The Curator: spooky season's crazy Uncle King
on writing and failing and becoming 1% weirder every day
are you sick of this shit yet?
too bad. it’s the 5th week of spooky season!
you know whose shit I’m never sick of, no matter how many weird books he writes or blurbs for bad books he gives?
Uncle King.
Unlike many other genre writers, King seems to have slid right into literary acceptance. There are many massive-sales-freak-King-contemporaries whose genre legacies keep them pegged as supermarket shelf fodder. Take John Grisham or Danielle Steel - major genre writers who don’t seem to hold the same sway in the 2020s that they once did. Why do we [the literary community] seem to hold King in higher esteem? How did he escape the genre trap and sink deep into our cultural consciousness?
Life isn’t a support system for art. It’s the other way around - Stephen King, On Writing
I attribute this to a couple of things: his clear prose and strong characterization, his commitment to being weird as hell, excellent adaptations, and what seems like a preternatural ability to fail without giving up.
In King’s pseudo-memoir writing guide On Writing, he says, “One of the really bad things you can do to your writing is to dress up the vocabulary, looking for long words because you’re maybe a bit ashamed of your short ones.” 🫠
god help us it’s so simple and yet so hard to do well. If you return to your favorite King, notice the prose. It’s so clear as to become almost invisible. It isn’t until he points out how badly he could write that we realize the Hemmingway in his sentences.
His characters are also cinematically real. Take the opening line of The Shining:
Jack Torrance thought: Officious little prick.
You instantly know that Jack Torrance will turn out to be the prick here, and the rest of his character is summarily revealed. King does it skillfully for every character, big and small, even when faced with a massive cast, as in The Stand.
King writes insanely weird, compulsively readable, humanistic stories that almost nobody would ever dream of. Not everything he creates is gold, but nobody would ever call this man’s work boring or pedantic. I mean, have you ever read the true ending to It? Or read or seen The Langoliers, a short story from his collection Four Past Midnight that was turned into an absolute piece of trash TV series in 1995? This is all you need to know about that.
Here are descriptions of some of King’s top-ranked novels (see if you can match them I believe in you)1:
a horror story about a family who moves into an isolated haunted hotel, where a sinister presence influences the father into violence against his psychic son
a psychological horror about a bestselling author who kills off a beloved protagonist and subsequently held captive by his self-proclaimed biggest fan
a horror novel about a religiously-abused high schooler who discovers she has telekinetic powers and uses them for revenge
a horror novel about a group of friends who battle an evil shape-changing monster hiding in the small town sewers of Derry, Maine
AND THOSE AREN’T EVEN THE WEIRDEST ONES (or the weirdest parts).
His stories lick under your skin. They say something about humanity through monsters. They ask us to suspend disbelief just enough to allow us to hope for something more than what we see every day, even if only to escape the mundane.
He encourages me to be 1% weirder every day.
And to seek failure.
The thing is, this man has failed just as many times as he’s succeeded. He keeps his “failed” stories in a desk drawer and refuses to look at them. He’s written and published at least a handful of novels that probably could have never been written and we would all be just fine. There is a huge lesson in that for me, for all of us.
Just keep writing.
And write whatever you weird little heart desires.
recs for your Uncle King TBR
I have read many King novels, but here are the ones I actually remember and can safely recommend. It is a classic, but it’s a freaky deaky 1000000 pages - only tackle that one if you are feeling masochistic. Pet Sematary, Salem’s Lot, Christine, and Cujo attacked my nightmare in my teens but it’s been too long to say any more. All books are linked in my bookshop.org shop.
books
On Writing - if you are not into horror but are into the craft, read this immediately. It is a top-five non-fiction read for me.
Carrie - the first King I ever read, and it changed my brain chemistry. It also solidified my distrust of religious zealots.
The Shining and Doctor Sleep - if you struggle with typical horror or are embarking on your King adventure, start here. These are the most interior of his horror and least - freaky? Danny’s character and voice balance these two novels nicely.
The Stand - a majestic, monumental ode to post-apocalyptic fiction.
Fairy Tale - this one strays a bit from typical King fare, but the audiobook was a sheer delight. I highly recommend it over the physical book, which is a rarity for me.
film and TV adaptations
Gerald’s Game - Carla Gugino is a goddess
The Shining - a remarkable movie that King apparently hated - too bad so sad!
