Stephen King: Difference between revisions

[[File:Stephen-King-2max.jpg|frame|In the time it took for you to look at this picture, he just wrote a 1500 -page novel.]]

{{quote|''It was a nice day... '''<big>AND THEN EVIL CAME!</big>'''''|The Collected Work of Stephen King, [http://rinkworks.org/bookaminute/b/king.shtml ultra-condensed version]}}

{{quote|''We all gotta die, baby. I'm just trying to make it a little more interesting.''|'''Stephen King'''}}

The current{{when}} dominant author of the horror genre, '''Stephen King''' has added much to its stock of tropes. Many of his works reference each other, building up a larger [[The Verse|universe]]. Known for being ludicrously prolific but also for producing far better writing than most people who pump out stories at his rate, and many who take a lot longer about it.

For a list of his works which have pages on the wiki, see [[Works Byby Stephen King]].

* ''[[Carrie]]'' - [[Scrapbook Story]] about [[Butt Monkey|an abused girl]] with [[Psychic Powers]] who takes a terrible revenge after a [[Prank Date]] to the prom. King's wife stopped him from throwing the manuscript out and convinced him to finish it. Made into a movie by [[Brian De Palma]] that received two Academy Award nominations (for acting), which later received [[The Rage: Carrie 2|a sequel]] and a [[Made for TV Movie|made-for-TV]] [[The Remake|remake]]. It was also made into an infamously terrible musical that has become a byword for "flopped on Broadway".

* ''[[Salems'Salem's Lot]]'' - [[Our Vampires Are Different|Vampires]] in a small town in Maine, and the efforts of a few to get rid of them. Made into two TV miniseries. King's first visit to the Creepy Small Town, which he keeps coming back to, under a variety of names and states. Notable that his publisher advised him NOT to have this as his second book, lest he be pigeonholed as a horror novelist. Guess they got over it.

* ''[[Night Shift]]'' - Anthology of short stories, several of which have been adapted into movies:

** ''[[The Mangler (Literaturenovel)|The Mangler]]''

** ''[[Trucks]]'' -- adapted twice, once as ''[[Maximum Overdrive (Film)|Maximum Overdrive]]'' and once more-faithfully as ''[[Trucks]]''

* [[Dollar Babies]] -- King helps out independent filmmakers by selling the rights to use his short stories for a dollar and a VHS copy of the film. The rights revert back to him. Many of King's short stories have been filmed as Dollar Babies.

* ''[[Firestarter]]'' - Andy McGee and his daughter Charlie are on the run from the [[Government Conspiracy]], which wants to use their psychic powers for their own nefarious uses. The father is a known factor, but they have no idea what Charlie is capable of. The story may have invented the psychic power of "pyrokinesis". Made into a movie starring [[George C. Scott]] and a young [[Drew Barrymore]].

* ''[[The Dark Tower (Literature)/The Gunslinger|The Dark TowerGuslinger]]'' - First in ''[[The Dark Tower]]'' series starring a protagonist that embodies that [[The Gunslinger|exact trope]], searching for the ultimate truth.

{{quote| The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.}}

** ''The Body (or, Fall from Innocence)'' - Four young friends trek into the woods to see another boy's corpse. Made into a movie under the title ''[[Stand Byby Me]]''.

* ''[[Christine (King novel)|Christine]]'' - The [[Cool Car]] from Hell. Made into a film directed by [[John Carpenter]].

* ''[[The Talisman (Literature)|The Talisman]]'' - Epic quest across America and its dimensional cousin, co-written with Peter Straub. A proposed movie adaptation has been in [[Development Hell]] since 1985 (with such names as [[Will Smith]], [[Michael J. Fox]], and [[Steven Spielberg]] being connected with the project at various times), butand maywas nowat finallysome point expected to see light as a 2012 miniseries., but nothing has came from it.

* ''[[Skeleton Crew]]'' - Anthology of short stories that leads off with the recently adapted ''[[The Mist]]''.

* ''[[IT]]'' - A small Maine city is infected by an [[Eldritch Abomination]] disguised as a [[Monster Clown]], and only the children know. Made into a TV miniseries most notable for [[Tim Curry]]'s [[Nightmare Fuel|portrayal]] of said clown, and adapted again for a duology of films, with the first one to be released in 2017.

