Graveyards are Deadly, Laying Awake, Ace Merrill, Castle Rock, and Dicks
Well, here I am, awake, not able to sleep, at 3:30 in the morning. It’s understandable: I work permanently at night, so when the weekend rolls around it’s only natural that my body wants to remain awake at night. It’s actually a little frustrating. When I do finally get back on track (translation: sleeping at night, not working) it will be time to go back to work and start the whole process all over again for another week. And on it goes.
Yay.
There comes a time when I can no longer lay awake staring at the ceiling. After twiddling my thumbs for awhile tonight trying to get to sleep, I decided I would be better off if I did something more constructive, like write. If there is a plus side to keeping miserable hours (there are a few; having a pretty good steady income being a major plus) it is that I have a lot of time to read, write, and think. Well, mostly think, with some reading and writing thrown in.
For example tonight, after reading Needful Things before attempting to retire for the evening, it’s only natural that I do have said novel on my mind. Although it’s not a new novel, it’s new to me, and it’s strange that I’ve waited so long to read it. So I’m thinking about it. And I’m enjoying the story. It’s nice to see that Ace Merrill is back on the scene, older and grayer, but still a total dick. He’s just arrived in Castle Rock, after a stint in jail and a further sabbatical in Mechanic Falls, so I don’t know all the details as of yet. That’s fine though: the finding out the many details is all the fun!
Isn’t it ironic that I have to work Graveyard shift perpetually, and that my favourite author has indeed written a wonderful collection of short stories title Graveyard Shift? Well, maybe it isn’t ironic, merely fanciful thinking, but nonetheless it’s interesting. I’m glad I have Mr. King’s wonderful stories to turn to on evenings such as these.
On another note, I am also currently reading Peter Straub’s Houses Without Doors while I am at work. It’s fitting to read while taking a break, or having lunch, or just chilling, on graveyard shift!
I will now attempt to once again retire. Bid me farewell.
Adieu.
Haven’t read King in years and years–he became too much of a fiction factory. Steve, just settle down and take two or three years to write ONE GOOD BOOK instead of churning them out and maybe a bit of your literary luster will return. Right now, when Steve-O puts out a book, it provokes a shrug and a bit of the old ho-hum. But even at his worst, he’s miles beyond the crap most horror writers are producing these days. The genre has been in the toilet for a decade and most literate types wouldn’t be caught dead reading it. Zombies and vampires, good God, is that the best we can do? No innovation, no new talents on the rise, just gorehounds and people who write their first drafts in crayon. Anyone applying the word “horror” to my work is committing a huge faux pas and would be wise to take off running. I just don’t wanna associate with those lowbrow, illiterate arses.
Well said!
We come by our love of horror naturally. After all Beowulf, the Boogeyman and Dracula were invented, long before we were all around. We love to be scared and it is understandable. Horror, fantasy and the supernatural are mediums to activate our imaginations and get in touch with more primal feelings. Horror is a genre that plays on our deepest fears and insecurities.
I love Stephen King because his best writing not only paints vivid pictures but he draws you into a world where your quietest thoughts and weird eccentricities are played out in front of your eyes. He definitely has his misses, but he is fabulously unique and inventive.
I have to disagree about the horror genre being a terrible one. Zombies, vampires, ghouls, a dead relative, revenge…it all tingles your spine and sets your imagination into overdrive. It is harder to find great authors in any genre these days, not just horror.
What the gore-meisters conveniently forget is that fear is a CEREBRAL emotion and that merely ladling on the blood and offal usually means the author is concealing stylistic and literary shortcomings. Roman Polanski created some of the scariest offerings in cinema history and the actual amount of blood spilled is minimal, the violence suggested rather than explicitly portrayed. One of my short novels, KEPT, is being adapted into a film by the people who make the “Saw” movies–it is my profound hope that they will take my words to heart when I told them that the theme of my book is that “even in Hell there is a hierarchy of evil”, rather than merely focusing on the darker, disturbing aspects of my vision…
Cliff, I do agree: the cerebral horror is much more satisfying, much more rewarding as a viewer, and a reader. If you lambaste viewers with gore, they become, well, desensitized.
In my experience, a horror flick like The Ring was much more effective than any of the Saws.
[...] 3, 2008 Cliff Burns has written some interesting comments on this blog in the past, and my response to his most recent one, well, I’ve decided to turn [...]
Continuing the Dialogue « Sharpening the Tip said this on November 3, 2008 at 5:21 pm |
I absolutely agree that “cerebral horror” is far and away better than slopped on blood and gore. I don’t find anything scary or even really entertaining about guts and limping monsters spurting blood. Although I did enjoy Quentin Tarantino’s recent movie about a serial killer whose weapon is his car. Pretty entertaining.
I just felt the need to defend the horror genre (refer to first comment by author Cliff Burns) and Stephen King. In my opinion, King has always been able to reach into the mind and encourage your fear of the dark and the unknown. He certainly has his misses…but who doesn’t?