Here's the commentary: Doesn't matter if it's cut off because there's no movement.
Going On a Little Adventure [Updated]
9 months ago
March 12, 2011
My Idol - Stephen King
Ok so I been reading the guy thirty years or more; I CAN'T HELP IT. Though I gotta say his last book screwed with my head in a very bad, very unfunny way. When he named it "Full Dark, No Stars" he wasn't kidding; this is PITCH black shit. And frankly his last line in the afterword felt like a kick in the face. My daughter assures me it was sarcastic...but I'm not sure. At any rate, he made a comment about Sstephanie Meyer (SP?) and her idiotic "Twilight" books. You a "Twilight" fan? Fuck off then. I hated the first book so much I only read it twice (and lemme tell you, if I only read your stupid book twice YOU SUCK.) He made the comparison between that and the author of the Harry Potter series, saying that at least SHE could WRITE. Now I only read the first three of the Potter series but I would willingly read the rest. SHE actually CAN write. And Meyer can't. So for my enjoyment I am going to include a commentary (a rare commentary since he doesn't talk much) by King about the flap. Oh, you didn't know there was a flap? Well THERE WAS. Twilight fans - all the sad dancing hipsters and emos and whoever the hell else they are had a FIT about the comment. Hahaha - hey, I might find sad dancing hipsters sexy (like 'em young and at least they have the sense NOT to wear loose pants and wear their hair long) but their taste in literature SUCKS.
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13 comments:
Oh no I didn't mean to delete your comment, McCarthy; lemme try to put it back on.
Stephen McCarthy leaves this comment which for some fuckery got deleted:
"Hmmm...
Well, to be honest, I think a really smart (and/or humble) man would have remained quiet and let others make all of those comparisons between his work and hers, rather than making them himself. Not exactly an endearing public relations move on his part, in my opinion.
And if I may speak frankly, somehow I can't get too worked up when one lightweight entertainer goes to war with another lightweight entertainer. Sure, one may be more lightweight than the other, but will anything Stephen King wrote be remembered 200 years from now? I highly doubt it.
Orwell, Dickens - yes, people will still be reading and discussing their work 200 years hence, but King? Horror novels and movies? I could be wrong, but color me skeptical.
~ D-FensDogg
'Loyal American Underground' "
I daresay King WAS humble - he sure as hell got ripped by the critics for at least 25 years if not more, and he ate their sh** all that time despite doing his best work while they were doing it. He IS smart - the kid was left alone pretty much from the age of 9 to take care of himself and his brother with nothing but stacks of books to entertain them. Bad gunky (Lisey's Story).
If you may speak frankly - hehehe - when have I EVER wanted you to speak otherwise??? But I have to say this - if **I*** may speak frankly - he's NOT A LIGHTWEIGHT. The guy has written some of the best books ever written - oh hell, no, not all of them or even most - but SOME. "Salem's Lot" and "The Stand" are two of the best books ever written (and yes of course I've read the classics!)
As to being read 200 years from now, Dickens, Twain and Poe were considered such "lightweights" - in fact they were considered quite vulgar for their times and in their times. AND might I add that King has said of his OWN work "I've always been more of a writr of my OWN time than I wished" - as in he WISHED that he was more timeless...but he wasn't. C'mon, he includes PARTY LINES (uh...that's a phone thing in case you didn't know) and so forth in many of his works! He says he's always been more of a writer of his own time than he wished...but...isn't that part of what makes them great?? Dracula includes all those new inventions - the typewriter, the lightbulb, the transfusion, etc. - is this new? This is nothing new. It's HISTORY.
And yeah, I think if people are smart and want to know more about the times then YES they will be reading King in 200 years...but I guess we won't be around to know lol.
As to the comparison, well...I daresay Potter will ALSO be read in 200 years (even that stupid Quidditch game) whereas the infinitely idiotic Twilight will not. I'm sorry, but like I say I read the GD book and it BLOWS. I've read the synopses of the sequels and THEY blow. The woman just can not write and I prefer character-driven books (which King does in spades; he just can't do STORIES like Koontz who can NOT do characters) - for a humorous look at this check out: http://www.the-editing-room.com/twilight.html (The sequels are there too. Enjoy. I sure did.)
I forgot to mention that being inside that character's head - the Twilight character - SUCKS. She is the most boring and idiotic character I've ever read and being in HER head? Oh hell, I'd rather have a fucking migraine.
ROBERT PATTINSON
Alright, you got me. I was acting like a jerk because I secretly totally love you.
KRISTEN STEWART
Of course! This also explains why the captain of the football team always acted like he hated Stephenie Meyer!