* ''[[The Dark Tower (Literature)/The Drawing of the Three|The DarkDrawing Towerof the Three]]'' - Second ''Dark Tower'' book. The gunslinger calls his [[True Companions]], and boundaries of worlds are crossed.

* ''[[The Tommyknockers]]'' - A flying saucer slowly mutates a town's populace into aliens. Really stupid aliens...with absurdly advanced technology (as the book puts it, they're Thomas Edisons rather than Albert Einsteins). It's not a good combination. Like ''Misery'', another excellent metaphor for addiction and co-dependency. In ''On Writing'', King states that he did not intend the story to be a metaphor, but that his subconscious probably did. Made into a miniseries.

* ''[[Needful Things]]'' - [[The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday|A shop with bargains galore]], each at [[Deal Withwith the Devil|a terrible price]]. Made into a movie which starred Max von Sydow.

* ''[[The Dark Tower (Literature)/The Waste Lands|The Dark Tower]]'' - Third in the ''Dark Tower'' series. Roland's [[True Companions]] are completed, and travels through the decaying remains of [[After the End|a world that has moved on.]]

* ''[[Geralds Game (Literature)|GeraldsGerald's Game]]'' - Bondage gone wrong...as in, "husband dies of heart attack while wife is still [[Chained to Aa Bed|handcuffed to the bed]]" wrong. You ''so'' wish someone had the stones to make this into a movie. First of the "abused wife" trilogy.

* ''[[Insomnia (Literaturenovel)|Insomnia]]'' - Elderly widower becomes involved in a struggle to determine the fate of the universe. No relation to the 1997 Norwegian movie thriller of the same title or its [[Insomnia (Filmfilm)|2002 American remake]] with [[Al Pacino]] and [[Robin Williams]].

* ''[[Desperation (Literature)|Desperation]]'' - AU version of ''The Regulators''. Travelers get caught in the wrong desert, in the wrong little town, at the absolute worst time. Made into a TV movie featuring [[Ron Perlman]] as the crazy demon-possessed sheriff.

* ''[[The Dark Tower (Literature)/Wizard and Glass|Wizard and Glass]]'' - Fourth [[The Dark Tower]] book, mainly revolving around Roland's former [[True Companions|ka-tet]] and his personal [[I Let Gwen Stacy Die]].

* ''[[Bag of Bones (Literature)|Bag of Bones]]'' - A grieving widower returns to his old vacation home since his wife's death only to realize it's nestled in a [[Town Withwith a Dark Secret]]. Made into a two-part movie aired on A&E.

* ''[[The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon]]'' - A little girl gets lost in the Appalachians... with no supplies... for weeks. Made into a pop-up book.

* ''[[Hearts in Atlantis (Literature)|Hearts in Atlantis]]'' - Vietnam-era story anthology. First story was made into a movie.

* ''[[Dreamcatcher (Literaturenovel)|Dreamcatcher]]'' - Four old friends get stuck out in the forest on a hunting trip, right when the aliens land. Made into a movie.

* ''[[Black House (Literature)|Black House]]'' - Sequel to ''[[The Talisman (Literature)|The Talisman]]'', again co-written with Peter Straub.

** ''[[Fourteen Oh Eight|1408]]'' - An author attempts a stay in a haunted hotel room; things only [[It Got Worse|get worse]] for him from then on out. Made into a movie starring John Cusack.

* ''[[The Dark Tower (Literature)/Wolves of the Calla|Wolves of the Calla]]'' - Fifth ''Dark Tower'' book.

* ''[[The Dark Tower (Literature)/Song of Susannah|Song of Susannah]]'' - Sixth ''Dark Tower'' book.

* ''[[The Dark Tower (Literature)/The Dark Tower|The Dark Tower]]'' - Seventh and last (chronologically speaking) ''Dark Tower'' book.

* ''[[Liseys Story (Literature)|LiseysLisey's Story]]'' - A love story with a horrific edge; King's examination of what his wife's life might have been like if he had been killed in the car accident.

* ''[[Full Dark No Stars (Literature)|Full Dark, No Stars]]'' - A collection of four short stories.

* ''[[Eleven Twenty Two Sixty Three (Literature)|Eleven Twenty Two Sixty Three11/22/63]]'' - Man travels back in time to prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy.[[Hitler's Time Travel Exemption Act|We'll see how it goes.]]

