I kindled the free sample of The Institute after checking out the audiobook sample. The audiobook narrator didn’t appeal to me so I read the Kindle sample. Mr. King is very observant — I spent my early years in NY/NJ but moved Down South in 1976, and he certainly did his homework. As always, he writes beautifully.
But then the Fantasy showed up. I am not a fan of Fantasy. Not usually, id est. There are exceptions, The Dead Zone and Firestarter. I tolerate it in the other of his writings that I’ve read simply because he’s such a good storyteller. I’m also partial to sardonic humor, and Mr. King provides plenty of it.
But when it comes to true, honest-to-Ed-Gein horror, there are two stories that never fail to overwhelm me, every time I read them:
(1) It’s A Good Life (Jerome Bixby, 1953). Yeah, the Twilight Zone adaptation is fine, but it doesn’t even begin to essentialize the utter horror in which the surviving citizens of Peaksville, Ohio must live their every waking moment. Anthony Fremont is only three, but I don’t believe that any of Stephen King’s monsters (including our government) would be anything other than child’s play for him. After all, almost immediately after he exited the birth canal he killed the obstetrician (who lived only long enough to scream, drop him, and try to kill the newborn) and then did what he did to the town. The events of the story take place on Dan Hollis’s birthday. Anthony supplies television.
(2) The Words of Guru (Cyril M. Kornbluth, 1941). I doubt that anyone has ever read anything like this very very short story. The narrator is Peter; it is his story to tell. The writing is positively lyrical in spots, matter-of-fact in others. The last line may stay with you forever, as it has with me. Cyril Kornbluth was 16 when he wrote it, 17 when it was published. He wrote many classic SF novelettes and novels, including The Space Merchants (with Frederik Pohl), The Little Black Bag, andThe Marching Morons (which many people, myself included, believe that Mike Judge MUST HAVE read before blessing us with Idiocracy.)
NOTE: I pronounce it Gurú, with the accent on the second syllable. It just sounds right.
But then the Fantasy showed up. I am not a fan of Fantasy. Not usually, id est. There are exceptions, The Dead Zone and Firestarter. I tolerate it in the other of his writings that I’ve read simply because he’s such a good storyteller. I’m also partial to sardonic humor, and Mr. King provides plenty of it.
But when it comes to true, honest-to-Ed-Gein horror, there are two stories that never fail to overwhelm me, every time I read them:
(1) It’s A Good Life (Jerome Bixby, 1953). Yeah, the Twilight Zone adaptation is fine, but it doesn’t even begin to essentialize the utter horror in which the surviving citizens of Peaksville, Ohio must live their every waking moment. Anthony Fremont is only three, but I don’t believe that any of Stephen King’s monsters (including our government) would be anything other than child’s play for him. After all, almost immediately after he exited the birth canal he killed the obstetrician (who lived only long enough to scream, drop him, and try to kill the newborn) and then did what he did to the town. The events of the story take place on Dan Hollis’s birthday. Anthony supplies television.
(2) The Words of Guru (Cyril M. Kornbluth, 1941). I doubt that anyone has ever read anything like this very very short story. The narrator is Peter; it is his story to tell. The writing is positively lyrical in spots, matter-of-fact in others. The last line may stay with you forever, as it has with me. Cyril Kornbluth was 16 when he wrote it, 17 when it was published. He wrote many classic SF novelettes and novels, including The Space Merchants (with Frederik Pohl), The Little Black Bag, andThe Marching Morons (which many people, myself included, believe that Mike Judge MUST HAVE read before blessing us with Idiocracy.)
NOTE: I pronounce it Gurú, with the accent on the second syllable. It just sounds right.