|
tliil posted:Bullshit, there's always hope. There's no hope but Mount Hope.
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2013 18:10
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 15, 2024 17:55 |
|
|
cheerfullydrab posted:See, I always enjoyed this, too. Also I thought it was ambiguous as well. But after like 20 years of reading this story, I realized that it actually isn't. There is simply no way he is going to be able to get gas in the car. He knows it. And he is planning to shoot everyone, then himself, when the car runs out of gas. He risks his own life when he doesn't have to solely to get the gun so that he has that out in the future. The movie just shows what is going to happen, happening. Some people have to have a definite outcome spelled out for them one way or the other, so I guess it's nice that the movie did that for you. But the novella was deliberately not spelled out, and if you can only see one way for it to end, you obviously haven't read too many thrillers/horror stories over the last twenty years. The very nature of the genre supports survival in impossible circumstances (at least some of the time) - it's fiction, you know. And I'm not saying he did make it, I'm just saying the author left it up in the air. I happen to like the ambiguity here, it speaks to the love of a father for his son and the resourcefulness of people facing incredible odds. And since King so obviously meant for it that to end on that hopeful note, I don't see how I'm wrong just because a movie killed them off. But to each his own...speaking of which, have you had an MRI lately? (King joke, don't flip out) Pheeets fucked around with this message at 20:08 on Aug 19, 2013 |
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2013 20:01
|
|
|
juliuspringle posted:Like the hope that you die right away and aren't alive when the monsters start to eat you. There are a lot of King stories that don't end especially well for people and aren't ambiguous in any way. I don't have a problem with ambiguity and don't need things spelled out for me. As I said previously, the ambiguity of the ending was one of the things I liked the most about this story for the longest time. I just no longer believe that it really is ambiguous. edit: No, no MRI recently. However, I have been getting this really strange and severe itching in my fingertips. Also I went out for a long walk last night in the lovely creeping fog and I'm not sure what exactly happened. I was probably just working on restoring my 1958 Plymouth Fury, though. Teriyaki Hairpiece fucked around with this message at 20:26 on Aug 19, 2013 |
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2013 20:21
|
|
|
tliil posted:Bullshit, there's always hope. Which is exactly what the movie says. Call Me Charlie posted:There's two extreme groups. The people in the store that believe in Mrs. Carmody, who's spewing religious FUD about the end times, and our group of heroes, who are more pragmatic, that end up escaping. Hope wins. The lead loses. Call Me Charlie fucked around with this message at 20:26 on Aug 19, 2013 |
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2013 20:22
|
|
|
If anything, the story vs. the movie got people talking about some interesting ideas, so that's a good thing.cheerfullydrab posted:As I said previously, the ambiguity of the ending was one of the things I liked the most about this story for the longest time. I just no longer believe that it really is ambiguous. I can understand you thinking that way, just don't tell me I'm wrong for seeing it my way, is all I'm saying. cheerfullydrab posted:I was probably just working on restoring my 1958 Plymouth Fury, though. Just so long as it wasn't a Buick Roadmaster, then I might be a bit worried. (don't open the trunk!)
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2013 21:00
|
|
|
rypakal posted:Said by someone who doesn't understand real suffering. So I finally bought a new King book after the last Dark Tower left me thinking he was never going to write anything amazing again. But the Kennedy book was really good, and it didn't even go off the rails when the protagonist got to Derry like I thought it would. I even teared up a little towards the end. Are Wind Through My Keyhole and Under The Dome on the same level as the Kennedy book?
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2013 21:12
|
|
|
tliil posted:Oh yes, let's get into a dick measuring contest about who knows more about true suffering. You loving dork. I haven't read Wind Through my Keyhole but I loved Under the Dome a hell of a lot more than I did the Kennedy book, but I'm just a sucker for the small town politics and characters. (I loved Needful Things for exactly that reason).
