"Since you read Stephen King, you must be a freak because Stephen King is." NOT TRUE!

[S.K. Reader]

Many people may think that, but they are so crazy. I'm glad to meet many other "freaks" like me who love SK and his books. Here is something that happened which you might find intresting from stephen king. I found it on http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/entertainment/stephen-king-thinks-his-life-is-as-weird-as-his-books_1006443.html if you want more information.
“I’m in the supermarket one day with my cart, and there’s this woman, about 95, the New York Post quoted him, as saying.
She says, ‘I know who you are. You write those stories, those awful horror stories . . . I don’t like that. I like uplifting movies like that ‘Shawshank Redemption.
So I said, ‘I wrote that.’ And she said, ‘No, you didn’t.’ And that was it. Talk about surreal. I went to myself, for a minute, ‘It’s not very much like my other stuff. Maybe I didn’t write it!’

I thought it was hilarious to see it, so I thought you would enjoy it.
<Stephen King RULES!!!>

[GNTLGNT]

Yeah, it's a crack up! I always enjoy people's addle-pated patter when they meet the King(and don't know it)...kinda like me, having been in radio for so many years-I still have people come up to me and say-"You sure don't look like you sound!"-not sure whether to laugh or be cheesed off...

[RoamingInsomniac]

Ahhh yes....Self questioning. My favorite thing to do. And, often.

[bobledrew]

Does that mean if I read the Bible I'm God?!

[RoamingInsomniac]

Hmmm...I don't THINK so. However, the people who WROTE the Bible weren't actually God. So.....

[fushingfeef]

So true, some people try to put a stigma or at least a weirdness on SK books, meanwhile he is the most popular author so there must be a lot of freaks out there! I remember when our local newspaper posted an article about my over-the-top Halloween decorations I put in our front yard every year. They had to mention that I am "a big fan of Stephen King", as if that explained why I was doing this!

[ChickenStu]

My Mum often says that "he must be a bit twisted". I'm like "that's bollocks!" King's not twisted, he's just good at what he does! I mean, he looks and sounds like a completely normal guy!

[king family fan]

I found this rather funny. The everyday occurrence to real life people. I will continue to be a freak as long as king continues to write.

[kingfan70]

Haha! Guess I'm a freak:eyebrow:...i can live with that.

[SCano]

How does that saying go, "The Freaks shall inherit the earth...?"

[Debbie61]

Does it make me a "super freak" if I read one (or more) of his books more than once?? (I'm okay with that)

[Lencho_of_the_Apes]

Does it make me a "super freak" if I read one (or more) of his books more than once?? (I'm okay with that)

"... that Carrie won't take home to mother..."

[MistahJ]

Stephen King doesn't write horror. He writes about the ordinary relationships that people have with each other in the midst of extraordinary events...

That said I run into things like this all the time...

[muskrat]

Heck, Ol King is some of the tamer stuff I read, Heh heh...

[Montreal$ingle]

Hello. I'm new here. Since this is the oldest thread I could find pertaining to introductions, I decided to start here. Nice to meet you, hope you feel the same. As for the "freak" thread? No, I don't think Stephen King is anything near that ballpark. He is a great writer, however, and I've come here to visit this place and find out more about him. Also, I'm no good at using these parenthetical writing tools on these sites, so if this comes out screwed up, you can certainly blame me. Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday guys:)

[Moderator]

General introductions go in the Newbies Start Here (http://www.stephenking.com/forums/forumdisplay.php/93-Newbies-Start-Here) Forum. :smile2:

[ArthurKidd]

Ha ha I love this thread!

My commute to and from work each day is about 3 hours, so I read on the train to keep myself occupied. I'm always amazed at the random people who comment on me reading a Stephen King book - I never hear anyone commenting on other people's non-SK books! One guy said what was a young girl like me doing reading Stephen King (I'm 31!), and another was intent on telling me how bloodthirsty SK was!

I tell you what, there are plenty of nutters about, and I seem to meet them all on the train or at the train station :eek2:

[steve-w]

Well, if being a fan of SK stories makes you a freak, then I'm a freak and I don't mind admitting to it!!!

[bugaboosy]

when i was younger and a nanny in england my bosses friends were actually worried about their kids being near me as i read SK and watched horror movies and god forbid ...i went to rock concerts!!!
so obviously after sacrificing the youngest to beezlebub and dancin naked in the moonlight out in the back yard whilst listening to music played backwards they were convinced there was nothing wrong with me lol
(kidding on the last bit - only danced like that when drunk but whole different post!!)

