Dear fellow readers

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RandallFlagg19

Well-Known Member
May 5, 2014
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Dear fellow readers

In the past few days some fellow readers have posted that they feel discontent that there is no dear reader in Mr. Mercedes. Some people so discontented that they claim they will no longer read Stephen King. I assume they are upset because they no longer feel connected with Stephen king.
Here is my response. I did not need a dear reading to feel connected with Stephen king.


I felt very connected with the short lived job fair attendees.

Janice Cray – I am sure everybody has at some time in their life has seen a woman struggling to support herself and child. People go to apply for a job and someplace in a pile a forms you fill out you see something like this “Job Co does not discriminate against, age, gender, religion, or handicap disabilities”. Bull **** to that, Job Co discriminates and even if it’s not against their listed liabilities they can and will discriminates against all the rest of you. Job Co doesn’t see woman with baby and say “oh we should help that poor woman and child”. Job co sees woman with baby and says she will need more wages (then we want to pay) for pediatrician, ear doctor, diapers, formula. Job co sees mom with baby and thinks, she will miss a lot of work when she needs to take care of her baby, and we can’t hire someone who will miss a lot of work hours. Job co says we only want to hire people who will work for what we want to pay them and work when we want them to work, we don’t want to hire human beings with responsibility to other places and people than us.

Remember On Writing when Stephen King describes he had to take a teaching job because the laundry job was longer enough to support the family, kids needed dr. appointments, and meals were planned on an “as we come by them biases”.

I think society has gone sick with terror caused by terrorism. Schools now seem like institutes of death instead of higher education. The shootings in movies have walked out of the film and into the theater (Holmes). Is there no longer any safe place?


It might just be a book from Stephen king but at least in this story (Mr. Mercedes) the terrorist didn’t succeed, and I am “hopeful” that these heroic diversions from tragedy will manifest into our reality.

Technology and social alienation.

Here we are on an online forum. We are not antagonizing each other into death warrants, but we are alienating each other through technical communication. Some people have made accounts seemingly just to scream their new discontent for, Stephen king, in an online community that supports Stephen King. Some response to these post of discontent have been to alienate the poster back. “ you must be a small person because you got so upset over a small thing”, “ok we heard your upset, now leave”, “fine then, your loss”, “you don’t have to continue to read Stephen King if you don’t want to”


I am going to suggest that if you have been upset by what you got, or didn’t get from Mr. Mercedes: that you do not let this determine, for you, that Stephen king is no longer worth reading

I had my first reading experience with Stephen King Writing ten years ago. I didn’t like the book The Langoliers. I let that one reading experience, plus my ignorance and prejudice, discredit Stephen King as an author entirely. I wish someone would have told me that it was a poor decision and I did a great disservice to myself.

Ten years later I was by random circumstance re introduced to Stephen Kings writing. It was by audio book, in a car, I didn’t know who the author was. I developed an interest in the story and found out what the Dark Tower series was and who wrote it. I decided to finally swallow my prejudice against Stephen King and give the book series and author another chance. I had a fantastic reading experience. I had a fantastic revolution. I had let myself based on one unsatisfying reading experience develop a prejudice against an author. I had missed out on ten years of an author that writes fantastic epic stories.
 

RandallFlagg19

Well-Known Member
May 5, 2014
809
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I'm guessing these were the kind of kids who would hold their breath until they got what they wanted...see what oxygen deprivation does?:a24:

I think these are the kinds of people who have misplaced their connection with reading, but their fellow readers shouldn’t give up on them. I think fellow readers should help these lost readers reconnect with what reading really is. I suppose reading doesn’t have to be a true deep personal experience, and it could be a pop culture entertainment experience.

If someone has read to the point if becoming a “dear constant reader” they must have at sometime, in their life, had a deep connection with reading and feeling the value of the true story of a book and not just the “dear reader note".


The reading community already appears to be a dying or ending community; instead of letting people walk out, why don’t we try to motivate people to stay.
 