* ''[[The Dark Tower (Literature)/The Wind Through the Keyhole|The DarkWind TowerThrough the Keyhole]]'' - The eighth book in [[The Dark Tower]] series, but serves as an interquel to ''Wizard and Glass'' and ''Wolves of the Calla''.

Aside from his own work, King also wrote a number of novels under the [[Pen Name]] of Richard Bachman:

* ''[[Rage (Literaturenovel)|Rage]]'' - A kid commits a school shooting and has a strange discussion with his classmates. Written long before the events at [[Useful Notes/Columbine|Columbine]] High School. No longer in print by King's request.

* ''[[The Running Man (Literaturenovel)|The Running Man]]'' - Lower-class worker trying to pay daughter's medical bills in dystopian USA enters a game show designed to test the effectiveness of the police state. They hunt him, he evades them. If caught, he ''will'' be killed. Halfway through, {{spoiler|he discovers that the game is rigged}}. Ends with wife vilified and murdered and daughter dead, but it's okay, because at the very end {{spoiler|he crashes a plane into the skyscraper where the game show host is working}}. The plot of [[The Running Man (Filmfilm)|the movie adaptation]] (with [[Arnold Schwarzenegger]]) does not bear very much relation to this description; it handles some of the same elements, but plays them as parts of a glitzy [[Game Show]] rather than the more straight dystopian nightmare of the book.

* ''[[The Regulators (Literature)|The Regulators]]'' - AU version of ''Desperation''. A suburban summer afternoon gets very deadly very fast. Best known for being absolutely batshit insane. One character described it best as "[[Alice in Wonderland]] but the [[Nine Inch Nails]] version."

* ''[[Blaze (Literature)|Blaze]]'' - A mentally deficient conman kidnaps a millionaire's child. Marketed as a "posthumous" work of Bachman; actually a rewritten and edited version of a lost King manuscript that predates even ''Carrie''.

* ''On Writing'' - An autobiography and a how-to for up-and-coming authors.

* ''[[Rose Red]]'': Haunted house tale where the manse in question [[Malevolent Architecture|literally has a life of its own]]...[[Bizarrchitecture|and won't stop growing]].

King also wrote the screenplay for the 1992 film ''[[Sleepwalkers (Film)|Sleepwalkers]]'', collaborated with George Romero on the 1982 theatrical anthology film ''[[Creepshow (Film)|Creepshow]]'' (as well as its sequel ''[[Creepshow 2 (Film)|Creepshow 2]]'' and the sequel-in-all-but-name ''[[Tales From the Darkside (TV)|Tales Fromfrom the Darkside]]: [[The Movie]]''), and went behind the camera to direct the 1986 film ''[[Maximum Overdrive (Film)|Maximum Overdrive]]'', adapted from his ''Night Shift'' story "[[Trucks]]", in which people are menaced by trucks and other vehicles that are [[Attack of the Killer Whatever|brought to murderous life]] by radiation from a comet. Ironically, the story was later adapted again, rather more faithfully, under the original title.

* [[Bigger Bad]]: With the [[Canon Welding]] mentioned below: {{spoiler|the Crimson King}} becomes this.

* [[By the Eyes of Thethe Blind]]

* [[Creator Cameo]]: King often makes cameo appearances in the film adaptations of his works; his high point probably being his portrayal of the eponymous hick in the ''[[Creepshow (Film)|Creepshow]]'' segment "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill."

* [[Creator Provincialism]]: The majority of his stories are set in his native Maine. When he started spending part of the year in Florida, he started setting some of his stories there. Several books were set in or around Boulder, Colorado, when he lived in Colorado for a while. And all of them are set in the U.S. (except the ones set in fantasy worlds) and his entire body of work has only two notable non-American characters, the English Nick Hopewell in ''The Langoliers'' and the German Kurt Dussander in ''Apt Pupil'' (the latter is because a Nazi concentration camp commander can't be American).

* [[Cthulhu Mythos]]: King is a great admirer of [[HPH.P. Lovecraft]], and as detailed below, has included both overt and subtle homages in his own work.

* [[Deal Withwith the Devil]]

* [[God Before Dogma]]: Religious characters who are not [[The Fundamentalist]] tend to favor this. Interviews with King confirm this to be his own worldview.

