be anything but I like to think it was a SK fan.
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May 15, 2013 17:59
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I thought it was Bango Skank.
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May 15, 2013 20:09
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little munchkin posted:I grew up in Maine, so it's tradition to read at least 5-10 Stephen King novels. There's a few greats like It and Dead Zone, but he really does write the same thing over and over again, with diminishing returns. Oh, it's a book about a haunted <blank> in a small town with a paranormal history. Oh and there's a lot of references to classic rock lyrics, and an overly detailed description of young children having sex. *yawn*
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May 16, 2013 19:32
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I just finished Black House last night after putting off reading it for around a year due to all the people dogging it in this thread around the time I finished the Talisman and was wondering if the sequel was any good. I have to say that I really enjoyed it and I don't get why people kept suggesting to skip the first 100 pages. If anything I would suggest to skip around 20 or so pages near the end were King starts to go into his "ho ho ho Constant Reader, better not read the next bit!" bullshit.
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May 16, 2013 20:28
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Strange Matter posted:Please tell me you are exaggerating and that part doesn't occur outside of IT. Yeah, that was total hyperbole.
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May 16, 2013 23:04
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Don't forget the Loofah handies.
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May 16, 2013 23:15
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If you’ve read Salem’s Lot then you’ve read a third (or more) of almost every other Stephen King book. I don’t think there’s anything in his second published novel that hasn’t gone on to become a well-worn Stephen King trope.
High Warlord Zog fucked around with this message at 04:43 on May 17, 2013 |
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May 17, 2013 04:12
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Just a thanks to the folks that mentioned NOS4A2. I've been really impressed with Joe Hill, and while his style is fairly different from his dad's...that was one damned good spooky novel. Kind of surprised at all of the references to It, though. I don't recall any references to his father's novels in Heart Shaped Box.
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May 17, 2013 07:29
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I'm about 400 pages into Wizard & Glass and I swear to loving god if one more person loving farts in this loving book...
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May 17, 2013 09:46
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Farting was the easiest way to give Sheriff Avery "character development."
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May 17, 2013 14:22
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I hope I'm not the only one who skips over the middle 400 pages of "Wizard and Glass".
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May 17, 2013 14:25
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ganthony posted:Just a thanks to the folks that mentioned NOS4A2. I've been really impressed with Joe Hill, and while his style is fairly different from his dad's...that was one damned good spooky novel. Kind of surprised at all of the references to It, though. I don't recall any references to his father's novels in Heart Shaped Box. So what you're saying is Stephen King murdered his son and wore him as a skin suit while writing NOS4A2? I picked up Wind Through a Keyhole from the library the other day, flipped through it and said meh and haven't touched it since. My knowledge of the "later" books is killing my ability to actually read it.
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May 17, 2013 16:07
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"Giant-farts!" Goddammit Sheemie.
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May 17, 2013 20:08
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