What do I tell people who say Stephen King's are scary and (get this) morally filthy?

[blunthead]

My husband's one of those who doesn't read Stephen King. It's not so much that he doesn't like his writing-- it's more like "life is short so I will only read books that I find most satisfying." He says the classics give him a bigger pay back for his time-- Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Hemmingway, etc... I know he respects Mr. King even though he doesn't read his books. Also, he's a good sport listening to me go on about them all the time.

Yer hubby is an exception to a rule, I think. It occurs to me that, with the exception of the literary elitist snobs, it's conceivable that 100% of people who criticize sK have never read a word he's written. They're just assuming something and don't know whereof they criticize. I think the smartest thing to say to his critics, including the snobs, is that the great artists are never truly appreciated in their own time.

[GNTLGNT]

It's pretty hard to take a story like Duma Key or Pet Sematary and say it's about love though. It's such a stretch even I don't think I can justify convincingly.

...oh Holy Hell yes, they're about love....for me, Duma is learning to love ones-self and others, while Semetary is about love so strong, one can't imagine losing or giving it up...people that cast about such crap, generally have never read one iota of anything King has written-and believe like sheeple, what others tell them, or base their specious judgements on seeing a film adaptation...in other words, tell em to go have intercourse with themselves and enjoy King guilt free...

[Todash]

It's pretty hard to take a story like Duma Key or Pet Sematary and say it's about love though. It's such a stretch even I don't think I can justify convincingly.

You think? I haven't yet read Pet Sematary (I KNOW GUYS, I KNOW), but Duma Key ... Duma Key is about nothing BUT love. There's so much love in that book. It's the prime motive for everything the good guys do. It's what makes their decisions so easy--and yet so hard. From front to back, that book is full of love. Heck, at its core, it's mostly about how love can complicate things, make things harder, and how sometimes you accidentally hurt people because you love them, and also how sometimes when you love people, you have to let them go if that's what they need, even when it hurts you beyond what you thought you could stand.

[cat in a bag]

I met a very nice older couple at the library when Craig Johnson was there a few months back. We got to talking about our favorite authors and books and when I told the lady my favorite was SK, she said she just "didn't see the point." I kind of laughed, and asked her if she'd seen The Green Mile or Shawshank...she had, and she knew they were SK stories, and she said she had enjoyed them very much, but she didn't understand the "scary" stuff. I encouraged her to give 11/22/63 a try...I told her a little about it, and said that it was a very beautiful love story at heart. She seemed interested, and wrote the title down. I don't know if she ever did give it a try, but I do hope she did!

I also think you could absolutely argue that Pet Sematary is about love as well...the love we have for our families, and how far we would go for them.

[Todash]

There is so much heart in his work. I am really not into horror. I'm not. I read SK in spite of the genre that chose him, not because of it. (I am a big chicken.)

[fushingfeef]

I think Stephen King was unfairly branded with the "America's Literary Boogeyman" label early on in his career, and people who haven't read his stuff merely see him as that. I don't get too worked up about it: SK is one of the most popular authors in the world and he's still creating amazing stories for us all to enjoy. If others don't want to join the party, it's their loss. Heck, even the Beatles have their detractors.

[GNTLGNT]

(I am a big chicken.)

...no honey...THIS is a big chicken....

[Todash]

...no honey...THIS is a big chicken....

Why is that a thing? WHY??? That is not okay. It's just not.

[Todash]

I think Stephen King was unfairly branded with the "America's Literary Boogeyman" label early on in his career, and people who haven't read his stuff merely see him as that. I don't get too worked up about it: SK is one of the most popular authors in the world and he's still creating amazing stories for us all to enjoy. If others don't want to join the party, it's their loss. Heck, even the Beatles have their detractors.

This is true. He's doing all right for himself.

[blunthead]

...I told the lady my favorite was SK, she said she just "didn't see the point."...she didn't understand the "scary" stuff...

To each his/her own, it takes all kinds, and all that jazz. Some people like mild salsa, physics, and the New York Yankees. I personally don't understand those people, though some are good friends. I accept that people have different tastes. What I know about myself is that I need the art of horror, I need the emotions of being creeped out, mortified, and even terrified. My nervous system needs the stimulation of that kind of chill. I'm a big movie buff and my favorite is Vertigo, which as far as I'm concerned is a horror movie, it's just so damn creepy. I don't know if I was born with this need or am only as fond of it as I am via the Saturday night horror movies they'd God bless them show at midnight when I was a kid. As an adult (cough), when I discovered Dean Koontz, who made a way for me to discover Stephen King, something awoke inside which had been silently slumbering (I think it has a name and I think the name is Cthulhu and I know I can't pronounce it and I think that's a good thing).

Some people don't see the point of crypts and spiderwebs and more shadows than normal, and grey and black and blood-red, and werewolves and the supernatural. And green things alive with intelligence. And alien thought. I need these things and more, and thank God for writers who need them as well and to write about them.