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2013 21:36
|
|
|
tliil posted:
"Wind Through My Keyhole" sounds slightly naughty... I enjoyed The Wind Through the Keyhole, it was almost 3 stories in one: an adventure story about Roland and his old friends pre-Dark Tower, wrapped in an engaging story of pure fantasy, wrapped in a thin framework of Dark Tower. Under the Dome was a lot darker than the Kennedy book, but just as good, imo.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2013 22:17
|
|
|
I've always been a sucker for those endings tho', in my mind Mad Max is still wandering through the Outback. Humanity is still surviving, although in hiding, from the Birds. The zombies may be winning but we're surviving damnit. Garrity is still walking. They're still driving through the mist.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2013 23:02
|
|
|
Judge Holden is still wandering the Southwest, doing Things...
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2013 23:14
|
|
|
Well yeah Judge Holden can never die.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2013 23:42
|
|
|
Pheeets posted:"Wind Through My Keyhole" sounds slightly naughty...
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2013 07:57
|
|
|
Stephen King sucks. Period. All of his books seem to follow the same basic roadmap: (1) Good character background and development. (2) Solid story idea with interesting twist/challenge/obstacle. At this point (3) Mr. King's rent becomes due, and he tries to tie it all together with one massively oversimplified paragraph (or sentence!!). So many good ideas ruined by his inability to use any denouement.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2013 00:09
|
|
|
Thank you for that contribution to this discussion.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2013 00:11
|
|
|
Thank you, this thread needed a Magic Retard to make it truly complete
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2013 02:39
|
|
|
Rev. Bleech_ posted:Thank you, this thread needed a Magic Retard to make it truly complete Ayup. When is season 1 of Under the Dome over? I THINK I still need to watch last weeks episode and I know I still need to see this weeks but I'm just wondering how much of the season is left before I'm out of episodes to watch.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2013 03:17
|
|
|
Rev. Bleech_ posted:Thank you, this thread needed a Magic Retard to make it truly complete It will take a lot more for us to be a truly complete thread to the level of Wild Cards.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2013 03:24
|
|
|
rypakal posted:It will take a lot more for us to be a truly complete thread to the level of Wild Cards. I've been doing my best to take the level of discourse as low as it will go but I don't think we have the gumption. Maybe if we all contributed to a sexy slash fiction "book". "In the city of Lud the quintet had huddled together in an abandoned tenement. An arc sodium light flickered through the window to find that Eddie and Susannah had been quarreling about whether it was fair she had to take one for the team with the demon and his response had been that she clearly enjoyed it a little too much. Eddie slept tightly curled against his mentor, Roland. At first Roland was exasperated with a certain "get off my porch" look on his chiseled face and then he was furious at Eddie's apparently poor trigger discipline as he felt something hard, like a screwdriver handle press against his back. Then he realized that it was Eddie's arousal and something stirred inside him. Something he had not experienced since his time in the Hogwart's School of Gunslinging..."
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2013 03:57
|
|
|
ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2013 04:02
|
|
|
I enjoy how King's protagonists are always such rugged, manly writers. Of course they know how to chop wood. Of course they are courageous and always know what to do in crisis situations. Basically anything they need to do, they already know how to do. Shoot a gun? Expert marksmen. Hand-to-hand combat? Youth spent brawling on the mean streets of rural Maine. You rarely see King's main characters dealing with crippling indecision or self-doubt. That only happens to background townies. But these guys are all, like, novelists or artists. It doesn't really make sense.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2013 05:35
|
|
|
syscall girl posted:
From across the room, the Trashcan Man looked on wistfully.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2013 06:03
|
|
|
oldpainless posted:From across the room, the Trashcan Man looked on wistfully. Distracted by the hot and passionate friction of the dry-humping Roland's Lebi's® were receiving he felt a burning in his loins. Like nothing he had ever experienced. Oy looks coyly at him, holding Trash's Zarpo® lighter between his paws. Trash falls to his knees joyfully wetting himself as Oy speaks one word, deep and low. "Oy."