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SutterKane

Well-Known Member
Jun 7, 2014
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Are people really so melodramatic these days that not having a "Thank You" note in one book (out of the 60+ that he's written) is enough to set them off on a tangent about never reading again???

Take your ball and go home then I say, because really, how do you even argue with somebody that petty??
 
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RandallFlagg19

Well-Known Member
May 5, 2014
809
6,209
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Are people really so melodramatic these days that not having a "Thank You" note in one book (out of the 60+ that he's written) is enough to set them off on a tangent about never reading again???

Take your ball and go home then I say, because really, how do you even argue with somebody that petty??

You could argue with petty people and tell them to go home; or you could tell them that they do not have to be petty and that they have the potential to be dignified and intelligent.


Give them a new ball and invite them to play.
Give them a second chance and invite them to stay.
 

SutterKane

Well-Known Member
Jun 7, 2014
297
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You could argue with petty people and tell them to go home; or you could tell them that they do not have to be petty and that they have the potential to be dignified and intelligent.


Give them a new ball and invite them to play.
Give them a second chance and invite them to stay.

I respect people who are that patient with people, I'm just not one of them, if something is so small and insignificant that it doesn't need to be an issue, I have no patience for those who make it into one, certainly not enough to spend time and energy convincing them their being drama queens when it's so blatantly obvious.
 

RandallFlagg19

Well-Known Member
May 5, 2014
809
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I have apparently started a disagreeable topic. I by no means was attempting to start a movement and convince you all to agree with me and reach out to your fellow readers. I was simply putting the idea out there that some people might not want to be hasty in their decision to stop reading Stephen King. Although if that’s really what they want to do than by all means they should go ahead and execute their decision (I’m not going to beg them to stay). I myself consider that people might be worth at least a little of my time but certainly not all of it.

StutterKan I can also see very well how you feel, there is penalty of sh1t I am impatient about and won’t waste my time on. When I responded to your post it wasn’t necessarily that a cared to much about your statement of being impatient , I was just actively on the forum at that time and got caught up in the action or responding to post. What confuses me, is that for someone who doesn’t want to waste time on this subject you took the time to read my topic and post twice your disagreement, or post once your disagreement, than post again to chastise or chide me… (Maybe you were also just actively on the forum and responding to post).

And for everybody else who disagrees with me. You don’t need to read and respond to my topic, if it’s something you disagree with and think is a waste of time.
 

FlakeNoir

Original Kiwi© SKMB®
Moderator
Apr 11, 2006
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New Zealand
I have apparently started a disagreeable topic. I by no means was attempting to start a movement and convince you all to agree with me and reach out to your fellow readers. I was simply putting the idea out there that some people might not want to be hasty in their decision to stop reading Stephen King. Although if that’s really what they want to do than by all means they should go ahead and execute their decision (I’m not going to beg them to stay). I myself consider that people might be worth at least a little of my time but certainly not all of it.

StutterKan I can also see very well how you feel, there is penalty of sh1t I am impatient about and won’t waste my time on. When I responded to your post it wasn’t necessarily that a cared to much about your statement of being impatient , I was just actively on the forum at that time and got caught up in the action or responding to post. What confuses me, is that for someone who doesn’t want to waste time on this subject you took the time to read my topic and post twice your disagreement, or post once your disagreement, than post again to chastise or chide me… (Maybe you were also just actively on the forum and responding to post).

And for everybody else who disagrees with me. You don’t need to read and respond to my topic, if it’s something you disagree with and think is a waste of time.
Hey there, I wouldn't worry too much about it. (It's not worth the stress... :) ) I think you'll find most people agree in that new folks will be given a fair chance on the MB and then it's up to the new person as to what they do with that (or often 'those') chance/s. :)

Edited: Because I may have gotten the gist of the thread a little wrong. I don't think it's up to us to try and convince other people to not be upset over any part of Stephen's work--people are going to feel how they feel. It's up us to listen to them or not... and to still try to be reasonable, as we are all part of this community and we like to see it humming along nicely. :)