A Tribute to Stephen King
To say that Stephen King is a good writer would be an understatement. With nearly 100 books selling over 350 million copies and stories transformed into television series and movies that have left an indelible mark on our pop culture, Stephen King is a capital “G” Great writer. I paid a visit to one of the Vancouver Writer’s Festival events called, “A Tribute to Stephen King,” and found myself in a room filled with people all with the same question: How? How exactly can a single man accomplish all of this? And more importantly, what has Stephen King taught us from his stories?
The night started with a healthy sprinkling of anecdotes by the panellists, with each recalling their first encounters with a King novel. For some, it was a dangerous affair: Amando L. Correa, an award-winning writer from Cuba, rememberers reading illegal copies of Carrie and The Shining which were read by hundreds of people before him. For most speakers, however, their experience was considerably easier, with the books presenting themselves in perfectly innocuous places: a grocery store, or from their mother’s bookshelf as a naive ten-year-old, thinking that the book with a dog on the cover would be a fun read (spoiler, Cujo is not Clifford).
Despite this, many were still victims of the gatekeepers’ prejudice–the same adults who told them to read as much as possible had ironically prevented them from doing just that. The panellists who had experienced resistance in some form while reading King in their youth agreed that had anyone succeeded in stopping them, that they might not have found their passion for reading. His stories teach us that a person should never tell anyone, no matter their age, what they can and cannot read.
The so-called “King” of chills and thrills is with no doubt, an exceptional storyteller. His characters are well developed and complex, with a next-door-neighbour type of realism. The ability that King has to take this mundane to freaky is what makes him stand out as a powerful writer. Incidentally, it is also the same reason why many of us become terrified of things we would never find ourselves scared of- like the nerdy high school girl, the suburban wife, or the lovable family dog. Additionally, his attention to the body and its grotesqueness in things such as blood, spit, sweat, and pus, are strangely enough what makes us come back for more. If Stephen King’s calibre of creepiness has taught us anything about good writing, it is that the devil is in the details: a good story depends on how it is delivered on the page.
To any person who has ever dreamt of becoming a novelist, or at least have taken an intro-to-creative-writing class, On Writing might sound like a familiar phrase. Despite having written dozens upon dozens of tales of doom and gloom, King’s memoir and advice book was by far the most read and talked about that night. The marriage of his own story of resilience and emphasis on developing a proper storytelling technique is what inspired many of the speakers to turn to writing as a profession. But perhaps the most valuable lesson King has to offer comes from his own life: while the most daunting thing is the blank page, there is something intrinsically wonderful and beautiful about facing it. Rejection, sadness, and misfortune- they are all a part of life, but it will never stop it. Stephen King reminds us not to be afraid of what scares us- and to try and try again.
There are very few people who we can say we will be reading a hundred years from now, let alone ten. Simultaneously, there are very few people in history who have achieved this capital “G” greatness: Shakespeare, Dickens, Tolstoy- and now, Steven King. His ability to speak of the whole human experience is what makes his stories loved as both a child and adult, and will continue to do so long after we have left this earth.
2 Comments
Peggy Payne
I think it’s great I’ve been reading Stephen King for about 40 years. I love him.
Andie Marie
I think of myself as a writer but I am only now approaching a Publisher for evaluation. I’m not as scared of rejection as I am the possibility of sudden public recognition. I love what Steven wrote about the daunting blank page, “something intrinsically wonderful and beautiful about facing it.” I realize my fear of finishing my book is linked to avoidance of having to face my fear of losing my anonymous status. I was looking for inspiration from an admired writer and here it is- I’m going in. I am sure Steven King will be just as inspiring to many writers for many years beyond our time together for the simple fact that his writing goes beyond entertainment. He can get into your head in the creepiest ways that just linger with new thoughts of scarier possibilities for days… brilliant! I hope he is also remembered for his ability to touch the heart. My top 3 “mad respect” for Steven stories are- when his Wife digs his “Carrie” script out the trash where he had crumpled it up and discarded it as garbage. Also when they both went to the double feature to see the movie Carrie, where a Red Foxx movie showed first- Red is hilarious but so is Stevens version of that evening. The dynamics of their partnership between him and his Wife is a beautiful thing. I was surprised and touched by his personal thoughts when he woke up in a ditch covered in blood after a car accident, and thinking he was dying. “You can’t take it with you, 10%, a dime out of every dollar should given back to keep the positive energies of the collective whole going round and round. I love that about him, even then his subject matter he was contemplating to himself was valuable to us in a thought provoking way regarding Spiritual Currency, which is so much more valuable than mere money. You can’t buy that at Walmart! In a world where our moral compass needs guidance to remind us that working together is the way out of adversity, and which way is up,even though we like to dance in the dark. So yes, I think Steven Kings writings will out live him. And I say to that- “Viva la King, long may his words rain!