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Stephen King's impact on literature
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Steven King has long been known as one of the greatest authors of all time. He has been labeled "the King of Horror" and won many awards including the Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, 6 Bram Stoker awards, 6 Horror Guild awards, 5 Locus Awards, 3 World Fantasy Awards (including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004), the 1996 O. Henry award, a Hugo Award in 1982 for the non-fiction Danse Macabre. He was given a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003 by the Horror Writers' Association and, controversially, a Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation in 2003. Upon giving the Medal to King the National Book Foundation said, But to every comment there is always a critc that has something negative to say, like Harold Bloom for instance who stated,
Another critic, from norwaywrites.com, wrote in a similar sense talking about how Kings works are to the point of being unpublishable. He states, My senior Creative Writing professor in college, a National Book Award winning author, brought into us during a lecture on basic prose and readability a chapter excerpt from Stephen King's newest book at the time, Cell, and without telling us who wrote it asked us to read it and discuss. None of us had read the book yet, because apparently a college education is enough to scare people away from second rate penny stock fiction. We hated it. We marked it up, took it apart, rewrote it, and more or less declared it unpublishable before our professor informed us that it was in the New York Times Bestseller list and had already made more money than all of our college loans combined. He also states that his writings are atrocious and that "the Uncle Scrooge-esque money vault that he s...
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...s he commits. This fact is only reinforced when Norton discovers Andy's bible in the safe. On the inside of the cover Andy writes, "Dear Warden, you were right. Salvation lay within. Andy Dufresne." As Norton opens the bible to the book of Exodus it is revealed that the bible had held Andy's rock hammer. The book of Exodus lends itself to Andy's own freeing of himself and the truth as Moses freed himself and the slaves. King implements a certain belief in a holy spirit so that it brings into the book that not necessarily everything is in our hands. By using this and the previously mentioned reference to blasphemies, King relates the story back to the reader. He shows that the main character is not someone out of the ordinary but a normal average person. This is what makes his horror novels scary and his other novels almost real, as mentioned in the opening paragraphs.
We were the lords of all creation. As for andy he spent that break hunkered in the shade, a strange little smile on his face, watching us drink his beer." This quote shows how little things teh prisoners get can make them happy.Another example would be when he used the hammer to escape from prison. It started when he asked Red to get him a rok hammer, which he said he would use to shape rocks. He calms Red's conscious as he tells it would take him a thousand years to break out of prison with a rosk hammer.When he received the rosk hammer he started to shape rocks as soon as he could and hidden that hole with a poster.After he had the hole big enough to crawl throught, he asked Heywood for a six-foot piece of rope.
Famous author Stephen King said in his book On Writing: a Memoir of the Craft that “ Every book you pick up has its life lessons, and quite often the bad books have more to teach than the good ones” (King 145), but unfortunately not everyone agrees. In today's world, people are becoming more and more easily offended by simple things like the subjects in classic literature, for example To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, and are even trying to ban it in a classroom setting. However, To Kill a Mockingbird should continue to be taught in schools because it positively affects society by changing the way people think about the world, through a very historically accurate setting, and by teaching its readers valuable lessons.
In On Writing’s section titled “On Writing,” Stephen King iterates multiple times, his true feelings for writing by telling his story. The central point that he uses to say that writing is his passion and what he truly feels joy in is how he writes. King at one point says, “When I am writing, it is all the playground…”(King 149), this is the best example of how he translates his feelings. He uses the playground as a metaphor to intensify the joy he gets from writing, as a playground or park is something we can all relate to. It is not just that one quote, but it is also his tone as a whole, rather than being some distanced writer not showing emotion, he creates a tone of a proud father, pushing a child to love what he does, and not to take it for granted. King accomplishes this tone by giving small tips and tricks that he has used over the years, almost as a mentor to give the sense as it is not just a book, but a guide to becoming a better
Burton uses and how he uses them. I have compared it to another one of
After reading an essay, ‘On Writing’ by Stephen King, I was highly interested in King’s opinion about the necessity of reading and writing frequently in order to become a good writer. In King’s essay he talks about how he does not read to study and that he simply reads just to read; however, King does point out that though he is not reading to study there is still a learning process happening with everything he reads. “Every book you pick up has its own lesson or lessons, and quite often the bad books have more to teach than the good ones.” (King) Why does King have this opinion about books?
