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Am I the only person here who is NOT a fan of Stephen King?

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KitchenWitch Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-26-05 02:35 AM
Original message
Am I the only person here who is NOT a fan of Stephen King?
Not a big horror story fan, give me a mystery, a legal thriller or a medical thriller yes!
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jdj Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-26-05 02:36 AM
Response to Original message
1. I loved Dolores Claiborne.
So far it is the best movie on that particular topic ever.

and that's about it for King.
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MrScorpio Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-26-05 02:36 AM
Response to Original message
2. One thing I like about him
He sure knows his plot twists
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Prisoner_Number_Six Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-26-05 02:38 AM
Response to Original message
3. I never enjoyed his writing style.
And what is that with his upper lip never moving? Bad "Michael Jackson conversion"?
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solinvictus Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-26-05 02:39 AM
Response to Original message
4. Yeah, pretty much..
weirdo. ;)
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KitchenWitch Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-26-05 02:40 AM
Response to Reply #4
7. Hey, I represent that remark
:P
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elshiva Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-26-05 02:39 AM
Response to Original message
5. I am NOT a fan.
Scares the fuck out of me and I don't like that.
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loro mi dicevano Donating Member (265 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-26-05 02:40 AM
Response to Original message
6. I'm not.
:shrug:
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enigmatic Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-26-05 02:41 AM
Response to Original message
8. I'm not...
But I loved "Different Seasons"..
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Dookus Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-26-05 02:50 AM
Response to Original message
9.  No, you're not
I never cared for him, either.
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Heidi Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-26-05 02:50 AM
Response to Original message
10. Me, neither. (eom)
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RagingInMiami Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-26-05 02:52 AM
Response to Original message
11. I haven't read Stephen King in years
But he was my favorite writer for years. He has a brilliant writer's voice, very unpretentious. He has a knack for making the unbelievable seem real. He is excellent at characterization, getting into the character's heads.

Stephen King is worthy of all the praise he gets.
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ragin_acadian Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-26-05 03:11 AM
Response to Original message
12. you are not alone,
ever since he published green mile as a six part book series of 100 pages each, at $10.95 per book, i knew he was the ultimate literary whore.

as much as i like his early writing, i will never buy another one of his books after such an obvious attempt to fleece his fans.
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Freebird12004 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-26-05 07:16 AM
Response to Reply #12
17. I believer you are referring to "The Gunslinger" series
When I read Green Mile it was published as one book.
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ragin_acadian Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-26-05 03:26 PM
Response to Reply #17
31. i never got into gunslinger,
but when green mile first came out, it was a six part book series at about 100 pages each. at that point, i said no more. i think they released it as a one volume work just before the movie came out.
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Freebird12004 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-27-05 03:51 PM
Response to Reply #31
38. That's about the time I stopped reading Stephen King
I wouldn't have bought the Green Mile as a series. :grr: I still haven't read The Gunslinger although I did listen to one book of the series on tape last winter while on a drive to Myrtle Beach.
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Borgnine Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-26-05 03:40 AM
Response to Original message
13. I'm not a fan of the books, but I'm a fan of his writing.
It's hard to explain, but I recognize his talent. He does deserve all the praise he gets. I'm just not that big into horror. I'd rather laugh that scare myself silly.
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AmyDeLune Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-26-05 03:59 AM
Response to Original message
14. I like his early works
but the more famous he got, the less his editor seemed willing to actually edit his books. How many 1,000+ page horror novels does the world really need?
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LynzM Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-26-05 07:05 AM
Response to Original message
15. I don't really read any of that kind of stuff
So yeah, I'm not a 'fan'. I prefer to sleep at night, and be ok being at home by myself, and King and Koontz don't help me with either of those goals! LOL
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Freebird12004 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-26-05 07:13 AM
Response to Original message
16. I enjoyed his earlier books.
Then I got hooked on the Patricia Cornwell "Dr. Scarapetta" series.
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KG Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-26-05 07:25 AM
Response to Original message
18. horror books don't scare me, so i never saw the point of reading
them. so, in my literary world, king is a non-entity.
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Seabiscuit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-26-05 11:34 AM
Response to Reply #18
29. Exactly. I don't read his books. But I liked some of his movies.
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C_eh_N_eh_D_eh Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-26-05 07:58 AM
Response to Original message
19. I don't like his work at all.
Just about everything he's done in the last few years, be it books (Song of Susannah), tv (Kingdom Hospital), or movies (Secret Window), has been disgustingly self-indulgent. Ever since his near brush with death, he seems obsessed with making everything he writes into a story about himself.

