Tag: stephen king

So, they’re remaking Stephen King’s Firestarter.

Which leads to an interesting question: Is Hollywood’s intellectually bankrupt habit of recycling old films as bad when the original movie sucked?  Because I remember the original Firestarter.  It wasn’t very good.  A lot of early adaptions of Stephen King books weren’t very good.  So I’m kind of curious to see whether this is a problem with the movies, or Stephen King’s earlier works*.

Moe Lane

*This is not a criticism of Stephen King’s earlier works.  For example, I liked the Firestarter book for what it was, which was a page-turning science fiction / horror novel that wasn’t too full of itself.  But not all books make for good movies. God knows the first Firestarter flick wasn’t.

Book of the Week: The Stand.

Although, I have to admit: Stephen King’s The Stand has a lot to answer for.  More accurately, the expanded version does. The problem was not so much in the fact that King’s book about medieval Christianity (I’ve seen him cop to that, in those words) set in a post-apocalyptic America was reissued with all the previously-cut bits put back in.  It’s that the book sold like even more hotcakes afterward, convincing the world that expanded versions of previous best-sellers were just what American literature needed.  Alas, this was not true.

Still, the book itself is fantastic. In both versions.  And, I suppose, in both meanings of the word.

And so, adieu to Lords and Ladies.

Book of the Week: The Gunslinger.

How is it that Stephen King’s The Gunslinger wasn’t already done by now?  While I personally think that maybe The Dark Tower ran out of steam eventually, the first one was brilliant.  Western, magic, myth-making… good, tasty, and not bloated beyond all belief. Can’t wait to see it on the big screen.

And so, adieu to American Gods.

Book of the Week: ‘Salem’s Lot.

‘salem’s Lot was one of those books that I read in about two hours… then freaked out my college roommate (who didn’t believe that I was capable of reading anything that quickly) by reciting the plot back to him*.

Mind you, this came at the price of disquieting dreams.

And the lambs stop screaming wrt The Silence of the Lambs. OK, that sounded better in my head.

*With the caveat that I hadn’t memorized the people’s names. Just their archtypes.