Stephen King Compared To Classics

reposted from March, 2012


Ever notice how certain books remind you of other books or writers.  Sometimes a storyline in a King book will remind me of another book -- a classic.  So, just for fun . . . let's line King up with some classic authors.

I'll go ahead and put my answers, but I really look forward to reading yours.

1. What King books is most like David Copperfield.

My Answer: The Shining, because it is the most autobiographical.

2. What King short story most reminds you of O'Henry?

Dunno. . . look forward to looking at everyone else's paper on that one.

3. King is often compared to Poe.  What King book is most like something Poe would write -- either in style or plot?

I choose The Stand, because there are sections where King is actually playing with the text from the Raven.  (I believe it is in the section with The Judge.)  But I also think Dolan's Cadillac is a prime example of King linking to Poe.  Wow, I better move on, I could go for a while on this subject!  OH!  1922 is very much at Tell Tale Heart.

4. Years ago the King of mystery was Arthur Conan Doyle.  What King book most represents something like a Conan Doyle book?

Humm. . . I can't think of one!  I don't think Conan Doyle would leave a mystery open, so I'm not sure about The Colorado Kid.  I guess I would have to offer up Umley's Last Case -- but it is really more science fiction!  But such fun.

5. Probably the most famous monster book is Mary Shelly's Frankenstein.  Dean Koontz has taken the lore on most directly, but what King book has hints of Frankenstein?

Don't laugh at me -- I nominate Christine.  Though Arnie does not build Christine, or breath life into her -- he does rebuild her.  And though he loves his creation, like Dr. Frankenstein did the monster, the creation is pure evil.

6. What book is most like Dracula?

Easy -- why did I put that there?  Salem's Lot.  I think Dracula was the direct influence on Salem's Lot.

7. What King work is most like Th Phantom of the Opera?

. . . I can't think of one.

8. What King book is most like the work of Shirley Jackson?

Once again I would point to The Shining.

9. Okay, this is a little more modern -- but let's compare the King to Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles.  

Once again, I'm stumped.

10. How about Les Miserables?  

A wonderful book!  I would compare it to The Green Mile.  Though Hugo's work was much longer, both are stories of redemption.

11. Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men ?

Blaze and The Stand, because both deal with the struggles of the mentally handicap.  Blaze in particular, though.

12. Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath.

I would suggest 11.22.63, since both are historical novels.  Though, 11.22.63 is a romance is disguise!  

13. To change things up a little: What classic character is Carrie most like?

Don't know.

. . . and here's the bottom line: No one really writes like King!

Okay friends -- your turn.  

Santa's Lot

What if Santa was. . . A VAMPIRE

photo  credit: HERE

thanks to Lee Gambin

Doctor Sleep Journal #4: I Talked To Stephen King Today

Annie, trying to be scared of a book she never read

The Girl With The Book:

This involves what some might consider whining.  Be assured, it is not whining, it is sulking.

Why is she holding a copy of Doctor Sleep in Walmart?  Let's just say I have to visit Walmart to see a real print edition of this book right now.  I guess part of buying a super-duper copy of Doctor Sleep is the joyful experience of waiting for it.  So, my joy and anticipation increases each day. Waiting.  waiting.  waiting.

What Stephen King Said To Me

One of the  things I  really love about King's writing is that he is not locked into a single, robotic form or style.  He is very free in his narration.  The reader can tell when he feels  light hearted, or when he just wants to scare us somethin' fierce.

In chapter 5 King speaks directly to the reader.  I'm listening to the novel, so it's like he's there -- in my headphones, talking right to me.  Here are a couple of examples (I'm choosing quotes I've heard King publically read)

--How many times have you found yourself behind a lumbering RV, eating exhaust and waiting impatiently for your chance to pass? Creeping along at forty when you could be doing a perfectly legal sixty-five or even seventy? 

--Or maybe you’ve encountered them in the turnpike rest areas, when you stop to stretch your legs and maybe drop a few quarters into one of the vending machines.

King goes on like this for quite a few pages, talking to us about those RV's that seem like such a normal part of America.  It's a shared common experience.

Is this style normal?  I don't think so.  Usually writers feel compelled to be a little more -- serious.  But King has no problem removing the wall between himself and the reader and speaking directly to us.  The narrative tone is conversational, easy going and even kind of gentle.  But don't be fooled!  King is laying a trap for the reader.  He is speaking gently right to us, drawing us in so that he can do crazy stuff to our brains and scare us so bad we scream like little girls.

I like the conversational narration a lot.  It makes it clear that this is not happening in a fantasy world; this isn't mid-world or OZ; This is happening in our world.  Does that matter?  YES!  King is not really telling a story set in in our world.  He is telling a story about vampires and decaying women who come out of your bathtub.  To help you with this -- that doesn't happen in our world! But by speaking to me, suddenly my world feels like it is indeed that world.  I have been drawn in to King's story, and my entire world with it.  Suddenly my world is one where nasty dead bodies could rise up out of the bathtub.  My children are in danger of the True Knot.

