JUST READ THE LIBRARY POLICEMAN...

[Brice]

Yeah, I think Todd was corrupt to begin with. I think Dussander just took him to places he might not have gone as quickly on his own. All Dusssander really did was exploit the evil he could readily see in Todd.

Again though, ultimately it's just a story. I've dealt with all kinds of abuse in real life. Still nothing is taboo for me IF I feel it's necessary to the story. In the case of The Library Policeman I felt it was. The only real wrong a book can have in it for me is bad boring writing. THAT is unforgiveable.

[CRinVA]

i hate this story. i hate this story so much. i hate this story on every single solitary level of the tower. there is nothing in this story that i like. i don't even read four past midnight anymore because this story is in the book. i have the other stories on audiobook and listen to them but not this one.

i don't read stories about this subject and i was so wounded by what happened to sam. so very wounded. . . .

Whoa.

Okay...I haven't read the story myself, but isn't that kind of an extreme reaction, to not read the whole book because of one story you didn't like?

If I'd used that logic I would have stopped reading ANYTHING by Stephen King after familiarizing myself with Thinner, because I really didn't like that....

i think it's because of my background. i had read the sun dog first (i tend to read his short stories and novellas out of order, and i thought - oooooo a doggie story ) and so the library policeman was actually the last story for me. and yes, king probably handled it brilliantly but i couldn't finish the story because once i got to that point that was it for me. it was over and i had nightmares for weeks.

i've got the langoliers and secret window, secret garden on audio. now if the sun dog would just get released on audio i'd have everything from that book. but no, i can't pick it up. even that makes me shake. but it's still a first edition, and it's still in my collection.

Turtlesong,

If this story affected you in this manner then I recommend that you NEVER pick up Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door even if it sin you r"collection" - I have the Signed Limited with the Stephen King Intro - it was actually my first King Sig obtained back in the late 90's. The stuff i that story (based on a real story) should never happen! it's just so woring in so many ways!

[jhanic]

Bob, you are SO right about that!

John

[Brice]

I'd have to agree with that and restress the point that turtlesong doesn't want that book...even the s/l ...for free, if she's that determined to distance herself from that sort of thing. It is one of the few books in recent years that even shocked me a little.

[The Lady of Shadows]

yeah, been there. twas a gift. the only book in my entire life i actually destroyed. i know, it's heresy to destroy the written word; but the person who gave it to me did it out of malicious intent and i literally threw up when. . .

well you know.

t/song will pass on all offers of this book. in fact, t/song will pass on all offers of four past midnight signed, limited, whatever. i'm sure there's some worthy out there who would appreciate one or the other.

[mungojerrie]

okay, you guys have got me curious. what's this ketchum book about?

[theBeamisHome]

ummm....

[Jean]

okay, you guys have got me curious. what's this ketchum book about?

there must be something wrong with us, mungo... my prevailing emotion now is curiosity, too

[Daghain]

Nope, that makes three of us.

[Woofer]

The Girl Next Door

[Darkthoughts]

Blimey!

[Daghain]

I read the true story of this on crime library and it was really sick and sad. The synopsis of the book is tame in comparison.

[Brice]

The book goes into quite a good deal of detail though. It is not for those who are easily disturbed...well, unless they like to be. It's a phenomenal book though.

t/s: Don't destroy anymore books...especially S/Ls. You can just forward those evil things to me.

[stone, rose, unfound door]

This "Girl next door" story is horrible. But I don't think I'd feel the same as I did with "The library policeman". I never bought the collection because it really bothered me. I wouldn't go as far as turtlesong and destroy a book because I found it too horrible, but I'm not planning on buying "4 past midnight" at all because of this story.
It was a rather creepy story, but what I found worse was that the main character didn't even remember what had happened to him as a child almost until the end of the book. It made me want to throw up and to go back in time and not pick the book at my local library. I never even finished the collection because it had been way too much to bear for me. Sexual abuse always bothers me, especially when it is peformed by older men on children and particularly when there seems to be no reason to imagine that it could happen, which is the case in "the Library policeman". It wasn't right and it wasn't fair either that King told such a story.
I don't know if you've heard about what happened last Spring in Austria, but a man was on the news because he'd locked one of his daughters from the moment she turned 18 in a kind of bunker in his house and told no one to enter it. He said that she'd gone to join a sect so she left without telling anyone. In fact, he raped her over and over and she got 4 kids (if I remember well) out of it. She spent 13 years in there, not seeing anyoen apart from him when he came to have sex with her or feed her. That is the most horrible story I've ever heard and it's true. If that was made into a story, I have to admit I may go and destroy the book, however well written it may be.

[Darkthoughts]

Someone already has written a book about it - I wouldn't mind if the proceeds were going to the woman and her children, but it's probably been written by a journalist.

I think she actually had 7 children, 2 were allowed to live in the house with the grandparents, one died after birth and the other 4 remained in the cellar with their mother and were very feral.

There's another very, very dreadful story of torture and abuse in the UK papers today about a 17 month old baby...that made me feel sick. I didn't read it, because I found that disturbing as it actually happened - although for some reason one of my colleagues insisted on telling me about it anyway.

Having grown up living on care campuses with a parent who is a social worker, I feel I'm more aware of the abuse that goes on in society than most perhaps - it hasn't de-sensitized me, but I feel differently reading about something that is completely fabricated (ie, the Library Policeman) than The Girl Next Door, which would disturb me more being based on something factual.

