The Stand - SK

>>9817312
I really liked it, but IT is better
Also finally somebody here likes SK

>>9817312
I really liked it but the end was a bit disappointing.

You could cut out 2/3 of the book and lose nothing. Too many words which don't say anything. There some good story buried inside, but nor worth digging imo

>>9817419
I would not say 2/3 but yes I agree that there are many unnecessary words. I still enjoyed it tough.

>>9817395
Yes.. I really like the beginning of SK's books. But somehow the ending of his books always seem a little bit underwhelming. I felt the same when I ended Under the Dome.

>>9817312
It is ok. It is great though.

We have threads like this all the time. I've come to believe that the most polarising author on /lit/isn't really DFW, that's just a meme. It's Steven King. It seems about a third of us think he's good, a third of us think he's shit and the other third have mixed feelings or haven't read him.

Personally? I enjoy him despite some serious flaws, though I haven't read the Stand yet. I read two books at once usually - something literary and something genre - and King is sometimes my genre read.

>>9817395
>>9817481
this. Stephen King is good at writing characters, but suffers from lack of plotting.

>>9817619
Aye.

Remember this exact feeling when I read Salem's Lot, which had great atmosphere until it ended with a whimper.

I remember enjoying the end of Christine though, he realised it was time to forgo the horror for full on action and it works well.

The first half detailing the plague and its effects on society is a good read. The other half is schlocky crap with a lazy deus ex machina because King can't write good endings.

>>9817695
Yes I agree to some extent with this. I prefer the first half of the book as well. I did enjoy the whole book tough

>>9817391
We'll that's just plain wrong

>>9817613
Stephen King is Cervantes when compared to David Foster Wallace.

>>9817717
>>9817613
Is DFW gud?

Is this now the /King General/-Thread?
How would've you ended the Dark Tower Books?

>>9817717
You know full well that's objectively untrue and are just proving my point.

DFW is a meme, so we all make fun of him, but in any serious discussion about his work the serious responses tend to be positive of his work.

King however, genuinely splits people, as someone who is 'just' a genre writer is going to. You either find him fun or you don't.

>>9818255
>DFW is a meme, so we all make fun of him, but in any serious discussion about his work the serious responses tend to be positive of his work.

Fuck, I should have read that through before posting. Could that sentence have been any more awkward?


Anyway... Steven King!

I liked the chapter where he just showed a bunch of people unconnected to the plot who survived the plague trying to get by.

>>9817312
>The Stand
Second long novel I ever read. I was like 14. First novel was IT at 13. Third was probably The Talisman.

Now I am a refined patrician approaching middle age. I liked 'em all well enough.

>>9818324
Yes I really liked it as well

Why is SK so shit at endings?

>>9818523
Yeah :\. I still really enjoy reading his stuff tough.

>>9818523
He doesn't plan anything out, ever. He just writes and writes and writes, until he gets to the natural conclusion of the story and doesn't know what to do so he crams an awkward ending in and sends it off to his publisher, orders a new truckload of cocaine, and immediately starts his new book.

>>9818523
He's admitted he doesn't plot anything out. He just writes. Ironiclly enough, I think the only work he plotted out was the Dark Tower Series and that took him 22 years to finish.

>>9818654
I've never understood why some people have such a hard time writing endings, as long as it's sensical and not a complete fuck you to the audience you really don't have to try that hard. It's different when you're exploring your own opinions and wish to express personal values, but in a fictional story you don't have to agree with your characters. While I do enjoy King's writings, he is incapable of proper conclusions and in my opinion appeared pompous when he wrote himself into the dark tower series.

>>9818841
God, I still can't decide if I wasted my time reading the Dark Tower or not. It gets so fucking weird, not in a "lol what am I reading" way, but in a "why did he think this was worth writing about" way. The first book, especially the beginning, was 10/10 in atmosphere though.

And the ending was pretty impactful just by virtue of all the words leading up to that point.

I remember the Shining as being genuinely spooky at points. Wonder if it holds up?

>>9818960
Same. The Dark Tower is very much the Journey not the Ending, but the issue comes in the fact the Journey falls of the rails. I still can't tell if I like the ending or not. It was at least Ballsy to straight up say "You probably won't like this ending". I respect it more than anything.

>>9819002
I like the ending, it's pretty much the only way to end it reasonably - there was no way he could write what was in the tower in a way that lived up to the hype. I think the weakest part of the books are when he goes overdrive into pop culture references and moves in over into our world.

What made the first books so atmospheric was their world being a broken and decaying version of ours.

>>9819036
Aye. I feel like King could have done a lot more with Mid-World. But I also feel like Roland and Flagg's rivalry could have been developed much more.

Quite possibly my favorite book of all-time, right next to Slaughterhouse Five.

>>9817312
>Stephen King
Into the trash it goes.

>>9819082
What other writers do you recommend, in the same genre?

>>9817312

I think all longer Stephen King stories were more or less disappointing. Tommyknockers probably the least so.

(this was one of the disappointing ones)

He's phenomenal on the mini-novel and short story tho.

I didn't realize a lot of people disliked Stephen King. I tough we was generally considered a really good writer and story teller.

>>9818654
>truckload of cocaine

He doesn't drink or do drugs anymore.

And it reflects in his tepid writing.

>>9819106

He is, but he can't hold a longer story together.

Read The Body, The Mist or something like that and compare it to his full-length novels. You will understand.

>>9819236
The Mist was the first story I read :D

>>9817776

Exactly how he did.

stephen king is annoying as fuck mostly for not giving the reader any credit, which is also why his books are always 800 pages too long.

i remember reading shit in the stand like some scene where a girl is digging in the garden, and there's an image of her hands being dirty as she's feeling guilt about something, and i was like "huh, that's neat," and then the next sentence was like "it was as if she could not clean the guilt off of her hands." thanks for spelling that out for me bro.

there was some other scene too where a woman was reading a news broadcast and keeps looking off-camera nervously, which clearly means she's being forced to report this. and then the next sentence said something like "it was almost as if she was being watched." DUN DUN, oh no what a reveal. let me read the book, asshole.

>>9819270
Yes I got that feeling in some parts of the book as well. But I overall really liked the book.

>>9819270
He's actually aware of this tendency too. In On Writing he says overexplaining situations is one of his chronic failings.

>>9817312
I love it. Stephen King is great.

how good is 11/22/63? I read The Stand when I was in middle school and liked it, haven't read any SK since. I like reading about the JFK assassination, is it worth reading

>>9817312
Once the main characters start heading towards Mother Abigail it's pretty good. Once Flagg's scheme starts to fall apart, the book sinks.

>>9819415
Yes I agree. But even at it's weakest part it is far from a bad book is it not?

hi guys, just landed on /lit/. i haven't read this thread but you don't really like or discuss stephen king here, do you?

>>9819435
hey reddit

kys

>>9819359
I think it's one of his weaker books. Not bad if you like King.

His short story collections are great.

>>9819442
i got BTFO. why

>>9817312
I only read the extended version, which was supposedly much longer. Lots of cool digressions into society collapsing. I liked it, but i was young when i read it.

>>9819359
It's pretty good. It has a surprisingly neat ending.

Are Steven short stories any good? I was thinking of picking up Night Shift.

As polarizing as he is a writer, I do believe some his books will stand the test of time like other horror writers before him.