Just finished watching Children of the Corn, 2009. Mama said "if you can't say somethin' nice. . ." so I won't say much here.
A few notes, though:
1. Who gave the six year old the big Amish hat?
2. Who runs the radio station that broadcast the six year old?
3. These are not only the freakiest kids I've ever seen. . . they're also the smartist! (Except the teens who feel it is Gods will to follow the six year old. Time for some teenage rebellion!)
4. Who's tall enough to stick all the adults atop the corn stalks?
5. Why is it so bright inside the cornfield at night?
6. Why didn't Bert hear his wife screaming? And honking the horn?
My wife said, "That's it? It feels unfinished."
I said, "Oh no! No, don't say that! It might spawn six or seven sequals!"
7. Seriously, all the kids watch "the night of fertilization."
. . . okay, now I'll be quiet.
Oh Wait! Just one more thing: This story reminds me of the Star Trek episode, Miri. Where a plague has kills the children after they reach a certain age. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/index.php?curid=1056662
okay, I'm done.
Children of the Corn -- Again
I numbly watched Children of the Corn this Summer -- once my children were in bed. It was pretty bad. The short story was acceptable, a good read; but honestly, not much more!
.Donald Borhers said, "I think we stepped up to the line, measured the distance to the dartboard and struck the bullseye." Now I should hope so, because Borchers is not only the producer of the remake, he's also the director and the co-writer!
.Children of the Corn was originally published in Penthouse, 1977. It was published in Night Shift in 1978. But that was just the beginning. The movies would spawn a slew of sequels in the 90's and on into the next century. 1993 promised us "The Final Sacrifice" -- but this is the series that won't die! Please, please, please KILL IT! The Children of the Corn series is like Pet Semetery, each resurrection results in something worse.
- Children of the Corn, 1984
- Children of the Corn 2, The Final Sarifice, 1993
- Children of the Corn 3, Urban Harvest, 1995
- Children of the Corn 4, The Gathering, 1996
- Children of the Corn 5, Fields of Terror, 1998
- Children of the Corn 666, Isaac's Return, 1999
- Children of the Corn Revelation, 2001
- Children of the Corn 2009.
This reminds me a little of Star Trek. When out of new ideas of sequals, just start over! (Please, please, no one suggest this to Lucas) I'll watch with interet and low expectations.
"Children of the Corn" premieres Saturday, Sept. 26, at 8 p.m. on Syfy. A DVD with the unrated director's cut will be released Oct. 6.
http://www.qctimes.com/entertainment/movies/article_b45d87c2-a307-11de-8a6c-001cc4c03286.html
Three Great Reasons For Fall To Begin
.
.
1. Of course, Under The Dome comes out this fall.
.
King has promised a real treat to readers with a long novel mirroring themes from The Stand. His recent publication of the first pages of The Cannibals has only served to get me more excited about Under The Dome. This, hopefully, will prove to be vintage King. You know, the guy who gave us The Stand The Shining, IT. . .
.
2. Liljas Library
.
has a book coming out. Published by Cemetary Dance, this book should be very interesting. Hans-Ake Lilja probably has the best fan site there is. He has features on most of the books, including books about King, and an up to date front page that runs Stephen King news. He's also good at citing sources -- which is appreciated.
.
.
3. Bev Vincent's Stephen King Companion
also comes out this fall. I really don't now what to expect of this -- except he has promised it would be "different" from the others.
.
So here's some of the things that we do know will be included:
.
Table of contents for Vincent's Companion:
.
Introduction: Mr. Horror USA
Chapter 1: The Early Years
Chapter 2: Room 217—The Shining
Chapter 3: The Walkin’ Dude—The Stand
Chapter 4: Welcome to Castle Rock—The Dead Zone
Chapter 5: Sometimes Dead Is Better—Pet Sematary
Chapter 6: Pennywise Lives—It
Chapter 7: Number One Fan—Misery
Chapter 8: The Night Journey—The Green Mile
Chapter 9: Things That Go Bump—Bag of Bones
Chapter 10: The Accident
Chapter 11: More Worlds Than These—The Dark Tower series
Chapter 12: The Thing with the Endless Piebald Side—Lisey’s Story
Conclusion
http://www.bevvincent.com/
.
1. Of course, Under The Dome comes out this fall.
.
King has promised a real treat to readers with a long novel mirroring themes from The Stand. His recent publication of the first pages of The Cannibals has only served to get me more excited about Under The Dome. This, hopefully, will prove to be vintage King. You know, the guy who gave us The Stand The Shining, IT. . .
.
2. Liljas Library
.
has a book coming out. Published by Cemetary Dance, this book should be very interesting. Hans-Ake Lilja probably has the best fan site there is. He has features on most of the books, including books about King, and an up to date front page that runs Stephen King news. He's also good at citing sources -- which is appreciated.
.
.
3. Bev Vincent's Stephen King Companion
also comes out this fall. I really don't now what to expect of this -- except he has promised it would be "different" from the others.
.
So here's some of the things that we do know will be included:
.
- First draft typescript pages with handwritten notes, including pages from The Gunslinger, The Stand, Pet Sematary and The Dead Zone
- Several handwritten first draft manuscript pages from Cujo
- A reproduction of a handwritten ledger containing a section of an unpublished work
- A familiar scene from Needful Things
- A scene from another (1990s) novel that is completely different from the published version
- A reproduction of the January 29, 1966 issue of the Lisbon Drum containing the ultra-rare juvenile short story “43rd Dream” (Lilja's Library says 1 exists.)
- A three-panel cartoon drawn by King.
- A reproduction of several pages from Comics Review featuring part of "I Was a Teen-age Grave Robber," King's first story publication. The story was serialized over several issues of the fanzine in 1965.
- Final galley page from The Stand containing the Author's Note, with King's handwritten changes and additions.
- Manuscript pages for the scene where Larry Underwood and Rita escape from New York via the Lincoln Tunnel. King has identified this as his favorite scene in the book.
Table of contents for Vincent's Companion:
.
Introduction: Mr. Horror USA
Chapter 1: The Early Years
Chapter 2: Room 217—The Shining
Chapter 3: The Walkin’ Dude—The Stand
Chapter 4: Welcome to Castle Rock—The Dead Zone
Chapter 5: Sometimes Dead Is Better—Pet Sematary
Chapter 6: Pennywise Lives—It
Chapter 7: Number One Fan—Misery
Chapter 8: The Night Journey—The Green Mile
Chapter 9: Things That Go Bump—Bag of Bones
Chapter 10: The Accident
Chapter 11: More Worlds Than These—The Dark Tower series
Chapter 12: The Thing with the Endless Piebald Side—Lisey’s Story
Conclusion
http://www.bevvincent.com/
What Would Van Gogh Say?
I saw this first at http://www.liljas-library.com/
.
108. Stephen KING (American, b. 1947) Self-portrait. ink on verso of "Books & Co."
bookmark8 7/8 x 3 1/4 inches (227 x 80 mm)signed
.
The undisputed master of the horror story, King has won eight Bram Stoker awards and was honored with an O. Henry Award in 1996 for his New Yorker story, The Man in the Black Suit. In 2003, King received a Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation."
.
At a publisher's party in Los Angeles during a book fair, someone spotted King in the crowd. He dared me to go over and get his S-P - 'You get Dante and Shakespeare and Muhammed Ali to do them for you, why don't you ask somebody really famous?' So I did, and this was the result. He was a really nice guy, and a Red Sox fan, to boot". -- Burt Britton
est. $2000 – $3000
.
.
Now what caught my eye was the the estimated value. Estimated value: 2-3 thousand. Huh? Is he a writer or an artist? (Yes, I do understand that writing is a form of art). But, it begs the question, doesn't it? -- Does King's scribbling really warrent $2-3k? Really? Seriously? Does fame on its own allow for anything the person touches to thus be of greater value?
.
What would Van Gough say?
Under The Dome Cover, Part 1
This is the first section of the jacket for Under The Dome. Only Stephen King could hold people's interest by releasing one section of his next books jacket at a time.
Aren't we all gald they didn't do this with Just After Sunset?! Or Insominia? Or Tommyknockers? Or the darkhalf.
The Cannibals -- An Incomplete Review
Well, of course any review will be incomplete -- King didn't finish the book! And, what he released was only 61 pages.
A few quick notes.
A big thanks to Stpehen King for releasing this. He stated that he did it for two reasons:
First to wet out appitites for his upcoming novel Under The Dome. That he has successfully done!
Second, he said that he wants to show fans that he was not stealing any ideas from the Simpsons. In fact, he said he's not seen the Simpsons movie. Sigh. Is King losing touch with culture? Of course, the real question on this is: Why did King have to read from fans that the root idea of his plot sounds something like the Simpson movie? Shouldn't someone at Simon and Schuster have caught that one?
I really enjoyed the download a lot. The pages are marked with corrections throughout and look well aged. Not like this came off the press of a slick publisher -- more like King himself pressed this into your hand after a short meeting. "Hey, take a look at this and tell me what you think," he says. Okay, that's not what happened... but that's how the 61 pages will make you feel -- a little closer to the artist.
