Stephen King and eye injuries

[Flayer]

Has anyone else noticed that one of the most commonly reoccuring things in Stephen King's novels is someone losing an eye? I'm wondering if that's just a personal horror of Stephen's or something.



-George Stark stabs a cop through the eye in The Dark Half
-Alice gets an eye knocked out when a cinderblock is thrown at her head in Cell
-Cujo the dog gets stabbed through the eye with that broken bat
-The woman Pam in Rose Madder accidentally impales her eye on a coathook running from Norman
-I'm pretty sure Rogette Whitmore loses an eye when her face gets slammed on the dock in Bag of Bones
-Rachel Creed gets stabbed through the eye in Pet Sematary
-Tick Tock Man gets an eye scratched out by Oy in The Wastelands
-Crimson King gets an eye stabbed out by Ralph Roberts in Insomnia
-Randall Flagg is made to pull out his own eyes by Mordred
-Cuthbert gets shot in the eye by Flagg with an arrow
-Flagg gets shot in the eye with an arrow in Eyes of the Dragon
-Traschan Man loses an eye to radiation poisoning at the end of The Stand
-Nick Andros gets an eye gouged in the Stand and has to wear an eyepatch
-Lloyd's partner Poke gets an eye shot out at the beginning of the Stand
-I think Evan McCone loses an eye when Richards shoots his head in Running Man
-Ralph Carver loses his eyes to Tak in eagle form at the end of Desperation
-A girl in Regulators loses an eye in a shotgun blast
-A test subject in Firestarter claws out his eyes under the influence of drugs
-John Rainbird in Firestarter lost an eye in the Vietnam War
-A couple of the Tommyknockers have there eyes explode due to odd effects of the spaceship
-In Green Mile there was a kid who lost an eye when a dog bit his face

[Sugar Marie]

I think SK knows he hits a nerve in the "ewww" response of his readers.

There's nothing that makes me squirm more than something awful happening to someones eye/eyes.

[Mr Nobody]

I think eye trauma strikes a nerve in everyone. Part of it would be the fear of becoming blind, and then there's the squirm factor to be had out of creating a specific mental image.
At a guess, I'd say most women and a fair few men find what happens to Lisey Landon tough to read. And then there's the bit in Gerald's Game.

Some might say it's a bit of a cheap shot, going for the easy 'scare'...but if not done right, it can become ridiculous. In fact, IMO, it takes a lot of skill to write 'eyeball' segments properly.

[pepino]

Well, SK has macular degeneration so he obviously incorporates his own fears of blindness in his writing.

[staropeace]

Mr.King failing sight may have something to do with it. Then again,it could only be a coincidence.

[PatInTheHat]

Well hell, if those characters had bothered to read his books themselves (you know, before the uhh, unfortunate incident:oo:), I believe they might consider themselves quite lucky all things considering:wow:.
(Just thought I'd throw that out there:blush:)

[Nero]

I think this one is kind of like the "dog cruelty" question... putting in something horrible and shocking.

Basically, other than my ... wang... the eye is the next least place I would want to take serious injury.

[Drewzor]

Don't forget Flagg getting shot in the eye with the great arrow Foehammer in The Eyes of the Dragon.

[Srbo]

I think SK knows he hits a nerve in the "ewww" response of his readers.

There's nothing that makes me squirm more than something awful happening to someones eye/eyes.


Ditto.

[tillyn]

I know when i see anything happen to an eye/eyes in movies or reading about it, it always makes me want to ralph.:vomit:

[Bluey Lunger]

ooo-wee! that's quite a list you have there, flayer! me, i noticed all the people who had damage done to their cheeks. saw desperation on tv this weekend past and a big chunk of cheek got slapped off someone's face. didn't seem to bother the one affected, though.

[Terry B]

Wow Flayer - you did some research for this one. Kudos to you.

[Lord Black Cat]

Two more for you:


*Dreamcatcher has an army guard getting stabbed in the eye by Mr Gray
* The Cell has another one too: The Head is forced to commit suicide by stabbing himself in the eye with a pen


And uhh... thanks for the warning on Rose Madder. That... would have been unpleasant to read first in book format.

[ConstantReader1978]

In literary History we have seen that the eyes are the windows to the soul. I personally think with stephen king's history of villians with interst in their victim's souls (Leland Gaunt and Pennywise just to name a couple) we can safely assume that the interest in the eyes has something if not everything to do with the capture of souls.

[Lencho_of_the_Apes]

(from Danse Macabre): "We all understand that eyes are the most vulnerable of our sensory organs, the most vulnerable of our facial accessories, and they are (ick!) soft."

"Injury to the eye" as a horror motif had a long history even before Sai King picked up on it. Well, at leeast back to the early 1950's; when the reformers and do-gooders went after comic books for being a corrupting influence on children, eye injury illustrations were one of the things they focussed on to show that comic books were too graphic and showed things so horrible that children would be scared by seeing them. Here's one of the classic examples examples:

http://www.rtsunlimited.com/CoverPages/mrmystery%2312.htm

we all float down here...

[SixPins]

SixPin's Useful Post of the Day: If one has a nose bleed and proceeds to plug his or her nostrils, there is a good chance that the blood will travel north and squirt from said person's eyes. Tasty.

