Stephen King (Poll)

according to a friend, he's the best writer ever. according to me, EVER is a bit far-fetched. i am currently reading cujo by the way, about a rabid dog who terrorizes people in the vicinity. preety decent, after 150 pages. certainly nothing great till now atleast. but the tone of the book, king depicts rawness in a refined way that's what i liked. any other opinions?
p.s. several of his movies have been converted into outstanding movies like shawshank redemption(imdb ranks it best movie of all times), green mile etc.


*EDIT BY ARROW*
(NOW I've added a poll, so things make sense. Daone, Ace asked you to justify your actions because you had specifically mentioned POLL in the topic name but not included a poll in the topic. You probably didn't know how to do it...In which case, you should ask someone how it's done..)

Why in the world is the name "Stephen King Poll" ?

Specially when there is NO poll.

Justify actions please.

Okay, when u say that, do you mean you adore king so much that there's no question of poll or do you mean this is not exactly a poll format and that's why you so pompously say 'justify your actions'?

Arrow made it a poll.

and frankly, because it wasnt a poll to begin with. >_>

This is not exactly a poll format

right. so i am finally done with CUJO-a stephen king creation. in brief, it talks about a mother and her son trapped in a car by a rabid dog. they can't get out, they are starving, help is unyielding and the novel is mostly about their efforts for survival.
since it was my maiden king venture, let me tell you some things that struck me about this novel.
1. simultaneously flowing tracks style (like dan brown). i've always liked that style PROVIDED you know how to engage the reader. dan rocks in it. king, ahem ahem, not so much(hey, i am deducing this only from 1 novel. maybe he's better in others)
2. the main theme that i have listed is a great one. but the other simultaneous ones, kind of seem a bit faded.
3. he has a knack on depicting rawness in a refined way. liked that.
4. informal way of prose. ekdum bindaas! pretty interesting and appealing.
5. this book made me sleepy. maybe that because of the increased food intake i've developed in recent times but mostly, readers might agree, he has a slow take off. and its actually so sluggish, i didn't even touch it for 3 days at a stretch once.
6. it wasn't exactly horror. but maybe my friend erred there while introducing me to the book.
7. the way he so remarkably portrays evil, he does the same with the soft moments with equal elan. the climax was really touching.
so i won't really call king the best ever. its a sky high praise for any writer, i believe, and thus unrealistic too. the 2 reasons why i've now got Different Seasons(supposed to be one of his best) are because the last 50 pages in Cujo were elaborately engaging. though he could've made them crisper but great nevertheless. the other reason is Shawshank Redemption. Now, don't tell me you haven't heard of the movie. get an imdb life, for God's sake!

OH MY GOD! what a frigging mind-blasting book! i can never ever think of such flawless concept, able to do such great execution and have such impact on anyone with my writings. nope, no f-ing chance. and this differs from others in more than one ways- it picks up from the start itself and goes on inflating the standards of excellence at rocket fast pace. last 40 pages of this short story(hardly 100 pages) are hai main mar javan worthy. but you know, no matter how great the book is, its not perfect. i mean, the impact could have been magnified.
the book is about a person wrongly convicted for murder, meted out a life sentence and how he escapes the prison after 27 long years. its about perseverance, patience and hope. its been written from the convict's friend's point of view. and that's what could have worked out better. because he is a 3rd person and not the sufferer, there is less scope of inserting deep emotions. you know the protagonist's angst, you can't feel it. sad.
now for the film. ranked best ever by imdb. i disagree, but one of the top 15 for sure. what's great about it is its one of the rare films that can match up to the book. and its not copied straightaway. there are less badass elements in the book. in the film, there is original and blatant evil. that's where it triumphs and can rise upto the level of book. but then, because its not 100% copy, the comparisons aren't parallel, they deflect away subtly.
bottomline- you can't afford to miss this one out.

yeah i've heard he's pretty good. i even picked up a book by the dude. REGULATORS. it's kinda crappy says the reviews but i'd read it anyways,... after DESPERATION.

oh and by the way, Stephen King used to write under the name of RICHARD BACHMAN in his early years. and in the game SILENT HILL, the streets of the town are named after horror authors and one of them is called "Bachman Street".

oh and about "Shaw Shank Redemption",.... it's the top rated movie over at IMDB just and FYI

firstly, a big wooo-hooo! finally amalga stirs out of its hibernation mode!