The date:
King wrote Cannibals in about 1981 ? while filming Creepshow. The manuscript was a quick flashback to the early eighties. That feeling of, "I remember this world!" washed over me at once. A few 80's hallmarks:
1. Cassette tape-players
2. X rated movie theaters (drive in's, no less)
3. Video game arcades
4. Roller rinks
5. Living in the aftermath of Vietnam
6. "the wake of the turbulent sixties" p.5
7. Resisting the draft
8. Listening to Bob Dylan Records
9. Anticipating a "decade of self." p.6 (Try three decades of self!)
About the story:
The story is about an apartment complex that gets cut off from the world. All the details are not evident from the portion King has given us. How do they get power? Do they have water? Elevators work. But no one can get out a door. As if a force on the otherside, as solid as a brick wall, were present.
The apartment building:
1. It's not a close net community. It's people living separate lives. People who don't really know one another.
2. It's next to a mall, but still near the woods.
3. You can work, shop and sleep without ever going too far outside.
4. The apartment is not a slum.
5. The apartments are visited by the "Full Moon Scribe" (a tagger).
6. The apartments have a serious security system; both for inner doors and mail.
7. There is no locks on the outer doors.
Characters (and religious oddities):
Main character is Tommy Hill the news man. A kind-of "everyman." There's the apartment manager, the kid Tommy runs into, and the religious lady, Jo.
Now Jo Page is only introduced once the problem is well underway. The reader is really interested in what is going on, and King decides to introduce someone new! (He also gave a couple of pages worth of flashback at a similiar moment). But the new lady, Jo, is worth looking at.
She is a very religious woman. She reads the Bible and begins to fixate upon Christ death and his words on the cross "why have you forsaken me?" This throws her into something of a trance.
As she ponders Jesus' words, King writes, "It came to her suddenly that perhaps that had been the moment of transfer. . . the moment when Christ had taken it all upon himself, every sin committed by mankind on the face of the earth since the apple. All that dirt and blood at once, suddenly taken from the world and filling Hm like a black poison." p.51
Pretty sound theology.
Jo falls into a trance, fixated on the death of Christ. And then King goes to some lengths to explain how she isn't a zealot. "Her religion was a private matter; she fored it on no one and was revolted by those who did. In some of these she recognized an innocent joy which she could at least sympathize with if she could not respet. In most she saw only a kind o filthy sel-aggrandizement, the final mirror-trick by which the Prince of the World tried to turn God himself into an illusion. Bucause the Bible demanded that the followers o Christ should witness, she did so -- wasn't that why she was in the jam she was in at work? -- but she did so only when asked, or when circumstances demanded it." p.53
Okay, here's the thing: Religious people who read the Bible and fall into trances are not the normal type. Trances are usually left to the holy rollers who do it in public, or those who are a little off -- let's say, Carrie's mom. I"m sure some religous people fall into a trance -- but it's not the norm by any stretch of the imagination.
I think that what King is trying to do is create a likeable -- but serious -- religious character. One with sound theology, but who isn't pushy, judgmental and a Jerk for Jesus. It does beg the question: Does Mr. King think that religious people get up and meditate on the crucifixion until they slip into a dreamy daze of worship? Not most. Some. . .
So is Jo one of our Cannibals? That would be interesting.
The Terror:
The mystery revovles mostly around doors not opening. I'm sure this is explained much uller in the rest of the text. I only caught one reference to what was happening outside. "Daylight was starting to come out there, but Pulaski could not remember ever having seen a daylight quite like this one -- thin, watery, almost wavery. For a moment he was struk by unreality, by a sence that somehow his eyes were deceiving him. . ." p.42 Then we drop into a flashback.
King cut off on a pretty good line: "for the first time he felt something pierce his confusion and harried annoyance at being late. He found nothing welcome about the new emotion. It was fear." p.61 hehe -- that's good!
What's brutal is what a good read this is. There's a lot o energy to it. Just straight story! King explains the apartment, moves to his chracter, speeds through a normal morning, and then slams the whole story into a great problem. No one can get out. I assume by the title that they won't be going to Vons anytime soon. Who gets eaten? Who does the eating? Gosh, my appitite is indeed wetted, Mr. King!
Similarities to Under The Dome
I haven't read Under The Dome, but from the reviews the only thing the two have in common is the idea of a force field locking a group of people in.
This story had a lot of energy taking off. I can see why King got a good 500 pages out of it. I throughly enjoyed it all.
A few quick notes.
A big thanks to Stpehen King for releasing this. He stated that he did it for two reasons:
First to wet out appitites for his upcoming novel Under The Dome. That he has successfully done!
Second, he said that he wants to show fans that he was not stealing any ideas from the Simpsons. In fact, he said he's not seen the Simpsons movie. Sigh. Is King losing touch with culture? Of course, the real question on this is: Why did King have to read from fans that the root idea of his plot sounds something like the Simpson movie? Shouldn't someone at Simon and Schuster have caught that one?
I really enjoyed the download a lot. The pages are marked with corrections throughout and look well aged. Not like this came off the press of a slick publisher -- more like King himself pressed this into your hand after a short meeting. "Hey, take a look at this and tell me what you think," he says. Okay, that's not what happened... but that's how the 61 pages will make you feel -- a little closer to the artist.
The date:
King wrote Cannibals in about 1981 ? while filming Creepshow. The manuscript was a quick flashback to the early eighties. That feeling of, "I remember this world!" washed over me at once. A few 80's hallmarks:
1. Cassette tape-players
2. X rated movie theaters (drive in's, no less)
3. Video game arcades
4. Roller rinks
5. Living in the aftermath of Vietnam
6. "the wake of the turbulent sixties" p.5
7. Resisting the draft
8. Listening to Bob Dylan Records
9. Anticipating a "decade of self." p.6 (Try three decades of self!)
About the story:
The story is about an apartment complex that gets cut off from the world. All the details are not evident from the portion King has given us. How do they get power? Do they have water? Elevators work. But no one can get out a door. As if a force on the otherside, as solid as a brick wall, were present.
The apartment building:
1. It's not a close net community. It's people living separate lives. People who don't really know one another.
2. It's next to a mall, but still near the woods.
3. You can work, shop and sleep without ever going too far outside.
4. The apartment is not a slum.
5. The apartments are visited by the "Full Moon Scribe" (a tagger).
6. The apartments have a serious security system; both for inner doors and mail.
7. There is no locks on the outer doors.
Characters (and religious oddities):
Main character is Tommy Hill the news man. A kind-of "everyman." There's the apartment manager, the kid Tommy runs into, and the religious lady, Jo.
Now Jo Page is only introduced once the problem is well underway. The reader is really interested in what is going on, and King decides to introduce someone new! (He also gave a couple of pages worth of flashback at a similiar moment). But the new lady, Jo, is worth looking at.
She is a very religious woman. She reads the Bible and begins to fixate upon Christ death and his words on the cross "why have you forsaken me?" This throws her into something of a trance.
As she ponders Jesus' words, King writes, "It came to her suddenly that perhaps that had been the moment of transfer. . . the moment when Christ had taken it all upon himself, every sin committed by mankind on the face of the earth since the apple. All that dirt and blood at once, suddenly taken from the world and filling Hm like a black poison." p.51
Pretty sound theology.
Jo falls into a trance, fixated on the death of Christ. And then King goes to some lengths to explain how she isn't a zealot. "Her religion was a private matter; she fored it on no one and was revolted by those who did. In some of these she recognized an innocent joy which she could at least sympathize with if she could not respet. In most she saw only a kind o filthy sel-aggrandizement, the final mirror-trick by which the Prince of the World tried to turn God himself into an illusion. Bucause the Bible demanded that the followers o Christ should witness, she did so -- wasn't that why she was in the jam she was in at work? -- but she did so only when asked, or when circumstances demanded it." p.53
Okay, here's the thing: Religious people who read the Bible and fall into trances are not the normal type. Trances are usually left to the holy rollers who do it in public, or those who are a little off -- let's say, Carrie's mom. I"m sure some religous people fall into a trance -- but it's not the norm by any stretch of the imagination.
I think that what King is trying to do is create a likeable -- but serious -- religious character. One with sound theology, but who isn't pushy, judgmental and a Jerk for Jesus. It does beg the question: Does Mr. King think that religious people get up and meditate on the crucifixion until they slip into a dreamy daze of worship? Not most. Some. . .
So is Jo one of our Cannibals? That would be interesting.
The Terror:
The mystery revovles mostly around doors not opening. I'm sure this is explained much uller in the rest of the text. I only caught one reference to what was happening outside. "Daylight was starting to come out there, but Pulaski could not remember ever having seen a daylight quite like this one -- thin, watery, almost wavery. For a moment he was struk by unreality, by a sence that somehow his eyes were deceiving him. . ." p.42 Then we drop into a flashback.
King cut off on a pretty good line: "for the first time he felt something pierce his confusion and harried annoyance at being late. He found nothing welcome about the new emotion. It was fear." p.61 hehe -- that's good!
What's brutal is what a good read this is. There's a lot o energy to it. Just straight story! King explains the apartment, moves to his chracter, speeds through a normal morning, and then slams the whole story into a great problem. No one can get out. I assume by the title that they won't be going to Vons anytime soon. Who gets eaten? Who does the eating? Gosh, my appitite is indeed wetted, Mr. King!
Similarities to Under The Dome
I haven't read Under The Dome, but from the reviews the only thing the two have in common is the idea of a force field locking a group of people in.
This story had a lot of energy taking off. I can see why King got a good 500 pages out of it. I throughly enjoyed it all.
IT - Some More Thoughts
The Mini-Series:
.I think IT is a strong mini-series that pretty faithfully represents the plot and mood of the book. Like King's novel, the adaptation is uneven. I enjoyed the sections dealing with the kids, but the adults aren't as fun.