...vely to lack attention given to them. King lures his readers in by using an
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” a quote that sums up humanity’s unchanged love for horror movies. Over the years, as millions of people have watched horror movies the graphics, special effects, and sounds have changed for the better. While scenes have intensified yet remained the same someone gets stabbed, butchered or killed violently. It’s hard to imagine how anyone in their right mind could choose to see such violent acts. Which is the reason why Stephen Kings say’s “I think we’re all mentally ill; those of us outside the asylums only hide it a little better- and maybe not all that much better after all” (405). That sentence provides us with his twisted example of “Why we crave Horror Movies” claiming it’s mainly a matter of our mental state. King includes examples of reasons people continue to go, he says it’s to have fun, to dare the nightmare, and to re-establish our sense of normalcy. Kings arguments within this essay are strong enough to prove his thesis making this a well written essay. He easily convinces normal people that they are mentally ill, with his use of analogy’s, comparisons, and logos. Stephen King’s use of practical wisdom leads his audience to believe that without horror films, humans are all emotional ticking time bombs waiting to explode.
We crave horror movies simply for “the fun of it” in agreeing with Stephen King Why We Crave Horror movies. King gave multiple examples in his story as to why we crave horror movies and I can agree with just about each and every one of them. After watching a few horror movies for yourself, you will understand why it is easy to agree with King. If you have watched movies such as the 2004 movie Dawn of the Dead, The Purge, or The Conjuring you will also be able to relate to Chuck Klosterman My Zombie, Myself “Zombies are just so easy to kill.” Klostermans theory of zombies are extremely useful because it sheds insight on the difficult yet exciting problem of zombies in the real world. Klosterman’s argument that the repetition of modern life is
How can I humble myself? I can write about Raymond Chandler's style. I am amazed that someone can write with a style that appears to be almost effortless. No, it seems completely effortless. Breezing through this book is very easy. There are no seams. Chandler's "no buts about it," "hard-boiled" style, characters and story are completely cohesive. All elements seem perfectly placed. The narrator and interesting use of figurative language contribute to the unity in the text.
The clergymen criticized his work by calling it "unwise and untimely". With that, the "Letter from Birmingham Jail" was written. In a way, King is reiterating the saying "you can't judge a book by its
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.
evidence of Stephen King being very interest in horror showed in his work in his early
King owes his success to his ability to take what he says are “real fears” (The Stephen King Story, 47) and turn them into a horror story. When he says “real fears” they are things we have all thought of such as a monster under the bed or even a child kidnapping and he is making them a reality in his story. King looks at “horror fiction...as a metaphor” (46) for everything that goes wrong in our lives. His mind and writing seems to dwell in the depths of the American people’s fears and nightmares and this is what causes his writing to reach so many people and cause the terror he writes about to be instilled in his reader.
We all have cravings, be it for snacks or sweets, there is always something we desire. We crave horror in the same way. In Stephen King’s essay, “Why We Crave Horror Movies,” he argues that people need to watch horror films in order to release the negative emotions within us. King believes that people feel enjoyment while watching others be terrorized or killed in horror movies. King’s argument has elements that are both agreeable and disagreeable. On one hand he is acceptable when claiming we like the thrill and excitement that comes from watching horror movies; however, his views regarding that the fun comes from seeing others suffer cannot be agreed with because the human condition is not as immoral as he claims it to be.
Nicholas Sparks is considered to be one of the greatest American authors of today. He provides love, romance, passion, drama, tragedy, comedy, triumph, and mystery in all of his novels. His stories are heartwarming and inspiring. Nicholas Sparks does not have a specific writing style. His writing style is flexible and liberal, and can be described as romantic, imaginative and engaging, and varies depending on the theme of the novel. The theme of the novel is the main thing that affects his writing style. Even though the themes of each novel mostly deal with love, each novel takes on different perspectives of love. His novels can be described as romantic, compassionate beach reads with real, relatable characters.