I read my old favorite
In my bed last night
He seemed so glad to scare me
I just screamed
And he showed me some old nightmares
And I embraced those old fears
Still scary after all these years
(With apologies to Paul Simon)
Several years ago, Al Gore invented the internet, and now people have a place to bitch about things and make derisive comments with total anonymity. This usually happens on message boards, and quite often, the people doing the bitching have names like SexMachine69 and ILuvMetallica74 and my personal favorite, VladLovecraft666.
The horror genre has it’s fair share of message board bitching, and let me tell you, I take reviews and commentary by SexMachine69 very seriously. (Sorry you didn’t like the ending to TERMINAL. I’ll personally consult with you before I write the end to the next book. Perhaps then you can not make insulting comments about my mother?)
What else do people bitch about (other than my endings)? Name it. The Bram Stoker Awards. Dan Brown’s THE DAVINCI CODE. Literary horror vs. ‘blue-collar’ horror. Whether or not Dick Laymon used too many boobies in his books. Which is better, Fangoria or Rue Morgue. If Cemetery Dance will ever actually release LEGACIES, or if it’s all some cruel, ill-conceived practical joke on Rich Chizmar’s part.
And Stephen King. People love to bitch about Stephen King and how he hasn’t written a good book since IT.
There are three reasons for this. One, people are fucking idiots. Two, they feel safe because Stephen King isn’t going to pop by Shocklines and comment on Romero’s Land of the Dead or what he thinks of Karl Rove. Three, that’s what human beings do with their icons. We tear them down.
Stephen King does not need me to defend him. But I’m going to anyway, because doing so gives me pleasure, and will undoubtedly piss some people off, which will give me even more pleasure.
I discovered Stephen King when I was about twelve or thirteen. Before that, my literary heroes were Steve Gerber, Stan Lee, and Jack Kirby. One summer, in an issue of Marvel’s Bizarre Adventures, I ran across a weird little story called “The Lawnmower Man.” I read it, and it was cool, and I noticed that the comic was based on a short story by someone named Stephen King. And then I moved on to the latest issue of Kamandi: Last Boy On Earth and promptly forgot all about it.
Until a week later. I’d pedaled my BMX Mongoose back to the newsstand, and was perusing the comics, and a paperback book caught my eye. This was a rarity, since I didn’t usually pay attention to the non-comic books. They had no pictures, and no men in tights fighting other men in tights. The book was NIGHT SHIFT and the author was–say it along with me–Stephen King.
I did something I’d never done before. Rather than buying a weekly stack of comic books, I spent all of my allowance on that one, single book. I rode my bike home, went out to my clubhouse in the woods, and spent the rest of the day reading about vampires and homicidal toy soldiers and a dude with murderous eyeballs in his hands.
I was hooked.
I came of age that glorious summer. I still bought comic books, but soon, I also discovered Graham Masterton and J. N. Williamson and Richard Laymon and Dean Koontz. I’ve said in interviews that, “Stephen King made me want to be a horror fan, and Richard Laymon made me want to be a horror writer.” And that’s true.
But nobody scared the shit out of me the way Stephen King did.
He still does.
Several months ago, Bev Vincent and I shared a room at a convention in New York City. One evening, we were discussing King’s novella, “The Mist” (originally published in the wonderful DARK FORCES anthology–another early favorite of my childhood.) Two weeks ago, I’d finished my day’s writing and was ready for bed. I searched my shelves, looking for something to read. That conversation with Bev ran through my mind, and I realized it had been years since I’d read “The Mist.” So I pulled SKELETON CREW off my shelf and settled in for the night.
My wife was visiting family in Florida, so I was home alone. I lay in bed with a glass of Knob Creek bourbon and a bag of chips, and worked my way through “The Mist.”
It was like falling in love all over again.
Far from sleepy, and feeling a bit nostalgic, I decided to re-read NIGHT SHIFT. I got the book from my office and returned to bed, and re-reading each story was like meeting an old friend that I hadn’t heard from in years. I was instantly thirteen again, except that I now have less hair and more debt.
Around the time I started “I Am The Doorway,” a thunderstorm rolled in. It was one of those really bad summer storms, the kind that turn the sky obsidian. Thunder rocked the neighborhood, and I heard trees crashing to the ground outside. Truth be told, it reminded me of the storm in “The Mist.”
We lost power by the time I’d finished “The Mangler.”
I got up, fumbled for the flashlight, and lit some candles. Then I returned to bed and started reading “The Boogeyman.” The flickering candles cast weird shadows on the wall. Lightning flashed outside. Rain pounded against the roof. And my house started to make strange noises. Creaks and groans. The stairs cracked, like somebody was walking up them.
I was at the part in the story where the protagonist hears something in the closet when I heard something at my attic door; a slight rustling sound, like crinkling paper.
