Memory Lane

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JCBrennan68

Member
Dec 23, 2013
18
99
56
Arizona
Welcome! I agree with you that King is a master of the short story. I will never forget the first time I read Night Shift (way back in the day when the paperback had the blue cover with the eyes staring out at you and when you opened the cover there was the hand with tiny eyes all over it) and I finished the first story (Jerusalem's Lot) and thought 'My God! This guy can really, really write!' and the use of the 'old' language. Up to that point I had read his first three books and the Stand so to read something that he had written in a totally different 'voice' was like a punch in the face to me. It really woke me up to how gifted this guy was and put him on the top of my list of writers. Almost every story in Night Shift is different in tone and style and really shows what a powerhouse King was (and still is!).
I know the feeling. I love his story written as Richard Bachman: Rage, Blaze, The Regulations, Thinner...I guess I just love the was this man writes no mater what name his is using.
 

JCBrennan68

Member
Dec 23, 2013
18
99
56
Arizona
It would be nice to see another. I don't have much time these days but I was able to finish Man in a Black Suit today. I did not remember this story as clearly as I would have expected so it was just like reading it for the first time. I had forgotten how Mr. King draws you in deeper and deeper until the world around you just melts away and all that is left is you and the story. I do miss having the time to read but I when I can take a moment to become enthralled in a story I don't miss the opportunity to do so.
 

bobbo

Member
Jul 12, 2006
17
70
54
Bowie, Texas
Love the forrays into short fiction we've gotten from Uncle Stevie throughout his career, and they're always a welcome addition.

During a recent look back at Danse Macabre, I was reminded of two aspects of Stephen King's talent in relation to the modern short story: First, he certainly seems to enjoy others' entries into the art--his analysis and recommendation of the great Harlan Ellison (who I'd never heard of before King's high praise) is nothing less than the sole introduction I received to that old snarkmaster's immense talent.

Secondly, as King writes about the conservation of language and form necessary to make the short story a living, breathing literary form, I can't help but revel in his extreme usage of these special fundamentals in their leanest and most pure forms in the later portions of that book, when he offers super-short, sometimes TINY vignettes, most at the length of a paragraph or less, which contain all the elements of the basic short story, all in less than a hundred words. He's also used this form in many of his novels to show major transitions of plot, most notably in his fantasy fiction: one excellent example is in The Talisman, when Jack touches the magic sphere for the first time; and also to describe the myriad little "secret life" actions and situations of his small-town minor characters in novels like 'Salem's Lot and Needful Things and The Tommyknockers. When Steve gets up to this kind of quick-change, fast-edit, big picture style of detailed storytelling (think omnipresent point of view plus microscopic focus), he sure can make that narrative walk and talk and twist and shout, baby.

And, it's already been...what? Three years or so since our last collection's release (I'm thinking of this last collection of four very fine novellas, which is a whole 'nother form that I think Mr. King has a certain rare talent for putting together with fine sense of conservation and high relevance of style), maybe there'll be something new along those lines sometime next year. After all, it's never a disappointment to get something a little less massive--with a more potent, poisoned "kick" in its instantly recognizable flavor--from a familiar master chef who's provided more than a dozen grand, multiple-course smorgasbords for masses of diners such as ourselves.
 
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fushingfeef

Finally Uber!
Aug 14, 2009
10,194
21,965
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
I think the golden age of the short story was over when television was invented.
With reality TV, there seems to be a war on fiction itself.
Now in the YouTube/Vine era, things are even worse, most videos have no story lines at all, just talking heads, security-cam non-editing, and footage of kids playing video games.

Or maybe we're just changing the ways we tell stories. But dang, there's nothing like a good read.
 

bobbo

Member
Jul 12, 2006
17
70
54
Bowie, Texas
Then again, in the relatively early days of TV in America, anthology shows like The Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, Alfred Hitchcock Presents and others were richly mining a lot of their screenplays and storylines from leading practitioners of short fiction of their time. Robert Bloch, Richard Matheson, and ol' Unca Harlan were only a few. Later on, Rod Serling's Night Gallery adapted some pretty scary classics, too.
 

booklover72

very strange person
Jan 12, 2014
731
2,995
51
Dublin
it is the tale not he who tells it. I love his short stories, but i also like a novel. i enjoyed Autopsy room 4 although i was praying she wouldnt cut into a live man. 1408 was great loved it read it 3 times. the film with John cusack wasn't bad. But i guess my favourite of all his short stories is in different seasons about a man who joins a unusual club and each member tells a story, can't remeber it. i think it is actually two stories in one. the club, i.e you want to know how old the butler is, what is in the other rooms etc and then there is the story told at christmas. What is the name? anyone
 

JCBrennan68

Member
Dec 23, 2013
18
99
56
Arizona
it is the tale not he who tells it. I love his short stories, but i also like a novel. i enjoyed Autopsy room 4 although i was praying she wouldnt cut into a live man. 1408 was great loved it read it 3 times. the film with John cusack wasn't bad. But i guess my favourite of all his short stories is in different seasons about a man who joins a unusual club and each member tells a story, can't remeber it. i think it is actually two stories in one. the club, i.e you want to know how old the butler is, what is in the other rooms etc and then there is the story told at christmas. What is the name? anyone
The Breathing Method from Different Seasons about a gentleman's club and one of its members tells a story to the group right before Christmas about a pregnant woman.
If I am not mistaken she loses her head.
 
