I posted this somewhere but I thought it would be nice to have a place where we can relate the effect Stephen King has had on all of us through his stories.
One of the key things in my life is about how a person has to "stand" when the shit hits the fan, to have conviction in the face of the worst kinds of problems.
Its easy to stand when things are going okay. When its hard, that is when you know.
So The Stand did that for me. I love the story of course but the idea that we must defend what is right stuck with me.
When Dora and I first started talking seriously about marriage I asked her if she would "stand"
The kindness of close friends is like a warm blanket
"stand and be true" is definitely the main thing that makes me love stephen king and his work. it was already a big part of who i am but seeing him bring it up so often showed me that i can press the issue and try to drill it into people's heads.
What always stays with me is the way he writes about children, how they deal with fear - and meeting their fears. Maybe thats because I have kids? I know that I certainly take something different from his stories that I didn't see before I became a parent.
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon was the most poignant in this respect, I became really involved with that story as a parent, I think had I read it before I had kids it wouldn't have had the same, profound sort of impact.
Does anyone else find this? Even if you aren't a parent, are there books of his that you've come to appreciate on a different level as you've gotten older and reread them?
Even though I'm not a dad (yet ) I love the way King draws his child characters. He is so in tune with his own childhood and it comes through in all of his books. Kids are usually the underdog against all adversity in some way or another so each story contains themes of children overcoming adversity and growing up, which everyone can relate to.
Similar to another feature about DT that I loved - the character weaknesses. He's very careful to handicap them all in some way, whether physically (Roland, Susannah) or emotionally (Jake, Eddie). These are people with real problems which makes their talents even more amazing.
"You can lead a whore to culture but you can't make her think." - Duma Key zoneseek@thedarktower.com
I certainly agree with your points about King's approach to his child characters. From the Loser's Club to Jack Sawyer to Jake to Bobby Garfield to the young Dreamcatcher boys, his child characters are my favorites by far. They're always brave (quite often moreso than the adults surrounding them), they have a magical sort of intuition, are intelligent (even if it's not booksmarts), and they stick together and value their friends. If only more people could be like that, you know? I respect them more than the rest of his characters and find myself rereading their stories far more often than those of their elders. They epitomize the "stand and be true" theme, and even though they're just kids, I want to be like them.
The effect King's writing on me is how his stories make me think of human nature, and some of the evils we are capable of. Even though he writes about people acting strangely because of outside forces or whatnot, he writes what people will actually do to each other.
Either that, or it'll make me think of experiences in my own life, especially when he writes about children. So many times it has made me think of my own childhood, and similirities I find.
I'm not a parent, so I cannot relate to the fear he makes the parents experience throughout his tales, although I imagine it is horrible. Like Pet Semetary, for example. They lose their child, then bury him so he can come back, but he does not come back their child. I imagine that would be one of the wrost things to ever happen. First losing the child, then so desperate to have him back, that you bury him in hopes you can go back to a normal life only to have him come back soul-less.
I guess what I am trying to say is, King's writing makes me reflect on human nature.
"Help me out here
All my words are falling short
And there's so much I want to say"
I think King has a really good handle on what makes us all tick. It scares me sometimes how much he has "nailed" human behavior in his books - he seems to be able to pick out the little things we all do and put them in his stories. For example, the pharmacist in DotT's internal running commentary about the woman who wanted her painkillers refilled - I laughed so hard I cried - he seems to know what we're all thinking.
He needs to get out of my head, already.
"People, especially children, aren't measured by their IQ. What's important about them is whether they're good or bad, and these children are bad." ~ Alan Bernard
"You needn't die happy when your day comes, but you must die satisfied, for you have lived your life from beginning to end and ka is always served." ~ Roland Deschain
I think King has a really good handle on what makes us all tick. It scares me sometimes how much he has "nailed" human behavior in his books - he seems to be able to pick out the little things we all do and put them in his stories. For example, the pharmacist in DotT's internal running commentary about the woman who wanted her painkillers refilled - I laughed so hard I cried - he seems to know what we're all thinking.
He needs to get out of my head, already.
I remember thinking how spot on that whole internal dialog was when I read the book the first time.
The kindness of close friends is like a warm blanket
Yep, and I almost spit Diet Coke all over my book.
Damn, that was funny. I'm laughing just thinking about it.
"People, especially children, aren't measured by their IQ. What's important about them is whether they're good or bad, and these children are bad." ~ Alan Bernard
"You needn't die happy when your day comes, but you must die satisfied, for you have lived your life from beginning to end and ka is always served." ~ Roland Deschain
"People, especially children, aren't measured by their IQ. What's important about them is whether they're good or bad, and these children are bad." ~ Alan Bernard
"You needn't die happy when your day comes, but you must die satisfied, for you have lived your life from beginning to end and ka is always served." ~ Roland Deschain
As strange as this may seem to some, Mr. King helped form the basis of my "spirituality". Perhaps by vicarious ways, but the DT series has no doubt led me down and interesting, educational and esoteric path.
