Stephen King: Beep Beep, Jealous Cow

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > Stephen King: Beep Beep, Jealous Cow

Rev. Bleech_: Oct 19, 2004; ~OKAY, WE'LL DRINK TO OUR LEGS!~

Partyworm posted:

Are there other good SK books where the horror is almost all subtlely and suggestion rather than overt and over the top visual horror?

I would recommend Pet Sematary. The ending isn't so great (I guess if you show us there's a possibility of a killer zombie kid in act I it better go off in Act III) but it is by far the most uncomfortable thing he's ever written. So much so that he supposedly threw it in a drawer for a few years, figuring it was unpublishable.

Also, while the Timmy Baterman part isn't all that subtle, it is intensely creepy.

# ¿ Jan 23, 2010 06:54

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 04:08

Rev. Bleech_: Oct 19, 2004; ~OKAY, WE'LL DRINK TO OUR LEGS!~

walkenator posted:

Really? Personally it's the best horror climax I've ever read. Is your issue just with the predictability or what?

It's not a bad ending, just far less disturbing than what came before it. It's very hard to top the bit with Louis just rocking on the edge of Gage's grave with his mossy little body cradled in his arms. Maybe it's because I'm poo poo-scared of grief/other people's mortality more than anything else, but that got me.

# ¿ Feb 1, 2010 04:32

Rev. Bleech_: Oct 19, 2004; ~OKAY, WE'LL DRINK TO OUR LEGS!~

Fontoyn posted:

How many ghost riders does King have?

Keep watching the skies to find out

# ¿ Feb 4, 2010 04:22

Rev. Bleech_: Oct 19, 2004; ~OKAY, WE'LL DRINK TO OUR LEGS!~

Pompous Rhombus posted:

Was the Crimson King even built up over the whole series? I thought he just came out of nowhere in the 5th book.

C'mon, someone make a DT thread with a good OP, mine would suck

He mentioned him in Insomnia :jerkbag:

If I get time tonight, maybe I'll give it a shot. Never written an OP before.

# ¿ Apr 24, 2010 20:32

Rev. Bleech_: Oct 19, 2004; ~OKAY, WE'LL DRINK TO OUR LEGS!~

Locus posted:

Is there any info on the interplay between Stephen King and Dean Koontz's books? I very unfortunately got exposed to a lot of Koontz writing this year in audiobook format, and I wonder about some similarities between their work. Also after overdosing on Koontz I no longer have the heart to heavily criticize anything King does.

Read some John Saul and even Koontz starts looking like a loving genius.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2010 05:11

Rev. Bleech_: Oct 19, 2004; ~OKAY, WE'LL DRINK TO OUR LEGS!~

JammyLammy posted:

"Bodily functions aren't funny if you are older then 7"

If farts ever quit being funny to you it's time to lie down in front of a train, because you're just plain tired of living at that point.

# ¿ Aug 9, 2010 04:14

Rev. Bleech_: Oct 19, 2004; ~OKAY, WE'LL DRINK TO OUR LEGS!~

Chinook posted:

I bought Pet Semetary based on recommendations here, but does it still hold up after having seen the movie first? I seem to recall (movie spoilers) that his little kid is killed by a truck, and then his dad buries him in the cemetery, and later the kid knifes the old guy next door. At some point after that, his wife dies (I think? Maybe gets buried too) and eventually Pops has to off the little kid.

Anyone else read the book after seeing the movie? Was it good?

Yes. The movie will seem like a pile of complete poo poo after reading the book. The movie missed the very thing that made the book so hard to stomach.

# ¿ Aug 17, 2010 13:20

Rev. Bleech_: Oct 19, 2004; ~OKAY, WE'LL DRINK TO OUR LEGS!~

Harashaw posted:

Perhaps the same could be said of all movie adaptions!

But especially so in Pet Sematary...the movie amounted to ZOMBIE TODDLER AND EVIL CAT, WOOOOO whereas the book was basically a long, disturbing meditation on grief.

Also, slow, stupid zombie Church was infinitely creepier than Evil Cat Church.

# ¿ Aug 17, 2010 17:12

Rev. Bleech_: Oct 19, 2004; ~OKAY, WE'LL DRINK TO OUR LEGS!~

Local Group Bus posted:

They got Jud perfectly though. Possibly the best casting in the movie.

The creepiest part of the book was the grave robbing scene though. Which the movie totally missed out on.

