Six Reasons It's Not So Good To Be A Constant Reader

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I love reading Stephen King books.  There are many great things about being a constant reader.  But I've posted plenty of articles outlining those benefits.  But we should admit, there are a few drawbacks to being a Stephen King fan.  Here are a few:

1. Non-King readers think I'm reading really (REALLY) bad stuff.  

Hey, I don't endorse it all -- but for the most part, people who don't read King have bought into the idea that all he writes are scary novels full of bad words.  So I say to my friends, "You know, King also wrote the Green Mile."  This usually results in puzzled looks.  For real?  Stand By Me, The Shawshank Redemption, even the screenplay for Little House On The Prairie.  Throw that last one in just for fun.  if they didn't know he wrote the first three, and they find out you're right, they start to wonder if maybe he did indeed write Little House.

2. He's super famous.  

Is that a problem? Not really, except that it means he's in no way accessable to the average fan.  Look, if you want to talk to most authors,  you can write them a note, drop them an email and have a normal correspondence.  I talk to authors all the time!  This includes novelist, theologians, historians and more.  But once a writer reaches a certain level of popularity, they are no longer able to correspond with readers one on one.

There was a day -- many days ago  -- when you could mail Stephen King your copy of one of his books.  He would sign it and mail it back to you.  Those days are -- GONE!

3. There's brain damage.  

This is awkward to confess to, but Stephen King messes with my head.  Scenes from books are etched in my brain and flash before me at inopportune times.  Our church once did a Christmas play that had a scene in a child's bedroom.  The mother came into the room to pray with the child and discuss why daddy was deployed to Iraq.  But, the bedroom scene on the church stage had been set up right under the big sanctuary cross.  All I could think was -- CARRIE WHITE!  Stop it brain!  And thank you, Mr. King.

Most of the brain damage has to do with people.  Not a problem if a sweet, Godly, old lady reminds me of Mother Abagail.  But I've also met Mrs. White, Mrs. Carmody, and Reverend Coggins.  You can't say to people, "You remind me so much of this person from a Stephen King novel!"

4. I don't read first editions.

Are you crazy?  You can't read those things!  Not the Cemetery Dance first edition, anyway.  So then I have to buy two copies of new novels!  I once complained to my wife when she read my first edition of The Dark Tower.  "Come on, David," she shot  back, "I don't are if it's a first edition.  I've read six novels, I'm not waiting until this comes out in paperback to read it."  Sure enough, she didn't, and she smudged a page.  A SMUDGE!  She didn't see the problem.

Most often I fix this problem by buying the audio book and the hardcover.  That way I can listen to the book first, put the unread hardcover on my shelf, and patiently wait for the paperback.

5. I feel the need to correct people on obscure facts.

"I like Stephen King, too," someone will say.  "Especially the one with the haunted hotel, where  the guy chases his wife with an ax."

Do you leave that alone?  Dare I explain that my friend is discussing the Kubrick movie, not the King story.  Because  to most people, it doesn't matter.  But it does to me!

"Didn't he write the one about the house. . . what's it called?  Amityville. . ."
nooooo!!!  And this is a problem.  When friends say things that are wrong, how quickly should a King fan correct them?  How big a nerd do you really want others to know you are?  If you correct them too quickly, they  might say, "Hey, you know a little too much about Stephen King. Maybe you're getting a bit too obsessed."  Yeah, knock it off, redrum.

6. I have a love hate relationship with a lot of movies and television.

I can't wait for a movie version (or television) of a book I like to come out.  But I also know, I KNOW, that the likelihood of it being really very good is, well, not very good.  So do I stay away from the screen versions of King's work?  No way!  I've got to see them.  Sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised, like with Secret Window.  Often, it's a little painful.  (I offer you nothing here, because you all know the movie's I'm talkng about!)

What's worse, since King is mostly known for his media, non-King reading friends think they know King by his movies.  I went to watch Sleepwalkers with my dad.  Ulgh.  We left the theater with me trying to explain that didn't represent the Stephen King universe.  But now when he sees Stephen King on my shelves, he thinks Sleepwalkers.

BONUS: 7. He makes it look easy.

Of course I can write like Stephen King. It can't be hard, right?  Well, it  must be tougher than it looks, because I can't do it.  And there  are lots of people who try to write like King, an haven't mastered it.  He has a natural story-telling voice that speaks directly to the reader that cannot be matched.

Okay, your turn.  What's the down side of being a Constant Reader?

10 Things Not To Say To A Stephen King Fan

1. I love Stephen King, too.  I don’t read the books, but I’ve seen the movies.  (Great.)

2. Doesn't he just write about monsters? (Sure, that’s what he does.)

3. Have you read the one about the clown?  (Yeah, we have.)

4. I don’t read his stuff.  I read Insomnia once but didn't finish.  (Neither did most of us)

5. I prefer movies like The Green Mile to all that Stephen King stuff.

6. Why can’t I read your copy of The Shining?  (Because it’s a first edition)

7. Do you only read Stephen King?  (Uh-huh.  Made it clear through college and seminary reading nothing but Stephen King.)

8. He’s too scary for me.  I read that book – what’s it called? – about the girl with the powers. (Carrie.  He doesn't just write scary stuff.)

9. I don’t need to read Under The Dome, I saw it on TV.

10. Stephen King didn't write Stand By Me.  (Yes he did)
Nope, I checked his book list, it’s not there.  (That's because it's not called Stand By Me.)
See, I told you he didn't write it.  (It's called the Body.)
Hey, that's not on his book list, either.  (It's in another book called Different Seasons)
Yeah, I don't think you're thinking of the same movie.  I'm talking about Stand By Me, about a bunch of kids.  (Okay, whatever.)

