The last time I read this was when the hardcover was published, more than forty years ago, so it was very current then.

Now, he's talking about horror stuff from almost 45 years ago...to almost 75 years ago. As someone else said, it would be great to let King have a second Danse...or maybe even a third.

That said, this is far from perfect. King gives a lot of insight, but he also does belabor a couple of points right into the ground. He also wears his favourites on his sleeve, giving a ton of page count to a couple of his obvious inspirations, Richard Matheson and Shirley Jackson...and maybe these two are owed, because reading early King really does show his love of both of these authors. However, you can also see he was buddies with Peter Straub, as he gives far too much space to Straub's first mainstream bestseller, that likely could have been better served on some more seasoned and better authors.

But, through his journey through radio, television, movies, comics, and novels, and King's inevitable digressions that are often more fun than the main point, he does cover a lot of ground, and he made me think. A lot.

Always a good thing. ( )

Terrible ( )

This is a reread for me - after a little over twenty years. It's interesting to see how the first reading of this book influenced some of my later reading - [[Shirley Jackson]], [[Jack Finney]], [[Richard Matheson]], etc. But I went into this reading intent upon a closer inspection of the literary references in horror and science fiction. So, armed with pad and pen, I embarked. At the end, I had almost 30 pages of notes, a nine-page listing of books and authors, and a feeling I'd just taken a graduate class in horror literature.

There are quite a few chapters on film and television that were interesting, especially from a perspective of how they helped to shape and foster these realms. Some folks coming to the book now will not have the cultural context to connect with these chapters, but I found them fascinating.

The best bits of the book, though, are the passages where Uncle Stevie waxes on about his influences, what he read, and how it shaped his own work. There's a deep comparison of [Dracula] and ['Salem's Lot], including a passage where he describes his own real life childhood incursion into the actual Marsten House. There's also a long recollection about how he begun writing [The Stand], a Patty Hearst story, and who is the real life inspiration for Randall Flagg. Additionally, King lays out what horror does for readers, what function it serves - this book is the origins of one of his famous quotes, "We make up horrors to cope with the real ones."

On that note, I thought it appropriate to include a quotation from the book here - not a King quote, but his transcription of a [[Harlan Ellison]] passage from a letter, to identify how well this book holds up some 40+ years later:

"The man has become the most important public figure of our times. In short, he has manipulated reality simply by being bold. In this madman we have an example of one who understands, even subcutaneously, that the real world is manipulable. He has dreamed, and forced the rest of the word to live in his dream."

You probably think you know who that quote references, but you'd be wrong because you're forgetting the part about how this book is 40+ years old - the quote references Ayatollah Khomeini - an indication about the cycles of history and hate and horror.

The book ends with, essentially a Coda from King about writing, and reading, horror fiction. It's fashioned from an interview he did with a reporter who asked him how he could live with himself writing things that played on people's fears. He then narrates the rest of the interview, peppering in vignettes about real life awful violent crimes, essentially bringing home the point that horror fiction accentuates real life horror to help cope that real life horror.

If you're a horror or science fiction or King fan - you really have to read this book. If you're a writer yourself, you should read this book. Oh, heck, just read the damn book.

Highly recommended!!!!!
5 bones!!!!! ( )

Interesting book. Stephen King talking about the horror genre in books, movie and TV. He has recommendations of ones he likes and details as to why. Not a quick King read but it is interesting.
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Yes, it's a little dated now, but the observations are just as relevant, the wit just as sharp. The difference this time around is, with very few exceptions, I've actually managed to read the bulk of the novels and view the bulk of the movies King discusses here.

The last time I read it, I remember feeling like I was a pretty well-educated horror aficionado...until I realized I wasn't familiar with most of the stuff King had discussed. This time around, I've found the intervening 35 years have remedied that.

A great dissertation--with a lot of Uncle Stevie's wit--on the world of horror. With side trips into fantasy and SF and thrillers.

I find myself wishing he'd do follow up to this, covering the next 30 years. ( )