ROBERT PATTINSON
There’s more. I want to eat you.
KRISTEN STEWART
Holy shit, really? I need to go home and do some waxing first, but…
ROBERT PATTINSON
No, I mean literally eat you. I’m a vampire.
HAHAHAHAHA!!!
By the WAY he is not entirely negative in his appraisal of Meyer; he say this: ""In the case of Stephenie Meyer," he added, "It's very clear that she's writing to a whole generation of girls and opening up kind of a safe joining of love and sex in those books."
Oh God I love him. He better explain Full Dark so I don't hate him.
ANNIEE ~
>>.....Stephen McCarthy leaves this comment which for some fuckery got deleted:
Ah-Ha!-Ha!-Ha!
What you wrote made me laugh out loud. (No, I mean that literally.) WHY? Because I AM "the fuckery" that deleted the comment.
I got to thinking about it later and felt like maybe I shouldn't have been posting a disagreeing comment in light of the fact that Stephen King is obviously one of your heroes.
I mean, I know you wouldn't mind if I disagreed on some political issue, but this seemed like more of a "personal" thang, and I later had "poster's remorse" and returned to delete my own comment. So, I was "the fuckery". Ha!-Ha!
As far as Stephen King is concerned, I fully admit to having never read one of his books. (I've never read the Twilight stuffs nor any Harry Potter stuffs either.) I only know of King through the movies I've seen.
And, no, of course, one cannot compare the movies to the books that inspired them, and I have never pretended to do so.
But the reason I think of King as "lightweight" is because of the subject matters alone. Dickens, Orwell, and even Twain (think "Huckleberry Finn") write about great, weighty issues that really impact mankind and the world we live in.
I'm not sure I can put someone who writes predominantly about ghosts and ghouls and monsters and supernatural horror scenarios in the same "weight class" as those other aforementioned authors.
But, hey, I'm sure that for what King does, he excels at it, and his success has been proof of that. And if you dig him, that's fine with me.
It's just that I read almost exclusively nonfiction, and on those rare occasions when I do dip my eyes into fiction, I want something more "real" than ghost stories.
But hell, one man's tea is another man's gin. (Me, I'm more of a gin man myself. ;o)
~ D-FensDogg
'Loyal American Fuckery'
Haha, I didn't know you'd deleted it - no offense for you to disagree (I have good friends who credit the Beatles for every bit of music that ever came after them and I certainly don't agree - I find them overrated; he presents his case and I present mine and we don't agree, and really it's subjective; I know that.)
As to gin, I think it tastes like pine sap; gimme a good tequila or absinthe (louche it first; like an insane person I didn't the first time and I regretted it - can't afford it anymore anyway) or even cheap vodka lol. Save the beer; makes me have to live in the bathroom.
He IS kinda one of my big heroes; a common man who made good but didn't get cocky for many many years (seems like he may have finally gone Hollywood after all though) and along the way has provided some excellent entertainment. With King in particular it's impossible to judge his work by the movies - most of them are HORRIBLE misrepresentations of the books and so loosely based that they bear almost NO resemblance to the stories that inspired them except for the title. Shawshank Redemption wasn't done too badly (though the book was still much better) and a couple other notable exceptions like Stand By Me, but for the most part forget it. But I can't blame the moviemakers TOO much; the problem is that the weighty matters he DOES deal with are human beings and not the purported subject matter itself. Most of his books would suffer in the translation no matter how well the movies were made.
But I think he may have finally jumped the shark, even for me; shame, because I know I'll still read anything new he comes out with lol. And yet I'll never get another Salem's Lot or The Stand, I suppose. I'm not calling the man a Dostoyevski or Tolstoy or a C.S. Lewis; but then I don't always want something so ponderous to read either. He's more like a Twain or a Poe or any other good novelist of his or her time (though just like Arthur C. Clarke, he has trouble with endings) who is much loved by the common people and therefore panned by the highbrows even though they serve a useful purpose of their own. I'm not counting Poe's poetry; I don't consider myself a judge of poetry as I loathe it for some reason. He's certainly not on the level of the penny dreadfuls or Harlequin romances lol. No matter how many critics used to call him a "hack" (as so many did to other great authors of their times that we still love and read today.)
But yes, I understand it's largely subjective. And it probably doesn't matter because so much of the stuff he's come out with since his first "retirement" sucks and even I know it. Ironic that now he's finally proud of himself and the stuff he's doing now isn't so good, heh. Jeez, he took the book "Rage" out of print (Bachman book)after Columbine and if you ask me he should take his latest book out of print and put Rage back in; early as it was, it was the superior work, and I don't see how he can possibly blame himself for the shootings when his specific message was entirely the opposite - i.e. don't pick up a gun, pick up a pen. But then people blamed Ozzy Osbourne for suicide because of Suicide Solution when in fact if they'd bothered to listen to the song they'd know the message was the opposite. People think some stupid things sometimes. Sadly enough.
