Stephen King is a creative and massively popular author of horror fiction with the ability to make his readers squirm. Rated one of the best writers since early 1970s due to his prolific work, which is immensely intriguing. Stephen King is acknowledged for producing a novel each year or more. Some of his best sellers comprise the “The Shinning” (1977), “Salem Lost” (1975), “Carrie” (1974), and “Dead Zone” (1979). Even though, Stephen King’s writing style is bizarre and bloodcurdling, his characters have become iconic, because he has acquired a technique that makes him masterful. Additionally he has written several books that have become number one sellers. His books have spawned a multimedia franchise laying a basis for TV shows, movies, and best-selling novels.
King has an infinite number of short stories, published novels and movies created from his originality. Additionally, he keeps the use of vibrant and vivid detail that is set in a pragmatic each day place (Bloom 54). King was born in Portland Maine in 1947 (Schweitzer 9). Commonly known as the master of horror, his books have been published in over 35 countries and translated into 33 different languages (Schweitzer 25). He adds a dazzling effect in his work more than the standard easy-to-read bestsellers thus making his books fly off the shelves.
I choose to nominate Stephen King, an established author as one of the Today’s Literacy Cannons for several reasons. Despite being one of today’s masterful writers and best-selling authors, he combines elements of the science fiction, paranormal, detective themes, and psychological thrillers into his stories, he has developed a skill that makes him masterful. Stephen King has a point about maintaining his audience in suspense. E...
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...er or of Dante, of Chaucer or of Rabelais, is to augment one’s own growing inner self. Reading deeply in the Canon will not make one a better or a worse person, a more useful or more harmful citizen. The mind’s dialogue with itself is not primarily a social reality. (Bloom)
“All that the Western Canon can bring one is the proper use of one’s own solitude, that solitude whose final form is one’s confrontation with one’s own mortality.”(Bloom)
Works Cited
Bloom, Harold. The Western Canon. New York: Riverhead Books, 1994.
Hoppenstand, Gary, Ray, Browne. The Gothic World of Stephen King. Bowling Green: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1987.
Joshi S.T. The Modern Weird Tale. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, 2001
Schweitzer, Darrell. Discovering Stephen King. Mercer Island: Starmont House, 1985:102-108. Print
http://www.stephenking.com/index.html
students. He continues to be one of the bestselling novelist and one of the most financially successful horror writers in history (Lusted 17).
King, who has explored almost every terror-producing theme imaginable, from vampires, rabid dogs, deranged killers, pyromaniac ghosts, to telekinesis, biological warfare and even a malevolent automobile was known for his horror stories, and strange deaths.
In “Reading to Write,” Stephen King addresses the importance of reading to a writer. King
Stephen King is one of the most influential authors of today. His award-winning novels and short stories are known world-wide. His many awards and nominations have created a space for him in the literary world. King is a true “Horror King”, for his books, turned movies, have scared millions worldwide. Stephen King has helped bring America to prominence through his many books, essays, and short stories.
Stephen King continues to be a popular writer and still comes out with new books. Last year he created Doctor Sleep, which is a sequel to The Shining. Doctor Sleep became very successful as well. New York Times labeled it a bestseller last year in October. His newest books for this year will be Mr. Mercedes and Revival. Mr. Mercedes is said to release June 3rd, 2014 and Revival is said to release November 11th, 2014. A deluxe special edition of Carrie is also said to release some time this summer. A release in an e-book edition of his book Joyland came out this year in April.
In Stephen King Salem's lot, he brings a brilliantly written storm of force, King brings to life the creatures that have prowled the town of Jerusalem's lot for centuries throughout the local rumors. The book, Salem's Lot takes you through its twisted plot, with vivid characters, and the crazy turns it takes. Steven King has the power to make something so unrealistic very real, he is seen as a gothic literary writer because he expresses the key characteristics of gothic literature throughout most of his stories. King has the ability to bring the key characteristics of gothic literature into the story by adding the ideas of a legend, using a small town feel to add dramatics, and using supernatural beings.
