Needs to be a warning in the Prolog

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Mel217

Well-Known Member
Mar 10, 2017
904
5,756
Welcome to the Board, but with absolutely no disrespect intended: Mr King owes no one - not even us, his constant readers - a forewarning on anything he chooses to write. We love him precisely because he takes us by the hand to the dark, scary places we dare not go by ourselves. Furthermore, we trust him to take us safely through to the light at the end.

Nailed it.
Personally, I grew tired of the "always has a happy ending" 80's and 90's sitcom-style writings. Some of SK's stuff may be disturbing, but life doesn't always have a cheerful ending wrapped up in a nice, neat little package. (For instance, I thought Full House was a cute show but it was too happy-slappy-ending-every-episode for me. I loved Rosanne for that very reason, sometimes life and circumstances just freaking suck!)
 

Mel217

Well-Known Member
Mar 10, 2017
904
5,756
If such subject matter is of concern to you, it would perhaps be best to look elsewhere for reading material. Conversely, when read with an open mind and thoughtful reflection, you might find food for thought in the complexity of human behavior. And you will definitely find a damn fine story.

Langoliers spoiler alert:
Even though it's not the most well-known writing out there, I love this story as it's one of the first I read and Mr. Toomey seemed to encompass this complexity for me. On one hand, the guy was a total douche. On the other hand, we got to see WHY he was a total douche and anyone who was able to survive that kind of childhood and early life was bound to display some pretty odd behaviors. I felt 50% loathing for the guy and another 50% disturbing mixture of pity and compassion for him, and those emotions sort of skyrocketed when he finally bit the dust.
The complexity of Dan Torrance as a grown man makes perfect sense to me, and I think the book did a tremendous job doing what was promised as we see a few different sides to his personality. One dimensional characters may be "safe", but in the end they're really quite boring as one dimensional characters do not exist in the real world, IMO.
 

Joanie Kay

Well-Known Member
May 25, 2017
74
344
63
North Carolina
This thread caught my eye because I've always admired SK's unflinching willingness to write about childhood, unusually perceptive children, and the mistreatment of children. In my opinion, the most heartbreaking sentence ever written by anyone is little Danny Torrence's cry in The Shining, "Doesn't it make any difference that I'm only five?" And the answer is, no, it makes no difference to Evil that you're only five...but wait, that's wrong. It makes all the difference; Danny's tender age makes him more of a target, not less. It makes him more attractive to Evil, more delicious because he's young and innocent and truly undeserving of the horror he'll have to face. Evil loves to feast on the disbelief that's part of the terror of an innocent. That is a Truth, and SK has tapped into that Truth not only in The Shining and Doctor Sleep, but also in IT, Cujo, and Firestarter...and plenty of others, but those are the ones that spring to my mind right away.

Lots of horror writers, Stephen King included, are at their best when writing from the point of view of a child. We readers identify immediately, because underneath our practical, logical realism, we all know there's a monster in the closet. Of course, we're scared of the monster, but we're even more afraid that the grownups who are supposed to protect us will laugh when we tell them about it. There really are monsters out there (and in here), from terrorists to our own darkest urges, and they do awful things. Reading horror novels helps me deal with real horrors on a subliminal level--but I can't do that if the author pussyfoots around the dark places. I have to go there.

I'll follow an author who's willing to take me into the deepest, darkest, shadowy-est gullies in the Valley of Death, because I know those places exist, and I get tired of pretending they don't. If I'm not up to going there (as I wasn't last week, after watching certain news stories), I'll travel with someone who will soothe me--someone like Louis L'Amour. On the days I'm up to facing the Shadow, I'll follow folks like Larry McMurtry, Roald Dahl...or Mr. King.
 

Mel217

Well-Known Member
Mar 10, 2017
904
5,756
...well a zombie purple unicorn would be the cats posterior....


maxresdefault.jpg
 

Mel217

Well-Known Member
Mar 10, 2017
904
5,756
Well, apart from the babies she killed in the Neonatal Unit (I guess). I'm pretty sure she was convicted of that but it's been a while since I read Misery or saw the movie.

I remember in particular one passage that left me disturbed and saddened, when Annie goes into her depressive state and leaves Paul (stranded in bed), he hears the animals in the barn crying out and calling because they're starving, thirsty, etc. and eventually the cries stop.
Child, animal or not, running the cop down with the lawnmower was gruesome, gruesome, gruesome but a chilling reminder at how far people will go if you "know" their dark secret. Which is why I stay at home 99% of the time and socialize with my internet box only.
 

