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The Stephen King Thread

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Sidonzo
Post subject: The Stephen King Thread
Posted: Sun 11 Feb , 2007 4:49 am
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Now Discussing It

OK, we'll have to figure out what book or short story we want to talk about first. And this thread will be ripe with spoilers for people that haven't read whatever book we are currently discussing, so stay away if you plan on reading that book. In fact once we agree on a book to discuss I'll probably put it in this first post at the top so people know to stay away if they don't want to be spoiled. So E* what book of his do you want to discuss first?

~Sid

Last edited by Sidonzo on Sun 11 Feb , 2007 5:40 am, edited 1 time in total.

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*E*V*E*N*S*T*A*R*
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Posted: Sun 11 Feb , 2007 5:30 am
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I must head in for the night, chicka, but "It" is far and away my favorite and best-known. :love: Sorry to post and run, I just didn't want to leave you hanging.




*E*

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Sidonzo
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Posted: Sun 11 Feb , 2007 5:39 am
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I'm going to bed too, but "IT" is a great one to discuss! I love it and it was the first one I think I read that really showed me that he was more than a just a horror writer. The whole part about being young and what the world is like to a twelve year old and then what it is like to an adult and how that magic of childhood fades never fails to move me everytime I read it.

We'll talk more tomorrow!

~Sid


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cheerfulchaos
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Posted: Sun 11 Feb , 2007 6:38 am
Bush has the One Ring. Frodo has failed.
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When I first read that book, the characters were older than me.
At the time, it was truly terrifying. Still scary as an adult too. I like how certain parts of it tie into the Dark Tower Series. Thats all for now. Check back tomorrow.

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yovargas
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Posted: Sun 11 Feb , 2007 2:10 pm
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Nothing to sat except that the only King book I ever read was Stand and I don't remember much except the scene where Satan has sex with that one girl.


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Sidonzo
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Posted: Sun 11 Feb , 2007 5:19 pm
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OK first topic!! What do you think was the scariest moment in the book?

For me it was when Stan was a child and was bird watching in the park. It's been a long time since I've read the book (something I'll have to remedy soon ;) ), so please forgive me if I don't get this just right. I believe that Stan hears calliope music coming from the standpipe (which I always imagined just being a big water tower, so it is weird that King gave it a different name and all) and he follows it inside. He remembers the story about two boys who died (drowned I believe) in the standpipe and before he realizes what he has done he opens the door and goes inside. And though he desperately wants to leave he continues walking up the stairs and of course he then hears the dead boys behind him.

The part that scares me most about that scene is the complete lack of control and the sense of unreality that Stan experiences. I do believe that seeing something that horrible would feel like that. It was a much different experience than the other kids experienced with their monsters (except maybe Richie who thought his first experince with IT was a dream). The other kids were blown away by the complete and utter realism of the monsters before them. They saw details that they would never have imagined on their own so they were convinced that the monsters were real. And while that is scary in it's own way, I found Stan's experience much more unsettling.

Since there are so many great scary moments in the book I have two others I will discuss a little later. The picture album in Georgie's room and Bev visiting her old apartment as an adult.

So what did you find scary and why?

yov, weirdly that is one of my favorite parts of that book. I don't really like Flagg, but the scene where he drives Nadine insane just by having sex with her is awesome! :D

~Sid


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cheerfulchaos
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Posted: Thu 15 Feb , 2007 5:31 am
Bush has the One Ring. Frodo has failed.
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The scariest part of that book for me was when a random kid (was is Cocoran??((last name)) I don't remember his name. But anyway he was in the park by the canal and the swamp thing looking thing came out and ate his head. I vividly remember him trying to find a zipper on the back of the swamp thing as he died.
There was also the Paul Bunyun statue coming to life....and Ben walking home in a snowstorm, also very scary.
The whole book was terrifying.