Ka and the notion that we are simply "blades of grass" (not important nor unimportant neither) in this huge universe plays a big part in my belief system.
And there are others unconventional things I believe that are un-related to King, but if it wasn't for really diving in deep into this fabulous fictional epic, I might not have looked for more.
I always think it's funny when I hear or read atheists saying the "love" this series, because it is filled with faith, belief, spirit and the unknown. Seems it stands for everything aethism does not.
Just because you don't think that stuff exists in this world doesn't mean you can't enjoy the idea of it in a make believe world.
There's one hole in every revolution, large or small. And it's one word long.. people. No matter how big the idea they all stand under, people are small and weak and cheap and frightened. It's people that kill every revolution.
True, OchrisO. I know exactly where you're coming from, I think.
I kind of like the whole "ka" thing - it's kind of part karma, part religon, part fate. Seems appropriate to me, for some reason.
"People, especially children, aren't measured by their IQ. What's important about them is whether they're good or bad, and these children are bad." ~ Alan Bernard
"You needn't die happy when your day comes, but you must die satisfied, for you have lived your life from beginning to end and ka is always served." ~ Roland Deschain
I just want to amplify some of the sentiments expressed above-since I have no original thoughts.
Actually, a few things.
1. I agree that his child characters are almost always his most captivating and well-drawn. I think they form the fulcrum of his literary universe in many tangible ways, which capture the imagination of not only kids themselves but their parents as well as adults who remember those childhood experiences vividly. I also loved reading The Girl who Loved Tom Gordon, although for different reasons-obviously-which have nothing to do with looking after a daughter or son.
2. His distillation of some essential human qualities-in general, but especially in some of the books in The Dark Tower-is one of the things that keeps drawing me back to his work. Admittedly, I don't always see this as an unqualified positive. One of the things that's really offputting-but something that's nevertheless inescapable-in King's work is the way he peels away some of the veneers that people like to use in order to obscure their less than savory thoughts.
One of the recurring themes I find to be somewhat disturbing-and I don't know how many other people here feel the same-is how characters in his work immediately jump to (pernicious) conclusions about certain individuals based upon surface appearances. Maybe the fact that this is by and large an accurate observation about human nature is what makes it so unnerving, i.e. it hits a bit too close to home.
I also loved reading The Girl who Loved Tom Gordon, although for different reasons-obviously-which have nothing to do with looking after a daughter or son.
There were other angles from which I loved Tom Gordon , non parent angles. Firstly I thought that, for an author, it was such a brave book to write - in the sense that it was a bit of a gamble writing a story where there's essentially only one character and that most of the story is really an inner monologue. The fantastic thing - in my opinion - was that it worked...perfectly...because as usual - SK's character was so believable I really lived the experience with her. Infact, I stayed up until the early hours of the morning reading the book from start to finish, because I just couldn't go to sleep with her being stranded out there in the forest!
Secondly, I loved the theme of the story. It dealt entirely with fear and how we cope with it. Do we choose to be consumed by it, or do we face it? If we face it, will we triumph or fail? I loved it.
One of the recurring themes I find to be somewhat disturbing-and I don't know how many other people here feel the same-is how characters in his work immediately jump to (pernicious) conclusions about certain individuals based upon surface appearances. Maybe the fact that this is by and large an accurate observation about human nature is what makes it so unnerving, i.e. it hits a bit too close to home.
Yes! I can apply that to Regulators having only recently read it. In that alot of the characters harbour bitchy, unfounded opinions about each other - and they are played upon by the fear and anxiety they experience throughout their ordeal.
We love to hate those characters, but I always feel theres alot to be said for Jung and his shadow self theory!
It's so often a focus of Stephen King, but it really was a bold move on his part to craft a work that addresses the issue from the standpoint of an interior dialogue between the protagonist and her fears.
It really is a gripping work, especially when you begin to realize how parlous life can become when you decide to give in to your fears.
In a new thread I posted yesterday, in the non-King section, I described the effect King has had on my life as well as I could, as an example, to introduce my new topic. That thread, 'Strange Books For Strange People', is intended as a place where we can discuss and recommend to others non-King books and authors who've had a major impact upon our lives and worldviews. Not necessarily our 'favourite' books, but the books that have taught us important things, good or ill, and changed the way we look at the universe. So I won't repeat that here, but I do want to talk about the effect rereading The Green Mile had on me recently. . .
