Stephen King is scared of a lot of stuff. Bats. Rats. Spiders. Death. Bambi. The corpse in the bathtub opening its eyes -- revealing nothing but bulging whites -- in the 1955 film Diabolique.
King said in his introduction to Night Shift:
"At night, when I go to bed, I still am at pains to be sure that my legs are under the blankets after the lights go out. I'm not a child anymore but... I don't like to sleep with one leg sticking out. Because if a cool hand ever reached out from under the bed and grasped my ankle, I might scream. Yes, I might scream to wake the dead."I think most people have a lot of fears. The cool thing about Stephen King is that he writes about them! Well, I haven't read a Stephen King book about Bambi yet, but most of his fears find a spot in his novels. King has the courage to explore his fears! We read him because he's willing to go there!
Aren't you scared to go down the cellar? So is little George, because we know monsters are down there.
King once said he had to rely on Tabby to chase bats that get loose from the attic. Seriously. . . who lives in a house with bats?
Pet Sematary was an exploration of death; and in particular, the agony of the death of a child. Stephenkingshop.com says,
According to King, Pet Sematary, a story about a man who brings his son back to life after he is killed by a speeding truck, was written after the same thing nearly happened to his own son. Likewise, King felt tremendous financial stress during the years prior to publishing Carrie, and The Shining was written as much about how financial and other stresses can tear apart a marriage as it was about a haunted hotel.King's fears intensify -- refine -- his ability to scare all of us. His fear of spiders crawls into Needful Things, IT, The Mist and The Dark Tower.
So what's your fear? King has probably got something to make you squirm!
- Are you scared of the dark? King will tell you to hold his hand, then lead you down a long journey through the Lincoln Tunnel -- lights out!
- Sacred of dogs? Oh, there's a book for you!
- Clowns? Aliens? Ghosts? The devil? Yep, King will give you the devil himself!
- Anyone scared of a Gypsy curse or demon possessed law enforcement?
- Scared of the hospital? The doctor?
- Anyone scared of Zombies? How about cell phones? And that's another thing, isn't it!? King sometimes takes a fear, and combines it with other fears. I didn't like my cellphone to begin with, now it might turn me into a zombie!
- You scared of vampires? King gives us a town full of vamps! Or, in Night Flier, a vampire with a plane.
- Does the haunted house around the corner scare you? Check out Salem's Lot!
- Do airplanes creep you out? The Langoliers is a lot of fun.
And let's talk rats for a moment. I don't even like little mice -- but rats are truly horrifying! I think the first exploration with rats came with Graveyard Shift. Trips down into the sub-sub-basement, only to discover ever growing rats. The journey is still scary! King gave us more rats in his recent novella 1922.
I like this quote from 1922, "The rat twisted and flopped. its tail first lashed my calf, then wrapped around it like a grass snake. Blood gushed from its mouth. Its black eyes bulged like marbles." That's nice, Mr. King.
According to stephenkingwiki, The Rat is one of the twelve Guardians of the Beams that hold up the Dark Tower.
My dislike of rats didn't come from Stephen King, it came from George Orwell. In his novel, 1984 -- which is scary in an "Under The Dome" sort of way -- the main character is scared of rats. So, to punish him, Big Brother puts a face mask on him connected to a pipe full of rats. The rats then attack his face! Oh, and this book is required reading in some schools.
Let's be real honest, gang: One reason we read Stephen King is because we like being scared! It's like a drug, though -- each time takes a higher dose.
0 Yorumlar