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halplm
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Posted: Thu 15 Feb , 2007 6:21 am
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Um... Stephen King has a comic book out now based on the Gunslinger books... I suggest you all read it :)

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Dawnnamira
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Posted: Thu 15 Feb , 2007 6:57 am
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And, of course, buy it from The Comic Book Guys. (No sarcasm there, I'm being totally serious!)

I'm going to watch the thread until y'all talk about a book I've read. :D

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cheerfulchaos
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Posted: Thu 15 Feb , 2007 4:17 pm
Bush has the One Ring. Frodo has failed.
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I haven't read the comic book yet, it looked like it was based more on Roland's life before the ka-tet and the quest for the dark tower, which seems to me to be boring. I never made it all the way through Wizard and Glass, even though I tried several times. And the comic seems to be more based on that.

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Sidonzo
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Posted: Thu 15 Feb , 2007 4:27 pm
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Wizard and Glass is the bomb, chaos! You're really missing out in my opinion. Awesome and poetic writing!

What books have you read by him, Dawn? Well discuss one of those next.

I think the scene where Beverly visits her old apartment as an adult is so scary because of the subtilty. King does that SO well. Such as when Beverly first looks at the nameplate next to the door and it says "Marsh" and then when she looks at it later it says "Kersh". Maybe she made a mistake the first time she read, but we all know better. ;) And when the old woman's teeth are white and straight at first, but later when Beverly sees them again they are yellowed and crooked. I LOVE that kind of subtle toying with the imagination.

Speaking of Beverly another thing that King writes about really well are abusive realtionships, especially with men. I just want to strangle Bev's father and then later her huband, but at the same time I am deathly afraid of them. Especially the scene near the beginning when Bev fights back for the first time because she has to go back to Derry. I was so scared for her, because I knew that her husband (Was his name Tom? I can't remember.) was going to beat the shit out of her if he ever got her. He would beat her until she died.

~Sid

Last edited by Sidonzo on Fri 16 Feb , 2007 2:02 am, edited 1 time in total.

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cheerfulchaos
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Posted: Fri 16 Feb , 2007 1:42 am
Bush has the One Ring. Frodo has failed.
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Have you read Rose Madder, sid? That is also about abusive husbands and it seems to me that Tom Rogan shows up for an encore if I remember correctly....
Do you remember at the end if IT when Bill sees the Turtle? Shades of Dark Tower...

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TWT
Post subject: Re: The Stephen King Thread
Posted: Fri 05 Nov , 2010 7:14 am
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Well, I didn't have to go far to find the S.K. thread...

Around Halloween season I get an insatiable craving for horror. I'll watch two horror movies a night, and watch another two during the commercials of the first two. I haven't read much SK outside of On Writing and the Dark Tower series so I asked my GF (who works at a book store) to buy me Pet Semetary. I thought it would be the semi-campy yet well written horror novel I was looking for. Wrong. It was not what I was looking for, yet it still only took me three days to read.

In Pet Semetary I was treated to a book dealing with relationships, loss of loved ones and the horrors of our deepest desire of not letting go. I loved every bit of it. It was almost a profound drama with a horror background instead of horror with some drama. The scary parts were few and far between up til the end but were intense while they lasted.

Stephen King wrote the novel almost entirely from what happened to him, with one giant "what if?" as he put it in the intro. I felt like I could feel the emotions in the book so well because they were personal. King himself thought the content of the book itself was too terrible to publish. The horror in this book seeps through so many pages, and the horror is simply death, loss.

I've just started It, and seeing that you guys were talking about it I kinda skimmed the page to avoid spoilers, so I'll write more when I'm finished.


One final thing to add though, I've now ranked Wizard and Glass as one of the best books I've ever read. Easily top five!


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Dave_LF
Post subject: Re: The Stephen King Thread
Posted: Tue 16 Nov , 2010 3:31 pm
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I enthusiastically concur about both Pet Semitary and Wizard and Glass.

(well; maybe not top 5 for me, but definitely a favorite)


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