Stephen King: Pulp or Literature?

oliveira8

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pigeon_of_doom said:
oliveira8 said:
You talking about Lovecraft right?
Sorry to invalidate pretty much your entire post, but I was talking about King. I appreciate Lovecraft's influence. Thanks for the explanation anyway.
Dang! I was so commited to thinking you were talking about Lovecraft... :____(

But for King. Well I don't see him as a big influence, he is doing what others have done after all.

But he is a great writer. Sure he made plenty of bad/average books and he has that horrible flaw of doing rushed endings but...

Salem's lot, The Stand, IT, The Dark Tower, Pet Semetary and The Shining are great reads. also I recommend everyone that is an aspiring writer(no matter what you want to write) to read Stephen King's "On Writing". Its a great read for every aspiring writer and even non-writers.
 

pigeon_of_doom

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oliveira8 said:
[ also I recommend everyone that is an aspiring writer(no matter what you want to write) to read Stephen King's "On Writing". Its a great read for every aspiring writer and even non-writers.
Not sure, even if I was interested that he would be someone I'd seek to emulate really. But as someone studying English Lit, I'm a bit of a book snob.

I disagree that King is a great writer, although he has done some good stuff.
 

oliveira8

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pigeon_of_doom said:
oliveira8 said:
[ also I recommend everyone that is an aspiring writer(no matter what you want to write) to read Stephen King's "On Writing". Its a great read for every aspiring writer and even non-writers.
Not sure, even if I was interested that he would be someone I'd seek to emulate really. But as someone studying English Lit, I'm a bit of a book snob.

I disagree that King is a great writer, although he has done some good stuff.
Well "On Writing" is a good read. Even if you like King or not. Its..hmm...like you are talking to a writer in person. You get to read some of his memories, him talking about his books and the experience of being a writer.

Its a good read and a window to a writers world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Writing

Wiki link. Don't dismiss it just cause its from King.
 

pigeon_of_doom

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oliveira8 said:
Wiki link. Don't dismiss it just cause its from King.
Well his success speaks for itself, so I might check it out next time I'm trying to pen a best-seller. I'm sure he has some interesting insights. It's quite well regarded according to that wiki link, so I may actually check it out.
 

dontworryaboutit

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Broken Wings said:
dontworryaboutit said:
Why do the two have to be mutually exclusive?

Can't we have some pulpiture?
I'm gonna agree with this guy because he came up with an awesome word, and I love differences coming together. Also he's one of the few authors to call Stephanie Meyer out and call her work bullshit, these reasons may be skin deep put trust me I have a deep love for his work.
First off, thank you. And secondly, you can add Guillermo del Toro to your list of authors to call out Stephanie Meyer.
 

ThrobbingEgo

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Stephen King wrote The Stand. What more could you want from the man?

Would you prefer he spends six pages describing a plot and character irrelevant feature of a landscape, a la Bram Stoker?
 

cartzo

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Guitarmasterx7 said:
cartzo said:
quote: popular things are popular for a reason, because their good.
First of all, there's a "sometimes" at the beginning of that quote.
Second, off the top of my head
Fred, Twilight, Nigahiga, Jonas Brothers, the whole emo subculture, Recent Sonic games, Rap, Paris Hilton, Shia Lebuff, Lindsay Lohan, I could continue all day.

On topic, Stephen King is much too wordy for me. Books in general I find myself getting bored with because too much text is wasted on descriptions, and honestly I just don't give a shit. I care about who's there, what's happening, and the setting only to the point of "Night club" or "New York city street." Matt Reilly's "Temple" is the ideal amount of description to me. It's got about 20% Description, 30% dialogue, 50% action. The average book is probably about 50% description, 30% dialogue, 20% action. A Stephen King book has about 90% description and useless backstory, 7% dialogue, 3% action. 1000+ pages for what could have easily been accomplished just as well in under 300.
if you dont give a shit and books are too wordy for you then why are you on this thread.
 

Jharry5

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I've never really understood the flak that King gets from certain people. Some of his books - such as 'The Stand' and 'The Dark Tower' series are really good. I'm studying English Literature at uni, and I'd rather read a book by King than half of the stuff on my course...

Yes, sometimes he does go into too much detail but every writer has a flaw.