Stephen king - the darkness in a writer..

There are only two kinds of readers for Stephen Kings books - There are some who love him; others hate him. I find myself vacillating between the two. I have never been a real lover of any fiction that does not pay its due regard to language, structure or fails to sensitize the reader to something beyond mundane emotions. The typical pulp fiction that ones finds proliferating all around (especially in airports) have never attracted me; and if it did, I have never got beyond the first twenty pages of such a book. I would have read around twenty of King's novels, and I must say, not all of them have held my interest till the end. Apart from occasional flashes of brilliance here and there, most of them are pretty pedestrian in execution, written with clear eye to achieving quantity than quality. To some, however, Stephen's king's works are masterpieces of supernatural and dark literature. Well , I have to agree that his sense of the abnormal is unique in that genre; and the sheer magnitude of his output in churning out eerie tales is mind boggling - fifty five novels, six books of non fiction and two hundred and odd short stories - is as prolific as any writer can ever hope to get. Between the years 1975 and 2000, he literally wrote a couple of books each year..

I read King more for his psychological undertones than for his writing style or language. I think some of his stories are not only deeply disturbing, but in a perverse sort of way presents the Human heart in all its deviousness. For instance, I enjoyed reading "Carrie", "Misery" or "The shining" - some of his initial works; brilliant in its conception of evil as a manifestation of physic degeneration in a world that has become extremely alienating. I especially like "Carrie" for its blend of religious superstition, the darkness of being shy and an outsider in modern society, the need for self esteem and acceptance, and the transformation of the psyche into schizophrenic behavior - are bought quite beautifully in his 1974 novel. It was made into a movie as well - in fact it was remade three times; the last one releasing last year featuring Julianne Moore and Chloë Grace Moretz as Carrie. The 1976 adaption of Carrie was made legendary Brian de Palma, in which Sissy spacek played the lead role to perfection, It won her an Oscar nomination.

I just finished watching 2013 remake of this book. It is now available in Netflix. For those of us, who haven't had the chance to read the book or see the original film; this is a good opportunity to enjoy King's oeuvre at its best. It is certainly not a movie to be seen with family, but it does bring out a very interesting angle to the darker side of human nature..

God bless...