[JohnDalglish]

Well, if being a fan of SK stories makes you a freak, then I'm a freak and I don't mind admitting to it!!!

Hi,

Me too.

Yay!

Long days and pleasant nights

[rosematters]

Freaks Unite! oh wait here we all are already-lol! You can call me anything as long as I have a SK book to read. Maybe some of these name callers should try actually reading a book and realizing that everyone has different preferences. Take a hit and expand your mind :)

[debs319]

Well, I have to say that there have been so many times over the years that he has completely FREAKED me out! If I am sitting here, having just registered on the stephenking.com website then he must have impacted me in a pretty powerful way. I believe I've read just about everything and then something else comes along after a hiatus in our reader/writer relationship and I am jumping out of my skin again. Just finished reading Full Dark, No Stars which I started last night and barely breathed through. I don't know what freaks me out more, his imagination or my fascination with it. If I had to chose one word it would have to be compelling. I am compelled to continue, to know, to see.........even when I compellingly ask myself why the hell am I reading him again!?!?! As I finished reading today, I yelled and threw the book down on the sofa! How do you scream in writing? How do you express the freaked out nauseous feeling in your gut? The best is trying to explain that you're not freaked out by what you've read now that you've finished reading but to explain the fact that you're freaked out because the experience is over...........................oh to see through someone else's eyes, their imagination.....

[Tinahorve]

I was so glad to find this forum. With only a few "casual" Stephen King fans in my life, this is great. I do sometimes wonder what feeds the "dark side". He is such a magnificent story teller and that is what I tell people about his books. Always about the story.

[Evil Queen]

Hmmmm...So I'm a freak, eh??
That's fine by me....*Kissing my Evil Scepter* But let it be known that I'm an Evil Queen Freak!!...& will not stop until I get my Evil King!! Aha!ha!ha!ha!ha!.... :cool2:

[SamanthaS]

I've never been called a freak because I read SK. I've only had people make me feel like I'm stupid for liking him, as if I'm not an intelligent person because I don't read "more serious literature". Anyone else had this response?

[Ivan]

Probably i'm a freak i planned my next holiday this September to New England ( and i'm living in Alkmaar Holland). This will be my last big travel because i need an liver transplantation and we set this on hold/wait just to make this trip/vacation. So has anybody suggestions what we have to see, we will be visiting a lot of places King wrote about and be driving trough Maine for 3 weeks.
Maybe someone knows some nice things we havent thought of.
Ivan

[Connie Reader]

I have never, not that I recall anyway, felt anyone looked at me strangely because I read SK. Only my mom, but I was nine or ten and had she read IT, I KNOW she would have taken it away....heeheehehe...sneaky with the books, I got away with it. Also, considering she let my brother read Mist aloud during a black out, how could she take it away...
*veering back on course*
so, yeah, if it's a freak they see, it's a freeeeek I be. I'm a-okay with it. Maybe THEY are the freaks. The scared slow mutants who have crippled their imaginations. shame.

[flwrchld]

Ok, I really wanted to start my own thread but it seems there are too many others like this so here goes my gripe:

To help keep track of exactly what book I've read and in what order I decided to post a picture of that book as my facebook profile pic. I made an album called "What I'm reading" and the caption beneath each photo is the title of the book and the dates I read it. It's just different and something to actually remind me to not spend so much time on facebook each day. When I see that photo I think to myself, "geez, get off of here and do something with your life." OK... so now the crap begins...

"Ooooh, you know, reading SK books is a pathway to darkness." WTH? Is that a serious freakin comment? Have these people ever opened a book in their lives?

I got a message yesterday saying something to the effect that I've put myself in a position now to be burned at the stake! HOLY COW!! For reading?

I swear, I live around some of the most ignorant, illiterate people in the country; people who have never picked up a book in their lives and would really be accomplishing something if they could sound out a Dr. Seuss book and here they are telling me how I'm going to go to hell for reading Stephen King.

You look on their profile pages and where it lists their favorite book they either have, "The Bible," or "I don't read." Now I don't know about anyone else here but even the most plain written English version of The Bible is difficult to understand and you can't tell me that those yahoo's who state they only read the Bible have ACTUALLY read it (and understood it). I'm an avid reader and have read it, studied it, and still found myself lost.