.Now here's what's funny to me: If you listen to the commentary on IT, the adult actors keep saying things like, "The kid who played me really did a good job. I can't remember his name. . ." As if the kids really had the lesser role. They may not have been famous actors, but they carried the stars in this one. It's the kids who make the movie work.
.The mini-series is broken into clear segments, each one dealing with a member of the loosers club. This makes the plot easy to follow -- easier than the book, I would submit. While IT is a fun read, it really requires a quick read. Also, the interludes and other breaks (I just read a section of 3 pages with no paragraphs) make it difficult. It's best to jut plow through two or three chapters a night.
.What I liked about the mini-series:
- Picture of childhood in the fifties.
- Georgie's attack. The sailboat, and kid in yellow slicker.
- The scrapbook opening and Pennywise taking us on a tour of Derry's ugly history.
- Like the devil, Pennywise seeks to use humans.
What didn't work:
- The werewolf. But I've already mentioned that.
- The pipes chasing the kid to the middle of the locker room shower.
What makes the story so compelling?
Two things: The characters and the monster.
First, the characters are strong. They deal with things we all remember. Abuse, bullying, fears, asthma, parents and so on. As a reader, I identify with a lot of that. If I didn't suffer abuse as a kid, I sure had friends who did. As adults it is these childhood terrors that propel them to success.
Second, the monster makes this book strong. King isn't afraid to let the story take us to some pretty scary stuff. It's not just a monster saying "boo" -- this is a monster who actually eats kids! I weary of stories where the monster turns out to be in the characters imagination or a product of their fears. . . oh, Pennywise is very real!
One blogger wrote, "The book is sweeping in its scope. Terrifying in its particulars. I actually read the main showdown in the sewer canals with a hand over my eyes, trying to block the pictures King was putting in my head. And I still can't block it." http://www.sheilaomalley.com/
IT is freaking me out
In High School I read IT, cover to cover -- I thought! Truth is, I think I read about half of IT and then trusted the mini-series to fill in the blanks. Realizing this, I returned to the book with interest.
.
Some have hinted that IT might be made into a feature length movie. I actually like the mini-series, campy special effects and all. (The warewolf was petty bad!) But as I read about the new movie, several viewers commented on the creepy sex scenes. Huh? A quick read over the second half. . . OH! That's what they're talking about!
.So what is so creepy about the sex in IT? The book transitions throughout between the Loosers Club as children -- who first confront and wound IT -- and the same group as adults. The only female member of the Losers club is Bev; a young lady with a knack for abusive relationships because they mirror her father's abuse. At the end of the novel, though hinted at throughout the second half, Bev sleeps with all the members of the Loosers Club. In a sewer. One after another. Oh, wait. . . and this is not a scene about the adult Loosers Club -- these are the children.
.As an adult Bev sleeps with Ben and Bill. And she remembers the event as a child. A memory she apparently suppressed. It was that act that deeply bonded the losers club together. It is the idea that they all lost their verginity at once -- together -- after fighting the monster that haunted their childhood.
.This definately serves to weaken the novel. I find myself realizing how good a job the mini-series did in retelling the story, and not even hinting at this. Again, it's not a brief mention in the book, it's a sub-theme.
.King once said that IT is everythng he knows about children. I have to say that there's a few things he must not know! Strange thing, I find this more discomforting than Gerald's Game, which is about a naked woman chained to a bed. But. . . Jessie is a grown naked woman.
.
Check out Beverly's Song on Yout Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8NwEq20obs
King Speaks On The Cannibals
Stephen King & Robert Louis Stevenson
.
In Danse Macabre, Stephen King notes that Robert Lous Stevenson wrote Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde at a break neck pace -- completing the novel in just three days. However, the book so upset his wife that he burned it in his fireplace! Then, regretting his repentance he wrote it again, from scratch in another three days. (See Dance Macabre, p.60)
.
If that first draft of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde existed -- would we want to read it? You bet! We would probably find that the rewrite came out much stronger, but just the same, it would be interesting.
.
The Art Of Darkness
.
It seemed that the Cannibals was lost in Stephen King's fireplace. Only mentioned briefly by Douglas E. Winter in The Art o Darkness -- but for the most part, it was gone. Until King found it (or went looking for it) in his office. He has released the first 60 pages. A rather humble act for an accomplished author! To show his work, warts and all, is pretty bold.
.
Douglas Winter's book was so good that almost every other references just checked back to Winter. The Art of Darkness was a true gift to fans at the time and still. It has proved a lasting source of information. Something King himself admits having referenced recently! Anyway, Stephen King has recently given some more history on the connection between Under the Dome and The Cannibals.
.
King Says. . .
.
King says that he lost the first draft, but the other was written in Pittsburg. Interesting to me that this was during the filming of Creepshow, since you would think he would stop writing to make a movie. But then, if King stopped for each movie -- he would never write again!
.
"I spent two months in a depressing suburban apartment complex," King says, "that became (with the usual fictional tweaks) the setting for the story. It was called The Cannibals, and this time I got a lot further—almost five hundred pages—before hitting a wall. I assumed the manuscript was lost. Long story short, it turned up—battered, and with some pages missing, but mostly complete—in the summer of 2009."
.
John MacDonald Had An Interesting Take
.
.
At the beginning of Night Shift, John D. MacDonald said that what makes King a great writer is that King has written a "stupendous number of other stories and books and fragments and poems and essays and other unclassified things, most of them too wrtched to ever publish." (Night Shift, introduction).
.
King offers the work simply for amusement, suggesting it be an "appetier" to Under The Dome. For those who enjoy seeing a writers work before rewrites and editors, this should be a treat. MacDonald would remind us that it is this earlier work that made King's soon to be published work strong.
.
A Typewriter?!
.
"I’m amused by the antique quality of the typescript," King admits. "this may have been the last thing I did on my old IBM Selectric before moving on to a computer system." Seems like I remember him saying years ago that he didn't like computers because he felt like his words were under glass. Of course, the computer would go bye bye when he wrote Dreamcatcher by hand.
"I’m amused by the antique quality of the typescript," King admits. "this may have been the last thing I did on my old IBM Selectric before moving on to a computer system." Seems like I remember him saying years ago that he didn't like computers because he felt like his words were under glass. Of course, the computer would go bye bye when he wrote Dreamcatcher by hand.
Under The Dome Links
King's Official Website
http://www.stephenking.com/library/unpublished/cannibals_the.html
http://www.stephenking.com/library/unpublished/cannibals_the.html
.
Under The Dome website
Under The Dome website
Sneak peaks of the jacket (September 21) http://promo.simonandschuster.com/underthedome/22177_bookreveal.php.
.
.
Visit Chester Mill
http://www.chestersmill.com/
http://www.chestersmill.com/
I like the Chester Mill site. Gives the feeling the author intends for the book.
Under The Dome and The Cannibals
I'm reposting this because it's interesting to me -- and adding some new info.
.
Stephen King has stated this is upcoming novel Under The Dome is really his third attempt at this story. The previous titles were The Cannibals and Under The Dome. In the Art of Darkness, King states, "I worked on a book called The Cannibals–I had started it five years before, but it was called Under the Dome then. It didn't get finished either time."
.So what can be known about this unfinished novel? According to Stephen Spingensi's The Lost Work Of Stephen King, The Cannibals is about 100,000 words hand written novel. Spingensi reports that it was written while King was on the set of Creepshow. Remember King in Creepshow? The picture above is King in character on the set of Creepshow. Somehow the idea that he was thinking about Cannibals at the time seems totally believable!
.What is interesting about The Cannibals is that it was written in 1983. King was already a successful author. This is not just stuff from his highschool days that he dumped, it was the serious work of a published author.
.King told douglas Winter in the Art of Darkness, "I've got about four hundred and fifty pages done and it is all about these people who are trapped in an apartment building. worst thing I could think of. And i thought, wouldn't it be funny if they ended up eating each other? It's very, very bizarre because it's all on one note. And who knows whether it will be published or not."
.Without having read The Cannibals or Under The Dome, I can only mention on the surface a major difference appears to be that The Cannibals limited itself to an apartment building, while Under The Dome is set on the landscape of an entire town (Chester's Mill).
.
September 13, 2009 Update: Scribner has stated that an except of The Cannibals will be released on September 15th. It will be posted on stephenking.com. Obviously I'm interested in the original story -- but of geater interest is always the finished work that has the authors approval.
Is Everyone A Writer?
Often the interesting thing abouta novel is the main characters occupation. In Grapes of Warth they were farmers. In a John Grisham novel, they are usually lawyers. I'm not sure how people got money in a Dicken's novel! Obviously Arthur Conan Doyle books are about a detective. Ken Follett books are a little bit of everything; priests, monks, peasants, pilots and so on.
.
But Stephen King often falls back on one occupation: The writer. Of late he has tried to ofer us the painter, or comic book writer (Cell and Duma Key). Here's a quick, off the top of my head list of King books with a writer at the center:
1. Salem's Lot.
2. The Shining
3. The Body
4. IT
5. Misery
6. The Tommyknockers
7. The Dark Half
8. Desperation
9. Bag of Bones
10. The Dark Tower.
Of course, King is the author found in the Dark Tower.
.
Notice that as King got more successful, for the most part, so did the writers in his books. Until they arrived at. . . King himself! (Surely unplanned) But in Salem's Lot, Ben is not exactly a big time bestseller. In The Shining, it's more Jack's hobby. Gordy is a writer in The Body, and in IT Bill is pretty successful. Then we come to a string of novels about authors: Misery, Tommyknockers and The Darkhalf -- but it's not until Desperation that we meet the crazy successful mega bestseller.
