Korean Job Discussion Forums

[sarbonn]

The only time knowing about some writer's history turned out good for me was when I first started reading Michael Crichton. But I read his quasi-biography called Travels first before I read any of his books. Then I decided I had to read more of this guy's stuff. Then I read everything. But it's rarely ever happened to work for me in the opposite direction.

I know this outs me as a bad reader, but I used to be a huge Stephen King fan. Then I started reading more about him, and I started to dislike him and his ego. Then I stopped paying attention to him and got back to reading his writing again. A few days ago, we went on a rampage against Stephanie Seymour (think that's her...the author of the Twilight books). I actually agree with him but thought it was really in bad taste for him to call out her writing. A critic can do that, but it really shouldn't come from the ultimate hack writer himself. So I pretend he said nothing so I can continue to enjoy his writing still.

[blurgalurgalurga]

Stephen King's autobiography (but only about those aspects of his life that were actually related to him being a writer), called 'On Writing,' was pretty cool actually. He's a lot better than his rep would have him, I think...sure, he's written a lot of dreck, but his old short stories were great, and a few of his novels too. 'The Shining' was a really good book--haters get f*cked, that dude did some awesome stuff!

Another guy whose autobiography was really interesting and good was J.G. Ballard...actually I read two of 'em, 'Empire of the Sun' and 'the Kindness of Women.' His novels are usually pretty gross, and horrible, and crazy, and depressing, but still, very much worth reading--anyway, after reading his life story I could sort of understand better how it was he grew up to be such a weirdo.

[Chuvok]

I went through the Stephen King phase as a teenager too, simply because my mother used to buy used books at garage sales for like 10 and 25 cents each. So, there were always a lot of 'popular fiction' type books laying around the house. Tom Clancy, John Grisham, Robert Ludlum, Michael Crichton, Anne Rice, and King. I thought 'The Stand' was good, until all the supernatural BS started to happen near the end.

In total I've probably read 10 or 12 of King's books, including 'On Writing' which is more of a biography than a 'how to' book. He isn't the world's best author, no doubt, but he doesn't pretend to be either. I get the impression he knows he's a populist author, and he doesn't care because he can roll around on his bags of money any time he wants.

But if we are going to criticize him, one thing that bothers me about his writing is that all his stories are Amerocentric. In all the King books I've read, the characters are always Americans, the actions always take place in the US. It seems odd, considering his worldwide fame. The argument that he writes to his target audience doesn't really fly, because his books are translated into dozens of languages. You'd think he'd branch out and try to set a novel somewhere else. One of his short stories (sorry I forget the name) is about an American couple who go to England on their honeymoon and get stuck in an alternate reality. But even then, the Americans are at the center of the story, and there isn't much description of the setting or British secondary characters. Just filler with stereotypical accents. In 'On Writing' King describes a time (maybe the only time) he went abroad to England with his wife. So, I got the impression King isn't a worldly kind of guy and is afraid to tackle non-American ideas in his writing.

[HapKi]

[the_beaver]

[Underwaterbob]

Seems a bit of a "no-duh" to me to check up on any authors whose works you've enjoyed.

[jajdude]

I bet a lot of people used to enjoy Tom Cruise movies.