Stephen King

Stephen King is one  author who stretches the horror genre beyond just scaring people. His tales have a depth of symbolism which has still not been fully analysed. It is always a pleasure to discuss his work.

Quote of the day: "Sometimes we all love to be a bit horrified. The delicious horror..." ' - Philip Abraham (from today's meetup. Quoting from memory) 👍🏻😀

At a safe distance in time and space.

 Fear cleanses the soul 😌

I thought 

Repentence cleanses the soul and tears of pain cleanses the body.

R Nandakishore, Selma Philip, Harris, Rashmi, Valsa, Arun, Ashraf, Harish, Philip Abraham, Vineeth, Shahid.

The event started with each  sharing the books of Stephen King . The significant thing was that, along with people who has read most of King's sizeable oeuvre and those who read only a few books of his, there were people who are yet to read him. Their intention was to know more about his writing and to find out how to begin with him.

The discussion that followed didn't follow any fixed rhythm and several aspects of his works and many related topics were discussed. Some of them are:

. Movies that adapted his works.

. A qualitative evaluation of his books over time.

. His influence in horror anthology movies.

. His influence in horror literature all over the world and also in India.

. Lack of the appeal for popular horror, mystery novels in India, even with a wealth of mythology available to exploit.

. Some of his significant short stories.

. Interesting anecdotes.

. How Google influenced fiction writing and difference between researched books in different periods of time.

. The appeal of horror stories.

. Malayalam horror writing.

. How his works reflect the real world and even his predictive nature.

The meet was an informative and entertaining exploration of the King of Horror.

You keep thinking What would you gift a hard core Stephen King fan? 

Where else would you get such varied suggestions other than Cochin Book Club?

Joe Hill's NOS4A2 - Did you know Joe Hill is Stephen King's son and has equally amazing books to his credit?

Next suggestion- Give her a red drink and tell it's Pig Blood.

Most interesting one:

Go and meet her tomorrow and tell her you couldn't get her anything. Speak in a vaguely creepy way. Don't eat or drink anything. Go to the toilet.

Immediately after you go, get a friend to call her and tell her that you passed away in a road accident on the way to meet her.

Then, for the punchline, pour tomato sauce over your head and come back from the toilet.

It's an irresistible moment to be in the company of book lovers. 

Do you love reading Stephen King? Which is your favorite of his?

Before he published Riding the Bullet as only ebook format, he would get occasional people coming up to him at the airport or in public asking for autographs. After he got the e-book published, he started to be mobbed in public. People recognized him. In the author notes of Everything’s Eventual, he recalls that at the time, his publicity was increased to the point where he would sometimes be on three talk shows a day. He even made it on the cover of Time Magazine.

He has written under several different pen names. - Richard Bachman, Beryl Evans , John Swithen,

His favorite book-to-film adaptation is Stand by Me. Some of his favorite books include : The Golden Autopsy, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Satanic Verses, McTeague, Lord of the Flies, Bleak House, 1984, The Raj Quartet, Light In August, and Blood Meridian.

He describes writing as being less like riding a bike, and more like working out at the gym: Use it or lose it.

King says that one should read and write 4 to 6 hours a day and has set his own personal quota of writing at least 2,000 words a day.

When asked why he writes scary stories, he often responds with, “Why do you assume I have a choice?” According to Literary Hub, there are 34 film adaptations of his work, putting him above any other author when it comes to the number of stories that became films.

More about him, on the book post 'On Writing' - his book.