I'm not a person who finds books or movies scary at all, really. The only things that scare me are things that deeply unsettle me...for example, the only movie to ever really gently caress me up was Jacob's Ladder.

The only things I've ever read that hosed me up and left me feeling a bit shaken? The graverobbing scene and Jud's brief encounter with Timmy Baterman. Oh God just the mental image of his vacant, stupid face grinning into a sickly orange sunset :gonk:

# ¿ Aug 24, 2010 04:39

Rev. Bleech_: Oct 19, 2004; ~OKAY, WE'LL DRINK TO OUR LEGS!~

Loving Life Partner posted:

If you read On Writing, I believe he said he wrote Cujo in about 4 days completely high on blow the whole time.

...and remembers none of it.

# ¿ Oct 4, 2010 17:49

Rev. Bleech_: Oct 19, 2004; ~OKAY, WE'LL DRINK TO OUR LEGS!~

Quad posted:

I saw the audiobook of that a while back.... most "LAMP MONSTER" cover ever.

I eagerly await the sequel, Stephen King's STUDENT DESK

# ¿ Oct 5, 2010 23:58

Rev. Bleech_: Oct 19, 2004; ~OKAY, WE'LL DRINK TO OUR LEGS!~

Chairman Capone posted:

I honestly think that 5 is better than 2 or 4. And also that despite the Crimson King showdown, 7 is really well done. 6 is the only one that I found really dull, and even then it's short and not actively terrible so it's easy enough to get through it. The series really could have been just 6 books, though - pretty much everything that happens in Song of Susannah could have been condensed into a few dozen pages in Wolves of the Calla and The Dark Tower and not a whole lot would have been lost.

I've said it before here but it does seem that people reading the series for the first time now, at a single go, are more willing to give books 5-7 a better opinion than people who started reading the series back in the 80s and waited like a decade for the last three.

The Waste Lands is probably one of the best reading experiences I ever had. I tore through it in 1994 over the course of three days while I was home sick from school with the flu and higher than God himself on codeine.

After that 4-7 were bound to be disappointments.

# ¿ Jan 12, 2011 04:34

Rev. Bleech_: Oct 19, 2004; ~OKAY, WE'LL DRINK TO OUR LEGS!~

OMG JC a Bomb! posted:

I'd like to think that King wanted to maintain an atmosphere of depravity and make the reader as uncomfortable as possible--so he crossed boundaries that nobody would have ever expected him to cross. I hope that's what he was trying to do, because any of the alternatives are not something I'd want to consider.

The King newsgroup had a resident troll, Robert Whelan, who would scream endlessly that King was a depraved pervert who belonged in prison because that scene in 'It' was evidence that he had incestuous designs on his own daughter.

# ¿ Jan 14, 2011 00:47

Rev. Bleech_: Oct 19, 2004; ~OKAY, WE'LL DRINK TO OUR LEGS!~

juliuspringle posted:

I'm pretty sure they will also never turn Rage into a movie.

A shame. I can just hear a Dexter-like inner monologue now: "Lock me. Unlock me. I am Titus, the helpful padlock."

# ¿ Jan 29, 2011 04:21

Rev. Bleech_: Oct 19, 2004; ~OKAY, WE'LL DRINK TO OUR LEGS!~

Ornamented Death posted:

I was very pleased that the nature of the car was left largely unexplained outside of a few guesses (educated or otherwise) made by the characters - I think King's best horror is that in which nothing is really explained and interpretation is left up to the reader's imagination.

He admitted as much in the author's note for 'The Moving Finger' at the end of Nightmares and Dreamscapes. Or at least he admitted that trying to explain stuff (using 'Firestarter' as an example) just turned out wonky.

# ¿ Apr 6, 2011 04:14

Rev. Bleech_: Oct 19, 2004; ~OKAY, WE'LL DRINK TO OUR LEGS!~

Chairman Capone posted:

I thought the last book did have some really wonderfully written scenes in it.

The deaths of Eddie, Jake, and Oy, the attack on the prison, and the part with the giant underground worm.

Also I thought the ending was as good as anything that could have possibly served as an ending for a series such as the Dark Tower.

I would have liked the death of Eddie more if it had come from nowhere instead of being ridiculously and stupidly foreshadowed a few pages previous

# ¿ Apr 28, 2011 05:19

Rev. Bleech_: Oct 19, 2004; ~OKAY, WE'LL DRINK TO OUR LEGS!~

trandorian posted:

I would really like to see this, especially if he also does the same to Wizard and Glass, Wolves of the Calla, Susannah's Song and The Dark Tower.