Shared experiences are important to this book.  King not only uses things we are familiar with -- RV's -- but events we all experienced together.  Things like the events surrounding 9/11 are given subthemes in the novel, causing the reader to quickly identify.  By the way, it says something for our national healing as 9/11 is now beginning to appear in literature as a fictional theme without people feeling traumatized.  (Yes, I do remember the towers had a role in the Dark Tower)

So what did Stephen King say to me?  (and you, if you'll read it)  He said that RV's might seem like a normal part of American life.  We all experience some of the same frustrations when we get stuck behind them, but we really don't pay them any mind.  However, we  should not be so quick to just think of them as part of the landscape of America.  It is the perfect place for evil to camouflage itself.

Scraps: Stuff That Caught My Eye:
1. Jerusalem's Lot
2. Hello Tony.
3. I like this quote

America is a living body, the highways are its arteries, and the True Knot slips along them like a silent virus.

The True Knot -- Evil or Not?

King is so good at putting us in the mind and body of his characters that he can actually get the reader to identify with some pretty naughty people.  Crazy as it sounds, as the True Knot took "steam" from a young boy, they so perfectly explained their morale that I understood it. They are so incredibly evil!  And they know  they are evil.  But, as they see it, they have to eat.  We don't think much of eating a cow. Well, they just happen to eat. . . steam.

Salem's Lot Journal #5: The Power Of Faith

Salem’s Lot was a complete thrill ride!

A few final notes:

Boo-Boo:

There is a boo-boo when a character is killed and hung upside down, Father Callahan says, “It’s as old as Macedonia. . . Hanging the body of your enemy or betrayer upside down so his head faces the earth instead of heaven.  St. Paul was crucified that way, on an X-shaped cross with his legs broken.”  Well, Father Callahan got his facts wrong on that one.  Paul didn’t die crucified upside down, Peter did.  It is said this was done at Peter’s request, because he did not want to die the same way Jesus did.

The Writing:

The writing is generally strong throughout.  There is a lot of plotting by the main characters.  We seem to spend a lot of time moving the chess pieces around the board, and at times it can get a little confusing.

I like this line. . . “The hammer struck the top of the stake squarely, and the gelatinous tremor that vibrated up the length of ash would haunt him forever in his dreams.  Her eyes flew open, wide and blue, as if from the very force of the blow.  Blood gushed upward from the stake’s point of entry in a bright and astonishing flood, splashing his hands, his shirt, his cheeks.  In an instant the cellar was filled with its hot, coppery odor.”  Notice in just a couple sentences, King told you hat to see, what to feel (the vibration of the hammer)and what to smell (coppery blood).  It is as if the reader is drawn into the scene with the characters.


Salem’s Lot ends with a series of newspaper articles.  In this sense it is very much like Carrie.  The articles give the novel a sense of realism.  They also. . . date the novel!  Each entry has a date that has long passed in our world.  A date when Jimmy Carter was president.

The date for Salem’s Lot – America, 1970's – is important.  Could an entire town be overtaken today?  With email, twitter, facebook and skype?

There is a scene in which the vampire Barlow leaves a lengthy letter for Ben and the others seeking to end his terror.  The letter is good, but seems a bit forced.  The vampire is gloating and preaching throughout the epistle.  But the reader (at least this reader) is left wondering, “Why would a vampire take the time to write a letter?”

King has said that he felt more free to have fun with this novel, and that is certainly felt.  King's joy, energy is evident throughout.

FAITH:

Callahan’s confrontation with the Vampire is interesting.  He chooses to rely on logic instead of faith.  The crucifix is like a faith thermometer: “The cross seemed to thrum with chained fire, and its power coursed up his forearm until the muscles bunched and trembled.” But as Callahan questions and doubts, the cross’s glow begins to die.

When his faith falters, the vampire seems genuinely upset.  “Sad to see a man’s faith fail.  Ah well. . .” Barlow boldly takes the cross from the priest and declares, “You have forgotten the doctrine of your own church, is it not so?  The cross. . . the bread and wine. . . only wood, the bread baked wheat, the wine sour grapes.  If you had cast the cross away, you should have beaten me another night.  In a way, I hoped it might be so.  It has been long since I have met an opponent of any real worth.  The boy makes ten of you, false priest.”

Salem’s Lot is an intensely spiritual novel.  It relies on Catholic doctrine – communion, confession as personal means of cleansing so that one is right with God.  In the end, though, it is not the ritual’s that defeat the enemy, but personal faith.  Very much like salvation itself!  Get baptized ten times, it does nothing unless it is a true expression of the repentant heart.

Barlow not only defeats the priest, he humiliates him.  He does not draw him in, but instead casts the priest out. . . after making Father Callahan drink from the Vampire’s blood.  The symbolism is powerful: The priest, who believes the communion wine becomes the blood of Christ, now drinks from the blood of evil.  But evil does not accept him in!  He is not drawn into a new house, but instead simply cast out.  Thus Callahan is not welcome in either the house of God or the house of Satan.  He is a wanderer like Cain.