* [[Hard Onon Soft Science]]: In ''The Stand''

* [[Hate Plague]]: Inverted in "[[The End Ofof Thethe Whole Mess]]".

* [[Homage]]: The short story "Jerusalem's Lot" from ''Night Shift'' is a [[HPH.P. Lovecraft|Lovecraft]] pastiche, written in epistolary style with sprinklings of [[Purple Prose]], and contains a [[Shout-Out]] to that ''other'' [[Tome of Eldritch Lore]] from the Cthulu Mythos, ''De Vermis Mysteriis''.

* [[I Just Write the Thing]]: If ''On Writing'' is any indication, he usually starts out with characters and a premise, then works out from there what the characters would do and what would happen in response to their actions, [[Writing Byby the Seat of Your Pants|with only a little thought of where the story will ultimately go]]. This means both that a character who's been heavily developed for 200 or so pages can get eaten on page 201 (see {{spoiler|''[[Dreamcatcher (Literature)|Dreamcatcher]]'', ''[[The Mist]]''}}), and that a character who was intended to die can wind up surviving through application of a previously-established resourcefulness ({{spoiler|''[[Salems Lot|'Salem's Lot]]'', ''[[Misery]]''}}.) There have been exceptions where he tried to fit a story into a particular path, but the only one he [[Creator Backlash|still likes]] is ''[[The Dead Zone]]''.

** This really comes to light in ''[[The Green Mile]]'', where an aged Paul Edgcomb writes the first few chapters as though Coffey ''did'' murder those girls, despite the main plot point in the last half being the fact that he's actually innocent. He wrote the novel [[Serial Novel|in installments]], and admitted in the foreword of the first book that he himself may not even know how this thing ends.

* [[Inherited Illiteracy Title]]: ''Pet Semetary''

* [[Name's the Same]] Often re-uses names from other books to describe completely different people. Examples include: Patrick Hockstetter, who was a Shop scientist in ''[[Firestarter]]'' and a sociopathic schoolmate of the Loser's Club in ''[[IT]]''; Martin Coslaw, who was the nice, crippled hero of ''[[Cycle of the Werewolf]]'' (and the film based on it, ''[[Silver Bullet]]'') and a cruel disciplinarian in ''[[Blaze (Literature)|Blaze]]''; he shows up a third time in ''[[Eleven Twenty Two Sixty Three (Literature)11/22/63|Eleven Twenty Two Sixty Three]]'' as a high school football player and actor. Similar to a [[Continuity Nod]] (above). Also, has used names of people in his own life to help name some of the characters as a form of [[Shout-Out]] (see below).

* [[Next Sunday ADA.D.]]: Many of his books are set a few months after publication.

* [[Old Shame]]: King pulled ''[[Rage (Literaturenovel)|Rage]]'' out of circulation after its potential involvement in several school shootings. He still regrets it to this day.

{{quote| I recognize terror as the finest emotion and so I will try to terrorize the reader. But if I find that I cannot terrify, I will try to horrify, and if I find that I cannot horrify, I'll go for the gross-out. I'm not proud.}}

* [[Teleporters and Transporters]]: King's short story "The Jaunt" combines teleportation with [[And I Must Scream]].

* [[Town Withwith a Dark Secret]]: The titular 'Salem's Lot might be the best (worst?) offender. Other towns that repeatedly pop up are [[wikipedia:Derry chr(28)Stephen Kingchr(29King)|Derry]], [[wikipedia:Castle Rock chr(28)Stephen Kingchr(29King)|Castle Rock]], and Tarker's Mills (''Cycle of the Werewolf'', mentioned in ''Under the Dome'')

* [[Unintentional Period Piece]]: Tends to happen a lot with his earlier novels. He himself has said he's sometimes "too much a writer of the moment."

* [[Weirdness Magnet]]: He has referred to himself as one. Citing a time a fully dressed gin drinking Ronald McDonald sat next to him on an airplane during his first book tour.

* [[Went to Thethe Great X In Thethe Sky]]: In ''The Library Policemen'', the town's resident drunk, Dirty Dave, is said to have gone to the "great ginmill in the sky".

[[Category:{{World Fantasy Award]] Life Achievement}}

[[Category:StephenPages Kingwith working Wikipedia tabs]]