Thanks for commenting anyway :D
ANNIEE ~
>>.....I have good friends who credit the Beatles for every bit of music that ever came after them and I certainly don't agree - I find them overrated
DITTO! They were definitely innovative in their time, although their most highly regarded stuffs, for the most part, was a reaction to Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds". I loved The Beatles when I was in high school (and that was a looong time ago!), but now I only like a small handful of their songs. Still love The Beach Boys though. But then, of course, I AM a Californian and Beach Boys music is like my own blood to me.
>>.....As to gin, I think it tastes like pine sap; gimme a good tequila or absinthe...or even cheap vodka lol. Save the beer; makes me have to live in the bathroom.
Ha!-Ha! ALRIGHT! It's time for... "Let's Talk Booze With Stephen T. McCarthy".
Tequila... eh. I loves me a good margarita. Better yet, a GREAT margarita. (i.e., El Coyote Mexican Restaurant in L.A. I'm good for three Coyote maggies. Four and I lose my mind. And if I can only handle three, Warren Zevon and Tom Waits could only handle two.)
But beyond margaritas, what good is tequila?
I never liked vodka or peppermint schnapps (unless the bars and liquor stores were closed).
I only had absinthe for the first time a couple of years ago. Eh. I think I prefer Ouzo.
And I know this will sound irrational and sexist, but a beer-drinking woman turns me off. A woman with beer breath? Y-Eew. A woman drinking straight bourbon is fine with me, but leave the beer for the pigs (i.e., men). My Brother feels the same way. (Maybe it's just a "McCarthy Thang".)
But when you're running down gin, yer gettin' on the fightin' side of me! Martinis? Gin And Tonic? C'mon, Sister, that's GOOD STUFFS!
;o)
Gin = Good.
Bourbon = Good.
(At the risk of losing my "Real Man" certification) Red Wine = Good.
Grand Marnier on the rocks = Great!
(Only bummer is... it's from France, and I hate to give the French credit for ANYTHING!)
>>.....Shawshank Redemption wasn't done too badly (though the book was still much better)
I think I'm the only person in America who didn't like the movie 'The Shawshank Redemption'.
I didn't hate it, but I think it's way, WAY overrated.
>>.....I'm not calling the man a Dostoyevski or Tolstoy or a C.S. Lewis ... He's more like a Twain or a Poe
Wow, Anniee! Poe! That may be an excellent comparison. Had never made that connection before, and with it, you nearly convince me that King really might be remembered 200 years from now.
I've never read King, but I have read Poe, and they're definitely cut from the same cloth "material-wise" (pun!;o)
And, of course, Shelley's 'Frankenstein' too is considered a classic. So... hmmm... ya know, Anniee, I may be wrong about my assessment of King's place in literature. I mean, "Horror" can achieve "Classic" status, so you may have actually convinced me with that almost "throwaway" comparison. (Although I would argue that Twain and Poe are not at all in the same category, and Twain is my all-time favorite writer of all time, for now and for all of time.)
A fun comment exchange, my friend.
~ D-FensDogg
'Loyal American Underground'
CRIPES! It is obviously fucked up. By the way my son just saved my daughter's LIFE, yanno. She was literally choking and HE, grandmaster that he is, took my lessons to heart and did a Heimlich. Now THAT is cool.
""Let's Talk Booze With Stephen T. McCarthy".
Yes, let's. :D
"Tequila... eh. I loves me a good margarita. Better yet, a GREAT margarita. (i.e., El Coyote Mexican Restaurant in L.A. I'm good for three Coyote maggies. Four and I lose my mind. And if I can only handle three, Warren Zevon and Tom Waits could only handle two.)
But beyond margaritas, what good is tequila?
I never liked vodka or peppermint schnapps (unless the bars and liquor stores were closed)."
Peppermint SCHNAPPS? ANY Schnapps? FUCK SCHNAPPS. No, I ain't drinking Schnapps. Unless there's nothing else. And you just agreed that maybe King will be read 200 years from now; I can't BE more satisfied. What a nice guy you are. Yeah I'm drinking WINE now; it's medicinal, I tell ya.
And oh god, someone ELSE who finds the Beatles overrated! They did NOT originate Zeppelin or any number of things. THEY DIDN'T. The Beach Boys ALONE should set that to rest, but apparently it doesn't. He just keeps saying the Beatles are responsible; BULLSHIT!
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