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2013 06:24
|
|
|
You know that rear end-weasel that that dude drops in the toilet in Dreamcatcher? One of those just came out of my crotch gun when I read that.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2013 07:44
|
|
|
Roland and his ka-tet walked through Derry, Maine. Eddie heard a low chuckle from a storm drain that sounded like one of Roland's dry farts after he'd eaten a can of "Mid-belly beans". He thought that there must be some evil lurking in the town of Derry, but it was probably something for another Stephen King book. The ka-tet passed an auto repair shop, which promised a "Rooty-Tooty Good Fix-up!". It was the 1950s and everything sounded hokey as gently caress. Eddie remembered that line. Rooty-tooty. It haunted him all through the night, until finally he took out his gun and slowly eased it between his asscheeks. He dry-fired twice, nothing but a clicking sound going into his butthole. On the third try, a shot fired. Eddie died with a smile on his face. There'd be no more Mid-belly beans for him. His quest was over. "Goodbye, father," the wind from his butthole seemed to say.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2013 08:33
|
|
|
bad day posted:I enjoy how King's protagonists are always such rugged, manly writers. Of course they know how to chop wood. Of course they are courageous and always know what to do in crisis situations. Basically anything they need to do, they already know how to do. Shoot a gun? Expert marksmen. Hand-to-hand combat? Youth spent brawling on the mean streets of rural Maine. Look, in order to get an arts degree in Maine, you have to go to boot camp. That's just how it works.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2013 15:06
|
|
|
I have a theory that Jud Crandall and Oy are actually the same creature. This is largely based on the quote "The soil of a man's heart is stonier. Oy!" and all the passages where Louis notes Jud's gold-ringed eyes. Am I on to something?
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2013 15:55
|
|
|
bad day posted:I enjoy how King's protagonists are always such rugged, manly writers. Of course they know how to chop wood. Of course they are courageous and always know what to do in crisis situations. Basically anything they need to do, they already know how to do. Shoot a gun? Expert marksmen. Hand-to-hand combat? Youth spent brawling on the mean streets of rural Maine. Actually, I disagree with you. I don't think this is true. The main character in 11/26/63 can't really do much of anything and gets the poo poo beat out of him several times. Same goes for Stutterin' Bill. I wouldn't say that Jack Torrence was especially capable- just crazy. The capable King protags like Stu Redman aren't usually writers. I mean, please prove me wrong with examples from books that I have yet to read! Oh, also, who doesn't know how to chop wood? It's not exactly difficult or complicated
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2013 16:21
|
|
|
bad day posted:I enjoy how King's protagonists are always such rugged, manly writers. Of course they know how to chop wood. Of course they are courageous and always know what to do in crisis situations. Basically anything they need to do, they already know how to do. Shoot a gun? Expert marksmen. Hand-to-hand combat? Youth spent brawling on the mean streets of rural Maine. Also ironically this post made me realize Under the Dome doesn't have a writer or an alcoholic as one of the protagonist. There is an English professor, but for the most part you wouldn't really call him a manly man who can do all kinds of poo poo. He's actually pretty much what you would think of as an English professor.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2013 17:26
|
|
|
I finished NOS4A2. It really feels like an early King book. I'll probably check out the rest of Joe Hill's stuff eventually.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2013 21:45
|
|
|
crankdatbatman posted:Also ironically this post made me realize Under the Dome doesn't have a writer or an alcoholic as one of the protagonist. There is an English professor, but for the most part you wouldn't really call him a manly man who can do all kinds of poo poo. He's actually pretty much what you would think of as an English professor. He turns out to be an excellent doctor, though, because he was a conscientious objector in the war. Barbie is the inexplicably-knows-how-to-do-stuff guy in that book. It doesnt happen the same way in every book, but when he's living in the small Texas town in 11/26/63 the protagonist directs a school play and turns out to be the best teacher ever who touches the hearts of his students and convinces them to follow their dreams, etc. He also knows how to do a lot of manly manual labor stuff and only really has problems because of two or three stupid assumptions he makes about people he met. I thought about this first while reading Salem's Lot.
|
|
#
?
