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Some of you may remember that months ago I posted a thread seeking reccomendations on my first Stephen King book. Since then i've gone through The Shining, The Stand, The Long Walk, Misery, Under the Dome, Carrie and about half of the stories in Just After Sunset. There are two things that I notice occur alarmingly often in his book.
The first is his use of stock characters as villans. Specifically his portrayal of all Christians as bible beating blowhards, evil, hipocrites, or just plain unsavory. Annie in Misery, Carrie's mom, pretty much every villian in Under the Dome. As if all of us are like that. That's not only extremely judgemental but also gets a bit cliche after about the twenty millionth time. Surely someone with King's talent can create more diverse and realistic villians than tired stock characters like that. Even one of the few positive Christians I remember reading in one of his books, Mother Abigail, was a complete stock character. I felt like it was the late 19th century every time I read any of her parts. She sounded just like a slave. Which brings me to my next point.
I have a hard time thinking of a King novel where he didn't use the term "Ni**er* at least once. Now don't get me wrong. I'm not the type to get offended by the word for the sake of being realistic. For example, Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird" was a book where it was only logical that the word be used. However, King's use is sometimes a bit extensive and unecessary. For example, in books like The Long Walk, and Misery it just seemed out of place and almost contrived for no reason other than to make the reader hate that particular person (in the case of these two books Barkovitch and Annie). My point is you don't even need that word to evoke a hatred from the reader for those characters. Both of them were terrible enough in their own way and I feel that was not needed. That word should be used for realism yes, but not as a simple tool to do nothing more than to evoke hatred.
Anybody else have any observations or thoughts on this?
I read one King book completely through, don't remember which one, however. At different times I bought two others as beach reading, and each time I tossed the books - with a only a few chapters read - into the trash on the way home. His characters are ridiculous, his plots are worthy of some of the worst TV series.
All of King's characters are cardboard cut-outs in my estimation. He plugs in those things that will push buttons, he doesn't create individuals. Many Americans find evangelical christians obnoxious, many people would immediately characterize someone who ever said n***** even once as evil right off the bat. If his scope were wider, I think you would find more of these automatic hot button employed.
Talented writers in the same field, Ruth Rendell comes to mind, create far more real, more individualized characters and rely less on stereotypes.
That King is popular there is no doubt, of course; but his talent is limited to exactly what he produces over and over again.
When I was a bit younger, I used to read a lot of King. I too noticed that his characters used the N word frequently. Sometimes the usage seemed out of place as if he remembered he needed to fit it in - weird!
I have to admit that I've dropped the ball on keeping up with the recent King novels but I don't remember getting that from his early-mid career stuff. I do think that because some of his characters are not exactly sophisticated, and sometimes downright lowlifes, their figures of speech might not feel acceptable. I also know that real life non acceptable speech occurs all the time.
As an on and off reader of King. I understand how reading his books can make you offened.
That's his point and those are his characters.
The man has written how many books (30+)? Some characters are "stock" and some are intertwined with characters in other books.
InChristine the villain was a car.
In It the villain was portrayed as a clown, but was actually a monster.
It's like saying Tom Clancy is a bad writer because he uses Jack Ryan in multiple books and only writes about the government and the military.
You defintely have the right to not like his books. Now you know and you don't have to waste your money.
In King's semi-autobiographical book, On Writing, he talks about the accident when he was hit by a car while walking that laid him up for about a year. While he was lying on the ground waiting for the ambulance, the guy who hit him was rambling on and on and King says, "I realized I had just been run over by a character from one of my novels."
Some of you may remember that months ago I posted a thread seeking reccomendations on my first Stephen King book. Since then i've gone through The Shining, The Stand, The Long Walk, Misery, Under the Dome, Carrie and about half of the stories in Just After Sunset. There are two things that I notice occur alarmingly often in his book.
The first is his use of stock characters as villans. Specifically his portrayal of all Christians as bible beating blowhards, evil, hipocrites, or just plain unsavory. Annie in Misery, Carrie's mom, pretty much every villian in Under the Dome. As if all of us are like that. That's not only extremely judgemental but also gets a bit cliche after about the twenty millionth time. Surely someone with King's talent can create more diverse and realistic villians than tired stock characters like that. Even one of the few positive Christians I remember reading in one of his books, Mother Abigail, was a complete stock character. I felt like it was the late 19th century every time I read any of her parts. She sounded just like a slave. Which brings me to my next point.