Or a clawed hand, trying to work the doorknob…
I stopped reading. Put the book down. Reached under the bed and picked up the baseball bat.
“H-hello?” My voice sounded very small in the silence.
I tried to ease my mind by telling myself that it was my overactive imagination. And then I heard the sound again. Softer this time, but undeniably there.
Thunder exploded outside and I jumped. The dog didn’t help matters. He sat on the edge of the bed, staring at the attic door and growling.
“It’s okay,” I told him, but I think we both knew I was really just trying to reassure myself.
The noise came again. Now I was really and truly afraid. My mind swam with possibilities. Maybe it was a crazed fan or an escaped killer or a monster…
…or the Boogeyman, just like in the Stephen King story!
Armed with the bat, I stood up and crept across the room. Those five feet from the bed to the attic door seemed to take an eternity. Swallowing hard, I touched the handle, ripped the door open, and jumped back.
My wife’s cat hissed at me and then ran out of the room. She’d been stuck in the attic. Probably followed me up there earlier in the day.
I felt like an idiot. I’d allowed that damn short story to scare me. Here I was, a fairly successful, thirty-something horror writer with a nice house and a beautiful wife, and I was standing there shaking in my pajama bottoms with a baseball bat in my hands, ready to obliterate the cat.
All because of Stephen King’s “The Boogeyman.”
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what it’s all about. Our job, as horror writers, is simply to scare people. Fuck pretension. Fuck art and morals and deeper meanings and literary form. If you want to create art, go paint a picture.
We are storytellers. Entertainers. And in our chosen genre, our job is to scare the shit out of the reader.
And nobody does that better than Stephen King.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m done writing for the day. It’s midnight, and since I can’t sleep, I’ve made a date with Ralph Roberts. Ralph can’t sleep either, and lately, he’s been seeing some weird things outside his window.
36 Comments, Comment or Ping
Janet Berliner
A wonderful essay, Brian. Funny, appropriate, well thought out, entertaining. Bravo.
Janet
Jul 20th, 2005
terry
As this is the second round of essays I’m trying to ses if i can guess the author by the end of the essay.
I suppose I should have known that was you, Brian. Who else would sleep with a baseball bat under the bed?
Most entertaining.
Jul 20th, 2005
Brian Keene
Thank you Janet and Terry.
And the only reason I keep the bat under the bed is because my wife won’t let me keep the gun under there. ;>)
Jul 20th, 2005
Steven Lloyd
Well done, my friend.
Jul 20th, 2005
Anonymous
I have a well worn copy of most King books on my shelves and when my kids at school risk the humiliation of their peers and ask me for something good to read, I nearly always start them on Night Shift or Nightmares and Dreamscapes, and 8 out of the proverbial 10 get hooked. The Mist is a favorite of mine and The end of the whole mess. in fact, I have a lot of favorites and most of my King books have proved to be far more loyal and reliable than many of the people I’ve known over the years!
Great Essay and sentiment
sarah x
Jul 20th, 2005
Steve Vernon
Oh I dunno, I’ve had a baseball bat under my bed for years, and I swing like a girl.
Nice essay Brian.
Signed:
Punkglottalthroatgangrenesexmachine333twiceover
Jul 20th, 2005
Steven Savile
Well said Brian - it’s too easy to take cheap shots and make big noise in this day and age. Guys like King are sitting targets, but you know what, they earned the right!
Jul 20th, 2005
James Goodman
Great post!
Jul 20th, 2005
David Niall Wilson
Heh.
While I’ve been known to take a pot shot at the Da Vinci Code (sorry, Dan Brown isn’t an icon - at least not yet) I couldn’t agree more on King. I always have to shake my head and wonder at all the vitriolic crap shoveled in his direction by the same people who gather like frothing hordes of mad dogs if some rare collectible item of his shows up on eBay.
I think The Dark Tower is the epic fantasy for our generation - encompassing all of the genres with ease and grace.
And just for the record, Sexmachine69, there were only two possible endings I could see for Terminal…just because Brian doesn’t like fluffy bunnies doesn’t make the ending wrong (heh).
It’s funny, a guy taking his handle from a badly played part in a badly done Quentin T vampire movie feels he’s a critic?
Good essay, Brian. Good thing you didn’t pound the cat.
DNW
Jul 20th, 2005
Dark Visions
Great essay, Mr. Keene, Stephen King has scared me since I read The Shining, now you scare me. Well your writing does, well you might but I have not met you yet. Are you ever going to come to New England for a book signing? Actually Manchester, NH would be nice. I am a new fan; read THe Rising and City of the Dead in two terror filled sleepless nights. And you are right, Horror is meant to scare the crap out of you. That is why I read it.
