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Canuckistan posted:The Tunnel todash monster/centipede sequence found in book 7. Great pacing and very suspenseful, even if the characters had plot armour and would be fine. Yeah, that creeps me out, too. Really, any time he describes things from todash space/The Mist creep me out.
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Sep 9, 2013 16:14
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I reading IT now, and its pretty consistently creepy, the part the got me yesterday was when the kids are talking, discussing what to do about the monster, and King tells you that all the while they are being watched by a set of eyes. You're like hmmm ok, makes sense that IT'd be spying on them. Then King tells you oh, by the way the eyes are each TWO FEET WIDE I love monsters where their true form is never really known and you can only assume that it is so horrible that your mind couldn't even imagine it.
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Sep 9, 2013 17:15
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Basebf555 posted:I reading IT now, and its pretty consistently creepy, the part the got me yesterday was when the kids are talking, discussing what to do about the monster, and King tells you that all the while they are being watched by a set of eyes. You're like hmmm ok, makes sense that IT'd be spying on them. Then King tells you oh, by the way the eyes are each TWO FEET WIDE I read this bit the other day too, it's on page 666 of my edition 
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Sep 9, 2013 19:07
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rypakal posted:The first paragraph of The Lot (III) is astoundingly beautiful. The entire chapter about how the town has secrets is an incredible read, totally engrossing. I live near two small towns and he really managed to give a sense that anything could be happening behind closed doors even in towns like those.
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Sep 11, 2013 16:29
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I just started re-reading The Shining in anticipation of Dr. Sleep coming out. It's easily been 10 years or so since I read it. I had forgotten how really well-written this book is. There's just layer after layer after layer to the story, I don't even know how to say how gorgeous it is. I had also forgotten what a miserable turd Jack Torrance is. loving amazing book.
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Sep 11, 2013 17:31
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IT is my favorite book but The Shining is his "best" book, if that makes any sense.
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Sep 11, 2013 17:33
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oldpainless posted:IT is my favorite book but The Shining is his "best" book, if that makes any sense. It's funny, I was thinking the exact same thing. IT is still my favorite, but The Shining is a whole other level. Maybe it's that the story and characters in IT are my favorite, but the writing in The Shining is way more lyrical. Or something.
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Sep 11, 2013 17:57
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Fascist Funk posted:I always find it kind of funny when I see King's genre described as "horror." I've read a ton of his books and tend to enjoy his writing, but his plots are always so outlandish that I just find them interesting rather than scary. I think the big part of this is because King really cut his teeth on writing weird fiction, and usually that's how I mentally classify his books when I'm reading them. I think in a lot of cases, the horror is just a side-effect of the strangeness of the story. I think a good example is Mrs. Todd's Shortcut, which is really just a weird tale about a woman finding shortcuts via wormhole, but there's the knock-on horror effect of the weird things that live inside the wormhole, despite how similar to our own reality that it looks. Anyway, finished Joyland a couple days ago. I really liked it, since I think King's at his best when he's writing slice-of-life Americana stories. Even though after I finished it felt like the serial killer bit was tacked on so it could fit the genre of the publisher, I didn't really feel that as much while I was actually reading it. It was, at least, a satisfying read.
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Sep 11, 2013 19:09
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The Shining is a much tighter book in terms of pace and plot, simply because of its shorter length. Its sprawling length is a double-edged sword really, since it allows the story to breathe and stretch across 6 decades (Black Spot incident to the "present" in the 80s), but at the same time you lose a bit of pacing in plot because you can't have a book that size with stuff constantly happening. I loved both books, but It stays with me because the characters were with me for so long (took me a long time to read the book) that when the end came, I was sorry to say goodbye to them and even to Derry in all its masked horror. And the feelings that Mike Hanlon and Bill Denbrough expressed about their fading memories of their childhoods and their friends resonated with how I'd been feeling about my own life for some time before reading the book. I remember talking to a work colleague about this book a few years ago and she made a good point - books, more than most other media, can live or die depending on the person. The way It hit me in such tremendous fashion might seem trite to the next person; we could both read the same passage and I'd be astounded, and they could be wondering why the hell I've got a lump in my throat. I've always loved this: quote:The most important things are the hardest things to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them — words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size when they're brought out. But it's more than that, isn't it? The most important things lie too close to wherever your secret heart is buried, like landmarks to a treasure your enemies would love to steal away. And you may make revelations that cost you dearly only to have people look at you in a funny way, not understanding what you've said at all, or why you thought it was so important that you almost cried while you were saying it. That's the worst, I think. When the secret stays locked within not for want of a teller, but for want of an understanding ear. Whether you like his books or not, you have to give the man credit.
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Sep 12, 2013 00:23
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^ I loved King primarily for his ability to work passages like that into bizarre or terrifying stories like IT. I haven't read anyone else who can effortlessly poignancy and, let's face it, a little bit of cheesiness, into unsettling stories and not have it come across as hamfisted. That's a big reason I loved Lisey's Story so much. It was a weird blend of sci-fi & fantasy that wasn't really internally consistent but as a love story it really hit home for me. The observation that books are more dependent on the individual than most other forms of media is a good one and not something I'd considered before. Thanks for sharing that passage as well.
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Sep 13, 2013 18:41
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So I read The Long Walk because everyone here went on about it. For the most part it was fantastic. The time went slow and it really felt like you were along with them the entire time. It was always so tense. When it comes to the last 9 or so, it felt so rushed. Time moved way to quickly and those last few people died with less written about them than almost everyone else who died. It only lasted like 25-30 pages, when it should have been the longest part of the book. The whole ending in general just felt rushed and thrown together and made a really disappointing end to an otherwise amazing book.
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Sep 13, 2013 19:11
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To be honest i didn't really understand the ending. It seemed kind of ambiguous to me. A few weeks later i read a description on Wikipedia and didn't really remember the details it mentioned. I ended the story not really knowing what was happening, whether the protagonist lived or died. Not that this is a criticism - my favorite book is Haruki Murakami's Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, which sort of depends on being able to accept contradictory explanations for a single series of events.
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Sep 13, 2013 19:24
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Is the movie of Needful Things any good? I just finished reading it, and it seems like it has both a lot of good movie material and a lot of really bad movie material in it.
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Sep 13, 2013 19:44
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ProfessorProf posted:Is the movie of Needful Things any good? I just finished reading it, and it seems like it has both a lot of good movie material and a lot of really bad movie material in it. I remember liking it as a teenager but I can't say if it holds up. When I first saw it the premise felt really new and fresh to me but since then I've seen it done a thousand times.
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Sep 13, 2013 20:30
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ProfessorProf posted:Is the movie of Needful Things any good? I just finished reading it, and it seems like it has both a lot of good movie material and a lot of really bad movie material in it. the movie feels like a summary of story events. it doesn't come close to capturing how needful the things really were.
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Sep 13, 2013 23:49
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Sharzak posted:^ I loved King primarily for his ability to work passages like that into bizarre or terrifying stories like IT. I haven't read anyone else who can effortlessly poignancy and, let's face it, a little bit of cheesiness, into unsettling stories and not have it come across as hamfisted.
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Sep 15, 2013 04:38
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Kingnothing posted:So I read The Long Walk because everyone here went on about it. I think that's the point. Garraty was much more alive and vibrant at the first and the writing reflects that. At the end Garraty is essentially a walking corpse and doesn't really notice or care what happens to the others.
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Sep 16, 2013 13:26
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Reading through IT, as I already mentioned a few posts up, and something interesting stuck me. Not anything new for people that have read it multiple times probably, but I missed this years ago when I read IT the first time. In one of those Derry interludes that's written by Mike(the librarian) he tells you about an incident in colonial times on the land that would become Derry. It's basically a Roanoke situation where the whole colony mysteriously disappears without a trace. Then much later as the Losers being to understand more about what the monster is and how it operates, its stated that the people of Derry knowingly let IT feed every 25 years or so. They see letting it happen as the lesser of two evils, that if they just give in to IT then things can go on as normal when IT's done feeding. What I was imagining, and I love that King leaves this stuff open for interpretation, is that the colonists were the first non-native people to encounter IT. Not fully understanding what they were up against, they tried to stand up to IT and fight back. That didn't go well obviously, and maybe IT just decided to eat them all and wait until some more people moved in that would be less dangerous to him. IT started selectively feeding once the people of Derry got with the program: Don't fight back and your lives will be allowed to continue.
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Sep 16, 2013 16:58
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Basebf555 posted:Reading through IT, as I already mentioned a few posts up, and something interesting stuck me. Not anything new for people that have read it multiple times probably, but I missed this years ago when I read IT the first time. In some ways, the tale can be read as an allegory of child abuse. In the literal sense that the kids were terrified by a monster and the adults ignored it. In the sense that It has a dark, ominous influence over the people of the town, where the adults ignore/accept not only the horrendous murders of children throughout the decades, but even that they ignore/accept bad stuff going down. Such as adults witnessing Ben getting bullied. You hear about horrendous things happening within families or communities for decades and there's this conspiracy of silence. In the book, this is literal in some ways, as you point out with residents of Derry allowing It to feed so long as It doesn't destroy everything. The suppressed memories, the survivors coming to terms with things as adults and being able to let go once It is dead, and their memories begin to fade. The "curses" hanging over them throughout their lives up to that point. And then when it's done and their memories fade again and they can hardly remember their childhoods. Not really spoiler material, just don't want to colour the opinion of someone who hasn't read It yet but may do some day. Also, it's been half a decade since I read it, so my memory of the book and my thoughts on a lot of this stuff are faded. God, I wish I could read faster. There's so much stuff I want to read, and read again. But who has the time?
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Sep 16, 2013 17:45
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WattsvilleBlues posted:God, I wish I could read faster. There's so much stuff I want to read, and read again. This is why I have consigned 90% of my re-reads to audiobooks that I listen to while not paying very close attention. (Work)
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Sep 16, 2013 18:19
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That's why I put books on my phone. I read EVERYWHERE and prefer it that way. There is no more "down time" in my life and I actually look forward to, say, Secretary of State renewals and such.
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Sep 16, 2013 19:58
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Actually for me its the reverse where the first time I read a book I often don't absorb it properly or I read it while distracted because god knows why. When I go back to re-read something its because I want to actually "read it for real" and dive into every detail that I may have missed the first time now that the pressure to follow the plot is off. This happens with TV shows a lot too.
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Sep 16, 2013 20:02
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WattsvilleBlues posted:In some ways, the tale can be read as [spoiler stuff] This was a very good observation and it reminded me that child abuse and domestic violence in general (which both happened in Derry as we know from various books) tends to cycle repeatedly through generations of families. And one of the main reasons why it continues to exist is that people don't like to talk about it (IT). And parents especially try to ignore it, even if they recognize the signs from their own subliminated experiences, because to acknowledge it would mean having to make difficult changes. Most people hope that if they ignore it, it will go away. I wonder if that's the meaning behind the name of the book. Anybody else counting the days until Dr. Sleep is released? Pheeets fucked around with this message at 21:05 on Sep 16, 2013 |
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Sep 16, 2013 20:29
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Pheeets posted:Anybody else counting the days until Dr. Sleep is released? I've got a birthday three days after it comes out, so I'm kind of counting down to it by association. I'll end up grabbing the thing for myself after the fact, so that should be good. Of course the last time I treated myself to a King book for my birthday was books 6 and 7 of the Dark Tower in 2004. Still reeling over that one.
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Sep 16, 2013 20:54
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Pheeets posted:This was a very good observation and it reminded me that child abuse and domestic violence in general (which both happened in Derry as we know from various books) tends to cycle repeatedly through generations of families. And one of the main reasons why it continues to exist is that people don't like to talk about it (IT). And parents especially try to ignore it, even if they recognize the signs from their own subliminated experiences, because to acknowledge it would mean having to make difficult changes. Most people hope that if they ignore it, it will go away. Isn't there a scene in the book where a Derry woman is in the kitchen, and she can hear the voices of the town's dead children talking to her, but she ignores it? Or am I remembering it wrong? I have only a vague memory of that particular bit. If so, that just reinforces the allegory of the whole thing. Hearing kids suffering or whatever or experiencing dread and ignoring all your natural instincts to do something about it. I'm a bit nervous about Doctor Sleep - The Shining is one of those books I powered through in fairly quick (for me) fashion and I was horrified by it. I'm not sure a follow-up can do the original justice, even though it will still exist unchanged on its own merits, I'm one of these people who can find past things sullied by their successors. WattsvilleBlues fucked around with this message at 12:46 on Sep 17, 2013 |
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Sep 17, 2013 12:44
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WattsvilleBlues posted:Isn't there a scene in the book where a Derry woman is in the kitchen, and she can hear the voices of the town's dead children talking to her, but she ignores it? Or am I remembering it wrong? I have only a vague memory of that particular bit. If so, that just reinforces the allegory of the whole thing. Hearing kids suffering or whatever or experiencing dread and ignoring all your natural instincts to do something about it. A question I've always had is why is it this generation of kids are so different and decide/able to fight back? Were they just chosen by the Turtle or was there another reason? Perhaps growing up watching monster movies made them desensitized to monsters and they could see past the makeup of Pennywise and see the real monster underneath?
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Sep 17, 2013 13:49
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Canuckistan posted:A question I've always had is why is it this generation of kids are so different and decide/able to fight back? Were they just chosen by the Turtle or was there another reason? Perhaps growing up watching monster movies made them desensitized to monsters and they could see past the makeup of Pennywise and see the real monster underneath? IT is fresh on my mind so I think I can answer. Theres actually a few chapters written from the perspective of IT, and it talks about how after billions of years it actually learned some new stuff from the Losers. IT says that faith, especially a childs imagination combined with the faith that these things can be real, is a double edged sword to IT. The fear that is possible because of a childs imagination is what IT feeds on, but at the same time because children think a monster can be real they can also imagine a weapon that could kill it, something an adult could never do. The book seems to suggest that IT has never encountered a group of kids like this that banded together and combined their faith to fight against it. One or two kids alone wouldn't be powerful enough, and IT also mentions that seven is a number with mystical power.
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Sep 17, 2013 15:30
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Also because it was implied that the eggs were ready/near ready to hatch at the end of the book perhaps that is why Gan chose this era to draw the Losers together as opposed to a prior generation.
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Sep 17, 2013 15:35
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Canuckistan posted:A question I've always had is why is it this generation of kids are so different and decide/able to fight back? Were they just chosen by the Turtle or was there another reason? Perhaps growing up watching monster movies made them desensitized to monsters and they could see past the makeup of Pennywise and see the real monster underneath? The "from production" answer I have for this kind of question is just that this is the story the author chose to tell. After all, who wants to read a story where all the main characters die in Chapter 1 and the book ends there? As for an "in-universe" response, I honestly don't know. Maybe it was the Turtle, maybe there was just something about the bond these particular people shared, being thrust together into the Losers' Club and having some sort of strings that bind them together, regardless of the Turtle. Maybe it's just in their nature, since lots of people go through trauma and some rise over it, some don't survive it, at least not as the people they were going to be had it not happened. I may be talking complete poo poo here. Edit: Yeah, beaten. Two good answers there, goons.
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Sep 17, 2013 15:46
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So, I just finished 11/22/63. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it. King had to use a device to make things work like they did, but there were times it just felt too convenient (for example, the Frattis and the Florida bookie connection). I must say I liked the non-Oswald stuff better. The Oswald stuff kinda drug. I wish he had gone into the effects of time dilation a bit more, but that said, that really doesn't seem up his alley, beyond noting that his partial save of the Dunning family changes Al just enough to warrant his suicide, though he has hooked up with the former Mrs. Dunning and still somehow is obsessed with the assassination. The ending was fine. The political chapter noting changes (funny how nearly the same political people rose to the top and in the same order), I could definitely do without.