I have a hard time thinking of a King novel where he didn't use the term "Ni**er* at least once. Now don't get me wrong. I'm not the type to get offended by the word for the sake of being realistic. For example, Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird" was a book where it was only logical that the word be used. However, King's use is sometimes a bit extensive and unecessary. For example, in books like The Long Walk, and Misery it just seemed out of place and almost contrived for no reason other than to make the reader hate that particular person (in the case of these two books Barkovitch and Annie). My point is you don't even need that word to evoke a hatred from the reader for those characters. Both of them were terrible enough in their own way and I feel that was not needed. That word should be used for realism yes, but not as a simple tool to do nothing more than to evoke hatred.
Anybody else have any observations or thoughts on this?
I thought the same thing. I actually took it a step further because it felt like he was making an excuse just to use the word so I thought, "Maybe he's racist". In the end, I think you're right and he just uses it as a cheap way to get you to hate the character. It's not different than how Tarantino used it in Pulp Fiction. I mean, is it really believeable that a white man married to a black woman and who has black friends would use and pronounce the word the way he did in that movie?
I thought the same thing. I actually took it a step further because it felt like he was making an excuse just to use the word so I thought, "Maybe he's racist". In the end, I think you're right and he just uses it as a cheap way to get you to hate the character. It's not different than how Tarantino used it in Pulp Fiction. I mean, is it really believeable that a white man married to a black woman and who has black friends would use and pronounce the word the way he did in that movie?
It actually is MORE believable in the instance of Pulp Fiction simply because people are c-o-m-p-l-e-x, and will often do, or say, things completely out of character. More UNbelievable is the character who stays in character. I know, of myself, there have been odd occasions when I have either said or done something, and thought, 'wow, but where did that come from?'
I don't find Stephen King, 'racist' or 'bigoted' or 'narrow-minded' in the least. He grew up in Maine, didn't he? I hardly think the N word was common place there, but he uses it for some of his lowlife characters, especially Southerners.
I admit, that as a child and before PC days, I recall hearing the N word flying out of people's mouths -- for apparently different reasons. Some elderly whites still think it's an appropriate term, unfortunately, and that won't die-out until they do. Others are ignorant, uneducated classes of white who tend to be very narrow-minded, bigoted, and racist. This, I think, is the very character King creates in some of his works.
It actually is MORE believable in the instance of Pulp Fiction simply because people are c-o-m-p-l-e-x, and will often do, or say, things completely out of character. More UNbelievable is the character who stays in character. I know, of myself, there have been odd occasions when I have either said or done something, and thought, 'wow, but where did that come from?'
I don't find Stephen King, 'racist' or 'bigoted' or 'narrow-minded' in the least. He grew up in Maine, didn't he? I hardly think the N word was common place there, but he uses it for some of his lowlife characters, especially Southerners.
I admit, that as a child and before PC days, I recall hearing the N word flying out of people's mouths -- for apparently different reasons. Some elderly whites still think it's an appropriate term, unfortunately, and that won't die-out until they do. Others are ignorant, uneducated classes of white who tend to be very narrow-minded, bigoted, and racist. This, I think, is the very character King creates in some of his works.
Not sure what him growing up in maine has to do with anything. And my problem with King is that these charcters seem to be cardboard cutouts and the "N" word usage seems extremely forced. Like another poster said, sometimes it feels like he has a quota to fill. And I understand people are out of character sometimes, but most of the times i've heard the word used was during casual conversation. For instance, Annie just dropped it out of nowhere while asking Paul a question about "Misery's Return". It just seemed a bit forced to me. Like I said, there is a lot I like about King, but some things I don't. These two things are reoccuring things I see throughout his novels. They won't stop me from reading him, but do sometimes interrupt the story (espescially in under the dome).
Not sure what him growing up in maine has to do with anything.
I don't profess to know all things Maine nor all things Stephen King, but I didn't think he would have encountered the N word as much in Maine.
I don't hear it being used much when I have traveled north of the Mason-Dixon Line, and unless we are talking about old Southerners who often use the word, not meaning to be derogatory, I associate the word with low-class and uneducated whites. The exception being, of course, the Blacks' use of the word, and then, I understand from my African American friends, it may mean different things entirely, depending upon how it's being used and to whom it's directed.
I guess, being a Southerner, I am less attuned to how often it may appear in a work, but I find it in-keeping with the characters who use it in King's works.
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