I've read a lot of Stephen King's books (largely due to a combination of a large King section in my high school's library and frequent detentions), and have always been a little embarrassed to admit it in polite company. I started thinking about this recently when someone noticed The Dark Tower on the seat of my car and started teasing me about it, at which point a somewhat drunken debate emerged over his legitimacy as an author.
On one hand, he writes huge numbers of frequently-cheesy horror novels, and makes very little effort to limit his verbosity. His prose, while sometimes inspired, is equally often gratingly excessive ("Even following Eddie this far into riddledom's Twilight Zone had caused Blaine's sanity to totter" reads a sentence on a random page of the closest-to-hand King novel, and he's been guilty of far worse). His tendency to foreshadow everything can also be a bit nagging.
On the other, he's capable of accompanying interesting plots and premises with occasionally fascinating glimpses into human behavior and desires (The Mist, The Stand, Pet Sematary and even Needful Things). Not only does he write prolifically, but he's also had an influence on many modern authors, as well as popular culture. His massive commercial success is an endorsement of his great talent as a writer, despite the occasional groan-worthy sentence (or paragraph. or book.)
While it's unlikely that you'll place a leatherbound copy of It between your Joyce and your Longfellow, what are you other Escapists' thoughts on King's qualifications (or lack thereof) as a great writer, or of his books as great literature?
On one hand, he writes huge numbers of frequently-cheesy horror novels, and makes very little effort to limit his verbosity. His prose, while sometimes inspired, is equally often gratingly excessive ("Even following Eddie this far into riddledom's Twilight Zone had caused Blaine's sanity to totter" reads a sentence on a random page of the closest-to-hand King novel, and he's been guilty of far worse). His tendency to foreshadow everything can also be a bit nagging.
On the other, he's capable of accompanying interesting plots and premises with occasionally fascinating glimpses into human behavior and desires (The Mist, The Stand, Pet Sematary and even Needful Things). Not only does he write prolifically, but he's also had an influence on many modern authors, as well as popular culture. His massive commercial success is an endorsement of his great talent as a writer, despite the occasional groan-worthy sentence (or paragraph. or book.)
While it's unlikely that you'll place a leatherbound copy of It between your Joyce and your Longfellow, what are you other Escapists' thoughts on King's qualifications (or lack thereof) as a great writer, or of his books as great literature?