Finally . . . I'm not a Stephen King fan, I'm a constant reader.  What's the difference?  I'm interested in what he writes, not chasing around after him.

Is King More Personal

Does Stephen King make a deeper connection with his readers than other writers?

Question -- do you feel like you know Stephen King better than other authors?

I  found myself thinking about this as I read The Stand.  A character named Joe appears on the scene -- a child who doesn't talk but sure likes knives!  Larry Underwood is not a fan of  the kid.  I thought, "I wonder if Joe is a tribute to his son.  Probably same age when it was written."  Then I began to think how much I know about King.  Strange.  I didn't seek to know anything.  That's  the truth!  I just read books.

But I don't know Tom Clancy's kids names.  If I work real  hard I might come up with Dicken's  wife's name -- but I don't remember.  I did see Dicken's biography on Biography channel, but it was so cut up and scattered that it offered nothing.

But  without much extra effort you learn a lot about King and his family.  For one thing, that's because  his introductions and commentary's are  always so chatty and personal.  For another, his writing itself is very personal.  Scattered  throughout novels are  personal  nods.

Is it just that I read more King?  I read Anne Rice's books for a while.  I know she had a husband who died and a son.  And I read a book about her return to Christianity (before she un-returned!).  But still, there's not that  sense of personal connection.

Seems the more you know about an author,  the clearer their  narrative voice becomes.  I suspect one reason readers go back again and again to certain authors is because they feel a connection to them.  I know, and disagree with, King's politics.  But actually knowing where  he's coming from helps me understand what he's writing about.

Now I'm not advocating crazy fandom!  In fact, I don't make any attempt -- or want to -- meet King or know him.  I'm just a reader.  It worries me when I see how crazy people get for a signature in a book or. . . more.  But a "constant reader" as King calls us slowly learns more  and more about the artist just by reading.  Of  course, King has made himself  available for about 1.6 billion interviews!  So that helps.  He speaks often on an array of subjects.

One of the things I really respect about King is his love for his wife.  Does this make him a better writer?  Probably not.  But my respect for his treatment of his wife gives me a deeper appreciation for his work.

Now I have read a couple biography's on King.  But  here's an interesting thing: His biography's all follow the same trail!  They focus on his writing career (as they should) instead of personal interactions with family.  By the way, George Beahms "Stephen King, America's Best Loved Boogieman" is the best bio out there.

Think about all the stuff  you know about King.  Isn't that strange?  Do you know that stuff about other authors?  Did you go out trying to find out those things, or did the information just come bit by  bit as you read.

1992 Interview With Terry Gross

In 1992, Terry Gross interviewed Stephen King on her show Fresh Air.  Gross was the 2003 recipient of the Edward R. Murrow Award. It is available on audible.  This interview took place just after the publication of Gerald’s Game.

Gerald’s Game:

The novel began with the idea of a woman chained to the bed.  He compared it to Cujo.  “What a lot of that book was was two people in a very small room.”  Gerald’s game goes a step further: a story about just one person confined in a room.  The S/M stuff is really just the device the get her in the room and carry the story (Hitchcock’s “Mcguffin”.)

Gross asked King if he had taken the horror novel to a more explicit place than it had been before.  King said yes, he did take it there – but guys like Clive Barker had taken it further yet!  King discusses tales of the crypt and horror movies.  Gross asked if the movies scared or amused him.  King is definite at this point -- They scared him big time!

King points out that the power of writing is that it offers flawless special effects.  “I realized that when I wrote a story, you never saw the zipper going up the monsters back,” King said.  “When the imagination was in charge of special effects, they were always perfect.”

Gross pointed out that in order to write the way he does, King must have some grasp on how people deal with fear and pain.  She asked King if he handled pain well, and if that had ever been tested.  King said no one knows how someone else deals with the pain, suffering in their life.  That we are oceans apart.  This is interesting, since the next interview in the line up is right after Kings’ accident, and again deals with the issue of pain.  This made me wonder if King’s insights to characters and their suffering has changed any since the 1999 accident.  Obviously, King gave us Duma Key, which is almost a modern retelling of the book of Job – except that at the end, God doesn’t come down, the devil comes out!

He says that some of his favorite passages in Gerald’s Game were the parts where very simple things (getting a glass of water, so on) became a challenge.

Gross asked if when he started publishing his novels, and people who he knew understood what kind of thoughts went through his mind, if people he knew began to see him differently.  King says there was a kind of pulling away, a uestion in their eyes, “Okay, where are all the bodies buried, Steve?”  Or a casual, “By the way, Steve, what was your childhood like?  Were you ever beaten?  Did they burn with you cigarettes?  Or what was it?”  Kind said he would respond by saying that he is just like everyone else – and that really did scare them.

King compares horror writing to being a comedy writer.  “You say, what is the one thing no one wants to talk about?  The one thing that would be like taking a fork and scraping it across the blackboard?”  He says most people, once it is said, are glad someone said it!

Misery:

Gross asked if the story of Misery was based on a single incident or deranged fan.  King insisted no single person embodies Annie Wilkes.

Of course, there are the people, King says, who think he steals their stories, or want to be intimately involved with his family.  “You begin to realize the power of fans.  Just interacting with them, there is a kind of fan psychology, that for the object of that fan adulation gets to be really uncomfortable sometimes.”

King notes how quickly fans can change when he says he can’t sign a book or sit and talk a spell.  He says that in the most devoted fans that there is almost a kind of resentment, a feeling that “you have what is really meant for me.  In the best of all possible worlds, I would be you.  You see this quite often in the male.”