For some reason, over the years, I've tended to think of The Green Mile as somewhat overrated. I originally read it during a very busy time in my life, as it was originally coming out; I enjoyed it at the time, and reread it a few times over the next few years. As much as I tended to enjoy the story whenever I was reading it, at other times I tended to think of it as being one of King's lesser efforts. I don't know why, exactly; as I sit here trying to think of the criticisms that were shading my opinion of it, I can't quite remember what they were exactly, or how to phrase them. Perhaps it was just the story's immense mainstream popularity, as reflected by the film, or its relative lack of weirdness in relation to both King's other work and the rest of my general reading matter. I don't know; can't recall exactly. It had been a rather long time since I'd read it- the last time I did was probably some time in 1999, or so. But some months back- earlier this year, at some point- I found an excellent deal on the Subterranean Press 6 vol. hardcover 10th anniversary edition, so I bought it. When it got here, I just put it on my rare book/limited editions shelf, as I had too many other things to read and to deal with at the time to reread The Green Mile. I was sure I get to it sooner or later, but had no idea when. . .
Fast forward to this week. I finished three very intense, challenging books at the same time, including the very formidable trilogy of historical novels I'd been reading, as well as another novel I'd put down a while back, and aside from those, I was (and still am) in the middle of Joyce's Ulysses, a biography of King Henry VII, a book on practical Kabbalah, and a collection of Aleister Crowley's diaries from the early 1920s. I needed a break, more than anything, from complex, non-linear, philosophical writing, quantum logic, historical exegesis, esoteric spirituality, etc., but I can't stand to just stop reading for a day or two and watch TV or something. So it crossed my mind to finally read that lovely hardcover set of The Green Mile; the perfect antidote!
Looking at it eleven years after it first came out, and roughly eight years after I last read it, The Green Mile is ageing quite well. I may have enjoyed it more this time even than I did the first; after all, I had the next volume right there and ready to go after finishing each one, rather than having to wait a month between them. There were all sorts of details I'd forgotten over time, but it was nice to be back in the world of those particular characters again- like visiting old friends, as it often is with rereading King. The Green Mile is a very well-crafted story, elegantly written, never excessive in any given direction or emotionally manipulative- and I doubt most novelists could've avoided the latter pitfall, considering the subject. One could call this piece a meditation upon capital punishment without being pretentious, I think; it makes its point without being preachy or raising the ugly spectre of politics. Perhaps most importantly, where King is concerned, it says what it has to say without sacrificing any significant element of story to polemic. The Green Mile is a truly wonderful piece of writing, and if I start to think otherwise again later, some distance after the lovely two days I just spent rereading it, I'll just have to come back and read this post again. It's a delightful thing to come back to a good story again after the years and increased knowledge have further seasoned your understanding; it makes the story that much richer an experience.
Spoiler:
If anything, it makes the fate of John Coffey and the cruelty of blind justice even harder to take, when you know more about how the world operates from living in it; I live in Texas, a state that's quite needle-happy where the death penalty is concerned. I can't help but wonder how many John Coffeys- perhaps not powerful healers, of course, but maybe perfectly good people, or at least those who meant no harm- have been in the wrong place at the wrong time, and have paid the ultimate price for it.
If you haven't read The Green Mile, by all means do so. It's a great story, elegantly told, by our master storyteller. I really can't recall any substantial reason for why I've spent the last decade underestimating it; either way, the last two days I've spent re-experiencing it have wiped that false perception from my mind. It's the kind of story that ages quite well, and is worth paying a visit every few years.
We place no reliance
Upon virgin or pigeon;
Our method is science,
Our aim is religion!
As strange as this may seem to some, Mr. King helped form the basis of my "spirituality". Perhaps by vicarious ways, but the DT series has no doubt led me down and interesting, educational and esoteric path.
Ka and the notion that we are simply "blades of grass" (not important nor unimportant neither) in this huge universe plays a big part in my belief system.
And there are others unconventional things I believe that are un-related to King, but if it wasn't for really diving in deep into this fabulous fictional epic, I might not have looked for more.
I always think it's funny when I hear or read atheists saying the "love" this series, because it is filled with faith, belief, spirit and the unknown. Seems it stands for everything aethism does not.
If you like this kind of esoteric spiritual thinking, look into the work of Robert Anton Wilson. Just trust me on this.
We place no reliance
Upon virgin or pigeon;
Our method is science,
Our aim is religion!
Stephen King--his stories and their effect on you
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) I love the way King draws his child characters. He is so in tune with his own childhood and it comes through in all of his books. Kids are usually the underdog against all adversity in some way or another so each story contains themes of children overcoming adversity and growing up, which everyone can relate to.
Originally Posted by Daghain
