Racism in SK books

[Doc Wilson]

Its funny, I have been struck by almost the exact opposite observation. King seems to always protray black characters as saintly and wise.

[Aarny]

SK creates characters that are racist, so they must say racist things. Nobody wants EVERY character to be goody two shoes, do they?

[smunchkin]

I agree with everyone else it enriches the story and characters. Its fantasy but if it didnt have an element of truth none of us would be able to get lost in the story. I hope this doesnt get taken the wrong way because i dont use the word at all myself, but in this day and age who actually uses the word more? With an a or and r at the end to me its all the same.

[wendymartt]

I think racism is something that we still deal with today in a lot of ways that alot of people do not sit down and take the time to realize, when someone uses a racist word in a story, in a STORY THAT IS NOT BASED ON TRUE EVENTS, king is simply trying to relate a characters behavior...that is the way i observe it. I can easily see how your friend might be offended, but maybe they should read the entire book to see the view of this person, just because the "N" word is used, it is not always relating bad issues...it could be simply showing a point in the story...hope this helps!

[Piddyx]

I was just thinking about this topic. I could not think of any sympathetic black character in any Stephen King book. However, I beleave he is not for the following reasons:

1) The groundskeeper from The Shining is a positive black character.

2)He voted for Barak Obama, as stated in this article:
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/s...ack-obama.html

SARASOTA, Fla., Jan. 19 Horror story writer Stephen King is throwing his support to Barack Obama, saying having a black U.S. president is what the country needs.

King told the Bangor (Maine) Daily News the United States needs "a big change."

"We have had enough Bush Republicanism to last the country for a long time," he said. "We are seeing a lot of chickens come home to roost because of Bush administration policies. You can't pump billions of dollars into a foreign war without it affecting the economy."

King, 60, said he found it "an amazing thing" to see the two front-runners be a woman and a black man, the Daily News reported Saturday. But, King said, he prefers Obama, the senator from Illinois, over Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.

"Obama has the least baggage of the two and is willing to try new things," he said. "It wouldn't be business as usual. Also it would do wonders for us in the world community to have a black man in the White House."

King's new novel, "Duma Key," is to hit bookstores Tuesday. It's the story of a construction worker who suffers the loss of his arm and memory after almost being killed by a crane at work.

Now, you can say that Duma Key did have a Lawn Jockey in it, but I am starting to think he uses racism in his novels to accomplish something. Maybe it shakes up the reader.

I shared your friend's opinion once, but after some thought I do not think it is the case.

[JohnDalglish]

I I could not think of any sympathetic black character in any Stephen King book.

Hi,

Welcome to the MB.

I can think of lots - Speedy Parker, Odetta Holmes,Dick O'Halloran, John Coffey etc etc.

Long days and pleasant nights.

[ramfan43]

Stephen King is not a racist.

[JohnDalglish]

Hi,

Welcome to the MB.

I can think of lots - Speedy Parker, Odetta Holmes,Dick O'Halloran, John Coffey etc etc.

Long days and pleasant nights.

Hi,

And how could I have omitted Mother Abagail?

Long days and pleasant nights

[Snaggletooth]

At the risk of being of being a flame-thrower........

Why is it OK for members of an ethnic group to call each other "the N word", dog, etc., but it's not OK for anyone outside that group to use it?

This is just a rhetorical question, of course. The fact that we have to use the euphemism "N word", instead of the actual word, demonstrates the power that we give to those 6 little letters. Frankly, I wouldn't want to use it if I was a writer, because of what it represents. If SK wants to use it in his works, fine and dandy, but it's a holdover from the ugliest days of slavery and does not contribute in any meaningful way to society or art. I don't need a writer (or anyone else, for that matter) to show me what racism is; I've seen plenty of real-life examples. And no, I'm not black, I just happen to agree with that point of view on this issue. All of this having been said, I don't think that SK is a racist, he just doesn't have any qualms about using the word.

And by the way, Twain, Cooper, Conrad and Dickens used the word at a time when it was socially acceptable, i.e. during the period of slavery and shortly afterward. Times have changed. But not enough, apparently.

[Doc Wilson]

Grunwald, yes, but... looking more deeply at the bones of the story, it seems like the internal logic of the whole thing was a bit like "I'm going to take this gay character and put him into a situation where he winds up covered in s*it". It all just reminded me of the way teenage boys (for example) focus on b*tts*x as being something inconceivably filthy and repulsive, like that whole cluster of slang terms that express that kind of "anal panic". Poo-pusher, hershey tunnel, stuff like that. (I think my favorite one is a brit phrase I saw once, somebody disparaging "uphill gardeners.")

Would the story have been different if Curtis had been heterosexual? Would it maybe have made less sense? I suspect that changing that one detail would have destroyed a big chunk of the significance of the story.

We all float down here...

Wow I don't see that at all. I'm straighter than hell and I totally resonated with Curtis and his struggle. SK has a well documented penchant for the scatalogical and this was simply the ultimate riff on that theme.