I finally realized today what it is about Stephen King's books that have frightened people over the years. It's not the monsters or scary scenarios. King's biggest strenth has always been his characters, and that is from where the fear comes. The first part comes from the fact that people can see themselves cast in a scenario similar to that, so they can empathize with characters stuck in certain situations.The second, and even scarier part, is that people can envision someone they know to be the "bad guy" in King's novels. Those people are usually the good looking, sweet-tempered guy or girl, as is the title character in King's story Blockade Billy. I've heard so many people say that King must be evil, or he probably worships satan, or he burns Bibles. No, he just knows people, and that is what makes him such a good writer.
That being said, Stephen King is wierd. I don't just mean wierd, either. He can actually be boring. Don't get me wrong, I think the guy is a great writer. He is one of my inspirations, one of the reasons I want to be a writer. I still enjoy reading his books. The problem is that he writes the same thing over and over again. I do believe that some of his characters are very realistic, but he uses the same characteristics in almost all of his stories. First of all, sex (and I don't mean gender) is very prominent in his stories. And this isn't your run-of-the-mill, everyday ordinary sex. His characters get freaky, such as the female protagonist in the other story in Blockade Billy, entitled Morality. The character, Nora, ends up begging her lovers to hit her. In fact, the novel Gerald's Game is almost exclusively revolved around sex. Next, there is always at least one character who plays the not-quite-all-there character who really wants to help out and thinks he or she can make a great contribution when really he or she just gets in the way. Think of it as the Barney Fife character, if you will. This character can be on the side of either the bad guys or the good guys, sometimes even both. Finally, the main bad guy is usually as slippery as a snake who very successfully manipulates his people into thinking his or her way is the right way and who never reaches redemption and goes down fighting all by him or herself or ends up killing him or herself. I don't mean to offend anyone, but this is basically like a Hitler character, the ultimate bad guy, if you will.
It makes sense that some of the characters would be like that, but when I read King's books lately, it's kind of like a broken record. I understand that this is what got him famous, but let's spread some variety. I still love reading his works, and I don't think I will stop as long as he is writing. In fact, most of the problems occurr in his novels, but his short stories are some of the best pieces of writing in the literary world. I just wish he would put more focus there. No disrepect, Mr. King. I'm just saying, is all.