.
I find myself wondering if this is a strength or a weakness of King's. Does relate that he's out of touch with the guy who works at Taco Bell? Does anything scary every happen to plumbers? Electricians must get spooked every now and then, right? There was, once, allegedly, a teenage grave digger -- but I don't think copies of that exist.
.
Is it that King loves his work and wants to give the reader a peak inside --or could it be that a writer is a safe starting place for him.
.
A few notable exceptions: I don't remember a writer in The Stand. That's significant since the cast was so huge. I guess writers weren't immune to the super flu. Pet Sematary is about a doctor. That's interesting because it was such a personal novel for King. Also don't remember one in Needful Things. Again, interesting because it has a huge cast of characters. And, Castle Rock had put out it's fair shae of authors. The Green Mile is about prison guards, and Cell comes close to an author with the comic book thing.
..
But Stephen King often falls back on one occupation: The writer. Of late he has tried to ofer us the painter, or comic book writer (Cell and Duma Key). Here's a quick, off the top of my head list of King books with a writer at the center:
1. Salem's Lot.
2. The Shining
3. The Body
4. IT
5. Misery
6. The Tommyknockers
7. The Dark Half
8. Desperation
9. Bag of Bones
10. The Dark Tower.
Of course, King is the author found in the Dark Tower.
.
Notice that as King got more successful, for the most part, so did the writers in his books. Until they arrived at. . . King himself! (Surely unplanned) But in Salem's Lot, Ben is not exactly a big time bestseller. In The Shining, it's more Jack's hobby. Gordy is a writer in The Body, and in IT Bill is pretty successful. Then we come to a string of novels about authors: Misery, Tommyknockers and The Darkhalf -- but it's not until Desperation that we meet the crazy successful mega bestseller.
.
I find myself wondering if this is a strength or a weakness of King's. Does relate that he's out of touch with the guy who works at Taco Bell? Does anything scary every happen to plumbers? Electricians must get spooked every now and then, right? There was, once, allegedly, a teenage grave digger -- but I don't think copies of that exist.
.
Is it that King loves his work and wants to give the reader a peak inside --or could it be that a writer is a safe starting place for him.
.
A few notable exceptions: I don't remember a writer in The Stand. That's significant since the cast was so huge. I guess writers weren't immune to the super flu. Pet Sematary is about a doctor. That's interesting because it was such a personal novel for King. Also don't remember one in Needful Things. Again, interesting because it has a huge cast of characters. And, Castle Rock had put out it's fair shae of authors. The Green Mile is about prison guards, and Cell comes close to an author with the comic book thing.
I guess what I'm saying is that in some of my favorite novels, King passed up the temptation to use a writer as the main character.
.
Wealth also seems to be an issue. I can't think of many stories where the chracters are really poor. Money seems to be an issue King would rather not deal with -- so make the main character a successful writer! For one period as my wife and I read King books in audio form, we would look at each other with each book and say, "Another writer!"
.
Wealth also seems to be an issue. I can't think of many stories where the chracters are really poor. Money seems to be an issue King would rather not deal with -- so make the main character a successful writer! For one period as my wife and I read King books in audio form, we would look at each other with each book and say, "Another writer!"
The Stephen King Collection
One of my favorite purchaces this summer was the Stpehen King Collection. It is a set of four DVD's. For the price, this a great set. Two of the films are collectors editions, meaning that they have special stuff on the DVD.
.
Favorite Movie in the set: Pet Sematary. This ia great movie! Fantastically dark --it is an unapologitica horror film. Don't you hate to watch a horror film that feels like it really needs to be a morality tale, or give us something good. This is just a straight forward dark story.
.
The DVD includes a commentary by Mary Lambert, who would later direct Pet Sematary 2. Her commetnary is interesting and she remains enthusiastic about the project.
.
Also included are: "tephen King Territory" , "The Characters" and "Filming the Horror." These three are realy just one documentary, behind the scenes stuff, that have been broken up for easier access. (Or to make it look like there's ore special features)
.
Actually, I bought the entire set for this one movie. (It cost the same on Amazon at the time).
.
The Dead Zone is also a collectors edition. Special features include: Memories from the Dead Zone, The Look of the Dead Zone, Visions and HOrror from the Dead Zone, the Politics o the Dead Zone and the theatrical trailer.
.
Graveyard Shift is the clunker in the set. A real dud in my opinion. This movie, unlike the short story in Night Shift, is not at all scary. It does not have intereting characters. Come on, another story about a drifter -- one more David Banner. Most of all, the movie isn't intersting. Honestly, rats getting bigger and bigger fails to be interesting because size isn't what makes a rat scary. I know, the same idea was present in the original story, but it was scarier on paper. A thousand rats are scary -- one big rat, not so much.
.
Silver Bullet surprised me. I liked this movie a lot! It's not scary, but who can expect the adaptation of a calander to be scary? But it is good story telling. The chracters are interesting and I was surprised by how good the special effects were. At times the movie is touching, if not a little bit sappy.
Stephen King Graphic Novels
I must admit that I don't really "get it" when it comes to the Stephen King graphic novels. I have the Dark Tower set, but the list is getting pretty big. Talisman, The Stand, Dark Tower and on and on.
.Of course, if I don't read the comics -- it leaves me not really knowing what's up with them. It appeared to me that much of the Dark Tower, so far, has been set in Rolands youth -- dealing with scenes illuded to in Wizard and Glass, but not played out. Do they follow the same storyline? I don't know. Are they the books simply transferred into a graphic formula. . . once again, my knowledge fails!
.I want to enjoy the graphic novels, but I just can't get into them.
.
Best excuses:
1. My eye isn't sure where to fall on the page.
2. I don't know which bubble to read first. (Really. This feels like a math problem)
3. I feel kinda overwhelmed at the turning of each page.
4. Comic books are for kids, right? I keep wanting to call them Comic Books. My wife reminds me that they are Graphic novels, but I just can't get over the feeling that this is kids stuff. I do see a lot of references to them as "comic books." But if my wife says Graphic novel, and she's who cooks me dinner. . .
.This might be a sign of age. I didn't watch cartoons as a kid, and didn't read comic books. So it's hard to get into.
.
I would ask, if anyone wants to answer:
- Are these Graphic Novels worth it?
- What's the appeal?
- Do they follow the same storyline as the books? Are they simply the books in a new form?
- Someone, sell me on this!
What makes you think I have any choice?
Stephen King was responded to the all too oten asked question -- why do you write what you write -- by saying, "What makes you think I have any choice?"
.That resonated with me. Because as a conservative -- a pastor -- a sometimes republican -- I am often asked why I read what I read. Namely Stephen King, no one objects to my CHarles DIckens ollrection or O'Henry books. Just King. People will glance at the bookcase full of first edition King books and say, "So, uh. . . you like Stephen King?"
.Why do I read King? The truth is, I don't know fully. I've liked King since I was a teen. Sometimes he disappoints -- sometimes (rarely) he doesn't deliver (try the end of the Dark Tower. I was duely warned, but still I was left saying: I read 7,000 pages I get here!). But still, I read on and on. My new response will be, "What makes you think I have any choce?"
The History Of SKIN
SKIN: Stephen King Information Network
The following is by Lori Zuccaro. I'm reprinting it from a 2 page typed document -- I found it very interesting.
.
They say that there's a time and place for everything. well, if that's true, it's obviously the time for Stephen King newsletter. The last King newsletter was publishedbetween 1985 and 1989. It was called Castle Rock. In one of the last issues of this newletter, Ray Rexer wrote a poem titled, "I don't care what people say, Castle Rock is here to stay." It has been said many times that SKIN is the next Castle Rock. Maybe it is. . . I don't know, but what I do know is that it's an honest attempt to simply combine the knowledge of many people who admire and study King's works and share them with others.
.
I don't like people to call it a "Fan Club" or a "Fanzine" beause I think there's much more to King than stardom. In fact, his stardom is the least interesting to me personally. What I like about King is his love of writing and his honest attempt (and success) of putting thoughts onto paper and making them come alive. It's his literary abilities that I try to incoperate in SKIN and try to avoid being too fanish. OF course, you can't avoid all of this, and not all of that is necessarily bad. It's okay for us to idolize someone who is extremely talented. But it's not okay to distort the true talent someone has and create a Hollywood image of them. Anyway, let's move on to the heart of what SKIN is and where it's come from.
.
SKIN (Stephen King Information Network) began in April, 1994 on a computer online system called America online. One night I sat down and typed a message on one of the bulletin boards dedicated to King. I wrote and asked people who wanted to participate to email me any news or comments they have regarding King. I then promised to summerize the responses on a monthly basis.
.
That was the beginning of what I didn't know at the time, a Stephen King newsletter. I had many many responses. People wrote and asked me questions and asked to be included on my mailing list. I got so much mail that I decided the best way to summerize this news would be in a newsletter format. So I did it. I sent the first issue in May and had loads of wonderful letters asking for more SKIN. Once July came around, I had people asking for subscriptions to the newsletter, especially those who didn't have access to America Online. Things moved very quickly. . . and still are I might add! I established a subscription fee that would simply cover the cost of producing the newsletter, mailing it, etc. During the following month I also made business cards, letterheads, registered the name of the newsletter, consulted the copywright office, etc. I guess you could say things were pretty official and busy once July started.
.
