Why is his later work often more sexual in tone?

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Gerald

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I'm not even talking about specific sex scenes, although there seems more of that too. But it seems that so much of his later writing is about sex: references to sex, comparisons to sex. Sometimes it takes almost ridiculous proportions. For example, in Doctor Sleep the True Knot are watching porn movies to throw Abra off-balance with the images - the idea is quite absurd.
And this from a writer about whom his colleagues once joked that he hadn't discovered sex yet.

Is it for commercial reasons? Does he just have a bigger interest in it now?

Often it adds little for me. I know Gerald's Game is about sex, but there it actually constitutes the very plot. But a lot of times it feels to me that he includes it for very little specific purpose. Not that I'm offended by it at all, but other writers (Barker for example) often use sex in a more original way - it gets added less just for the sake of it.
Maybe if SK had done it from the very beginning I wouldn't notice it so much, but it seems to have increased so much over time.
 

Dana Jean

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I'm not even talking about specific sex scenes, although there seems more of that too. But it seems that so much of his later writing is about sex: references to sex, comparisons to sex. Sometimes it takes almost ridiculous proportions. For example, in Doctor Sleep the True Knot are watching porn movies to throw Abra off-balance with the images - the idea is quite absurd.
And this from a writer about whom his colleagues once joked that he hadn't discovered sex yet.

Is it for commercial reasons? Does he just have a bigger interest in it now?

Often it adds little for me. I know Gerald's Game is about sex, but there it actually constitutes the very plot. But a lot of times it feels to me that he includes it for very little specific purpose. Not that I'm offended by it at all, but other writers (Barker for example) often use sex in a more original way - it gets added less just for the sake of it.
Maybe if SK had done it from the very beginning I wouldn't notice it so much, but it seems to have increased so much over time.
I hear what you're saying. I'm not offended by it at all either as long as it is a vital part of the plot or story.

I've said this a bazillion times on here, but if sex is thrown in just for shock value, I think the author failed. But, I'm not sure I've noticed Stephen has increased the bumpachickabowbow in his stories.
 

Dana Jean

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I haven't noticed myself, but I wasn't looking. Sex has been everywhere and in everything all my life, even in the ice cubes of some whisky magazine ads back in the 80's (or so I've been told). I guess that's why I'm not picking it up...desensitized. I do notice it from time to time though and it makes me feel funny in my belly.
oh. my. god.

:lol:
 

Gerald

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I hear what you're saying. I'm not offended by it at all either as long as it is a vital part of the plot or story.

I've said this a bazillion times on here, but if sex is thrown in just for shock value, I think the author failed. But, I'm not sure I've noticed Stephen has increased the bumpachickabowbow in his stories.

There were always (strong) sex scenes in his work. Here are some examples:


But it's more that now he treats many other aspects of his work with a sexual angle too. It's like he looks at everything in a sexual way. I'm not even sure if it's to shock (although I'm sure he doesn't mind that), but it seems that's how he looks at things in general now.
So you write a book about about psychic vampires, and what are they doing? They're watching porn movies.
 

Gerald

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I haven't noticed myself, but I wasn't looking. Sex has been everywhere and in everything all my life, even in the ice cubes of some whisky magazine ads back in the 80's (or so I've been told). I guess that's why I'm not picking it up...desensitized. I do notice it from time to time though and it makes me feel funny in my belly.

It may depend on which books you started with. If you started with the later, more sexual ones, you might not notice so much there's less of it in the early books.
He even said in some interview that writing's like sex; even if it was bad, it was still pretty good.

But I read in user reviews of his books that others have noticed it too. I think it's very obvious.
 

GNTLGNT

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....maybe he hasn’t developed any stronger interest in carnal pleasures, just is more comfortable word spinning on the subject as he’s matured...never found any of it gratuitous....hell Koontz’s latest has some pretty vivid scenes as well...that’s a bit of a departure for him....
 

Gerald

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....maybe he hasn’t developed any stronger interest in carnal pleasures, just is more comfortable word spinning on the subject as he’s matured...never found any of it gratuitous....hell Koontz’s latest has some pretty vivid scenes as well...that’s a bit of a departure for him....

I think he was always comfortable with it. Those scenes I linked are written with conviction - people still discuss the gang bang from IT.
It just seems his work as a whole is much more infused with it later on.

It's also possible that originally it was in his early books more too, but that they were more severely edited and it was edited out a lot for serving no purpose. That's my problem with it: with dragging in sex all the time when it serves no purpose, it tends to cheapen the books overall.
For example in Doctor Sleep I just don't get the meaning: why are they using porn to confuse the girl. Why not something else.
 

Gerald

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Maybe with all of his kids grown and out of the house he's more comfortable including it in the stories? :D

His children didn't read all his books. Owen said around the time they were promoting Sleeping Beauties that he never had read The Shining until recently.
He's not really the type of writer who writes for his children primarily I think, the way some writers start. Maybe some of his books, like Eyes of the Dragon, but not the majority I think.
 

Out of Order

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....maybe he hasn’t developed any stronger interest in carnal pleasures, just is more comfortable word spinning on the subject as he’s matured...never found any of it gratuitous....hell Koontz’s latest has some pretty vivid scenes as well...that’s a bit of a departure for him....
People doing it in the bougainvillea?
 

kingricefan

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His children didn't read all his books. Owen said around the time they were promoting Sleeping Beauties that he never had read The Shining until recently.
He's not really the type of writer who writes for his children primarily I think, the way some writers start. Maybe some of his books, like Eyes of the Dragon, but not the majority I think.
I didn't mean that he wrote for his kids, just that he didn't want them getting into his stuff when they were young kids and reading a passage that was sexual. It was a tongue-in-cheek kind of joke.
 
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