Human Evil

[ginapenn]

This is one of King's stories I have only read once and can't pick up again. The animal torture is too much for me.

[EddieDean]

This story was banned from my school (when i was in school). Although i believe it stemmed from an english teacher at a different school making the kids in his/her class read it for an assignment

[JRLauer]

My mother always told me to be afraid of the living and not the dead.

She was right. It's sad to say but there are people who live among us that are evil to the core, and they will not hesitate to hurt or kill you if they think it will help them in what ever they're doing.

[tracie]

remember it's always the shy,good mannered,and very quite that you have to be afaid of because their the ones who you will never expect to do you or anyone harm.

[Albie]

It was among the first King stories I ever read and it still makes me uneasy. The part with the cat and the stove ... it still gives me chills. I think it was great to read such a story early on, to help get a feel for Mr. King's voice, but man it sure sticks with you.

This is one of 4 stories in Different Seasons. I suggest Stand By Me for King nonfiction.

[Albie]

This is one of King's stories I have only read once and can't pick up again. The animal torture is too much for me.

Agree. I also do not believe any of the characters had any redeeming qualities. Well written - my opinion - just the worst of the 4 stories in Different Seasons

[Damaris]

I wouldn't say it's the worst, just the ... darkest. The one most like a Bachman book. The one that sits up with you at night and unexpectedly lays cold hands on the back of your neck.

[Aim4 the hed 2 kill zomBs]

This story was banned from my school (when i was in school). Although i believe it stemmed from an english teacher at a different school making the kids in his/her class read it for an assignment

I really hate to hear when this sort of thing happens. The holocaust was sickening, but it was powerful. It was too powerful to merely be contained in textbooks. It's only natural for something with implications so big to inspire fiction writers. Apt Pupil was a very good story in my opinion about the hold an ideal, even a bad ideal, can have - and how it can get the better of you. Not to preach on a soap box, but there's a reason people say history repeats itself. By teaching that history, even in a new way from a fictitious story, you can hopefully educate people to prevent it from happening again.

Sorry, censorship is one of my buttons.

[GNTLGNT]

Working in a prison, I get to see many "monsters". As The Shadow radio show used to say-"Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men..." The human heart and/or soul can become the most horrid, fetid, diseased place imaginable. Real evil is always worse than anything a writer can conjure up-even our beloved Wordslinger.

[Pucker]

I think it was Kurt Vonnegut who said, "We are who we pretend to be, so we must be careful who we pretend to be." Either that, or it was someone else. In any case, the point here is very well taken. An evil clown cavorting in the sewers or malicious aliens are one thing. The boy next door is another matter entirely. Stories like Apt Pupil or Rage, or even Cujo, read just a little bit too close to the evening news, which makes them actually frightening, as opposed to chilling in the abstract. We're not really afraid of vampires or werewolves or even re-animated corpses. But a kid up on the berm taking target practice on the commuters? That will scare you right back into your hobbit hole, won't it? What I find truly frightening about Tod, and what he and Dussander ultimately got up to, was how everyone who should have been in a position to notice that something was wrong . . . didn't.

That is a cautionary tale for this, or any, age.