I had the fortune of meeting many wonderful people who helped me more than I can say. This newsletter would not exist if weren't for the many devoted members and friends of SKIN. One of my first members, Charlie Fried has become an indisposable friend and contributor. He's helped me decide on subscription fees, how distribute SKIN, contributes monthly articles, plus hundres of other things.
.
In September, Louise Dragon created the logo of SKIN. It made its appearance in the October issue and is now a sort of trademark you could say. Then I began to have the pleasure of corrospondance of Steve Spignesi, George Behm, Michael Collings, Dave Hinchberger, Stu Tinker and too many other to mention. My point is that I didn't create SKIN by myself. It was created by many people who wrote to me often with ideas, news, comments, etc., and contributed time and love to the newsletter. SKIN has become more than an internet of people who enjoy King and his works. It has become an internet of friends which will last a lifetime. I have had many compliments on the newsletter and hope that all will continue to enjoy it as much as I enjoy producing it.
http://www.librarything.com/author/zuccarolori
Stephen King From A to Z article: (this is a good book)
http://books.google.com/books?id=2BcECkYB7uoC&lpg=PA195&ots=XaI3xq7qdj&dq=Lori%20zuccaro%22&pg=PA195#v=onepage&q=Lori%20zuccaro%22&f=false
The overlook says: "From 1994 to 1995, SKIN (Stephen King Information Network) produced eighteen newsletters. SKIN began as a newsletter on the internet, but soon discovered that people with no access to computers, also wanted to receive current King information. With news, illustrations, and articles by authors Stephen Spignesi, George Beahm and others. Each newsletter is stamped Certified Skin Original' as issued.'"
http://overlookconnection.com/product_info.php?products_id=1312
The following is by Lori Zuccaro. I'm reprinting it from a 2 page typed document -- I found it very interesting.
.
They say that there's a time and place for everything. well, if that's true, it's obviously the time for Stephen King newsletter. The last King newsletter was publishedbetween 1985 and 1989. It was called Castle Rock. In one of the last issues of this newletter, Ray Rexer wrote a poem titled, "I don't care what people say, Castle Rock is here to stay." It has been said many times that SKIN is the next Castle Rock. Maybe it is. . . I don't know, but what I do know is that it's an honest attempt to simply combine the knowledge of many people who admire and study King's works and share them with others.
.
I don't like people to call it a "Fan Club" or a "Fanzine" beause I think there's much more to King than stardom. In fact, his stardom is the least interesting to me personally. What I like about King is his love of writing and his honest attempt (and success) of putting thoughts onto paper and making them come alive. It's his literary abilities that I try to incoperate in SKIN and try to avoid being too fanish. OF course, you can't avoid all of this, and not all of that is necessarily bad. It's okay for us to idolize someone who is extremely talented. But it's not okay to distort the true talent someone has and create a Hollywood image of them. Anyway, let's move on to the heart of what SKIN is and where it's come from.
.
SKIN (Stephen King Information Network) began in April, 1994 on a computer online system called America online. One night I sat down and typed a message on one of the bulletin boards dedicated to King. I wrote and asked people who wanted to participate to email me any news or comments they have regarding King. I then promised to summerize the responses on a monthly basis.
.
That was the beginning of what I didn't know at the time, a Stephen King newsletter. I had many many responses. People wrote and asked me questions and asked to be included on my mailing list. I got so much mail that I decided the best way to summerize this news would be in a newsletter format. So I did it. I sent the first issue in May and had loads of wonderful letters asking for more SKIN. Once July came around, I had people asking for subscriptions to the newsletter, especially those who didn't have access to America Online. Things moved very quickly. . . and still are I might add! I established a subscription fee that would simply cover the cost of producing the newsletter, mailing it, etc. During the following month I also made business cards, letterheads, registered the name of the newsletter, consulted the copywright office, etc. I guess you could say things were pretty official and busy once July started.
.
I had the fortune of meeting many wonderful people who helped me more than I can say. This newsletter would not exist if weren't for the many devoted members and friends of SKIN. One of my first members, Charlie Fried has become an indisposable friend and contributor. He's helped me decide on subscription fees, how distribute SKIN, contributes monthly articles, plus hundres of other things.
.
In September, Louise Dragon created the logo of SKIN. It made its appearance in the October issue and is now a sort of trademark you could say. Then I began to have the pleasure of corrospondance of Steve Spignesi, George Behm, Michael Collings, Dave Hinchberger, Stu Tinker and too many other to mention. My point is that I didn't create SKIN by myself. It was created by many people who wrote to me often with ideas, news, comments, etc., and contributed time and love to the newsletter. SKIN has become more than an internet of people who enjoy King and his works. It has become an internet of friends which will last a lifetime. I have had many compliments on the newsletter and hope that all will continue to enjoy it as much as I enjoy producing it.
http://www.librarything.com/author/zuccarolori
Stephen King From A to Z article: (this is a good book)
http://books.google.com/books?id=2BcECkYB7uoC&lpg=PA195&ots=XaI3xq7qdj&dq=Lori%20zuccaro%22&pg=PA195#v=onepage&q=Lori%20zuccaro%22&f=false
The overlook says: "From 1994 to 1995, SKIN (Stephen King Information Network) produced eighteen newsletters. SKIN began as a newsletter on the internet, but soon discovered that people with no access to computers, also wanted to receive current King information. With news, illustrations, and articles by authors Stephen Spignesi, George Beahm and others. Each newsletter is stamped Certified Skin Original' as issued.'"
http://overlookconnection.com/product_info.php?products_id=1312
Betts Bookstore -- A Home Run!
.Since we live in California our contact with Betts bookstore has been solely by phone -- we call in an order, and they faithfully fill it. We find their pricing and knowledge right on. Of course, sometimes ebay is chaper, but often people on the internet don't reall know what they're working with.
.The other day my wife bought me a "Stephen King grab-bag." A what?, I asked. What's a grab bag? "They were cleaning out their back room and put a bunch of stuff in a grab bag. It's all Stephen King, you'll like it," she promised. I was very excited because I knew it was coming from Betts, and they don't let down -- ever. I knew that if my wife paid $75 for a "grab-bag" then we would get more than our money's worth.
.When my wife talked to Stu he said, "This should get there on Friday." He was right. The box was heavy, which excited me. So what was inside? I was afraid I had just paid for some old shirts. No -- it was a box full of. . . stuff. Lots of stuff. Odds and ends. It took a while to process. Soon our kitchen table was full as we spread out the items. Our children gathered round, interested in all the things coming out of the box. We were thrilled.
.A few things:
- Posters.
- Postcards.
- Bookcovers (paperback and hardcover).
- Newsletters.
- Ticket stubs.
- Wizard and glass booklet.
- Photo's.
- The Dark Tower comic book series.
- IT promotional booklet.
- Paperwork. Like legal briefs and more.
- Bookmarks.
- Tickets from Stephen King readings.
- Lawnmowerman VHS cover, and stickers to cover up King's name.
- The Collector, a new introduction by S.K.
- Phantasmayoria. (Bookelt/newsletter by George Beahm)
- Promotional brochure of the stage production of Misery.
- Tickets to the halloween showing of Carrie.
- Large set of "The Red Letter" (a newsletter booklet by Greg Htchkiss).
- Trading Cards.
- Dustjackets.
- SKIN, Stephen King Information Network newletters.
- Ads clipped or torn from papers.
- Magazine pages.
And, one more t
hing: A scrap book. Who's scrap book? Charlie Fried's, I think. Actually, I'm pretty sure. It has his picture, and lots of persnal notes to himf rom editors. Charlie Fried was a well known super-collector. I read an interview with him in The Essential Stephen King. So there I sat with this little scrap book of really, really cool stuff -- and I'm thinking: Wow, Charlie Fried put this together! (In other words: Someone know knows what they're doing).
The Scrapbook is full of his personal notes. A lot about his trip to Maine, and ersonal pictures of things in Bangor related to King. A personal picture of King's home and the sandpipe. It is, to me at least, priceless. Not just that it can't be bought in a bookstore, but the feeling that it was assembled by someone who really thought highly of King. I thumbed through it once to figure out what it was, then kept going back to it, ralizing it was the real prize in the box. A big thanks to Betts for making this available.
Hollywood's Stephen King
I've been watching and collecting Stephen King movies this summer. It's been good for my wallet in a tough economy. While King's books might increase in value, the same is not true of his movies.
.I loved the colorful, well written "Creepshows."
.I also have a copy of Tony Magistrale's "Hollywood's Stephen King." This is not easy reading! Magistrale's sentences drag on and on, leaving me absolutely frustrated. By the time he finds a spot to land a period, I forgot the subject of the sentence.
.Awkward!
.
Here's a sentence that drove me nuts, "It is unfortunate that a television movie that wrestles so convincingly with topics such as child abuse, the compulsive urge of certain children to bully others who are perceived to be weak or different, the bonds of redemptive symapthy that develop among adolescents who share the struggle to overcome the labels of looser and outsider, and the effort to reinvigorate adulthood with the recollected spirit of childhood essentially abandons these issues in a conclusion unworthy of the seriousness these topics inspire." p.189 This book is full of such examples! It leaves me screaming.
.
Stephen King Theologian
.
Worse, Magistrale is like a Stephen King theologian. In ministry I spend a lot of time reading serious, heavy, work on the Bible. Often a theologian will see things in the Biblical text you're pretty sure God himself didn't see! The same is true of Magistrale. He seems to see things that neither King nor the movie makers would have seen. (In theology that's called eisegesis. I call this eiseKingsis). In particular the articles on Dolores Claiborne and Kubricks' The Shining come to mind. There are pages and pages anlyzing the Shining's bathroom scene. Actually, I always found that scene rather boring.