[blunthead]

I had to chuckle when I realized what the title of this thread was getting at. Yes, I've noticed sK's thing with eyes. In fact, at one point kind of early on, I tried to remember something he'd written which did not include something devastating to an eye.

Of course, there must be some such story...lemme think...:biggrin2:

[ally88]

Very interesting topic...the thought of any kind of eye trauma always makes me squirm.:eek2:
In fact i have found when i am at work dealing with 'eyes' is the only thing that doesn't agree with me, definitely psychological relating to my time visiting the eye hospital regularly as a child. You can imaging how i feel when i have seen patient's taking out there false eyes to be cleaned, ha.

[Prince of Darkness]

Hi,

Blunthead, Lisey's Story doesn't have an eye injury. Neither does Carrie, Salem's Lot, or Misery. If I am not mistaken. :wink2:

But yes, Sai King does have a lot of eye-injuries in his works, and it is understandable. I, for one, would sh!t myself if anything happened to my eye.

Like my one friend, she had been busy in her garage doing something (don't ask me what :eek2:) when a piece of glass four-millimetres long went into her right eye.

Felt so sorry for her.

Long days and pleasant nights

[Todash]

(from Danse Macabre): "We all understand that eyes are the most vulnerable of our sensory organs, the most vulnerable of our facial accessories, and they are (ick!) soft."
Just the quote I was thinking of. Also, right around that same area, there's the story about the dead cat and the maggots eating his eyes and SK's pal (Tommy?) with the hoarse voice (the one, I think, who liked to read "comet bwoots" on rainy days) saying something like, "Hey, you guys, they're even eatin' his eyes." His point being, even little, little kids know there's just something gross about eyes.

[Cody44]

Two more eye related incidents in the Drawing of the Three:

In order to make Jack Mort obey, Roland threatens to poke out his right eye.

Also in drawing of the three, Roland has a daydream of a Lobstrocity clawing Eddie's face and ripping his eye out.

Eyes are a horrible thing to loose, and I believe it is used to target a primal fear we all have.

[brandt813]

And a couple more eye related moments in SK lore:


Eddie Kaspbrak stabs Henry Bowers in the eye with a broken Perrier bottle in It.
Also in It, the Losers Club is attacked in the sewers by a Giant Crawling Eye (complete with one of them plunging his arm into the Eye with notable SK graphic detail!)


I have a friend (who ironically is a SK fan, is from Maine, and has met the master) who completely freaks out at anything having to do with eyes. We used to sneak over to his computer and change his wallpaper to any gross eye picture we could find. Ahhhh....memories!

[Patricia A]

In literary History we have seen that the eyes are the windows to the soul. I personally think with stephen king's history of villians with interst in their victim's souls (Leland Gaunt and Pennywise just to name a couple) we can safely assume that the interest in the eyes has something if not everything to do with the capture of souls.

Like what you said and because it's scary. :eek2:

[tigerlilly2k]

Has anyone else noticed that one of the most commonly reoccuring things in Stephen King's novels is someone losing an eye? I'm wondering if that's just a personal horror of Stephen's or something.




-George Stark stabs a cop through the eye in The Dark Half
-Alice gets an eye knocked out when a cinderblock is thrown at her head in Cell
-Cujo the dog gets stabbed through the eye with that broken bat
-The woman Pam in Rose Madder accidentally impales her eye on a coathook running from Norman
-I'm pretty sure Rogette Whitmore loses an eye when her face gets slammed on the dock in Bag of Bones
-Rachel Creed gets stabbed through the eye in Pet Sematary
-Tick Tock Man gets an eye scratched out by Oy in The Wastelands
-Crimson King gets an eye stabbed out by Ralph Roberts in Insomnia
-Randall Flagg is made to pull out his own eyes by Mordred
-Cuthbert gets shot in the eye by Flagg with an arrow
-Flagg gets shot in the eye with an arrow in Eyes of the Dragon
-Traschan Man loses an eye to radiation poisoning at the end of The Stand
-Nick Andros gets an eye gouged in the Stand and has to wear an eyepatch
-Lloyd's partner Poke gets an eye shot out at the beginning of the Stand
-I think Evan McCone loses an eye when Richards shoots his head in Running Man
-Ralph Carver loses his eyes to Tak in eagle form at the end of Desperation
-A girl in Regulators loses an eye in a shotgun blast
-A test subject in Firestarter claws out his eyes under the influence of drugs
-John Rainbird in Firestarter lost an eye in the Vietnam War
-A couple of the Tommyknockers have there eyes explode due to odd effects of the spaceship
-In Green Mile there was a kid who lost an eye when a dog bit his face


Actually, I heard...someplace...that SK is "
legally blind", himself, from a macular degenerative eye problem.
I wish I could remember where I heard this. Ive been curious ever since because I am legally blind from a macular degenerative problem, too--and I remember thinking when I heard, it, "OMG! Me and SK have something in common!"
I THINK I heard it from some "reliable" source on TV.

I even considered writing to him to ask how he writes...whether he uses a voice-to-text computer program or something.

Im not looking to start a rumor, believe me. I really did hear this. I wonder if it's true?

[tigerlilly2k]

COLOR ME WRONG!

I just looked in the FAQ's and SK does have a genetic predisposition toward macular degenerative disease but is NOT legally blind.
SORRY! Mea Culpa!