With Sam's ordeal in TLP, I didn't react to it in any way other than to think it wasn't necessary to go that far. I'm repeating myself here because I think my opinion may have been misunderstood - I didn't think it went too far in that it disturbed me (because it was completely fictional) it went too far in that I didn't think it was necessary to the plot for a rape to occur. I thought King described very well Sam's terror at being pursued alone, and it wouldn't have lessened Sam's predicament (as an adult that the flashback was trying to explain) if it had ended in a pursuit. To me the rape was something that didn't gel with the story, kinda like the group sex at the end of IT - I never understood why it would have been less powerful for Bev to have kissed them all, as it would have been a first kiss for all of them and just as monumental.

I think that's one fault of SK's stories sometimes, the plot twists sometimes go for quantity rather than quality.

[stone, rose, unfound door]

Someone already has written a book about it - I wouldn't mind if the proceeds were going to the woman and her children, but it's probably been written by a journalist.

I think she actually had 7 children, 2 were allowed to live in the house with the grandparents, one died after birth and the other 4 remained in the cellar with their mother and were very feral.

There's another very, very dreadful story of torture and abuse in the UK papers today about a 17 month old baby...that made me feel sick. I didn't read it, because I found that disturbing as it actually happened - although for some reason one of my colleagues insisted on telling me about it anyway.

Having grown up living on care campuses with a parent who is a social worker, I feel I'm more aware of the abuse that goes on in society than most perhaps - it hasn't de-sensitized me, but I feel differently reading about something that is completely fabricated (ie, the Library Policeman) than The Girl Next Door, which would disturb me more being based on something factual.

With Sam's ordeal in TLP, I didn't react to it in any way other than to think it wasn't necessary to go that far. I'm repeating myself here because I think my opinion may have been misunderstood - I didn't think it went too far in that it disturbed me (because it was completely fictional) it went too far in that I didn't think it was necessary to the plot for a rape to occur. I thought King described very well Sam's terror at being pursued alone, and it wouldn't have lessened Sam's predicament (as an adult that the flashback was trying to explain) if it had ended in a pursuit. To me the rape was something that didn't gel with the story, kinda like the group sex at the end of IT - I never understood why it would have been less powerful for Bev to have kissed them all, as it would have been a first kiss for all of them and just as monumental.

I think that's one fault of SK's stories sometimes, the plot twists sometimes go for quantity rather than quality.

I see what you mean but I think that's a question of sensitivity to a particular subject that made me feel so bad after reading TLP. I didn't take into account the fact that it was not real. Thanks for correcting me, I didn't listen very carefully to that story because I found it too disturbing.
I never understood why the kids in IT didn't just kiss either and I think it's a good question to ask so go on and do it

[Brice]

I think a large part of the point with these two scenes (the rape in TLP and the childhood orgy in It) was to bluntly shock you. As for why a kiss wouldn't work instead of the orgy...well, lots of kids kiss when they're quite young. Generally they don't (or didn't at that point in time) have sex. I think it was just to be impactful for the severity of the situation, to give power, and to bind them. Sex is usually considered more powerful than a kiss from a male pov (both King's and probably the characters in the book). Basically the scenes are supposed to smack you upside the fucking head....whether they succeed or not in that regard.

Edit: It's quite possible I'm not making my point clearly. I am high as a fuckin' kite on pain pills.

[Jean]

I think a large part of the point with these two scenes (the rape in TLP and the childhood orgy in It) was to bluntly shock you.

I am inclined to think the same.

[Matt]

was to bluntly shock you.

That's when they do it with a metal bat, right to the genitals.

[theBeamisHome]

Nope, that makes three of us.

Four.... amazingly i haven't read TLP... and i read the Sun Dog, Langoliers and Secret Window.... i started reading it, but i didn't pull me in immediately or something idk... but i think i have Four Past Midnight with my collection at home.

[Darkthoughts]

It's a brilliant story, you should give it another go!

[mungojerrie]

yes, i do believe shock factor can be useful to a story, but i don't really think that's what he was going for in IT. this may just be a hint of my sick mind, but i found the idea of all of them losing their virginity to each other at one time sweet. as for the idea of a story not affecting me simply because it is fiction, well my brain just don't work that way. fiction is as real to my emotions and my heart than hard facts.

someone on here mentioned that it bothered them that sam didn't remember the assault until the dream, and i wonder why. repressed memories is not actually unheard of in king's work.

[theBeamisHome]

i think i will. i'll have to rent the book from a library though. i don't want to buy it because i know i own the book already.. dammit i wish my sister had remembered to put my books in my trunk.

[theBeamisHome]

I finally read it and while i had already read the spoiler here, i think i would have known what was going to happen to Sam anyway. King did a great job of putting the fear of the unknown into me and once he revealed it he showed that we did have reason to be afraid. It was a very good story and now i understand why people have always talked about how frightening it is. With that said, i think it was necessary, but it didn't make it hurt any less... My soul hurt after reading what that bastard did to Sam (i say my soul because it was a general feeling dispersed everywhere and nowhere at the same time) but i continued to read because disgust will never beat curiosity for me. i'm completely torn because i want to hate the story, but i know that's what makes it so good.