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Sep 19, 2013 06:43
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RC and Moon Pie posted:So, I just finished 11/22/63. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it. King had to use a device to make things work like they did, but there were times it just felt too convenient (for example, the Frattis and the Florida bookie connection). I think you misunderstood some of the things that happened.Al's suicide had nothing to do with the Dunning family and his health aide was not the former Mrs. Dunning, if that's what you mean, it was just someone with a similar name; she was a lot younger than Mrs. Dunning would have been in any case - Doris Dunning was in her 40s in 1958, she would have probably been dead by 2011. He killed himself because he was dying in a lot of pain, he had been obviously contemplating that even before Jake time-traveled. The person Jake hooks up with is not the former Mrs. Dunning either, if that's what you meant, again it's someone with a similar name. There were a lot of "harmonic" effects as a result of the time traveling, and those similarities were just two of them. The Fratis were not actually connected to the Florida bookies, that was also time-travel harmonics, just like Derry and Dallas had similar vibes, and the woman occupying Oswald's house before Oswald rented was named Templeton, like Al. Those things are scattered all over the book. To be fair, I picked up on them a lot more when re-reading the book. I do agree that some of the Fort Worth/Dallas stuff went kind of slow, but I enjoyed the ironic procession of the same politicians in the altered future.
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Sep 19, 2013 07:22
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So I'm trying to get into Haven and I noticed during the opening a flier that makes reference to a Reverend Flagg. edit: My bad, it actually says Revered Flagg 
juliuspringle fucked around with this message at 23:17 on Sep 19, 2013 |
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Sep 19, 2013 22:17
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So I'm trying to get into Heaven and I noticed that I have not adequately Witnessed for the glory of Jesus Christ enough. Here's a flier.
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Sep 19, 2013 23:02
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Apparently Ron Howard is still trucking away at his Dark Tower film/TV series, something I'm simultaneously thrilled and horrified by. Much like I am by the books. http://www.slashfilm.com/ron-howard-the-dark-tower-is-alive-enjoying-quiet-development/ Also Clint Eastwood's son is pretty much how I imagine Roland, mainly because he is the spit of his father who originally inspired the character. 
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Sep 19, 2013 23:14
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Well poo poo, I wasn't gay, but that Eastwood boy is pretty to see.
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Sep 20, 2013 01:03
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Edit: Nevermind.
WattsvilleBlues fucked around with this message at 14:01 on Sep 20, 2013 |
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Sep 20, 2013 13:52
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He is pretty, but I think he looks too young to play Roland. I'm sure it won't happen, but I think it would be amazing if they got Aaron Paul to play Eddie.
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Sep 20, 2013 14:57
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Judging by how long it'll take whatever it is they're trying to get going to actually get going, I think Clint Eastwood's son might actually end up just old enough to pull if off, maybe with a bit of make up.
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Sep 20, 2013 15:13
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King, promoting Doctor Sleep, takes a moment to once again say not very nice things about Kubrick's version of the Shining:quote:http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/sep/19/stephen-king-shining-shelley-duvall I think the movie has its own merits apart from the book, but an interesting set of comments nonetheless. Seventh Arrow fucked around with this message at 20:30 on Sep 20, 2013 |
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Sep 20, 2013 20:25
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If he dabbles in a little meth, he'll age nicely and that'll also give him the haggard post-'Fall of Gilead' look. I doubt he acts, I just thought it was kind of neat how much he looked like his father(young Roland). The format Howard is proposing seems absolutely awful though, three films and two miniseries. To put something like DT onscreen I think you'd need something like The Shining's approach. Where you take the core elements and base a story on that. The series as it is wouldn't translate well at all to the screen, in my opinion.
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Sep 20, 2013 21:32
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