Ringe, Donald A. American Gothic: Imagination and Reason in Nineteenth-Century Fiction. Lexington KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 1982.
Stephen King was born on September 21, 1947 in Portland, Maine (Biography Today). During the course of a thought-provoking childhood, King gained an interest in chilling stories that were far too grown-up for such a young boy (Biography Today). His concentration on demoralizing stories became his own clandestine escape from his particular fears brought on by a life-changing event for his family (Kehoe). The life-changing event that was brought on at such a youthful age has developed the king of horror, who is now a renowned author.
Spignesi, Stephen J. The Essential Stephen King : A Ranking Of The Greatest Novels, Short
evidence of Stephen King being very interest in horror showed in his work in his early
Stephen King is known as one of the greatest horror and gothic writers of our time. The reason for this is his ability to fuse the gothic elements created by stories such as Dracula or Frankenstein and todays horror. King has written hundreds of short stories but two in-particular “The Night Flier” and “Popsy” show his unique ability to combined gothic elements from the old literature with realistic settings and people of our era. One of his greater talents is being able to use gothic element like vampires and make us see them in a different light. Kings unique way of writing with his old gothic ideals, new horror ideas, and use of realistic settings help to put a new spin on what we conceive as gothic story.
In 1958, when King was eleven years old, the family moved to Durham, Maine. This was where King discovered that he had something in common with his father. In the attic of his aunt and uncle’s garage he discovered an old trunk that contained a box of his father’s books, including some by horror writer H.P. Lovecraft, and some of his father’s attempts as writing short stories. King’s teachers reported that one of his greatest passions was writing stories of his own, which he started doing at age six (Hoppenstand 8; Stephen King). Stephen King’s life has influenced his works and served as an important source of inspiration, which is evident in his education and early writing experiences, his pseudonym Richard Bachman, and his near-fatal acc...
Stephen king has been called the master of modern horror his novels have gone to be bestsellers and have been adapted to motion pictures such as the shinning, Carrie, it, Pet semetery, etc. He writes the most riveting stories. His concepts are deprived from observations that normal people wouldn’t think twice and even if we can it we usually can’t effectively apply it. In his memoir describing his childhood it was apparent that he was foreshadowing the future he would eventually have as one of the greatest horror novelist.
For such a successful writer, Stephen King really had no secret to his writing style. King has credited free writing for his best ideas. He also has a very down to earth way of looking at his fame. Stephen King would read for four hours, and then he would write for four hours or until he reached 2,000 words. In a Time magazine interview, King called this his nine to five approach and that he, “worked until beer o’ clock.” When asked where his ideas came from, King would often reply, “I have the heart of a small boy. . . And I keep it in a jar on my desk.” Also, he does not have just one particular way of writing horror, and what often sets off the terror in his readers most was the vast amount of detail portrayed.
While this essay can in no way claim to contain a fully representative sampling of what various scholars have contributed relative to the ongoing debate over the literary canon, I will attempt to highlight three distinct positions which are all informed by John Guillory's critical contributions to the canonical debate. First, I will discuss the concept of ideology and canon formation as Guillory first articulated it in his 1983 essay, "The Ideology of Canon Formation: T. S. Eliot and Cleanth Brooks," and which he subsequently thoroughly revised and included in his 1993 book on canon formation, Cultural Capital: The Problem of literary Canon Formation This essay on the ways ideology and cultural politics complicates and informs canon formation, also discusses Guillory's theory concerning the death Joe Weixlmann who offers his own commentary concerning how ideology and politics of literary orthodoxy in favor of a more democratically situated heterodoxy, and how this concept of a heterodoxy might inform the university's literary curriculum. Next, Christopher Ricks' essay, 'What is at stake in the "battle of the books"?" will be analyzed to determine if his attack on Guillory's assertions relative to his critique of the current status of the canonical debate contributes in any meaningful way to opinions about whether or not the literary canon should be revised. Finally, the several critics who have now offered commentary on Guillory's latest theories on canon formation as articulated in Cultural Capital will be discussed relative to how influential they perceive Guillory's latest work to be as it pertains to the ongoing debate over the nature of the extant literary canon.