What I've seen of King's earlier work isn't so hot, either. The early Dark Tower books had some interesting bits to them, but not much. I tried reading The Stand, but the sheer mind-numbingness caused me to put the book down before the story even got going.
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Maine-ah Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-26-05 07:59 AM
Response to Original message
20. we love SK up here
not only are his books great, but he just gave our school something like 25k to revamp the library.
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pintobean Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-26-05 08:02 AM
Response to Original message
21. A witch that doesn't like Stephen King?
What is the world coming to?
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SlackJawedYokel Donating Member (446 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-26-05 08:41 AM
Response to Original message
22. Nah, I'm with ya.
I'm completely cold to the entire horror genre(too much the atheist/skeptic, I suppose) and his "there can never be too many words to tell a story" style is just tedious.
I say this after going thru my "SK period" a long time ago, back before he was "Movie of the Week King" and I can honestly say that if he'd write more books like Four Seasons, I'd be a fan.
Oh, and I did like Firestarter for the scifi/psychic angle.

The killer for me was trudging my way through The Stand(the "shorter" version, mind you) only to have it devolve from intriguing post-apocalyptic tale to ridiculously simplistic, Good V Evil fairytale with a "hand of god" ending.
Bleh.

Cletus
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graywarrior Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-26-05 08:47 AM
Response to Original message
23. If you ever had the pleasure of meeting Stephen, you'd change your mind
He's unbelievably warm and generous.
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peekaloo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-26-05 09:26 AM
Response to Original message
24. Not really. But 'The Shawshank Redemption' was based on a
short story he wrote and for that I am grateful.
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CaliforniaPeggy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-26-05 05:01 PM
Response to Reply #24
37. Hi, peekaloo,
I am with you on "The Shawshank Redemption." That short story was the lead in a book of novellas (longer than the typical short story, but much shorter than a novel) and most of those novellas have made incredibly good movies. Esp. "The Shawshank Redemption." What an outstanding movie!

:hi:
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tjdee Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-26-05 09:45 AM
Response to Original message
25. I like the movies made from his books!
But his actual writing style doesn't appeal to me.
I think he comes up with compelling ideas....or, he has.
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bikebloke Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-26-05 10:28 AM
Response to Original message
26. His early work
Good popcorn reads. Then his word processor caught diahrea about the time he was scraping the bottom of the barrel for horror ideas. Perhaps it's me, but the horror genre seems to have flat lined. Except for "Blood Sucking Fiends" by Christopher Moore.
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yellowdogintexas Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-26-05 11:11 AM
Response to Original message
27. My mom read everything he wrote, but I never could get
Edited on Sat Mar-26-05 11:15 AM by yellowdogintexas
into the mood to try. I am not much on horror fiction anyway. So it is not so much that I am not a fan; more that I am unexposed. Movies don't count, since I loved "Green Mile" and
"Stand By Me"

on edit: however forming a band called The Rock Hard Remainders with Dave Barry and Amy Tan tells me he must have a sense of humor and be interesting to be around. Not to mention taking the bank on tour to book conventions!!!!!
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RebelOne Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-26-05 11:33 AM
Response to Original message
28. I am his biggest fan.
I can't imagine anyone not being a fan of King's. He is the man.
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blindpig Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-26-05 11:38 AM
Response to Original message
30. he sucks
Don't like his style, don't care much for horror anyway. If I want horror I can go to GD.

If I REALLY want horror I'll reread HP Lovecraft, one twisted mf.
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Twillig Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-26-05 03:35 PM
Response to Original message
32. I like the movies that are made
from his books.

Some of them.

The non-supernatural ones, anyway.

He comes up with some good stories, I just don't like his writing.
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RevolutionaryActs Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-26-05 03:38 PM
Response to Original message
33. I've only read one of his books, The Green Mile.
Gawd I love that book. It's so good, not your typical Steven King I don't think. :shrug:

My brother loves his Dark Tower series.
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Chicago Democrat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-26-05 03:40 PM
Response to Original message
34. Not a fan
decent, but give me nonfiction
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HEyHEY Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-26-05 03:55 PM
Response to Original message
35. I don't like him
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terrya Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-26-05 04:02 PM
Response to Original message
36. If you've read one book about evil attacking a small town in Maine..
you've pretty much read them all. If he were to get off the horror shtick and write just non-horror fiction all the time, I could read him. He's not that bad a writer (read "The Green Mile", for instance), but when he goes into the blood and gore and supernatural stuff, then I'm out of there. He's done that bit ad nauseum for me. I liked "The Shining"...but I don't want to keep reading it over and over and over and over again.
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