Carrie (1976 OG only) - don’t even bother with the remake. Brian De Palma is a master of light and color.
The Secret Window - a masterclass in twists and Johnny Depp in his prime.
Misery - Kathy Bates is a goddess.
It (both versions, actually!) - the lasting cultural impact of this story comes from the movies more than the novel. Everyone hates a clown.
on my TBR ( a mix of novels and adaptations): Misery, 11/22/63, The Shawshank Redemption, Stand By Me, and currently listening to his newest short story collection You Like It Darker (highly recommend the audio once again!).
further reading 📖
on the proliferation of adaptations: Stephen King Knows He’s Having a Moment (Vanity Fair)
on life: What I’ve Learned: Stephen King (Esquire)
what’s your take on King? love him, indifferent, burn his books for fuel?
reading 📖→
King’s You Like it Darker, alternating between physical and audio. It is a perfect example of why I love King (re: everything mentioned above). I was hoping to have it finished for this newsletter but ⬇️
I have a true reading for content versus reading for my heart situation. A real Sophie’s choice. I am pages into The Historian, and all I want to do is sit and read it while drinking a pumpkin chai tea with pumpkin cold foam in my Winchester Mystery House mug that I purchased last weekend on our insanely jam-packed road trip to the central valley for my beautiful cousin’s wedding. Yet I’m called by other things that make sense - books that I want to finish for the last few weeks of spooky season, for
‘s Didion month, for some post-spooky pieces…
I mean, my tagline isn’t about moody reviews and recs for no reason 👻
consuming📽️🎧→
I tried watching the new Salem’s Lot adaptation on Max for this newsletter, and I was just too tired (me = falling asleep every night on the couch promptly at 10 pm). I will be watching soon, and I will report back.
Introduced mr mark to the insanity of The Poltergeist. The legacy of that movie far outweighs the actual experience of watching it, so he skipped to the pool scene at the end and enjoyed The Poltergeist episode of The Rewatchables more than the movie itself. Ah, the times they are a changin’!
books in my cart🛒→
Somehow, I missed The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister and Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst in the fall preview, so add these to that massively growing list.
We took a trip to the world’s largest outdoor bookstore, Bart’s Books in Ojai and it. was. magic. We got the fattest stacks of used books - mr mark told me to get whatever I wanted even if I only wanted it a little bit because we are on vacation, and gosh darnit I did. Look at this haul. Lifelong memories made (except we got almost zero pictures there because we were too enamored with the books and too sweaty).
book news and restacks📰→
Han Kang is the first South Korean writer to win the Nobel in literature, and we love to see it (NPR).
The Millions released their Fall 2024 book preview, and while it feels a bit late to call it a preview, we mood readers can always handle a little shake-up in the season’s readings (The Millions).
Because we are never ever going to be done with the 100 best books of the century, Redditers came up with their own. I quite like this one (Reddit).
If you are looking for more moody recs, I loved Sara’s October reading menu - just impeccable taste (Substack).
Bitch Sensei brought me BACK with her Shel Silverstein retrospective for Banned Books Week (Substack).
and spooky road trips 👻
The Winchester Mystery House and the Madonna Inn with Mr Mark👻🏚️🦇.
let’s chat 👻→
I hope everyone reading this is safe out there.
Have you read any King novels? What age did you start? Did you seek therapy afterwards?
What’s your best road trip memory?
What are you reading currently, and is it any good?
in case you missed it 🖤
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See you around the bookshelf!
The Shining, Misery, Carrie, It
It’s been a long time since I read King, I think Joyland was my last from him— I’m hoping to read Salem’s Lot next!
Oh yay! You're reading The Historian! It was a lovely remarkable book experience for me. First I've ever heard someone actually reading it!
King is a hit and miss for me. That's okay. Couldn't get through Fairy Tale but you might be right that the audiobook is better! First Stephen King was the dark tower series. Never finished it but it was enthralling! My most recent read is Holly and I adore the Mr. Mercedes and The Outsider series. The Justin Bateman flick was a good representation but the Mr. Mercedes was just okay. His last short story with one Holly mystery was excellent. It's okay not to like everything. On Writing is a fabulous piece of work and advice. His prose is tight and everything counts!
I just finished All the Colours of the Dark by Chris Whitaker. 💯 Recommend but I'm a crime reader mostly.