The main quality
of literature in our society is its ability to entertain the masses. Some authors use horror and mystery to keep
their reader's attention. Stephen King
is the epitome of horror writers. In
writing horror mystery novels, Stephen King utilizes small towns, a unique
writing style, and people's inherent fears to scare the pants off his readers.
Fear is the basis for nearly all horror
fiction, especially in Stephen King's novels.
"Everybody goes to horror movies, reads horror novels-it's almost
like trying to preview the end"
(King 219). In all of King's
horror books somebody always dies.
Horror fiction "Lets you become a child again" (King
220). King can bring out the fears that
are kept deep down in our souls. He
knows that we have been set down in a frightening universe, full of real demons
like death and disease, and perhaps the most frightening thing is the human
mind. Horror is "one of the ways we
walk our imagination" (King
218). King takes ordinary emotional
situations and translates them into violent tales of vampires and ghosts. "You never have to ask yourself who's
afraid of the big bad wolf?--You are"
(Yarbro 220). "King has a
talent for raising fear from dormancy.
He knows how to activate our primal fears" (Nolan 222). Where does he get these fears? His own personal fears in (descending order)
are the fear of someone else, others (paranoia), death, insects (especially
spiders, flies, & beetles), closed in places, rats, snakes, deformity,
squishy things, and his number one fear is fear of the dark. "At night, when I go to bed I am still
at pains to be sure that my legs are under the blankets, after the lights go
out. I'm not a child anymore...I don't
like to sleep with one leg sticking out.
Because if a cool hand ever reached out from under the bed and grabbed
my ankle, I might scream. Yes, I might
scream to wake the dead" (King, Night Shift xii). "Terror" is the most refined of
fearsome emotions because it centers largely on unseen forces. Here are some perfect
examples from many of his works. In the
book Thinner, readers are warned not to underestimate the power of one person
and to be wary of everyone. Dolores
Claiborne takes place during a total eclipse which is supposed to bring out the
evil in people. Geralds Game is a book
based on women's fears of rape, being alone, helplessness, and danger. The book Cujo brings out the fear of what if
man's best friend became his worst nightmare?
The Dark Half is the fear of a person's evil self coming to life and the
good self of the person being affected by the evil one's wrong doings, i.e. the
evil twin story.
The mystery and inclusiveness of small town
America plays a key role in a large number of books written by Stephen
King. Castle Rock is the perfect example
of a small town used in a few of King's books.
It was used in Cujo, The Dead Zone, and The Body. It is a small town in Maine, which happens to
be King's home state. It's name came
from a lake in Wisconsin. There is
actually a town called Castle Rock in Maine now. There are also other examples of the
utilization of small towns. In the Dark
Half King manages to make Pittsburgh look like a small town located in Maine. In Gerald's Game a remote lakeside house in
Maine is used. Sleepwalkers takes place
in a small town in Indiana. There are
many reasons Mr. King uses small towns in his novels. The whole small town culture makes it easier
to intertwine the story among various characters. Small towns also seem to be separate from the
world that we are used to today. Also,
the fact that everyone knows everyone else helps with the significance of the
actions of various characters.
There are many critics who have embraced the
public's passion for King books, but there are still a few who do not believe
that he is a credible author worthy of the literature books of the future. Positive reviews are abundant. When King is at his best, then the reader is
too busy turning pages to be squeamish.
"In a time of violence and confusion, it is little wonder then that
so many readers have embraced the imaginative talents of Stephen
King"(Winter 219). "If someone
in the future wants to see what American life was like, what Americans cared
about, they'll read Stephen King" (Ross 218). King's work has been described as "the
chronicle of contemporary America's dreams, desires, and fears" (Ewing
222). "Though an inelegant writer,
King impresses, finally, by virtue of his enthusiasm and self-confidence, and
his faith in his own imaginative powers" (Lit. Criticism 237). It's all too easy to take cheap shots at his
material by lifting it out of context.
The worst critics seem to be the most formal, concerned with literary
technique rather than a good story that can be enjoyed by the masses. Specific complaints on his work are
numerous. Some may object that King's
writing is too enthusiastic, or at least too energetic (how writing can be too
energetic is beyond me). King's artistic sensibilities are that of a fourteen
year old boy. Some critics have
criticized King for overwriting (too much).
Many people believe King is in a field that too easily lends itself to
cliché, because of the simplicity of the plots.
Don Herron(219) doubts whether "the majority of fans or even his
most intelligent critics read him for deep meaning. King has even referred to his own work as
"the literary equivalent of a Big Mac and a large fries from
McDonald's"(King 222).
King's writing style and utilization of unique
characters are what make his books. The
form in which his books are written is what grabs the attention of the
reader. In The Dead Zone and Cujo the
style is psychological rather than the supernatural mode. King's work is a hybridization of the
traditional horror tale, as written by Edgar Allan Poe. A story that offers the chills has become
King's trademark. By introducing
believable middle and lower class Americans into situations that defy
conventional logic King subjects the reader to a harrowing tour of the lives of
characters who must attempt to defeat the irrational, in order to restore a
modicum of sanity to their world. King
tries to terrorize the reader, "If
I find I cannot terrify the reader, I will try to horrify, and if I can't
horrify, I'll go for the gross-out, I'm not proud" (Gault 243). "Stephen King writes of good vs. evil,
putting a usually shaded white up against the blackest blacks" (Gault
238). Stephen King never ends his
stories with any cheap or easy hope.
King never stops emphasizing his essential liking for people. He lapses into bogeyman mode when inspiration
wanes. Characters bring out the realism
and excitement in King books. "Of
King's imaginary characters, boys, generally twelve years old, are among the
most carefully developed and consistently explored. Because pre-teen and
pre-puberty youngsters could hardly have done enough to deserve death, terror,
or destruction, King rather insistently concentrates upon them, especially in
the early novels."(Reino 34) Even
King's elderly characters talk as if they had spent their lives at Saturday
kiddy matinees. King skillfully evokes
the here and now reality of his characters and is astute in dealing with the
psychology of his characters. Gerald's
Game is probably the best example of King's ability to dig into a person's
mind. In this case, he uses a typical
woman who has to worry about things such as rape, helplessness, and always
being in danger. King makes it
impossible for his readers not to identify with his characters.
Many people have been both scared and
entertained by numerous Stephen King novels.
By sheer numbers of books sold, he has proven himself to be one of our
greatest authors of all time. Hopefully
the future will bring us many more authors with the intelligence and charisma
of Mr. Stephen King.
--------------------------------------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment