Stephen King XOXO
I don’t drink coffee. I used to gobble it up all day long, but then I also used to date assholes and listen to straight-edge hardcore. Eventually you learn what’s good for you and what just gives you an ulcer. Now that I’m almost wholly decaffienated, the occasional Diet Coke can really set me off. Case in point: a few weeks ago I was drinking a diet coke at a presentation at Columbia Business School, when a sudden surge of caffeine hit me and I had to restrain myself from standing up and yelling “How AMAZING is Stephen King, right guys? I mean, he brought literature to THE PEOPLE, writing about exciting cool shit in a language people actually spoke! And it made him a billionaire! Fuck you, elitist book critics, people are reading! Am I right??”
Caffeine heightens my love of Stephen King.
Similarly, today I was drinking a D.C. and clicking around on the online sketchbook for Marvel’s graphic novel of “The Stand”, and it made me totally amped and retarded. I haven’t bought the first issue because I am an adult now, so I only buy trade paperbacks. But looking at the sketches got me really excited for the art especially - in the same way that a stupid person would get excited. Page after page made me say “Oooh! Wow! They draw so good!” in increasing levels of chair-bouncing excitement. Way to go, Art History degree! They do draw good!
I love The Stand. I mean, I love all post-apocalyptic stories, but this one is especially great, since it was by Stephen King. In case you missed it, it only takes a very low grade stimulant to make me want to shake people and yell at them about loving Stephen King. Joe Quesada - editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics - called King “one of the greatest authors to have walked this green earth!” Initially, I thought “slow down, Quesada, Stan Lee’s still around to handle the snappy hyperboles.” But you know what, he’s right!
Presidents should not be people “just like everyone else” - they should be smarter and wiser and more savy than everyone else - but writers should. Stephen King writes books about regular people’s real fears - the personal scary parts of their minds - in their own language. That’s what makes Stephen King the BEST WRITER EVERRRR. Oops, wait, that was the diet coke talking again.
Hmm…ok.
I like Stephen King. (That seems reasonable. )
September 23rd, 2008 at 6:16 pm
Stephen King totally rocks! His books really are quite amazing, the way he uses familial phrases to conjure images.
No bounce, no play
Redrum
There were some good ones in Lisey’s Story, but I can’t remember any of them! =) His On Writing book is quite a treat, too.
September 23rd, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Blog entries like this make me think the person in question has died. I’ve been on airplanes all day- did he die? Clearly your blog is a higher priority to me than cnn.com. I really hope he didn’t die.
September 24th, 2008 at 7:01 am
He’s aliiiiiiiive.
September 24th, 2008 at 9:58 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGijtpSID3k
September 24th, 2008 at 10:04 am
Awesome! I’m an adult (chronologically at least) and I had to get the first issue of The Stand, I did drop the Gunslinger though, just wasn’t keeping up. The Stand is probably the longest book I’ve ever read multiple (7) times. I think Salems Lot comes in a close 2nd and John Skipp and Craig Spectors Light at the End is also way up there.
Stephen king feels like a mainstay in my life and so damn influential on just about everything. Would I have gone to see Evil Dead opening day in College Point Queens if it wasn’t for Kings glowing review in Fangoria? Maybe not. Would I have read Thomas Pynchon if King didn’t recommend him? Probably not.
Stephen King is one of the best writers everrrr and I don’t need no caffeine to know it.
Now do yourself a favor and get hold of some Harlan Ellison.
baby can you dig your man?
September 24th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
If I DON’T drink caffeine, I get a desire to read Sweet Valley High. I’m serious.
September 24th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
“because I am an adult now, so I only buy trade paperbacks.”
I thought that was just ME.
September 24th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
I started reading Stephen King in 5th grade. FIFTH GRADE. Like, the likelihood of getting beaten up and called a homo increases exponentially the thicker the novel in which you’ve buried your face. Needless to say, I was referred to as “Dictionary” because I could use words like ‘exponential’ in a sentence. This is probably why I didn’t even have my first kiss until I was 17. But thanks to Mr. King, I had a full- albeit perverse- spank bank to keep me company. Can I blame any sexual perversions I find myself enjoying on “Gerald’s Game”?
September 25th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
But what I really want to know is…..what were you doing at a presentation at Columbia Business School? Hmmmmmm?????
October 7th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
I was buying beer at a strip club/cold beer vendor and the cashier girl was reading a book. It had that older cover, the one with the sword fight with that black beak-thing-dude, and I asked her if it was good. She said yes. She was right. That was the first of more King books I have read.
Have you seen the TV Mini Series starring Gary Sinise, Molly Ringwall, etc.? It’s cheesy but the story is still there.
October 9th, 2008 at 11:32 am
please check out the authors Terry Pratchett and Neil Giamen