How Has Stephen King's work Touched Your Life?

**Shoesalesman** · February 15th, 2013

I got into Stephen's books when I was twelve (1983), so he's pretty well been a part of my imagination development for the last thirty years. In the same way that Star Wars affected me in my pre-teen years, my imagination as a teen took off thanks to SK. Not that he was solely responsible, just that I happened to be waaay into his stuff when the development occured.

**Lina** · February 22nd, 2013

For me the influence that SK had on me was also very big, it is just another world which I can visit now and then, and forget about the reality. I started reading SK books when I was twelve, it makes already eleven years. So, yeah, his influence was meaningful for me, and still remains the same. Besides, it all gave me a lot of opportunities in the life, I even wrote my graduation paper in University, basing it on a SK book

**tenngolfer** · February 22nd, 2013

I have always appreciated people that have the ability to make me think outside the box, and alter my perspective on the world. Mr. King is definitely one of those authors that can alter perspective, and in a very entertaining way.

Thanks.

**TheInterloper** · February 24th, 2013

Shoe salesman I am currently a teen and I can very much relate to you when you speak of imagination, the dark tower and its ideas of alternate universes.. Priceless friend. I have also been exposed to pre- adolescence murdering a.k.a gage getting ran over....

**Shoesalesman** · March 1st, 2013

Originally Posted by TheInterloper

Shoe salesman I am currently a teen and I can very much relate to you when you speak of imagination, the dark tower and its ideas of alternate universes.. Priceless friend. I have also been exposed to pre- adolescence murdering a.k.a gage getting ran over....

Learned much about unsafe places/peopleand horrific misfortune through the safety of reading. Happy AND grateful to say... still learning. Cheers!

**AchtungBaby** · March 2nd, 2013

His books have helped me through the very hard times, as some people have said. I love being taken to his worlds and living life with the people there, at least for a while...

**ZMeister** · March 4th, 2013

Let me count the ways...

Sheer entertainment aside, I'd have to say his works were the first I'd read that showed the complexity of people: we're not all black and white. Dark Half made the first impression on me on that matter.

What some have called 'diarrhea of the word processor,' to me has been the rich inner dialogue of his characters-how people think. He has an insight on human nature that I haven't seen in any other writer. He has a deep understanding of the feminine nature that I'd personally attribute to his long marriage

His works, especially the Dark Tower series, have confirmed what I've suspected for a long time: the fragile nature of what constitutes reality. To be honest, nothing he's ever written has scared me until I was about halfway through Wizard and Glass. Then for no particular reason I could put my finger on I got this feeling of ominous dread that made no sense in context with what I was reading. I got this irrational idea in my head that if I finished reading the whole series that the world, our world, would move on. Or it would for me even if it didn't for anyone else around me who hadn't read it. At that point, I determined that I wouldn't finish the series, just in case. I think what disturbed me the most was that it's the last thing I would have ever expected would disturb or scare me considering all the other things I'd read that didn't scare me a bit. Why that?

By the time I got to the sixth it started getting a tad 'real,' and I started thinking, "Okaaay...this is getting a wee bit close to home and my discomfort [those who've read it probably know which part I'm referring to.

By the time I was finished with the series I realized the world had moved on before I was even born. WWII. That's when the world moved on and 'reruns have become our history."

And the rest is history.

**FlakeNoir** · March 4th, 2013

Originally Posted by ZMeister

Let me count the ways...

Sheer entertainment aside, I'd have to say his works were the first I'd read that showed the complexity of people: we're not all black and white. Dark Half made the first impression on me on that matter.

What some have called 'diarrhea of the word processor,' to me has been the rich inner dialogue of his characters-how people think. He has an insight on human nature that I haven't seen in any other writer. He has a deep understanding of the feminine nature that I'd personally attribute to his long marriage

His works, especially the Dark Tower series, have confirmed what I've suspected for a long time: the fragile nature of what constitutes reality. To be honest, nothing he's ever written has scared me until I was about halfway through Wizard and Glass. Then for no particular reason I could put my finger on I got this feeling of ominous dread that made no sense in context with what I was reading. I got this irrational idea in my head that if I finished reading the whole series that the world, our world, would move on. Or it would for me even if it didn't for anyone else around me who hadn't read it. At that point, I determined that I wouldn't finish the series, just in case. I think what disturbed me the most was that it's the last thing I would have ever expected would disturb or scare me considering all the other things I'd read that didn't scare me a bit. Why that?

By the time I got to the sixth it started getting a tad 'real,' and I started thinking, "Okaaay...this is getting a wee bit close to home and my discomfort [those who've read it probably know which part I'm referring to.

By the time I was finished with the series I realized the world had moved on before I was even born. WWII. That's when the world moved on and 'reruns have become our history."

And the rest is history.

Zee, something in your post really hit me, right in the centre. I read the DT series all the way through three times before allowing myself to finish it with the (then) seventh book. I had that same kind of feeling. (And know now, that I was just trying to stave off the loss of a very special soul. I (falsely) thought that if I didn't go on... then my friend could.)

No other book series has ever carried me so far and through so much, I'm not sure that another Author could pull that off?
Thank you for your post.

**Spideyman** · March 4th, 2013

Zee, Flake I think you have found the essence of the Dark Tower journey. Read it as published. Cussed on that mono for years. Have taken the journey many many times. It is life changing, altering in many ways. There is just something special about the way Sai King present those characters to us. It has touched me in each part of my life- from mid 30's until today. It has carried me through "the good, the bad and the ugly" of life. I say thankee for this journey.

**Todash** · March 4th, 2013

Originally Posted by VultureLvr45

Carrie came out when I was in jr. high. It made me believe there was one other person who understood how I felt as an unpopular preacher's kid. It gave me hope that I'd survive my childhood. Thankful for him indeed.

I think he'd like that very much.

I didn't start reading him till I was an adult, with the exception of part of The Shining, and though normally I'm wordier than the man himself, I am at a loss to explain myself here. All I know is that his best stuff fits Emily Dickinson's definition of poetry: “If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry."

And of course, all you fine people here.