Stephen King: Hack or Artist?

[Triumph36]

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great writer, but he's become so big no one edits him anymore, so his works in the past 15 years have all been bloated, over-written books with sparks of brilliance.

If his publisher had any balls, they'd insist on King using a great editor again.

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The last post is the truest one. I've read a lot of Stephen King's books when I was in high school - the man is absolutely brilliant with coming up with little details and small stories within his works. I think it's possible that people still read Stephen King in 100 years, but so much of his work have little nuances of the times in which they take place. He's not like Charles Dickens. His works don't have much character depth or symbolism, nor do they say very much about the human condition. But his earlier books are damn fine reads. Dark Tower IV is about where I gave up on Stephen King forever - but I think I'm the only person who liked the Tommyknockers, too.

[benfranklin]

At the risk of making a huge generalization, pretty much everything we consider to be classical literature today was written by the storytellers of their day for the masses.

Dickens, Twain, Dostoevsky, etc., wrote for newspapers. Shakespeare wrote plays at a time when the theater was the only entertainment for the common man. Epic poems from Homer onward were written for public performance.

King is also a storyteller. Whether he will stand the test of time remains to be seen, but I would bet money that his work will be analysed within an inch of its life by the next generation of graduate students, if they haven't started already.

And I'd also bet that people will be reading King long after the names and works of most winners of academic book awards have faded into oblivion (or into Bolivia).

[BarronVangorToth]

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Here's a list of stuff I haven't read. Anyone want to recommend one? I'm really surprised that I've read everything else...
Rage
Dolores Claiborne
Black House
Dreamcatcher
From a Buick 8
Bag of Bones
Rose Madder
Desperation
The Regulators
The Colorado Kid

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I've read every book SK has done. He's brilliant sometimes (Stand) and not so much other times (see: a lot of his newer material). I also think he's had his wife pen a few of his books and they sold it under his name (Rose Madder and Gerald's Game especially).

As far as your list, I'd recommend:

Dolores Claiborne

then

Desperation

then

Black House.

Some of these tie in directly and not with other books (and I'm not just talking about the Dark Tower storyline) -- SLIGHT spoilers in white below:

<font color="white"> Gerald's Game + Dolores Claiborne = storyline connection</font>

[dcasper70]

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Some of these tie in directly and not with other books (and I'm not just talking about the Dark Tower storyline) -- SLIGHT spoilers in white below:

<font color="white"> Gerald's Game + Dolores Claiborne = storyline connection</font>

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I was under the impression that Bag of Bones tied into this line as well. I just remember that portion of Gerald's Game and assumed the link.

[BarronVangorToth]

You're right. I forgot about that.

The whited out portion in my slight spoiler is more there as I think that connection is what makes those two books worth reading, outside the context of being a SK completist. Plus many of his books tie into the whole Dark Tower mythos (even if it didn't end as well as I'd hoped when I started reading about the Gunslinger forever ago).

[Runkmud]

Stephen King is probably the author most responsible for me becoming the avid reader that I am today. Is he a brilliant artist or a hack? I don't know that I'm qualified to give a intelligent response. I do know that when he is at his best, he takes me on one hell of a ride. I do agree with most of the posters that his work has tanked in the last fifteen years, so much so that I stopped reading him.

Some of my King favorites.

The Talisman
It
Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption
The Body
The Long Walk
The Running Man
Eyes of the Dragon (I would love for this to be made into a full length computer generated animation movie, IE. Final Fantasy The Movie)

[bravos1]

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Rage is definitely worth reading (you can't buy this any more because of the content relating to Columbine etc, so if you have a copy, keep ahold of it), the other 3 are take or leave it, but not a waste of time if you got some spare time.

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??? Seems that Amazon is selling Rage right now here.

[JaBlue]

I've only read King's On Writing but it seems like he is an incredible fiction writer. I don't see why the academic elite should trash him because he writes to tell stories and doesn't infuse them with great new ideas or amazingly good prose or anything... he does churn out a LOT of material though and some of its bound to be bad I guess.

-thoughts from someone who has never read a novel by SK

[benfranklin]

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Rage is definitely worth reading (you can't buy this any more because of the content relating to Columbine etc, so if you have a copy, keep ahold of it), the other 3 are take or leave it, but not a waste of time if you got some spare time.

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??? Seems that Amazon is selling Rage right now here.

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I believe that is a Spanish translation.

"Rage" is a short novel or long story originally published under the pen name Richard Bachman. It is included in an old collection called "The Bachman Books". I don't know if it is still in print, but you can find used copies on Amazon.

[benfranklin]

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I don't see why the academic elite should trash him because he writes to tell stories and doesn't infuse them with great new ideas or amazingly good prose or anything... he does churn out a LOT of material though and some of its bound to be bad I guess.


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They trash him because he sells a lot of books and makes a lot of money. Obviously, anything that commoners buy and read must be trash.