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booklover72

very strange person
Jan 12, 2014
731
2,995
51
Dublin
I don't think the age of the short story is gone. Stories have been around forever ie. bewoulf and will remain so. probably what is gone is the medium in which stories are told, ie before printing everything was oral handed down from generation to generation. now with the introduction of new media, the book is in danger(hope not), people would rather watch er Reality tV and play computer games (by the way, i program computers and a. i prefer books then kindles and b. i have no interest in computer games, maybe program them but that's it). For me books, have been a way of life for me since i was 5 and i wont change now. There will always be someone who will write a short story. In english class in schol, we studiend short stores, Brendan behan, Sean o Flaherty we would read so many pages until next class, but me being me, came home and finished the story. I have a love of books short stories and novels. Today, i am questioning my career choice. maybe i should have done english lit.):
 

Scratch

In the flesh.
Sep 1, 2014
829
4,475
62
I picked this book up browsing, thinking I hadn't read King in awhile and it was time, and it fell open to the introduction. "Amazing Stories" popped out at me. As I have been collecting those of late, along with Weird Tales, Famous Fantastic Mysteries, Startling Stories and the like, I took it as a sign I should read this one. Things happen in just such kismet fashion all the time. Only two stories in I know the feeling was right. This is a good one, not that any are ever awful except in a good way.

I know we are past the days of the pulps which put bread on the table of Bradbury, McDonald, Bloch and others, they began gasping when I was a boy, like so many things I caught the tale end of and treasure in memory. I know when I see the texting going on around me that we may be passing into an era where the story itself may be too long to relate. If it doesn't fit on twitter there may not be time to devote, and it is devotion and ceremony (as King says) to sit under the lamp or lie in hammock with book or kindle in hand, and I fear our minds may evolve to only snatch and grab whatever unhealthy bright candy it can on a dead run to the grave. I fear kids these days will never again have devotion enough. Already they miss the family stories riding out a storm in the stormhouse as rain beats hard on a tin airshaft and the ones told round a campfire on a nights coon hunt while the echoes of black and tans fade in the hollows. Lots of things they will never know but to never want to is the scary part. I hope of all the things we lose we never lose that. When we do any huckster can sell us foolsgold, any rich- bought radio personality can push any agenda, any wolf can lead the flock. I fear we will lose what brought our ancestors out of the dark, which wasn't merely the light of the campfire. I hope I'm just indulging that fear because to give it creedence is too horrible.
 

Dana Jean

Dirty Pirate Hooker, The Return
Moderator
Apr 11, 2006
53,634
236,697
The High Seas
I picked this book up browsing, thinking I hadn't read King in awhile and it was time, and it fell open to the introduction. "Amazing Stories" popped out at me. As I have been collecting those of late, along with Weird Tales, Famous Fantastic Mysteries, Startling Stories and the like, I took it as a sign I should read this one. Things happen in just such kismet fashion all the time. Only two stories in I know the feeling was right. This is a good one, not that any are ever awful except in a good way.

I know we are past the days of the pulps which put bread on the table of Bradbury, McDonald, Bloch and others, they began gasping when I was a boy, like so many things I caught the tale end of and treasure in memory. I know when I see the texting going on around me that we may be passing into an era where the story itself may be too long to relate. If it doesn't fit on twitter there may not be time to devote, and it is devotion and ceremony (as King says) to sit under the lamp or lie in hammock with book or kindle in hand, and I fear our minds may evolve to only snatch and grab whatever unhealthy bright candy it can on a dead run to the grave. I fear kids these days will never again have devotion enough. Already they miss the family stories riding out a storm in the stormhouse as rain beats hard on a tin airshaft and the ones told round a campfire on a nights coon hunt while the echoes of black and tans fade in the hollows. Lots of things they will never know but to never want to is the scary part. I hope of all the things we lose we never lose that. When we do any huckster can sell us foolsgold, any rich- bought radio personality can push any agenda, any wolf can lead the flock. I fear we will lose what brought our ancestors out of the dark, which wasn't merely the light of the campfire. I hope I'm just indulging that fear because to give it creedence is too horrible.
I can already tell the fast pace is affecting me. My attention span is almost nil.