.
Concerning Dolores Claiborne -- might Mr. Magistrale be reading too much into the movie when he says: "The fully exposed well in the earth, certainly a vaginal image, is linked to Dolores (full of sorrow) Claiborne (clay-born: earth mother) while the "death" of the sun, the latter associated with masculine archetypes in Greeka nd Roman mythologies, underscores the smbolic destruction of the father patriarch." p.78
.
WHAT?!!!! The well in the earth is a vaginal image? That's what King had in mind? Might we, maybe, perhaps be reading into the text? Reminds me of theologians who grasp "gap" theories out of Genesis 1. The well is a vaginal image? Sorry, I'm lost on that one. I loved, absolutely, loved Dolores Claiborne (the book, not the movie), but I must admit: I missed the vaginal image of the well!
.
My wife said: "Uh, honey, I think you bought a college text book." Then pitty the poor college student who has to endure this. Poor guy goes in thinking: "This class is going to be fun--" but he's in for a big bummer surprise.
.
By the way, while I'm whining, may I just mention that the paragraphs in this book also seem to be -- well, uncomfortably long. May I recommend to Mr. Magistrale a copy of On Writing? I know he read it, because it is cited more than once. Perhaps he might reread the more techincal sections, though.
.
The Scholar Has Spoken!
.
I peeled back the price sticker on the back of the book mumbeling, "Who is this guy?" He's professor of English at the University of Vermont. Oh. That explains a lot. I'm a college grad, and I've got to say: I keep books from college up on my shelves in the office. They don't get read. Why? Because books written by college professors are -- well -- a little dry and hard to read.
.
May I suggest: "Chewie, take the professor to the back and plug him in to the hyper drive!"
.
The problem is that Magistrale actually has some interesting ideas. I did, after all, keep reading. But I had to press on, for sure! He does a very good job explaining why various King films fall short -- or all out fail. The interview with King in chapter 1 is also insightful.
.
Magistrale writes, "In 1986 Michael Collings published The Films of Stephen King, the only book length scholarly analysis ever published on King's movies. Collings' work, now out of print, is, of course, restructed to films released prior to 1986. [Uhhh, did anyone catch all those commas?] Four outher magazine-books, oversized and lavishly illustrated with movie stills, have been published since the Collings volume appeared; Jessie Horsting's Stephen King At The Movies (1986), Jeff Conners Stephen King Goes To Hollywood (1987), Ann Lloyd's The Films of Stephen King (1993), and Stephen Jones's Creepshows: The illustrated Stephen King Movie Guide (2002). Each of these texts is primarily concerned with satisfying the average fans curiosity about the making of King's movies -- cataloging technical data, plot line evolution, credits, budgets, on-location gossip, King's own evaluation of the finished product -- essentially, the data behind the production histroy of each film. While certainly valuable and interesting on their own terms, none of these recent publications offers much by way of serious film interpretation." p.xii
.
So, in other words, the other books weren't scholarly enough. They were just for us laymen who like to know the behind the scenes gossip. While Douglass E. Winter might praise Magistrale's writing, this King fan is going back to Creepshows. Seriously, who needs scholarly discussion about a Stephen King film! But I must admit, none of the other books caught on to the earth as a vaginal image in Dolores Claiborne.
.
Do we really need a scholar to help us understand Miximum Overdrive? No! Again, his best work is in simply (though nothing is simple here) explaining why King's work sometimes fails to deliver on screen.
.
The reason I dug into Stephen King's work as a teenager when I wouldn't read anyone else is because he's easy to read! He uses words I'm used to. He writes sentences that may not be perfect English, but they drive the story. His dialogue is spot on -- people really talk that way! (Well, people don't talk that way to me, but I'm a pastor).
.
Unfortuantely this is book is like an Ed Wood movie. Big idea, but poorly executed.
Hodder & Stoughton Summery Of UNDER THE DOME
This is King's British publishers summery of Under The Dome:
.
Celebrated storyteller Stephen King returns to his roots in this tour de force featuring more than 100 characters – some heroic, some diabolical – and a supernatural element as baffling and chilling as any he's ever conjured.
Celebrated storyteller Stephen King returns to his roots in this tour de force featuring more than 100 characters – some heroic, some diabolical – and a supernatural element as baffling and chilling as any he's ever conjured.
.
On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester's Mills, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener's hand is severed as “the Dome” comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when – or if – it will go away.
.
Dale Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens – town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician's assistant at the hospital, a selectwoman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing – even murder – to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry.
.
But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn't just short. It's running out.
.
With some of the most spectacularly sinister characters King has ever imagined and a driving plot, UNDER THE DOME is Stephen King at his epic best. This book will thrill every reader who's ever loved a novel by King.
.
Tommyknockers Tour
Emily Burnham writes int he bangor daily news that the ictional Derry, Maine is really based on the Queen City. "Think of Derry as Bangor's evil twin," she writes. What’s not known by most, however, is just how specific many of the references in King’s books are to many Bangor landmarks and locations."
For $12 a person, visitors can take the Tommyknockers tour. It features numerous spots in Bangor that have direct connections to parts of King’s writings. Here are some highlights:
1. "The Langoliers": Bangor International Airport.
2. "Pet Sematary": Mount Hope Cemetery.
3. "IT": Burnham reports: "The stops on the tour range from major landmarks to the mundane. For instance: there’s a manhole at the corner of Thomas Hill Road and Union Street, right by Shawn T. Mansfield Baseball Stadium, which is exactly the manhole through which King envisioned Pennywise, the demonic villain in “It,” emerging.
4. "IT": The forrested area near the Kendukeag Stream was the inspiration for the Barrens, a broken down section of Derry.
5. "IT": Base Park's Paul Bunyan statue. (Came to life in IT)
6. "Insomnia": The Bangor Opera House is used in chapter 12.
Burnham quotes Scott Levy: “We always get a bus full of tourists from Hawaii, and, interestingly enough, the question I always get asked is, ‘So how cold does it actually get in the winter?’ People know King’s works and the movies, but they’re as interested in the history of Bangor as they are the King aspect.”
http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/108567.html
For $12 a person, visitors can take the Tommyknockers tour. It features numerous spots in Bangor that have direct connections to parts of King’s writings. Here are some highlights:
1. "The Langoliers": Bangor International Airport.
2. "Pet Sematary": Mount Hope Cemetery.
3. "IT": Burnham reports: "The stops on the tour range from major landmarks to the mundane. For instance: there’s a manhole at the corner of Thomas Hill Road and Union Street, right by Shawn T. Mansfield Baseball Stadium, which is exactly the manhole through which King envisioned Pennywise, the demonic villain in “It,” emerging.
4. "IT": The forrested area near the Kendukeag Stream was the inspiration for the Barrens, a broken down section of Derry.
5. "IT": Base Park's Paul Bunyan statue. (Came to life in IT)
6. "Insomnia": The Bangor Opera House is used in chapter 12.
Burnham quotes Scott Levy: “We always get a bus full of tourists from Hawaii, and, interestingly enough, the question I always get asked is, ‘So how cold does it actually get in the winter?’ People know King’s works and the movies, but they’re as interested in the history of Bangor as they are the King aspect.”
http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/108567.html
Fairgoers get a King-size Treat
Lilja's library posted this, which was originally posted on fenceviewer.com. Very interesting!
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Written by Stephen Fay
Thursday, August 6, 2009 at 10:09 am
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ELLSWORTH — Donnie Dow of Ellsworth was suitably attired in his Red Sox shirt and Sea Dogs cap Sunday afternoon as he waited in the Ferris wheel line with his family at the Bangor State Fair.
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The guy behind him, also a Sox fan, struck up a conversation about their mutual obsession.
“We’re standing there,” said Angie Dow, Donnie’s wife, “my kids are in front of me and my husband’s behind me chatting about the Red Sox.”
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Angie turned to see who her husband was talking to. “Oh my God,” she thought, “that’s Stephen King.”
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Others in the jostling line were taking cell phone pictures of Bangor’s favorite son and asking for his autograph. But Angie’s daughters didn’t know what the big deal was.
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“My kids have no idea who it is,” Angie said of their daughters Maddie, 12, and Delaney, 9. Neither is a reader of Stephen King fiction.
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So Maddie asked him: “Why are you famous?”
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“I write books,” said he.
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“What kind?”
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“Scary.”
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Uh oh.
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“My daughter is totally against scary things,” Angie said.
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The line moved forward and King asked his new friends if anyone had a cell phone.
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“I have to call my wife,” he explained. “I’ve got to make sure she knows I’m still alive.”
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The Dows produced a phone, King made his connection and then explained what he was doing in the Ferris wheel line.
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“I’m just trying to see if I can see my house,” he told the Dows.
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They finally were at the head of the line and a car opened up. Angie turned to the world famous author.
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“Stephen? You with us?”
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“I’m with you,” he replied.
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The Dow girls and their two friends, Rebeckah Trowbridge, 12, and Whitney Pierson, 8, took a shine to the author of “The Shining.”
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“The girls took him in and before we knew it he was part of our group. They instantly befriended him,” Angie said.
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“Where’s your house?” the girls asked as the wheel was at its highest. “I can’t see it from here,” King said.
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“They talked about how scary it would be to get stuck on the Ferris wheel, or to get struck by lightning while we were up there.”