Of course, Father Callahan's story is not complete in Salem's Lot.  The novel and the character return in The Dark Tower.  In fact, The Dark Tower serves in part as the story of Father Callahan's redemption.

I like it that King's vampire are bad. . . very very bad!  And who is it that has true faith?  A child.

Seven Reasons We Read Stephen King, #5 : He's A Scaredy Rat

Stephen King is scared of a lot of stuff.  Bats.  Rats.  Spiders.  Death.  Bambi.  The corpse in the bathtub opening its eyes -- revealing nothing but bulging whites -- in the 1955 film Diabolique.


King said in his introduction to Night Shift:

"At night, when I go to bed, I still am at pains to be sure that my legs are under the blankets after the lights go out. I'm not a child anymore but... I don't like to sleep with one leg sticking out. Because if a cool hand ever reached out from under the bed and grasped my ankle, I might scream. Yes, I might scream to wake the dead."

I think most people have a lot of fears.  The cool thing about Stephen King is that he writes about them!  Well, I haven't read a Stephen King book about Bambi yet, but most of his fears find a spot in his novels.  King has the courage to explore his fears!  We read him because he's willing to go there!

Aren't you scared to go down the cellar?  So is little George, because we know monsters are down there.

King once said he had to rely on Tabby to chase bats that get loose from the attic.  Seriously. . . who lives in a house with bats? 

Pet Sematary was an exploration of death; and in particular, the agony of the death of a child.  Stephenkingshop.com says,

According to King, Pet Sematary, a story about a man who brings his son back to life after he is killed by a speeding truck, was written after the same thing nearly happened to his own son. Likewise, King felt tremendous financial stress during the years prior to publishing Carrie, and The Shining was written as much about how financial and other stresses can tear apart a marriage as it was about a haunted hotel.

King's fears intensify -- refine -- his ability to scare all of us.  His fear of spiders crawls into Needful Things, IT, The Mist and The Dark Tower.

So what's your fear?  King has probably got something to make you squirm! 

• Are you scared of the dark?  King will tell you to hold his hand, then lead you down a long journey through the Lincoln Tunnel -- lights out! 
• Sacred of dogs?  Oh, there's a book for you! 
• Clowns?  Aliens?  Ghosts?  The devil?  Yep, King will give you the devil himself! 
• Anyone scared of a Gypsy curse or demon possessed law enforcement? 
• Scared of the hospital?  The doctor? 
• Anyone scared of Zombies?  How about cell phones?  And that's another thing, isn't it!?  King sometimes takes a fear, and combines it with other fears.  I didn't like my cellphone to begin with, now it might turn me into a zombie! 
• You scared of vampires?  King gives us a town full of vamps!  Or, in Night Flier, a vampire with a plane. 
• Does the haunted house around the corner scare you?  Check out Salem's Lot!
• Do airplanes creep you out?  The Langoliers is a lot of fun.

King is known to take other people's childhood fears and write about them.  It's not that he was scared of the Library Police. . . his poor son was! 

And let's talk rats for a moment. I don't even like little mice -- but rats are truly horrifying! I think the first exploration with rats came with Graveyard Shift. Trips down into the sub-sub-basement, only to discover ever growing rats. The journey is still scary! King gave us more rats in his recent novella 1922. 

I like this quote from 1922, "The rat twisted and flopped. its tail first lashed my calf, then wrapped around it like a grass snake.  Blood gushed from its mouth.  Its black eyes bulged like marbles."  That's nice, Mr. King. 

According to stephenkingwiki, The Rat is one of the twelve Guardians of the Beams that hold up the Dark Tower.

My dislike of rats didn't come from Stephen King, it came from George Orwell.  In his novel, 1984 -- which is scary in an "Under The Dome" sort of way -- the main character is scared of rats.  So, to punish him, Big Brother puts a face mask on him connected to a pipe full of rats.  The rats then attack his face!  Oh, and this book is required reading in some schools.


Let's be real honest, gang: One reason we read Stephen King is because we like being scared!  It's like a drug, though -- each time takes a higher dose. 

Anne Rice Bites Into TWILIGHT Vamps

What should Vampires be?  According to Stephen King "killers, baby!"  He got some heat a while back when he said the author of Twilight couldn't write. 

Anne Rice has brought her own complaints about Twilight to the table.  Her focus isn't just the writing, it's the nature of vampires themselves.  Rice's tone might be playful, but come on -- this is a serious issue!  Do we want scary vamps, or sexy vamps?  My daughter loves Twilight.  I love Salem's Lot and Anne Rice gave us some pretty incredible vampires as well. 

At her facebook page, Rice wrote: Lestat and Louie feel sorry for vampires that sparkle in the sun. They would never hurt immortals who choose to spend eternity going to high school over and over again in a small town ---- anymore than they would hurt the physically disabled or the mentally challenged. My vampires possess gravitas. They can afford to be merciful." 

Haha!  Wonderful, Anne!  Nothing bad said about those other vamps, she's just talking about Lestat.  It would be interesting to find out what influence King has had on Anne Rice.

Here's my post "Scary Vamps Please!"