Why they made a Tommyknockers miniseries?

  • This message board permanently closed on June 30th, 2020 at 4PM EDT and is no longer accepting new members.

kingricefan

All-being, keeper of Space, Time & Dimension.
Jul 11, 2006
30,011
127,446
Spokane, WA
He wrote Tommyknockers when he was at the height of his addictions and it shows in the writing. He didn't realize how bad it was until after he kicked his habits and looked back on what he had written which made him realize that it was (to him) a 'bad' book. It's a heck of a lot better than some of the books that are out there but it isn't a good 'Stephen King' book in his view.
 

Dana Jean

Dirty Pirate Hooker, The Return
Moderator
Apr 11, 2006
53,634
236,697
The High Seas
He wrote Tommyknockers when he was at the height of his addictions and it shows in the writing. He didn't realize how bad it was until after he kicked his habits and looked back on what he had written which made him realize that it was (to him) a 'bad' book. It's a heck of a lot better than some of the books that are out there but it isn't a good 'Stephen King' book in his view.
Actually, i don't think Tommyknockers is that bad of a book. True, the first time I tried to read it, I just couldn't. I thought it was terrible. Years later, actually fairly recent in years, I finished it. I felt I had been way too harsh on it. It still has the SK brilliance -- If only I could write at his worst!
 

Doc Creed

Well-Known Member
Nov 18, 2015
17,221
82,822
47
United States
12qy36.jpg

It's true that it was written during his much publicized..."how shall I put this?"...heavy drug use. I've never quite believed that this is the reason The Tommyknockers is so unwieldy or a "bad" book, because he was using cocaine (among other drugs) during the writing of IT (and on the set of Maximum Overdrive) and, even earlier, during the writing of Cujo, which he says he doesn't remember writing. I think drugs actually fueled him and is probably why the early eighties were so prolific for him, but I can't say whether it influenced his writing or hindered it. By the time he wrote The Tommyknockers it was finally taking its toll. King says in On Writing that this was around the time that Tabitha had staged an informal intervention for him. Could it have been edited to a greater extent? Yes, I think so. Is it still a good book? I think it is and remains a strange and mysterious novel.

Aaaaand this doesn't answer your question but there you go.
 

kingricefan

All-being, keeper of Space, Time & Dimension.
Jul 11, 2006
30,011
127,446
Spokane, WA
Actually, i don't think Tommyknockers is that bad of a book. True, the first time I tried to read it, I just couldn't. I thought it was terrible. Years later, actually fairly recent in years, I finished it. I felt I had been way too harsh on it. It still has the SK brilliance -- If only I could write at his worst!
I don't think that it's a 'bad' book either, but I just never felt that certain 'pull' that his other books have for me. I never connected with either of the main characters so it just wasn't something I was ever invested in. I liked it better on a re-read years later but it still didn't have that 'pull' for me.
 

Gerald

Well-Known Member
Sep 8, 2011
2,201
7,168
The Netherlands
It's true that it was written during his much publicized..."how shall I put this?"...heavy drug use. I've never quite believed that this is the reason The Tommyknockers is so unwieldy or a "bad" book, because he was using cocaine (among other drugs) during the writing of IT (and on the set of Maximum Overdrive) and, even earlier, during the writing of Cujo, which he says he doesn't remember writing. I think drugs actually fueled him and is probably why the early eighties were so prolific for him, but I can't say whether it influenced his writing or hindered it.

I wondered if he used heroin too? In Revival the lead character takes heroin, but he says he does it because it is cheaper than other drugs. I don't know if King was rich enough by the time he became addicted to not have to take heroin.

I think Tommyknockers is just too slow. The slow unearthing of the ship is not very interesting and that's a long part that starts the book - but not much happens in it.
Once you go to the second part and the other characters in town, it becomes more interesting, but that part feels isolated from the rest, because the main characters Gard and Bobi don't appear in it. So you leave the main characters for a long time and read only about the others, til they come back in the third part. It's a structure that just doesn't work well.

Why it still got made as a tv-show, it was still a bestseller I think.
 

dedMasque

Active Member
Jan 19, 2018
31
95
38
Kentucky
I thought Tommyknockers was pretty original. A lot of sci-fi alien movies are just people being abducted but Stephen put a pretty original spin on it. I think this story, if ever re-made and adapted into a movie script, could very easily be adapted to fit into the world of Dreamcatcher. Where the alien ship that they find in Haven actually turns out to be a crashed alien ship like the one in Dreamcatcher as opposed to energy sucking vampire aliens. And instead of the townsfolk coming into contact with some weird green alien energy they could come into contact with the red fungus byram and become infected by the alien parasites that start riding them around like human skin suits to try to enact they're plans.