The revised Gunslinger honestly works better with the series than the original, which took over a decade to write and was made from what, 6 different short stories? The original Gunslinger is a good book if you consider it apart from the Dark Tower series, the revised one works better in the series.

By the way, does anyone have that huge map from a few years ago that basically plots out Roland's path through the books?

The revised edition rips out all the poetic weirdness of the first book and replaces it with a bunch of Phantom Menace-esque "YOU'RE GONNA COME TO A BAD END, GREEDO" type horseshit

# ¿ Aug 18, 2011 03:55

Rev. Bleech_: Oct 19, 2004; ~OKAY, WE'LL DRINK TO OUR LEGS!~

trandorian posted:

The same poetic weirdness that doesn't quite jive with the next 2 books, let alone the rest though.

There's a right way and a wrong way to make it fit in with the rest of the series. King chose the wrong way.

# ¿ Aug 19, 2011 04:08

Rev. Bleech_: Oct 19, 2004; ~OKAY, WE'LL DRINK TO OUR LEGS!~

Local Group Bus posted:

I love the mist but I wasn't too impressed with the father sleeping with someone else while worried about his wife. I understand the explanations (fear and uncertainty can make people do out of character things, but I don't think either have actually made me want to have sex with someone) but I just don't get that part of the character.

For what it's worth, King claims that's the only part of the story that doesn't sit well with him either.

Danse Macabre is the best King book for bathroom readin'.

# ¿ Oct 9, 2011 05:05

Rev. Bleech_: Oct 19, 2004; ~OKAY, WE'LL DRINK TO OUR LEGS!~

Junkenstein posted:

Whenever I read about 11/22/63, I can't help thinking of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xL2bnJvwQyk

I actually can't help thinking about this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TZpgCLN9Cc

# ¿ Nov 1, 2011 03:14

Rev. Bleech_: Oct 19, 2004; ~OKAY, WE'LL DRINK TO OUR LEGS!~

Boxman posted:

So, I finally finished this. I guess I need to read more or faster or something, because the entire thing took me a couple of months. I liked it, but I'm really curious what was in the original, cut down version, because I don't feel like this book needed to be as long as it was. I know the intro (written by King) mentions virtually everything with The Kid got cut, but does anyone know of anything else?

Fran's confrontation with her mother, the prologue with Campion, and the epilogue with Flagg are the ones I remember right offhand.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2011 06:32

Rev. Bleech_: Oct 19, 2004; ~OKAY, WE'LL DRINK TO OUR LEGS!~

All anyone will ever need to know about the filmed version of The Langoliers is that it ends with a freeze-frame of a character jumping in celebration. All it needed was the credits theme for Happy Days to start playing.

# ¿ Jan 9, 2012 03:33

Rev. Bleech_: Oct 19, 2004; ~OKAY, WE'LL DRINK TO OUR LEGS!~

King has had a fairly uncomfortable relationship with Pet Sematary:

Wikipedia posted:

In 1978, King returned to his alma mater, the University of Maine at Orono, to teach a year in return for the education he had received there. During this time his family rented a house on a busy road in Orrington. The road claimed the lives of a number of pets, and the neighborhood children had created a pet cemetery in a field near the Kings' home. King's daughter Naomi buried her cat "Smucky" there after it was hit, and shortly thereafter their son Owen had a close call running toward the road. King wrote the novel based on their experiences, but feeling he had gone too far with the subject matter of the book it became the first novel he "put away" on the advice of his wife Tabitha and friend, author Peter Straub. King reluctantly submitted it for publication only after Doubleday insisted on receiving a final book due on his contract

I remember in an introduction to one of the paperback versions he mentioned that Ellie's temper tantrum about Church's mortality was more or less verbatim from his daughter.

Anyway, I don't get "scared" by horror writing or films and never have. That being said, Pet Sematary got under my skin in a godawful, existential way that horror usually doesn't. The scene where Louis skulks around the graveyard, before quietly rocking with the body of the newly-disinterred Gage is easily the most disturbing thing I have ever read.

Put it this way: my own mortality doesn't usually bother me, but the mortality of my family and friends does. Hence, it turned the screws in a way nothing else has even come close to (aside from Jacob's Ladder, anyway). I'm more afraid of grief and loss than death in and of itself.

# ¿ Feb 22, 2012 02:30

Rev. Bleech_: Oct 19, 2004; ~OKAY, WE'LL DRINK TO OUR LEGS!~

Blade_of_tyshalle posted:

Have you read On Writing? He comes from a poor background, and was very much struggling to pay the bills until he sold Carrie. Now he's fabulously wealthy. He lifted himself up out of the mud with tampon strings.

Why are you so into punishing his success? Stephen King is creating jobs, man. Every time a terrible adaptation is made, that's hundreds of people who wouldn't have worked otherwise. We all trickle-down down here.

you...you sonofabitch. I was actually getting mad.

# ¿ May 1, 2012 18:18

Rev. Bleech_: Oct 19, 2004; ~OKAY, WE'LL DRINK TO OUR LEGS!~

Can we please stop arguing about Dean Koontz and start talking about something we (hopefully) all have in common: a shared loathing of John Saul

# ¿ Jun 30, 2012 05:41

Rev. Bleech_: Oct 19, 2004; ~OKAY, WE'LL DRINK TO OUR LEGS!~

Edwardian posted:

Pet Sematary didn't truly scare me until I had kids. Once I understood the absolute emotional devastation of losing a child, and the lengths that people can go to in dealing with that kind of trauma....it still makes me shudder.

I don't have any kids but as I may have mentioned before Louis quietly rocking back and forth on the edge of the grave with Gage's mangled body in his arms may possibly be the squirmiest thing I ever read. Poor dead Timmy Baterman quietly staring slack-jawed into a sickly too-orange sunset is a drat close second though. I'm fascinated by the fact that King himself shelved it for years because it was just too much (and more or less autobiographical up to a certain point).

Drunk Tomato posted:

One of my favorite passages from any Stephen King book is when Louis is walking through the forest to the cemetery and hears a loud noise in the woods. It's such a simple passage, and really shouldn't be frightening, but it scared the poo poo out of me the first time I read it.

I keep hearing about attempts to do another film adaptation. This is why they're all doomed to fail, in my opinion, because poo poo like that is both unfilmable and some of the best scenes.

# ¿ Jul 17, 2012 00:49

Rev. Bleech_: Oct 19, 2004; ~OKAY, WE'LL DRINK TO OUR LEGS!~

Swan Song is a bit retarded, but worth reading once if you dig the Stand

Edwardian posted:

"Lucifer's Hammer" is a good "everything's hosed" book, as well. A bit dated, but still an awesome read.

...with a rather awesome section through the middle where you get to take italicized journeys to calamity worldwide :haw:

# ¿ Aug 7, 2012 18:00

Rev. Bleech_: Oct 19, 2004; ~OKAY, WE'LL DRINK TO OUR LEGS!~

Your Gay Uncle posted:

He treats the gays guys at the opening of It very sympathetic. He makes a point of showing how the gayys are the best customers, because they are polite and low kwy, with lots if disposable income. He even pokes fun of all the crazy rumors the HillBillies have about the place. After Adrian gets, the cops dont care that he's gay. This was early 80s, so not all his portrails of gays back were so bad.

it's cool guys, my gay uncle said it was okay

# ¿ Aug 19, 2012 06:16

Rev. Bleech_: Oct 19, 2004; ~OKAY, WE'LL DRINK TO OUR LEGS!~

iostream.h posted:

On the same Joe Hill tangent, his upcoming novel 'NOS4A2' is really good, in my opinion leaving Horns flat. It shows he's really growing into his fathers shoes and filling them out VERY well.

Is it about street racing vampires?

# ¿ Nov 23, 2012 22:23

Rev. Bleech_: Oct 19, 2004; ~OKAY, WE'LL DRINK TO OUR LEGS!~

GORDON posted:

"You're making a lot of sense... are you sure you're actually a republican?" That was an exact quote (as well as I remember it from 3 years ago), and there were about 20 other lines and stereotypes equally insulting.

I wouldn't say Steph was overly fair and balanced with his depictions.

Is calling an SS member a murderous Nazi gently caress "insulting"?

# ¿ Jan 9, 2013 05:22

Rev. Bleech_: Oct 19, 2004; ~OKAY, WE'LL DRINK TO OUR LEGS!~

A Terrible Person posted:

In both cases I stopped, reread a few paragraphs, and then physically recoiled from the book wondering how the resolution to the threat was so goddamned insultingly stupid. In The Stand it was the hand of god

To be fair to King, it isn't explicitly the Hand of God, Ralph just points out that Flagg's floaty-killy-light that he forgot about sort of looks like a hand. S'why it didn't bug me, anyway. Less deus ex machina and more "lol hubris" to me.

