What does Veeky Forums think of Stephen King?

What does Veeky Forums think of Stephen King?

actually p. gud desu

He's good at what he does. Can be a bore and very stupid at times.
>inanimate things are scary, guys!
But if you're looking for simple stories with simple prose and is easy to follow all around, he's alright. There's a reason he sells well... I find his characterization in the shining to be one of his best, but even then it is burdened by his long-winded ways and plagued by stupidity at times. Still an ok book.

What every 21st-century writer aims to be. Shiting out random ideas and brings in tons of money. God bless him and his boring fucking books.

"Writing. A memoir of the craft" was the best thing I ever read by him.

purveyor of pitiful penny dreadfuls contributing to the decline of western society and men. a distraction from more cerebral pursuits, celebration of cheap thrills, a writer made for an age of instant gratification and individual leisure. the literary equivalent of the video games that have already corrupted so many promising boys. left-wing radical and accordingly a druggie.

He was a decent writer when he wasn't sober.

...

quite, *puffs on pipe*

>posters unironically saying he's a good writer
>poster who says the truth gets mocked
When did plebs infect this board?

Veeky Forums is so contrarian that popcorn writers like King are praised, but actual high-brow artistic authors get shut on

He goes from being actually good to being
ridiculous. I really enjoyed stuff like Salem's Lot and The Dark Tower series, but most of his recent works are garbage

Sounds like a guy whose work I should read over whatever canonslaves peddle.

I like his stuff, The Shining I’d say is his best. Though I’m more partial to Robert McCammon.

Not true and you're a fag.

Unironically one of my favourite human beings and a genuine American Dream, rags to riches success story.

You can cherry-pick bad writing from any of his books- there's plenty of it- but then again, you can cherry-pick bad writing from pretty much anyone's work.

But if you want examples of just how good he can be, read something like the section of The Stand where the Trashcan Man sets fire to a giant oil storage tank. Or the little backstory in IT that describes how a psychopathic ten-year-old decides to strangle his baby brother because it's noisy.

He's not a popcorn writer or the "Big Mac" of fiction. If I had to compare his books to food, it'd be something along the lines of pie and coffee from Norma's in Twin Peaks. Something simple and unpretentious but very well executed and extremely satisfying

He's king, bro, but his literature is shit.

Stephen King could have been a good writer if he:

*plotted his books before he started composing them so he could actually land his third acts
*did more research
*didn't rely on Boomer dad grossout humor
*composed more carefully with a better ear, perhaps in a slightly higher register on the whole
*experimented more with a wider range of narrative voice
*actually revised his work
*submitted to actual editors (and let his books be deep structurally edited)
*cut and condensed his books down for length by about a quarter on average
*stopped inflicting his liberal and anti-Christian political views on his readers
*only published about a quarter of the (better) books he's written rather than just pumping out reams of shit
*more carefully managed his rights so such horrible adaptations were never made of his works
*stopped being ineffectively "edgy"
*innovated (even in his genre) rather than just writing hackneyed potboilers

All that said, he definitely has an amazing talent and it's not like his better books are outright bad. He's just a mediocre writer overall.

King is normie canon

An unreadable hack, both for his tiresome, cliched plots and for his unremarkable prose. He's got a lot of fans, but then so does Grisham.

Best canon then.

>waah he has an opinion that doesn't subscribe to my world beliefs

Pathetic

You must be completely illiterate if you thought that was his criticism

Why is everyone praising the shining? I thought it was the movie that was so well executed.

I've read a few, and I must say that his characterization isn't terrible, especially for mass market. Unlike Patterson/Ludlum (same character every time) or Koontz (Same characters with different names) King creates a new person each time. They're essentially based on cookie cutters of what a man would/ could/ should be with little innovation to that end, rarely illuminating, but their responses and emotions in given events are realistic and thought out. His prose is actually quite good at times, usually in his first few pages.

I personally don't like his endings, most notably Cell and Under the Dome. They felt like a deus ex machina, which is understandable considering his time tables for any given piece.

I am singularly impressed with what I believe is deserved success. He's no Bierce, Lovecraft, Poe, but I'd put him at least at Robert W. Chambers tier.

>Not for prose or literary construction, mind you, but for overall quality and definitely cultural impact.

Handsome

I think you should legitimately read more of him, you'll find he's not that bad. Distinctly American, given, but his writing can be inviting and worth the while. Shawshank Redemption and Green Mile are particularly good.

The other day, I had time to kill. I set up shop in Barnes and Noble, waiting on a ride to a holiday. I drank dark coffee of the burnt sort, and read what in memory I take to be Sir Francis Bacon's collected Essays. I left an index card with what I believed to be a clever and cutting poem next to the Milk and Honey stand. Overall, a pretty Veeky Forums afternoon. To kill some time, I picked up a copy the first book in King's Dark Tower series. From the first page, I was legitimately and wholly engrossed, and ended up spending the better part of the next 2 hours totally entranced. Had it not been for my time table and the price tag of the book, I think I would have read it cover to cover.

Take a look. Just because it was written in the last 20 years doesn't necessarily make it shit.

Wrote several enjoyable books and makes shitty wanna be patrician authors mad because he’ll be studied in a hundred years while their literary works will be forgotten.