People Saying they Don't Like King Because He's Popular

[orange]

Anyone else hate this? It gets right on my nerves.

"Who do you read?"

"Stephen King."

"Oh, that's original! I'm more of a fan of *insert underground author here*."

Drives me up the wall. I hate it when people do that, and it doesn't end there! Music is the same. Silly people trying to be different and original, and ironically end up like the rest of the fools who think the same as them. I'm not afraid to say old King knows his stuff, that he's inspired me like every indie band of this century was inspired by the Beatles, and ain't noone going to tell me nothin' different !

[/rant]

[delores 74]

Amen!

[staropeace]

I know stuff growing at the bottom of ponds that is smarter than some folks.

[crazycrashink]

That is a very interesting point. Luckily, I don't have to worry about it because very, very few of my friends read. So no matter what I read, I'm always a dork HAHA!
Most importantly though, read what you want! If your magination loves it, must be doing something right!

[boogerb53]

People tend to raise their eyebrows when I say I read Stephen King. In my real life, I don't know anyone else who reads him. I was in the Japanese restaraunt the other nite waiting to pick up my order and I was reading Black House. When the young girl brought me my order, she said "That was a great book! I love Stephen King!" I almost cried from happiness!

[Mr Nobody]

Yeah, it's like a kind of snobbery. Some people just like to feel superior because they appear to be more discerning, etc.
I recently got into a 'chat' with someone who said SK's work was largely derivative. They then mentioned Bram Stoker and Dracula, saying something like 'I prefer to stick to classical works by well-respected authors.'
I came back with 'Like Stoker, who was so 'well respected' by readers he died in poverty and was chucked into a pauper's grave?'

Bottom line is, we all know the sort of writer SK is. If others don't like him and have read some of his work...that's fine. We can't all be the same. If, however, they're ignoring his work for fear of appearing to be just like a lot of other folks...well, it's their loss, and they are truly the ignorant ones.
I'll have a wager too that, if you were to see these people's bookshelves, a lot of them would have at least one SK book in there. They just think they have some sort of reputation to protect.

[pandora]

It's so hard to find SK's books here where I live. I'll go to a thrift store or yard sale and if I'm lucky I might find 1. People around here say he too "gory" or they don't read horror. Still looking for Swan Song in hard back version, but in this area it's like finding a needle in a hay stack.

[dw1345]

Just tell them that there's a reason why he's popular. It's because he is original and he knows how to tell a good a story. Unlike some other "popular" writers out there, Stephen King deserves his popularity. Although I'm not entirely sure I'd even use the word popular-- he's not exactly as mainstream as the people who tell you he is think. He's really only popular among the people who can understand his genius, like us Constant Readers.

[Bryan James]

Pop them in the danglers, jump out the window, and take the next sloop to Shanghai.

That's as interesting a response as any other.

Just my opinion,
BJS

[marew1]

Anyone else hate this? It gets right on my nerves.

"Who do you read?"

"Stephen King."

"Oh, that's original! I'm more of a fan of *insert underground author here*."

Drives me up the wall. I hate it when people do that, and it doesn't end there! Music is the same. Silly people trying to be different and original, and ironically end up like the rest of the fools who think the same as them. I'm not afraid to say old King knows his stuff, that he's inspired me like every indie band of this century was inspired by the Beatles, and ain't noone going to tell me nothin' different !

[/rant]

Well put!!!!