I'm so mad I could spit fire (hmmm, maybe I am turning demonic :oo:) that such an ignorant, moronic bunch of jackals would stoop so low as to send messages to me saying I should burn at the stake and go to hell.

I want to write them back and tell them that SK's books are so much more, that the characters he writes are deep, the stories are so much more than the title or the cover art. I want to tell them about how I had tears when I neared the end of Insomnia when reading certain names (characters from other books - Pet Sematary, Dark Tower) because the character and place connections between so many books are so strong and those connections can just reach out and grab your emotions. SK's books bring out every emotion in a person, but I get a lot of laughter. Some people see a movie or two and think blood and horror. The books have raw emotion.

I know it's useless to point out any of that to these people. They are a narrow-minded lot who will sit in their own little corner and never open a book (not even that Holy Bible they talk about... why? because they don't know how to read, not literally, but they can't understand the written word in a complex context).

Thanks for listening to me get this off my mind.
Love to you all!
Suzi

[Connie Reader]

I'd rather read the word of Kas-ka Gan over the word of "god" anyday.

[~Ally~]

Aww shucks flwrchld; there are many ignorant people in the world, but saying you deserve to be burned at the stake for reading King is ridiculous. If these people are supposed to be your friends--which I'm assuming since they have access to your FB page--then maybe you need to find new friends. They sound not only ignorant and extreme in their beliefs, but also dangerous in their thinking. Don't surround yourself with people like that.

Always remember you can come here to discuss your interest in King and his works--leave them to the delights of Facebook where they are free to update what they ate/drank and when they go to the toilet/restroom--but don't ever be made to feel ashamed for your choice of reading material. At least you are reading, and enjoying it, don't allow others to ruin that for you.

[flwrchld]

Aww shucks flwrchld; there are many ignorant people in the world, but saying you deserve to be burned at the stake for reading King is ridiculous. If these people are supposed to be your friends--which I'm assuming since they have access to your FB page--then maybe you need to find new friends. They sound not only ignorant and extreme in their beliefs, but also dangerous in their thinking. Don't surround yourself with people like that.

Always remember you can come here to discuss your interest in King and his works--leave them to the delights of Facebook where they are free to update what they ate/drank and when they go to the toilet/restroom--but don't ever be made to feel ashamed for your choice of reading material. At least you are reading, and enjoying it, don't allow others to ruin that for you.

Ally, thank you very much. I just wrote a long relpy and lost it before I posted so here goes again...

I deleted over 100 people this past fall from my FB and these were friends, people I went to school with. I'm not a "friend collector" on there so that was pretty tough cutting ties with so many people but they had just gotten on my last nerve. It's a preachy lot and they would get offended by comments such as LMBO or OMG. I'm going to be myself on my own posts and my parents are my friends, I do use the occasional REAL bad words and you know if my parents don't mind (and they are serious Christian people) then the rest of those preachy, pretentious jackals can kiss my hams.:oops:

I still have preachy people on my list, they post bible verses two and three times a day but I don't say anything to them (agree or disagree). I'm not anti anyone's belief system. If it works for you and makes you feel good then that's great. I have my beliefs and even if they are the same I don't post them. I just don't talk politics and religion.:eek2:

What I am is pro-literacy. I want to spark at least one person's curiosity into picking up a book. I don't care if it's a King book or not, but it would be exciting to see someone on my friend list talk about a book they are reading instead of a game they are playing on their kid's Wii.:eyebrow:

I'm no genius, not a great speller (I use spellcheck all the time and it lets me down), my grammar sucks, and I talk like a hick because I am one... BUT... I know the difference between: to, two and too; there and their; here and hear; you're and your.:wink2:

Reading is a great thing and I wish instead of beating me up and wanting to burn me at the stake for what I'm reading that some of the morons would pick up a book and try to read. Maybe they'll read a book on how to burn a witch?:glare:

[Tinahorve]

I think that the people who say things like that are usually not readers and are judging based on the movies of Carrie or The Shining which were bloody and violent. I have often said that SK is just a great storyteller, and it honestly would not matter what he wrote; for the most part all of the stories are great in their own way.

In Secret Windows, SK talked about imaging/write/read the worst, most scary thing, you can, then the scary things in life that are real (war, divorce, etc.) are not quite so bad. Maybe those "freaks" among us are just trying to escape into a story for awhile.