Neesy

#1 fan (Annie Wilkes cousin) 1st cousin Mom's side
May 24, 2012
61,289
239,271
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
I remember in particular one passage that left me disturbed and saddened, when Annie goes into her depressive state and leaves Paul (stranded in bed), he hears the animals in the barn crying out and calling because they're starving, thirsty, etc. and eventually the cries stop.
Child, animal or not, running the cop down with the lawnmower was gruesome, gruesome, gruesome but a chilling reminder at how far people will go if you "know" their dark secret. Which is why I stay at home 99% of the time and socialize with my internet box only.
It's a terrible scary world in many ways - I feel the same way when I watch the news :cower:
 

David W. Montague

New Member
Jun 29, 2017
3
24
50
So far, a fun and well paced story, this one. Of the six or so books that I shall finish eating this week (everything from Boccaccio to Isaiah Berlin), this one is definitely the most creepily entertaining. Even creepier than Isaiah Berlin? Apples...oranges. Also, having not read any reviews or cover-teasers beforehand, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it was a continuation of that "other" story. Cool beans. Anyway, on the subject of true artists being censored or tepidly censoring themselves...oh please. Must we be treated like (tortured) children? I hope not, as that would be...torture. To wit and furthermore: In fiction (not unlike in life), incredibly grimm and rotten things are forever happening to children. Speaking as a child who was most nastily and damagingly tortured periodically and over the course of a number of years, I would like to suggest (to anyone who believes that children cannot be tortured) that, in fact, children indeed CAN be tortured - rather easily and in a wide variety of ways. Simply begin by having the child's small family smashed by a stupidly deadly-drunk driver. Then (consequently and predictably) subject the child to various environments characterized by extreme poverty...and then just sit back and observe all the sleazy-sly predatory real-life monsters come out of the woodwork to, er um, frolic and play. Apparently having no family, no security/wealth, and being too small to protect oneself makes one extraordinarily vulnerable. Who knew? Go figure! Why do you suppose sociopaths always select small animals to torture? Why not grizzly bears? Answer: Because sociopaths are very poor losers and don't like to play fair. And that's life. But at least in fiction, often quite unlike in life, one may ultimately, aptly and entertainingly imbue "unpleasant incidents" with a satisfyingly (psychologically, at least) poetic/artistic sense of ersatz justice. Besides, in spite of it all, I grew up to become ever so dandy. Dandy, I say. Dandy!!! (Click here: ) But just to be on the safe side, better avoid direct eye-contact...

"That which does not kill you, informs and educates you." - Sun Tzu
 
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GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
87,651
358,754
62
Cambridge, Ohio
So far, a fun and well paced story, this one. Of the six or so books that I shall finish eating this week (everything from Boccaccio to Isaiah Berlin), this one is definitely the most creepily entertaining. Even creepier than Isaiah Berlin? Apples...oranges. Also, having not read any reviews or cover-teasers beforehand, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it was a continuation of that "other" story. Cool beans. Anyway, on the subject of true artists being censored or tepidly censoring themselves...oh please. Must we be treated like (tortured) children? I hope not, as that would be...torture. To wit and furthermore: In fiction (not unlike in life), incredibly grimm and rotten things are forever happening to children. Speaking as a child who was most nastily and damagingly tortured periodically and over the course of a number of years, I would like to suggest (to anyone who believes that children cannot be tortured) that, in fact, children indeed CAN be tortured - rather easily and in a wide variety of ways. Simply begin by having the child's small family smashed by a stupidly deadly-drunk driver. Then (consequently and predictably) subject the child to various environments characterized by extreme poverty...and then just sit back and observe all the sleazy-sly predatory real-life monsters come out of the woodwork to, er um, frolic and play. Apparently having no family, no security/wealth, and being too small to protect oneself makes one extraordinarily vulnerable. Who knew? Go figure! Why do you suppose sociopaths always select small animals to torture? Why not grizzly bears? Answer: Because sociopaths are very poor losers and don't like to play fair. And that's life. But at least in fiction, often quite unlike in life, one may ultimately, aptly and entertainingly imbue "unpleasant incidents" with a satisfyingly (psychologically, at least) poetic/artistic sense of ersatz justice. Besides, in spite of it all, I grew up to become ever so dandy. Dandy, I say. Dandy!!! (Click here: ) But just to be on the safe side, better avoid direct eye-contact...

