Stephen King at the movies

[doowopgirl]

As a long time fan of SK, I am always on the lookout for anything by himself. When I saw this at my local bookstore, I immediatly pounced on it. I was very dissapointed to see it as a cheap way to re hash old material. I just thought it was shameless exploitation. Does any one else feel the same way or am I missing something here?

[wally wonder]

yep. pure torture. wanna dos tings dat soon as youse make yours offering along comes another able to feel gloriously righteous, affording dem da opportunity to exhibit their deep and abiding love. bought it anyway. actually, another bought it for little ole moi. and yeah, pure torture

[M-O-O-N SPELLS MY NAME]

I'm sorry, but I totally disagree! At the time the book came out I had not yet read any of SK's short story collections, and after reading "SK GOES..." my interest was raised in them IMMEDIATELY! I've now read all of them, save DIFFERENT SEASONS. I especially liked SK's insight into each movie for each story, and was interested to see his list of favorite adaptations. A VERY WORTH-WHILE PURCHASE!!! :)

[Benita]

As a long time fan of SK, I am always on the lookout for anything by himself. When I saw this at my local bookstore, I immediatly pounced on it. I was very dissapointed to see it as a cheap way to re hash old material. I just thought it was shameless exploitation. Does any one else feel the same way or am I missing something here?

I could tell by the title that this book was the stories of movies already releast. Which would make them all old stories. Which would be great for people that haven't read SK before. It could get the new ones in to the books. but for SK fans we would natraly already have all the stories.

[simon1]

The deluxe limited edition version is a nice thing to have...

:smile2:

[wally wonder]

As a long time fan of SK, I am always on the lookout for anything by himself. When I saw this at my local bookstore, I immediatly pounced on it. I was very dissapointed to see it as a cheap way to re hash old material. I just thought it was shameless exploitation. Does any one else feel the same way or am I missing something here?

this seems like as good a place as any to raise a point. i've been reading crossing to safety by wallace stegner. good story. finding this book, discovering that stegner is someone i should have discovered long ago, is irritating. i want to howl w/rage. it's also neato that his protagonist is a writer, has had a novel accepted, and he also travels through the u.p. at one point, passing through towns i know. well, he goes to batten pond...some place in...new york maybe.

there, he meets w/another couple that he knows from madson,wisconsin, where he found out he won't be teaching at uw/madison anymore...though his buddy, there in new york on vacation, will be. his buddy introduces (actually, it is charity, the other guy's wife who planned it) him to a publisher relative.
they're talking there in the camp. the one guy (sid) asks the publisher uncle richard, 'didn't you betray us...just for a handful of silver, didn't you let down all those readers who expect phoenix books to publish only books of quality?'

"there are hundreds of books written every year that never get published." said sid.

uncle richard says something that...i dunno...looking at it now doesn't make much sense, but he says, 'show me where they are and i'll make your fortune.'

sid doesn't let it go. he keeps at uncle richard.

uncle richard 'suggested that publishing was not a charitable enterprise. he named six titles on his fall list that he would be unable to publish if he weren't able to count on the sales of this one that sid thought shouldn't have been published at all.'

it's around p 159 in this pb version i picked up.

so...i guess the point is...could there be other motives, beyond the shameless exploitation angle? or is it wrong to think publishers might have an altruistic bent at times? that they...enjoy what they do...like the ditch-digger, who really gets off on the manual labor of digging a ditch and wouldn't for the life of him do anything else? are people happy doing what they do? do they get off on it? do they want to share that...that love of story...with others?

when the ditch digger passed by, that ditch all grown in with grass and strewn w/mcdonald's wrappers, does he lament the day he was born? does he feel like the blue jay, unfairly maligned? so...that's it then...something to consider?