Aug 22, 2013 07:07
|
|
|
Well, sorry you don't like Stephen King, I guess. If you started noticing this in Salem's Lot, then you probably should acknowledge that he's been doing that since he first started his professional writing career. King is what he is, and tends to rely on a lot of tropes from novel to novel. No one's crowning him as a Faulkner or Tolstoy, but what he does he does very well.
|
|
#
?
Aug 22, 2013 16:12
|
|
|
Jeez, I'm not saying it's bad - I just think it's funny. Not every thread has to be about arguing whether something is good or not.
|
|
#
?
Aug 22, 2013 16:31
|
|
|
bad day posted:Jeez, I'm not saying it's bad - I just think it's funny. Not every thread has to be about arguing whether something is good or not. I'd like to take you seriously, but I can't past the whole chopping wood thing. I'm like the most un-rugged man you can find, an indoor bookish type, and even I know how to chop wood. Yes, many of King's protagonists are writers, and yes many of them have a good deal of manual labor skills as well. Most writers, including King, had to have real jobs in their lives while writing. And of course the protagnist is good in a crisis, the ones who aren't die and aren't protagonists.
|
|
#
?
Aug 22, 2013 17:47
|
|
|
Plus for every mildly talented/physical guy you get someone like Gard from Tommyknockers, Jack from The Shining, or Marinville from Desperation who are lovely and worthless people who at best get to have some last-minute redemption but are still treated as loathsome and weak by the story rather than awesome author self-inserts.
|
|
#
?
Aug 22, 2013 22:23
|
|
|
And half of those guys are from rural places like small Maine towns, and would have picked up those skills via osmosis (diffusion), anyway.
|
|
#
?
Aug 22, 2013 22:28
|
|
|
And speaking of "writers": Harold. He only learns to chop wood later on.
|
|
#
?
Aug 25, 2013 16:50
|
|
|
The Berzerker posted:Still working through NOS4A2 and I've noticed a bunch of King references. I'm only 3/4 through the book so I might be missing some, but I've noticed (spoilers for NOS4A2 and some King books): Not sure if you've reached this part, but Hill actually references a yet-to-come Stephen King book: Manx mentions the True Knot, who are the villains in Doctor Sleep.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2013 04:23
|
|
|
I've been reading Firestarter, and it has managed to avoid many King tropes. Until page 277(my edition), when Dr. Pynchot, after being pushed, remembers being hazed in college for being a transvestite, which ends in mutual maturbation between him and those hazing him. It comes out of nowhere. Despite that out-of-nowhere section, it's a good book. It took about 100 pages to grow on me, though, but it has some bizarre characters that keep you reading. Especially John Rainbird, the 7 ft. tall, one-eyed shoe-obsessed Vietnam vet. assassin, who is an evil, manipulative cruel jerk. And I love reading him.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2013 05:29
|
|
|
Rainbird is my favorite character in all of Firestarter. He is just so weird.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2013 05:32
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 15, 2024 17:55 |
|
|
I finished Firestarter a few days ago. It started slow, and I felt like I wasn't going to like it. There were a few scenes that were awesome, especially the drug trial, but the whole concept was hokey. Then something happened near a hundred pages and I was won over. It's not his best, and it's a step down from The Dead Zone, but it's still a good read. I've never seen the movie, but I think that this is ripe for a new adaptation. It's got a lot of visual appeal (especially the dream sequences and the hallucinations in the drug trial), good action scenes, and eccentric/memorable characters. As long as it maintains the period in the novel (late 70's), I think it'd be great.
|
|
#
?
Aug 29, 2013 17:24
|
|