"That which does not kill you, informs and educates you." - Sun Tzu
14116978.jpg
 

David W. Montague

New Member
Jun 29, 2017
3
24
50
GG, thanks for those (duly noted) ironically redundant messages on the subject of "promotional" material and "redundant posts" that I somehow managed to briefly locate, read, memorize and attempt to respond to - only to find that your officious messages appeared to disappear/vanish/become impossible to locate/relocate before I had a chance to post my appropriately lucid response. And whether or not that techno-flummoxing was the result of some disturbingly inappropriate "real-time" shell-gaming, or even if it was simply attributable to an increasingly unreliable/screwball-esque technological toolkit, it was easily off-putting enough to drive this newbie out the door. But, just for the record, here's my non-commercial (for-free) response to your officious messages:

Redundancies: Other than a tiny, 6 second video (of the sound of a single pin dropping) that I was inspired to use twice, at no point did I duplicate any threads, "conversations" or posts - and I did indeed (politely and without having to be told, thank you for the officious scoldy-talk) post my "promotional" (ostensible quotes) information under the category clearly marked "self-promotion"...all of which, rest assured, is in good taste and (artistically ironically and/or piquantly) does not actually equate to anything remotely commercial or "promotional." Moreover, unlike my work in the field of anthropology, none of my non-fiction or graphic art has ever been literally published, advertised or "sponsored." Believe it or not, it IS possible to apply creativity and imagination simply (and ever so gosh-darned helpfully) to non-commercial endeavors, in the public interest, which is to say: In a non-heavily marketed/artificially "sponsored" and potentially commercially skewed/twisted manner. And how intellectually and morally vulgar is it to presume that all "artists" want nothing more than to promote themselves commercially? I cannot even begin to describe how intellectually and morally vulgar presumptions of that sort usually turn out to be, so, rather than be overly descriptive about such phenomena, it's usually best just to sit back and carefully observe and document the shear depth and variety of said presumption-based phenomena/misconceptions, if for no other (excellent and practical) reason than to learn more about the extent to which such inherently greed-infused intellectually and morally vulgar presumptions have become the statistical "norm" among neuro-typically cognitively banal, increasingly (measurably) morally hyper-selective "normies." Moreover the presumption that all Facilebook links are "promotional" is an insultingly unbecoming (with respect to officers), intellectually and morally vulgar misconception of a lamentably ubiquitous modern presumption that reveals much more about the burgeoningly large groups of humanoids who seem to be unable to resist making such quick-and-EZ intellectually and morally facile selectively greed-based presumptions than it could possibly reveal about any unfairly/inaccurately pigeonholed message board users, law-abiding citizens, innocent suffering artists suffering the indignation of the damned (the damned!!!), and all hapless victims of hyper-insensitive techno-bureaucracies/idiocracies. Also, technically speaking, although this charmingly literary website's user-interface is profoundly more tastefully and sanely user-friendly than (for example) Facilebook's notoriously insultingly interruptively exploitatively criminally insane FUBAR-ized user-interface - granted, not surprising when one compares the scary-low merit nature of Mark Zuckerberg to the scary (good-scary) high merit nature of the King clan - even the most reasonable and well intended user-interfaces may have their fair share of annoying and/or illogical foibles...such as (I suspect) inadvertently allowing users to backspace back through the posting process (in order to make changes or correct typos), and then clicking the post-button again...thus possibly resulting in the appearance multiple posts. Or not, as that was just a rough guess. Even so, as a brazenly sloppy and inelegant artist who naturally/hastily makes a lot of typos, a post-posting editing option would be (would have been...alas) nice, just for the sake of added overall error-cleanliness, form and clarity. So that's my three cents. Ha. Look at all that text - that may seem complicated but really isn't. Although, verily (for the sake of verity and variety), such observations may generally stand to be more complicated (and less like a tube full of eerily increasingly uniform Pringles potato chips), not less complicated.

"Make things as simple as possible, but not simpler." - Albert Einstein

"The artists of our day are becoming businessmen and think like attorneys." - Erik Satie

Therefore and in conclusion, please enjoy this (royalty-free) recording of a dog barking in the distance...
 
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FlakeNoir

Original Kiwi© SKMB®
Moderator
Apr 11, 2006
44,082
175,641
New Zealand
GG, thanks for those (duly noted) ironically redundant messages on the subject of "promotional" material and "redundant posts" that I somehow managed to briefly locate, read, memorize and attempt to respond to - only to find that your officious messages appeared to disappear/vanish/become impossible to locate/relocate before I had a chance to post my appropriately lucid response. And whether or not that techno-flummoxing was the result of some disturbingly inappropriate "real-time" shell-gaming, or even if it was simply attributable to an increasingly unreliable/screwball-esque technological toolkit, it was easily off-putting enough to drive this newbie out the door. But, just for the record, here's my non-commercial (for-free) response to your officious messages:

Redundancies: Other than a tiny, 6 second video (of the sound of a single pin dropping) that I was inspired to use twice, at no point did I duplicate any threads, "conversations" or posts - and I did indeed (politely and without having to be told, thank you for the officious scoldy-talk) post my "promotional" (ostensible quotes) information under the category clearly marked "self-promotion"...all of which, rest assured, is in good taste and (artistically ironically and/or piquantly) does not actually equate to anything remotely commercial or "promotional." Moreover, unlike my work in the field of anthropology, none of my non-fiction or graphic art has ever been literally published, advertised or "sponsored." Believe it or not, it IS possible to apply creativity and imagination simply (and ever so gosh-darned helpfully) to non-commercial endeavors, in the public interest, which is to say: In a non-heavily marketed/artificially "sponsored" and potentially commercially skewed/twisted manner. And how intellectually and morally vulgar is it to presume that all "artists" want nothing more than to promote themselves commercially? I cannot even begin to describe how intellectually and morally vulgar presumptions of that sort usually turn out to be, so, rather than be overly descriptive about such phenomena, it's usually best just to sit back and carefully observe and document the shear depth and variety of said presumption-based phenomena/misconceptions, if for no other (excellent and practical) reason than to learn more about the extent to which such inherently greed-infused intellectually and morally vulgar presumptions have become the statistical "norm" among neuro-typically cognitively banal, increasingly (measurably) morally hyper-selective "normies." Moreover the presumption that all Facilebook links are "promotional" is an insultingly unbecoming (with respect to officers), intellectually and morally vulgar misconception of a lamentably ubiquitous modern presumption that reveals much more about the burgeoningly large groups of humanoids who seem to be unable to resist making such quick-and-EZ intellectually and morally facile selectively greed-based presumptions than it could possibly reveal about any unfairly/inaccurately pigeonholed message board users, law-abiding citizens, innocent suffering artists suffering the indignation of the damned (the damned!!!), and all hapless victims of hyper-insensitive techno-bureaucracies/idiocracies. Also, technically speaking, although this charmingly literary website's user-interface is profoundly more tastefully and sanely user-friendly than (for example) Facilebook's notoriously insultingly interruptively exploitatively criminally insane FUBAR-ized user-interface - granted, not surprising when one compares the scary-low merit nature of Mark Zuckerberg to the scary (good-scary) high merit nature of the King clan - even the most reasonable and well intended user-interfaces may have their fair share of annoying and/or illogical foibles...such as (I suspect) inadvertently allowing users to backspace back through the posting process (in order to make changes or correct typos), and then clicking the post-button again...thus possibly resulting in the appearance multiple posts. Or not, as that was just a rough guess. Even so, as a brazenly sloppy and inelegant artist who naturally/hastily makes a lot of typos, a post-posting editing option would be (would have been...alas) nice, just for the sake of added overall error-cleanliness, form and clarity. So that's my three cents. Ha. Look at all that text - that may seem complicated but really isn't. Although, verily (for the sake of verity and variety), such observations may generally stand to be more complicated (and less like a tube full of eerily increasingly uniform Pringles potato chips), not less complicated.

"Make things as simple as possible, but not simpler." - Albert Einstein

"The artists of our day are becoming businessmen and think like attorneys." - Erik Satie

Therefore and in conclusion, please enjoy this (royalty-free) recording of a dog barking in the distance...
David W. Montague, I was the one asking you not to post multiple copies of the same thread and I understand now that perhaps you did not know how to use our system.
Members have a 10 minute window in which to make changes to their posts, but I am not sure whether this applies while you're still in the moderation period. (I have addressed you about those limits in your Newbies thread.)
The reason it is only a 10 minute window is because it increases the moderation load quite substantially if we're having to read the same posts multiple times. (When somebody edits their post, it puts that post back into our moderation queue to be checked again.)

I am not sure about the messages you are referring to with G.G, as I cannot see where he has posted and then retracted messages to you. (yes, moderators are able to see all of the changes made to posts during the editing process)

Here is a link to our User Guide, you may find it helpful with posting new threads.
 

GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
87,651
358,754
62
Cambridge, Ohio
David W. Montague, I was the one asking you not to post multiple copies of the same thread and I understand now that perhaps you did not know how to use our system.
Members have a 10 minute window in which to make changes to their posts, but I am not sure whether this applies while you're still in the moderation period. (I have addressed you about those limits in your Newbies thread.)
The reason it is only a 10 minute window is because it increases the moderation load quite substantially if we're having to read the same posts multiple times. (When somebody edits their post, it puts that post back into our moderation queue to be checked again.)

I am not sure about the messages you are referring to with G.G, as I cannot see where he has posted and then retracted messages to you. (yes, moderators are able to see all of the changes made to posts during the editing process)

Here is a link to our User Guide, you may find it helpful with posting new threads.
...I have no earthly idea where that spew came from....
 
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