[A Plymouth's Fury]

doowopgirl (http://doowopgirl) : I respect your opinion but as a Stephen King fan I find it hard to be disapointed with any release, be it new or "rehashed". It's Stephen King; that's all that should matter. Now, I'm not saying you should buy every single thing made of him but you should never be unhappy with any of his material. I loved this book, not just for the stories in the book but for the cover art too. Besides, if Stephen King hadn't went to the movies what would his career and life be like now? Yes, this is a collection of re-releases but think of it as his version of a "Greatest Hits" album. Appreciate it as a collection of his writings that have inspired filmmakers to adapt his work into movies. And appreciate it as a fan; sure you may already have these writings but what's the worse - that you have them again? Stephen King Goes To The Movies has some of his best short stories. Without these stories our libraries and theaters would be darker places.

[HorrorMama]

doowopgirl (http://doowopgirl) : I respect your opinion but as a Stephen King fan I find it hard to be disapointed with any release, be it new or "rehashed". It's Stephen King; that's all that should matter. Now, I'm not saying you should buy every single thing made of him but you should never be unhappy with any of his material. I loved this book, not just for the stories in the book but for the cover art too. Besides, if Stephen King hadn't went to the movies what would his career and life be like now? Yes, this is a collection of re-releases but think of it as his version of a "Greatest Hits" album. Appreciate it as a collection of his writings that have inspired filmmakers to adapt his work into movies. And appreciate it as a fan; sure you may already have these writings but what's the worse - that you have them again? Stephen King Goes To The Movies has some of his best short stories. Without these stories our libraries and theaters would be darker places.

I love how you referred to it as his greatest hits. That's exactly how I felt when I purchased it.

[Christian2271]

As a long time fan of SK, I am always on the lookout for anything by himself. When I saw this at my local bookstore, I immediatly pounced on it. I was very dissapointed to see it as a cheap way to re hash old material. I just thought it was shameless exploitation. Does any one else feel the same way or am I missing something here?

I enjoyed re-reading the stories and giving a first read to "Low Men" but I do agree with you to some extent. I did notice that I had already read all but one of the stories but what got me is I thought it would be a more in depth insight from Stephen. I didn't have time to look through it when I bought it so I was surprised to see that SK's comments were mere paragraphs instead of chapters. I was expecting something like a written version of the "Movie with Director/cast comments" option you get with DVD's. I don't feel ripped off, but I probably would have gone with something else had I known. Just my 2 cents. :cool2:

[Seb Shaw]

I don't feel let down at all. I love what they did with this, bringing some of his best works together, having his list of favorite adaptations in there and also writing a few paragraphs before each story. What's not to love? It was also clearly advertised that they were re-prints :D

[JohnDalglish]

Hi,

Yeah, on one hand it could be seen as cynical attempt by publishers to cash in on the movie's success, a 'greatest hits' compilation, although, as Seb says, it's well enough sign posted.

But on the other it could be seen as an excellent entry level King for movie goers who didn't usually read or buy books, and I'm sure we've all come across many who didn't know that Sai King had written those.

I'd be interested in knowing how well it had sold, because I'd be willing to bet that it's made a few converts.

So, a bit of both perhaps, maybe si and maybe no?

Long days and pleasant nights

[aeroplane]

Hi,

Yeah, on one hand it could be seen as cynical attempt by publishers to cash in on the movie's success, a 'greatest hits' compilation, although, as Seb says, it's well enough sign posted.

But on the other it could be seen as an excellent entry level King for movie goers who didn't usually read or buy books, and I'm sure we've all come across many who didn't know that Sai King had written those.

I'd be interested in knowing how well it had sold, because I'd be willing to bet that it's made a few converts.

So, a bit of both perhaps, maybe si and maybe no?

Long days and pleasant nights

I prefer the "excellent entry level" diagnosis myself.

All of the short stories are very good and nowhere is the material promoted as "new."

In fact, what if King had actually inserted one brand new short story into this collection? It would have forced people to buy the whole book for $8.99 or whatever the price is to get a single short story nobody had ever read before. Then you would have had a real problem. Trust me, some authors would have had no problem with that approach.

While opinions on the quality of each story varies depending on who you talk to, most people will agree that the stories included are some of King's best short stories from over the course of his career. If the idea was to pick up some new King fans by showcasing quality stories, then objective fulfilled.