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Ride over, Angie expressed her appreciation to King for accompanying them.
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“I thanked him. He thanked me for letting him borrow my family and cell phone,” Angie said. “Stephen kindly autographed the kids’ wristbands and took a picture with us. My daughter, Maddie, who does not enjoy anything scary, left him with this advice: “Stop writing scary stories. Write about fairies or ponies.”
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“He had a good chuckle,” Angie said. “A truly nice man.”
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http://www.fenceviewer.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=15150:Fairgoers%20get%20a%20King-size%20Treat&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=166
.
Written by Stephen Fay
Thursday, August 6, 2009 at 10:09 am
.
ELLSWORTH — Donnie Dow of Ellsworth was suitably attired in his Red Sox shirt and Sea Dogs cap Sunday afternoon as he waited in the Ferris wheel line with his family at the Bangor State Fair.
.
The guy behind him, also a Sox fan, struck up a conversation about their mutual obsession.
“We’re standing there,” said Angie Dow, Donnie’s wife, “my kids are in front of me and my husband’s behind me chatting about the Red Sox.”
.
Angie turned to see who her husband was talking to. “Oh my God,” she thought, “that’s Stephen King.”
.
Others in the jostling line were taking cell phone pictures of Bangor’s favorite son and asking for his autograph. But Angie’s daughters didn’t know what the big deal was.
.
“My kids have no idea who it is,” Angie said of their daughters Maddie, 12, and Delaney, 9. Neither is a reader of Stephen King fiction.
.
So Maddie asked him: “Why are you famous?”
.
“I write books,” said he.
.
“What kind?”
.
“Scary.”
.
Uh oh.
.
“My daughter is totally against scary things,” Angie said.
.
The line moved forward and King asked his new friends if anyone had a cell phone.
.
“I have to call my wife,” he explained. “I’ve got to make sure she knows I’m still alive.”
.
The Dows produced a phone, King made his connection and then explained what he was doing in the Ferris wheel line.
.
“I’m just trying to see if I can see my house,” he told the Dows.
.
They finally were at the head of the line and a car opened up. Angie turned to the world famous author.
.
“Stephen? You with us?”
.
“I’m with you,” he replied.
.
The Dow girls and their two friends, Rebeckah Trowbridge, 12, and Whitney Pierson, 8, took a shine to the author of “The Shining.”
.
“The girls took him in and before we knew it he was part of our group. They instantly befriended him,” Angie said.
.
“Where’s your house?” the girls asked as the wheel was at its highest. “I can’t see it from here,” King said.
.
“They talked about how scary it would be to get stuck on the Ferris wheel, or to get struck by lightning while we were up there.”
.
Ride over, Angie expressed her appreciation to King for accompanying them.
.
“I thanked him. He thanked me for letting him borrow my family and cell phone,” Angie said. “Stephen kindly autographed the kids’ wristbands and took a picture with us. My daughter, Maddie, who does not enjoy anything scary, left him with this advice: “Stop writing scary stories. Write about fairies or ponies.”
.
“He had a good chuckle,” Angie said. “A truly nice man.”
.
http://www.fenceviewer.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=15150:Fairgoers%20get%20a%20King-size%20Treat&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=166
G.I. King
According to CNN's Ethan Trex, Stephen King's son Owen loved G.I. Joe (as a kid). In an article titled "Suprising stories about 15 bestselling authors" Trex states: "When Hasbro introduced the new G.I. Joe Sneak Peek in 1987, the character's promotional materials stated that his real name was Owen S. King, a gesture that may have stemmed from Owen's dad helping to create another G.I. Joe character."
Why Do A Story On Stephen King?
Jay Kernis tells of working to convince Don Hewitt to do a story on Stephen King. When Hewitt asked why, Jay responded: "He's so successful, he can be whoever he wants and at this point in his life, he seems to want to be a teenager. He rides motorcycles around his town. He built a baseball stadium behind his house. Oh, and he plays in a rock band with other writers."
http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/TV/08/19/kernis.don.hewitt/index.html?iref=newssearch
http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/TV/08/19/kernis.don.hewitt/index.html?iref=newssearch
The Lawnmower Man
I found this article interesting on the lawsuit King filed to have his named removed from the Lawnmower Man. http://everything2.com/title/The+Lawnmower+Man
King lost the suit, but producers still removed his name. Somehow the movie got a sequel -- go figure.
Here's what I don't understand: They can make a movie of Lawnmower Man, and even give it a sequel, but no Eyes of the Dragon?
King lost the suit, but producers still removed his name. Somehow the movie got a sequel -- go figure.
Here's what I don't understand: They can make a movie of Lawnmower Man, and even give it a sequel, but no Eyes of the Dragon?
The Shining -- Alternate Ending!
I bumped into a few Stephen King quotes about the Shining that I had not previously seen. Both were in an older booked called Stephen King Goes To Hollywood, by Tim Underwood.
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I intend to someday write up a review on the Shining, but I'll just start by typing up some notes. The book is complex, I think, and absolutely Stephen King at his best. This is not the book that got me started reading Stephen King, but it is certainly the kind of read that makes the fan say, "Ahh, yes, that's why I read King!"
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This first note is the most interesting to me since it reveals a different original ending for the Shining:
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"The Shining' was open right until the end. I didn't know what was going to happen until the very end. The shows in the book. The original plan was for them all to die up there and for Danny to become the controlling force o the hotel after he died. And the psychic force of the hotel would go up exponentially. . . But I got connected with the kid. In the first draft of the book Jack beats his wife to death with the mallet and it was blood and brains and everything. It was really just terrible and I ouldn't do it. I coudln't leave it that way." S.K. Goes To Hollywood, p.76
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I'm glad that's not how the book ends -- but I sure would like to read that draft! Sounds like fun. It is interesting that King writes without an outline.
Graveyard Shift
Usually when making a Stephen King movie a top concern is how to incorperate all the elements that made the novel so good. Thus the reason for concern about the upcoming IT movie -- and the reason so many King books are turned into mini series (Salem's Lot, The Shining, The Stand, Desperatin).
.King's novella's often suffer from the opposite problem: How will movie makers stretch a short novel into a whole movie? Often this is done with great skill -- All of the Different Seasons stories come to mind. HOwever, sometimes the magic just doesn't happen.
.That brings up Graveyard Shift. I watched this again last night with some enthusiasm. That was not long lived. The tagline was: "Stephen King took you to the edge with The Shining and Pet Sematary. This time......he pushes you over." Well, no! The movie is not at all scary. The characters are not interesting, and unfortuantely the special effects weren't very special.
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It's tough in a movie when you really don't care who dies and who makes it to the end. At least in the Incredible Hulk, when the drifter gets hired you can expect a cool green monster.
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The opening scene is rather delightful. After a worker kills a rat, the other rats stare knowingly at him -- watching as mama rat approaches.
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If Stephen King hadn't written this story, I doubt anyone would have chosen to film this story. The stories power is the imagination -- rats in dark places really is a scary idea that King masterfully drives home.
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The Duck Speaks actually gave this book a very good review. http://badmovieplanet.com/duckspeaks/reviews/2002/graveyard-shift In fact, they liked it enough that it made me want to go back and see if I was watching the same movie! Zack Handlen writes: "After rereading the short story and rewatching the movie in rapid succession, I can safely say that as an adaptation, this one plays straight pool. The source material is a dark, morbid piece with very little in the way of humanity or light, and the movie, touches of dark comedy aside, is much the same. All of the original plot is there, not only the names- and even more importantly, an attempt is made to capture that wonderful “tone” that everyone always talks about King’s work having. It’s a fairly successful attempt, surprisingly; it only misses in the scares department, and even then, it’s not too painful. "
Pet Sematary -- Not too scary for Stephen King
Just finished watching Pet Sematary -- again. This time the collectors edition. Which has wonderful documetnaries attached. And, a revealing comment from Douglas Winter. He reveals that though Pet Semetar was billed as a story too scar for Stephen King, the truth is a little more complicated. (As I suspected!) Winters claimed that King wanted to get a new publisher, so Pet Sematary was a means of finalizing the deal.
.The book, and movie, are in my opinion King at his very best. My wife said, "I thought The Stand was your favorite King book." I said, "No! The Stand isn't a King book. The Stand is beyond King -- beyond any writer." (She gave me a: Get real, look.) "Really! The Stand is among those great books that transcend genre or character or anything else. It is one of thosebooks that retells human history and where we might be going. It doesn't count as a King Novel."
.But Pet Sematary is classic King! Straight, unashamed, dark horror. The story is simply crafted and perfectly executed. The movie gives more clarity to the ending, but well represents the book in plot, characters and mood.
.The book is not "uneven" like some of his work (IT, Dreamcatcher, Lisey's Story) but moves forward with singular purpose. The movie is, however, uneven. Scenes the director really thought "worked" I thought stumbled. For instance, Zelda's death scene feels more like melodrama than anything scary. I've seen lots of people die. . . and they don't die like that! None of them do, ever. It's not scary because it's so detached from life. The movie too quickly runs to horror cliches instead of looking for what is truly scary. The good in the movie does overcome the melodrama, but make no mistake, there is a little bit of overacting and hamming it up here.
.Of course the book wasn't really too scary for King to publish! He has often said that he doesn't really write for publication -- he writes for himself. He writes what makes him happy. However, the tag line "a book too scary for Stephen King" was good.
.