"Stephen King used to write under the name of RICHARD BACHMAN"? wow, never knew that. but i don't understand why people would do that? if you are good, let people know its YOU who is good, not your alter ego, who by the way, people don't even know is YOUR alter ego.
anyway, shawskank is from DIFFERENT SEASONS- a collection of 4 novellas almost totally like disjoint sets(wow, i still remember something from OMKAR THE SCIENCE STUDENT ERA) all brilliant in their own way. the second story in it is APT PUPIL, a story that the most disturbing i have read till date. it talks about a former nazi officer who's now living under a false identity but is discovered by a 13 year old kid who blackmails him into telling his nazi times exploits then subsequently develops on what effect recounting the stories has on the old man and the kid- they start discreetly murdering people.
king's surely genius in his narratives- has a, repeat, distinctly appealing informal writing style. and his themes, concepts and executions, mostly about badass stuff- real gr8 stuff.

Well I'm sorry to say that I voted for 'nay' 'cause Stephen King spooks me to death.I was reading Dreamcatcher a coupla weeks ago and I just had to stop midway.It's too gross and too scary in places.And it was depressing as hell.Sure I'll finish it some other time but not now.
Apart from that I've read Christine,Cycle of the Werewolf and a bit of Insomnia.I donno but somehow a SK book drains the life outta me.And I also seem to detect this sexist attitude in all his protagonists and central characters.I don't like the way in which he portrays women.

MayFlower wrote:It's too gross and too scary in places.And it was depressing as hell

hear hear! it is, honestly. reading apt pupil got me so down, so very depressed, i actually went and saw the presumed-to-be-girly love aaj kal and liked it too. the guy is fabulous but too much of evil really gets you down. and king is a badass!

Anyone read "The Breathing Method"? It's a short story by Stephen King that scared the piss outta me when I read it (a long time ago, though).

Arr0wHeaD wrote:Anyone read "The Breathing Method"? It's a short story by Stephen King that scared the piss outta me when I read it (a long time ago, though).

yea, i did. couple of days ago. its the last story in Different Seasons. a short story of around 70 pages. deals with an unmarried but determined don't-give-a-shit kinda pregnant lady and her progress through her various stages of pregnancy told as a narrative by her doctor. it IS scary and disturbing. extremely. something that might make you puke. i haven't dared to read the last remaining story in the novel ever since.
@arrow: you read it long time ago? how could you handle that then? damn, they don't have a hats-and-roses-at-your-feet smileys here.

EDIT by Saint: We dont have that smiley, but I think this will do :

if there is any obsessed stephen king in amalganation than its meeeeee!!!!!i'm like obsessed with his books.and omkardaone was talking about me only i recommended cujo to him.why i consider him as the greatest hmmm...no idea but one thing is for sure king's books hit you hard really hard.mayflower was ryt its gross his books r scary as hell.if a person is depressed and he stars reading king den he is a gonner.any normal person can go under depression.but is that his fault no he is a horror writer and you knw he is doing one hell of a job here.when they tagged him as the greatest horror writer and critics as usual saying he cannot write anything else he wrote different seasons boom!!!!yeah they critisized him for that also said apt pupil was crap but you know wat?apt pupil is a masterpiece.the environemnt that king created no match!!!!i'm reading desperation atm!!and its frigging depressing.already done with carrie(rise to fame),cujo,different seasons(the best),the stand(massive book),dolores claireborne(again a masterpiece) etc..yup read the breathing method really nice novella haan.
read the body(stand by me movie) for sure.
under the dome releasing in november yeahhhh!!!!!!
so everyone bow down in front of the king coz he has created hell and fear in the minds of ppl like no1 could.haha while reading king keep ur lights on otherwise u will piss in ur pants!!king rulez!!!!!!

I read one of his books called Cell and I thought it was really well written. I've never read something like this before but I really liked the intense action that was happening and I couldn't put it down.

i bought a Stephen King book recently, called Dreamcatcher. Got it for a mere 100 bucks - first hand. ^__^

I was going to start reading it, but after you guys are saying how scary his books are...I wonder if I should start or not.

is the movie cell based on his book?
the movie was abit dumb though!

Aceviper wrote:i bought a Stephen King book recently, called Dreamcatcher. Got it for a mere 100 bucks - first hand. ^__^

I was going to start reading it, but after you guys are saying how scary his books are...I wonder if I should start or not.

Hey don't give up on reading a book even before going through a few pages.It's always better to trust your own judgement when it comes to books and movies...
Dreamcatcher sure is scary but at the same time it is also tremendously intriguing.
All I can say is Stephen King is the kind of author who doesn't make a half-hearted attempt at spooking you.He does a fairly good job.So brace yourself for that.
Besides his books always keep the readers guessing as to what will come next.They haven't been best-sellers for nothing you know.
But yea if you're either feeling low or stressed then steer clear of SK.