First Transformative Experience with the King ( and I don't mean Elvis)

At ten years old, I was already a regular in the very small town library where I lived in Southern Arkansas. One lazy day during summer vacation, I stopped by the library while out riding my bicycle. None of my friends were around so I was just out riding by myself and decided to stop by to peruse the books. As I walked into the library, the library lady who had been running the library since the town was incorporated I think, was putting up some new books. I noticed one one on her cart featured a picture of a very scary looking St. Bernard dog on the front by some guy named Stephen King. It looked scary, which I was already very much into at ten years old. I checked the book out and read it cover to cover that day. I lost all track of time and space, as I had never read anything like it before. I remember looking around after I finished the book and knowing something was different, mainly that the good guy's don't always win. I knew this fact but had never read a book by an author who apparently realized this also. I went back to the library the next day, turned in Cujo and checked out The Shining by this "Stephen King" character. Wow, another book that in addition to being an absolute page turner, scared the bejesus out of me to the point I had trouble sleeping for a few days and I kept giving the shrubs in my neighborhood a 2nd and 3rd glance while walking past them. I knew Mr. King's books were something special because they opened up some type of window that seemed to just let me get completely into the novel. I've always been a big fan of escaping reality.....be it by whatever means I had at hand, but his books have always been there for me. I eventually discovered The Dark Tower series and the rest is history as they say....

Okay, like Dana, I've probably told this one, but...

Let's see, I usually tell the 'my Kingfan mom bought me Cycle of the Werewolf', story, but it really goes further back than that. Back to the early eighties video-store boom that had conquered America. You kids today, you can't realize how amazing VHS was. Out in the sticks, where I lived, you couldn't even get Cable, and any movies you saw were the edited-to-death and commercial-clogged Movie of the Week on the networks. You got lucky every year when they showed King Kong, that was about it. Imagine being a festering, adolescent horror fiend, reading mags like Famous Monsters, and only wishing you could see all those great old (and new) horror flicks because the networks weren't showing any. I was dying.

Then video RENTAL comes along and LO, the gates parted. Here's me, this starving horror fan-addict, walking through rows upon rows of glorious video box art--all those movies, FRANKENSTEIN, THE WOLF MAN, TEXAS CHAINSAW, every damn FRIDAY THE 13th--at a buck a night, two for the weekend. It was like a junkie given free rein in a pharmacy. A bit more browsing, and there it was...CREEPSHOW.

OH geeze, I could go on and on about how King and CREEPSHOW and Horror comics have formed much of who I am and what I do, but those topics are covered elsewhere, and I have monkeys to shave. Keep the faith, kiddies...

My older sister tossed me this when I was about 13 or so. "Read this, think you can handle it."



ohhh. I did handle it. Scared me so, but made me straight out laugh too. I had never read a author that could do that. Before or since.

Then went on the 'The Shining' Then Carrie.

And the rest. Just sorry that I put off the Dark Tower Series for so long.

My father was a bookcritic. He got a lot of books from the publishing companies and wrote reviews about them and sometimes a longer article about one authors career. He got ordinary books and he crimenovels and some sciencefiction. 1979, I was 14 years old he came in to my room, gave me "Staden som Försvann" (swedish title of Salem's Lot) and said that i might like it. He know i liked SF and had bought some Jules Verne and H.G. Wells but thought i might like some modern horror too.

Oh, I did like it. Has been a constant reader since even if i suffered some disappointments. So for a long time i read King in swedish. Now i have substituted all my swedish titles for the English versions. My father went on to later being the first in Sweden at least to argue for Kings importance as a major american novelist. He wrote an article in the middle of the 80-ties, before IT, that was called "It is time to take King seriously" or something like it. When i Liked King he guided me on to John D. MacDonald, Shirley Jackson, and several others in american literature that he thought should be read. Thanks, Dad!!

Kurben said:

My father was a bookcritic. He got a lot of books from the publishing companies and wrote reviews about them and sometimes a longer article about one authors career. He got ordinary books and he crimenovels and some sciencefiction. 1979, I was 14 years old he came in to my room, gave me "Staden som Försvann" (swedish title of Salem's Lot) and said that i might like it. He know i liked SF and had bought some Jules Verne and H.G. Wells but thought i might like some modern horror too.
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Oh, I did like it. Has been a constant reader since even if i suffered some disappointments. So for a long time i read King in swedish. Now i have substituted all my swedish titles for the English versions. My father went on to later being the first in Sweden at least to argue for Kings importance as a major american novelist. He wrote an article in the middle of the 80-ties, before IT, that was called "It is time to take King seriously" or something like it. When i Liked King he guided me on to John D. MacDonald, Shirley Jackson, and several others in american literature that he thought should be read. Thanks, Dad!!

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I've often wondered how his work translates. He uses so much American slang and references.

FlakeNoir said:

I would love to read your dad's article if you still have it. (& have time for translation... )

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I have it. Saved what i could of his writings when i cleaned out mothers apartment this spring. I'll think about a translation. It would be fun to share it.

not_nadine said:

I've often wondered how his work translates. He uses so much American slang and references.

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Exactly the reason why i have gotten all Kings writings in their original language now. And it all depends on the translator really. Some are really good and manage to catch the nuances and make sense of the references. Some are not so good.... But he has translated fairly well i think because his motives are very universal, Like fear, bullying, grief and so on. The references are either explained or translated right off(and when it comes to movies and music it are usually very wellknown ones). It helps that he often are situated in a small town which makes it easy to identify with.

...in a nutshell, I was smoking some righteous bud WITH a bud back in my early college days, he started rambling about this book called The Stand...let's just say the Chronic was excellent-the novel more so...

I was babysitting at age 14 for people who lived across the street. Nothing of note was on TV past 10 PM, so I perused their paperback library and found

......

...and proceeded to read Graveyard Shift for the first time. It scared the snot out of me.

And I was hooked. The first full King novel I read was 'Salem's Lot, and there was no looking back.

The man tells a great story.

muskrat said:

Then video RENTAL comes along and LO, the gates parted. Here's me, this starving horror fan-addict, walking through rows upon rows of glorious video box art--all those movies, FRANKENSTEIN, THE WOLF MAN, TEXAS CHAINSAW, every damn FRIDAY THE 13th--at a buck a night, two for the weekend. It was like a junkie given free rein in a pharmacy. A bit more browsing, and there it was...CREEPSHOW.

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Yeesh, You just took me back. Be kind, rewind.

I have said before, my momhanded mr Carrie when I was 16 and that turned me into a CR immediatly. But, when I read The Stand for the first time (the truncated version) that was the one that hypnotized me. I remember getting home from work and sitting down with it and not looking up until it got too dark to see. I dreamed that night that I was in charge of leading a large group of people somewhere...

I think 'The Crate' was my favorite one in Creepshow. Billy!

I put my hand in a box and it came out holding The Dead Zone. I was about 12 years old. True story.

'Salem's Lot was the first one that made me realize that I might be missing something. It was actually the fourth King title I had read, but what I remember about it is that I thought I wouldn't like it because I had not liked the TV mini-series at all. It was this book, however, which first showed me something that I still say today when people ask me why I like Mr. King's stories so much:

He writes characters I either feel like I already know, or that I would like to know.

I can't think of a better reason to read a story.

I think my first *big moment* occurred when I caught David Soul and company in the Salem's Lot TV mini-series. Afterward I scored the book from the local library and was hooked.