Like the Shining, what makes this a strong novel is it's look inside the inner workings of a family. Louis' struggles with his father in-law and his wife's phobia of death. And, of course, the death of a child. When my grandmosthers sister died, she said: I just wanted to go dig her up! King plays on that well known emotion of the grieving: Can't we just go dig them up? Can't we pull them back to life?
Creepshow
My daughter and I watched Creepshow this evening. Commedy meets horror -- what can I say? I hated it -- the 9 year old loved it. What I thought was lame, she thought was scary. What I thought was bland, she thought was funny. What I said was stupid, she said was great.
Seeing King on screen in "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill" was entertaining. He really hams it up.
I did also iked Something To Tide You Over. Revenge is sweet -- it reminded me to a clumsy version of Dolan's Cadillac. The movie has a very 80's look to it.
Read some interesting notes:
Seeing King on screen in "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill" was entertaining. He really hams it up.
I did also iked Something To Tide You Over. Revenge is sweet -- it reminded me to a clumsy version of Dolan's Cadillac. The movie has a very 80's look to it.
Read some interesting notes:
- The boy at the beginning of the film is King's son Joe. Who is now a novelist in his own right.
- King carried an action figure Greedo onto the set. I guess because he's green. Stephen King meets Star Wars. . . but does it have to be on the set of Creepshow?
- While on the set King worked on The Cannibals, writing by hand -- it has been rewritten as Under The Dome. I pulled this movie out because I had just read King wrote it while working on this film.
Most Prolific Author
Who is the world's most prolific author? Glancing at my bookcase, I would have guessed easily Stephen King. I have all of DIckens' novels, but they only take one shelf -- and not even all of the shelf. While Kings work takes five shelves and I don't own all of his work. But, I'm worg! Stephen King is not the most prolific author. . .
- Philip M. Parker. Well. . . sort of. He has invented a machine that collects information and generates books. Like, uh, 200,000 of them. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/14/business/media/14link.html
- Isaac Asimov wrote over 250 books. http://www.snarkout.org/archives/2002/06/14/
- Mary Faulkner was credited by Guinness Book of World Records as having written 904 books. She was a South African writer wo wrote under si pen names. She died the year I was born. http://www.funtrivia.com/askft/Question105055.html
- John Creasey pubished over 600 novels. Strange, he also died the year I was born. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Creasey
This begs the question: Just how many books has King written? About 54. Depends on what gets counted: Novels only? Short story collectons? What about Silver Bullet? Do popup books count? How about comic books -- sorry, I mean graphic novels. What is impressive about King is not simply the number of books written, but the variation.
Alton Brown's Misery
Watching Good Eats tongith and was startled when I realized this entire episode is a spoof on Misery's Annie Wilkes. Episode 74, "this spud's for you" is built on the premise of Alton's car breaking down and he goes looking for help. He knocks on the door of Frances Andersen who announces "I'm your biggest fan!" Delightful.
Introductions
I think it's a great credit to Stephen King that I often enjoy his personal notes on a book as much as the book itself. This usually comes in the form of an introduction or afterword. The chatty introduction at the beginning of night Shift is a personal favorite. The first I read was the two part introduction to The Stand. King powerfully explained why he was issuing a new version of the book, and even asked that part of the introduction be read before the purchase. That's actually pretty bold.
.Most recently the introduction to Nightmares and Dreamscapes caught my attention. King not only admitted to believing just about anything. . . but revealed that if there were to be anymore collections they would have to contain all new stuff since he was dipping deep into his reserves.
.These introductions have also included books on tape. (Yes, they started out on TAPE not CD). I remember listening with interest as King nervously gave an introduction to the Gunslinger and explained why it is a benefit when an author reads his own work.
.These introductions are much more interesting than the common interview. Interviews tread over the same questions and get, frankly, boring. But King has the ability to sit you down and talk right to you. Just move that interviewer out of the way and it gets a lot better.
.The explanation "Why i was Richard Bachman" was wonderful! And I even enjoyed the note at the end of Dreamcatcher explaining that the book had been written out by hand with a pen.
.Of course, you have to get used to some things when you read an introduction by King.
1. Your name is now "constant reader."
2. King is more transparent than most artist. It can be unnerving.
3. King assumes you agree with him and his views on life.
4. King is not about to give you a normal introduction full of typical "thank you's."
King's introductions are strong enough to resell books. That's how they got those paperback copies of Kings early books to be repackaged and sold as oversized paperbacks. King fans will buy a book again for a new introduction (like, uh, Stephen King Goes To The Movies).
.If King never gave us On Writing, there would still be a pretty easy means of putting together an autobiography just by his introductions.
Under The Dome -- The Incredible Shrinking Book!
Just wondering why this book is smaller every time I look it up. Did an editor go crazy with a red pen or something? King originally said the book was over 1,500 manuscript pages, which of course only indicates it is very long. But it is still a mystery why the page count varies so much. Are these special editions? No tall of them!
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King described the novel as "very, very long", saying "I tried this once before when I was a lot younger and the project was just too big for me". (wikipedia)
- "Weighing in at a whopping 1,120 pages" Guardian
- "Page Count: 1088" Cemetary Dance, s.k.com, overlookconnection -- and others.
- "Format: Hardcover, 1038 pages" walmart.com
- "the finished book will have 896 pages" Lilja's Library
Betts Bookstore comments on publishing practices
This is posted on Bett's website. Just as a personal note, I totally agree with them. I also fell for the below described "$75.00 rip off edition" and worse, found out after ordering it that it's much, much cheaper on Amazon. As explained below, Scribner's practices certainly set out to benefit the big dogs in the business and cut out the little guy.
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"Since Scribner has announced three states of this book, they have changed plans faster than most people change socks. As of today (07/31/2009) it looks like there will be the $35.00 trade edition, a $75.00 rip off edition that will have colored end papers (big whoop!), a slipcase, and some cards of the illustrations. Then the biggy is of course, the signed limited edition.
.
And that brings up this: Scribner has now decided that the this $200 signed edition is carrying no discount, cannot be ordered by stores, and will only be available for sale to consumers online at either King's web site or Simon & Schusters/Scribners. Great news you say. But, as a business trying to make a living selling books, it is a huge slap in the face, be it us here at Betts Bookstore, or a Borders or Barnes and Noble store. If we have to compete with the very people we buy the books from, why bother? As it is we compete with the Costco's and Sam's Clubs. So we will make a decision about selling Under The Dome at all. We probably will just hold our nose and do it." http://www.bettsbooks.com/
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what makes me hang my head is when Betts calls the book i just paid $75 for a "rip off edition." why? Bill Gates telling you your computer isn't any good. . . he's in a position to know. If anyone knows what's valuable in the world of S.K., Betts does.
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"Since Scribner has announced three states of this book, they have changed plans faster than most people change socks. As of today (07/31/2009) it looks like there will be the $35.00 trade edition, a $75.00 rip off edition that will have colored end papers (big whoop!), a slipcase, and some cards of the illustrations. Then the biggy is of course, the signed limited edition.
.
And that brings up this: Scribner has now decided that the this $200 signed edition is carrying no discount, cannot be ordered by stores, and will only be available for sale to consumers online at either King's web site or Simon & Schusters/Scribners. Great news you say. But, as a business trying to make a living selling books, it is a huge slap in the face, be it us here at Betts Bookstore, or a Borders or Barnes and Noble store. If we have to compete with the very people we buy the books from, why bother? As it is we compete with the Costco's and Sam's Clubs. So we will make a decision about selling Under The Dome at all. We probably will just hold our nose and do it." http://www.bettsbooks.com/
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what makes me hang my head is when Betts calls the book i just paid $75 for a "rip off edition." why? Bill Gates telling you your computer isn't any good. . . he's in a position to know. If anyone knows what's valuable in the world of S.K., Betts does.
Books About Stephen King
I really enjoy books about Stephen King's work. When a novelist creates a body of work as large as Mr. King has, it is interesting to see how it ties together. And King has been intentionally drawing his work closer and closer together over the years.
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Here's a short list of some of my favorite book about Stephen King:
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Best biography: Stephen King, America's Boogy Man. Hands down the best, in my opinion. Focuses primarily on King as a writer, leaving his private life. . . private! The biography has a nice flow, Beahm is not given to long annoying pauses with childhood and distant relatives.
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Best Companion: The Stephen King Companion, again by Mr. Beahm. As a teenager I tore through this book. I think I like these because you don't have to read them in any order. . . just jump around through the book and look into the articles you like. King of like digging througha scrap book. I look forward to the new companion by Bev Vincent. And. . . whatever the new book Lilja's Library is putting out (through Cemetary Dance). I also like Doughlas Winter's the Art Of Darkness. Personally i am not a big fan of Shape under the Sheets. the material is awkwardly organized and it is, frankly, too big to manage.
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Best book on the Dark Tower: I think two books are important in this area: The Road to the Dark Tower and The Stephen King Universe. In the first book, Vincent skillfully outlines the novels and puts the story together. It is indeed exactly what it promises to be. The Stephen King Universe is unique to me. I had given up on Stephen King completely, even given away my books. Then I read The Stephen King Universe and everything clanged. I didn't know all the stories were connecting together through the Dark Tower! I had obviously noticed something was up with Wizard and Glass and The Stand (duh). . . but it took this book to point out the obvious. I got so excited, I dived back into Stephen King. I think this one book brought me back to a writer I really liked and showed me a depth I had missed.
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Best book about King's movies: Creepshows. This one gives lots of pictures, moves chronologically and is full of interesting facts. Though it is getting outdated now.
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Interesting books include: The Essential S.K. , The Science of S.K.
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