A Terrible Person posted:

I agree with this, too, for similar reasons. The last few books took an interesting world and then made exploring it a chore. I can't even read anything referring to the Crimson King without imagining Clyde, the red ghost from Pac-Man, in his place.

...you...you sonofabitch. I was going to re-read that some day and look what you've done. Look what you've done.

# ¿ Feb 6, 2013 02:41

Rev. Bleech_: Oct 19, 2004; ~OKAY, WE'LL DRINK TO OUR LEGS!~

Kneel Before Zog posted:

Is Salem's Lot regarded as one of Stephen King's scarier work around here? Whats King's spookiest book with a decent audiobook version ?

Dunno about audiobooks, but yes, Pet Sematary is absolutely horrifying. Not in any stupid "OMFG ZOMBIE CAT" way, more of a "hey guess what, everyone you know and love will die one day and there's nothing you or anyone else can do to stop it" kind of way.

# ¿ Mar 1, 2013 18:17

Rev. Bleech_: Oct 19, 2004; ~OKAY, WE'LL DRINK TO OUR LEGS!~

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).

Anyone who hasn't read that book get off your rear end and go get it NOW.

Re-reading it now and I'd forgotten how much obnoxiously heavy-handed foreshadowing is at the beginning.

# ¿ May 9, 2013 02:34

Rev. Bleech_: Oct 19, 2004; ~OKAY, WE'LL DRINK TO OUR LEGS!~

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.

# ¿ May 12, 2013 04:06

Rev. Bleech_: Oct 19, 2004; ~OKAY, WE'LL DRINK TO OUR LEGS!~

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.

# ¿ May 13, 2013 02:08

Rev. Bleech_: Oct 19, 2004; ~OKAY, WE'LL DRINK TO OUR LEGS!~

So King did an AMA on Reddit today

# ¿ Jun 21, 2013 03:21

Rev. Bleech_: Oct 19, 2004; ~OKAY, WE'LL DRINK TO OUR LEGS!~

muscles like this? posted:

Eh, there's a lot of weird sex related stuff in the book that could give a younger reader a bad impression. Which is too bad because other than that its a good young adult story.

It was my first King book, when I was 12. My second was The Stand, at 13. YMMV.

Lazarus Long posted:

I do this too. I also think Pacino would make an excellent Ralph Roberts.

Ralph Roberts screaming "LOOOOK BUT DON'T TOOOOUCH! TOOOUCH BUT DON'T TAAAASTE!" is a great mental image.

# ¿ Jun 26, 2013 01:31

Rev. Bleech_: Oct 19, 2004; ~OKAY, WE'LL DRINK TO OUR LEGS!~

Tojai posted:

Patrick Hotstetter's little vignette in IT always creeped me out. The idea of someone taking solipsism to that extreme, and the idea of a child calmly committing unspeakable acts, are really difficult to process.

I just read Firestarter for the first time (for some reason I skipped it during that age 13-17 run at all things King) and it weirded me out that the head scientist had the same name.

# ¿ Jul 26, 2013 17:38

Rev. Bleech_: Oct 19, 2004; ~OKAY, WE'LL DRINK TO OUR LEGS!~

savinhill posted:

No, that's definitely some disturbing poo poo. I think Gage was either fully or partly lying, but it's still evil as gently caress just placing that kernel of doubt in Judd's mind.

One of the creepiest King scenes for me is in Firestarter when that guy is mind-controlled into sticking his own hand into the garbage disposal, I think there was another scene where someone else was made to do something really hosed up, but it's been so long since I read it that its hard to remember.

What makes that scene creepier is that he wasn't mind-controlled into doing it at all; it was just an unforseen consequence of "the push" that he started obsessing over it and it's not the first time that sort of ricochet had happened

# ¿ Jul 27, 2013 06:38

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 04:08

Rev. Bleech_: Oct 19, 2004; ~OKAY, WE'LL DRINK TO OUR LEGS!~

WattsvilleBlues posted:

Hey goons, just wanted to ask opinions on 11.22.63 - worth reading or not?

Yeah. It actually has a good ending for a change too.

# ¿ Aug 8, 2013 13:37

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > Stephen King: Beep Beep, Jealous Cow

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