Happy reading, all

[JohnDalglish]

Reading is a great thing and I wish instead of beating me up and wanting to burn me at the stake for what I'm reading that some of the morons would pick up a book and try to read. Maybe they'll read a book on how to burn a witch?:glare:

Hi,

Aye.

But I'd advise them to read the first three parts before they started Wizard and Glass, though LOL

Long days and pleasant nights

[Tinahorve]

Anne Rivers Siddons in the introduction to The Dead Zone says:

"People who don't like horror stories seems impossibly and blandly sunny, one-dimensional, lacking in the rich and complex salting of darkness that so calls to those of us who do. Can they possibly have deep interior lives, imaginations that swoop and soar? 'I don't read anything that frightens me,' one friend says, and I wonder if she ever reads a newspaper. Of course horror fiction frightens. It does not, however, frighten nearly so much as ordinary day-to-day reality can, if you are truly open to it's nuances."

[randallFlaggfan1]

I think it's funny (just a little) that a lot of non-SK fans don't seem to realize that he wrote The Shawshank Redemption.

[kodibloo]

Does anyone else find themselves trying to "like" what people write? Too much facebook!!! Ahhhhhh................

[~Ally~]

Does anyone else find themselves trying to "like" what people write? Too much facebook!!! Ahhhhhh................

Nope, I don't use Facebook much.
The "Thanks" button here is the equivalent of their "like" button so press that if you agree with something. :smile2:

[kellykid]

I think it's funny (just a little) that a lot of non-SK fans don't seem to realize that he wrote The Shawshank Redemption.
I totally agree. My neighbor is a big reader and I suggested King to her, of course I got the standard "I don't like scary stuff like that" I brought up Shawshank and The Green Mile. As far as "the scary stuff" I equate it with my love of rollercoasters, it's a safe way to get that adrenaline rush.

[blunthead]

I think it's funny (just a little) that a lot of non-SK fans don't seem to realize that he wrote The Shawshank Redemption.

I think the above concept goes a long way toward summing up. Ignorance is bliss. If I can remain untouched I can remain everyone's judge. The truth be...darned. The eternal struggle between Constant Readers and people who will not trust sK is, imho, the struggle between critical thinking and non-critical thinking.

Critical thinking

Someone suggesting a person who reads sK is in line for being burned at the stake is recommending people be burned. But people who say it do not see what they are saying. If that same person claims to read The Bible, the verse "Judge not, lest ye be judged" occurs to me, and a host of others. I am sure they are also ignorant of the fact that sK himself reads The Bible.

[steelhorseclub]

The strange thing is, I don't think I have ever met anyone, personally, that has never read one of his books. Maybe he is more popular in Louisiana?

[CCAL]

I think its safe to assume its not just a`Louisana thang' Steelhorseclub.EVERYONE I know of knows (and usually reads) SK.He is world famous---and didnt have to kill anyone, outside of books, to get there!!! He even changed the geography for the state of Maine and Florida, without starting up a single dozer--what a guy!! lol Guess I could ramble on endlessly but I dont want to trigger a GOD-complex in SK, or cause his head to swell too big to get thru the door! lol

[dsurrett]

If you have friends who say "Since you read Stephen King, you must be a freak because Stephen King is," change subjects for a few minutes, then ask them if they like the movies The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, or Stand By Me. If they say 'yes,' look at them at say "You freak!"

[friend of Oye]

We all just really enjoy the most prolific novelist ever. The real freaks are anyone that believes that Great Expectations is a classic.


please recycle

[StephenKingAddict]

If loving Stephen King books makes me a freak, then I am PROUD of my freakishness!! :tongue:

[C.A.Mullin1313]

My mentor told me: "People are just afraid of what they don't understand." To be in another place when times get tough is a way to explore a deeper land. To them it's freaks, to us it's a way of life....

[Cinniemonn]

That's hilarious! "No, you didn't." I wouldn't have been able to keep from laughing my butt off if I'd have heard that! I mean, it says it write on the case of the movie "Stephen King's Shawshank Redemption" LOL

[Neesy]

Does that mean if I read the Bible I'm God?!
Yuk Yuk Yuk :rofl: Along those same lines I recently removed all my books from my shelves. Judging by the majority of the collection I must be a tree huggin', Siamese cat lovin' herbalist who likes to eat cookies (gardening books, cookie recipe books, books on cats etc.) oh yes and perhaps an ornithologist (amateur). I am amazed that people still think that Stephen King only writes horror. I guess it is true that first impressions are lasting since his first popular book was "Carrie"