Would like to say that I have been reading Storytellers Unplugged since it’s inception and all of you have done a great job. I look foward to every new article. I am an aspiring Horrow Writer (have had a few poems published, no stories yet) and your comments and insights have inspired me to work harder on my craft. THANK YOU
Jul 20th, 2005
Lou_Sytsma
Excuse my French but that essay was F***IN A!
Thanks for writing that Brian.
I do not understand the need to tear down icons.
Ayn Rand explored this in Atlas Shrugged and made it the mantra of, Who is John Galt?
Jul 20th, 2005
alaneye
Great stuff, Brian. I didn’t realise that in those situations people real do say, “H-hello?” I thought it was only in the movies.
Alan
Jul 20th, 2005
Anonymous
Awesome essay, Brian!
I wonder if writers are more inclined to tear down their idols. Seems like “we’re all in this together”, until one of us makes it. Then it’s fuck you jack!
Shadowtron (too lazy to register)
Jul 20th, 2005
Anonymous
Thank you Brian (or Mr. Keene - we’ve never met). Excellent essay!
It took me nearly 2 years to read Salem’s Lot; I kept reading a little and then would get so scared I’d scream if somebody came up behind me, and so I’d put it away for a while and just have nightmares. My mother nearly threw it out on me, but I hid it and kept reading. I still love King, not just for his fiction but for Danse Macabre and On Writing which I find both insiteful and inspiring.
Paige
Jul 20th, 2005
Kevin Bozard
Well said Mr Keene (Brian - ’cause we have met). Your writings a true inspiration, and you’ve inspired me to get back to work. What was it you said?
Fuck pretension. Fuck art and morals and deeper meanings and literary form. If you want to create art, go paint a picture.
Thankfully I’m not a painter! So write, I do.
Jul 20th, 2005
Mark Leslie
Thanks Brian - nice essay, but look what you’ve done. You’ve made me go over to my bookshelf and pick up the extremely well-worn copy of King’s “Different Seasons” — again! (That was my introduction to his wonderful world of words)
Jul 20th, 2005
Mari Adkins
Great essay. Now I’ve got to read The Mist again; it’s been ages …
You said, Fuck art and morals and deeper meanings and literary form. May I quote you on that?
Jul 20th, 2005
Nick Kaufmann
NIGHT SHIFT is where it all started for me, too. Between that and Clive Barker’s BOOKS OF BLOOD, which I read shortly afterward, I was hooked on horror as both what I wanted to read and what I wanted to write.
I kind of disagree with this statement, though:
“Our job, as horror writers, is simply to scare people. Fuck pretension. Fuck art and morals and deeper meanings and literary form. If you want to create art, go paint a picture.”
I would put forth that horror can make a reader think and question just as easily as any other speculative or non-speculative genre. It doesn’t all have to be cats jumping out from behind attic doors.
Jul 20th, 2005
Mike
Couldn’t agree with you more, Brian. IMHO, no one tops King. He makes a simple walk down the street seem so interesting.
Nicely done,
Mike
Jul 20th, 2005
Sean
Excellent essay, Brian, and a well-made point re: King and our other writerly icons. It seems that success breeds contempt, even from one’s own fans.
King’s stories don’t normally scare the total bejeezus out of me, but he has written the only three scenes in horror which I cannot read through in one sitting. When I get to them (and I do reread the books from time-to-time), I have to set the book aside and come back to it later. No one else in the genre has had that effect on me.
For the record, those scenes are:
- the lady in the bathtub in THE SHINING (still can’t stand to see a drawn shower curtain at night)
- the image of a certain high school ring left behind in THE RAFT
- the knife fight between the old ladies in NEEDFUL THINGS
Although I do think King’s fiction has suffered a little since BAG OF BONES, he still continues to deliver enough chills per chapter to warrant my hard-earned book-buying budget when he has a new release. Now, I will have to go looking for your books on my next foray to the bookstore.
I, for one, sleep with a two-foot metal carpenter’s level under my bed. It ain’t a Louisville Slugger, but it’ll get the Boogeyman’s attention.
Sean P. Fodera
Jul 20th, 2005
Brian Keene
Thanks folks. And as for art, deeper meaning, etc.–don’t get me wrong. I think we can certainly do those things with horror fiction. I don’t however, think we should sit down and say, “With this novel, I’m going to examine the history of the Jewish/Palestinian conflict, and peruse the class struggle in Middle America.”
In my opinion, our primary objective is to entertain–to tell a good story. If we achieve that, and there is some deeper, hidden meaning in that story, then that’s all the better.
But I still think the primary goal of a horror fiction writer is to SCARE.
Jul 20th, 2005
Carl Carter
Some great points there, Mr Keene.
I agree that a good horror story should scare first (otherwise it ain’t a good horror story!), but fear is a cerebral emotion — it makes you think, and so I invariably find that I get a lot more from good horror writing than just the scares.
On another note, I had my first short story accepted for publication today. It’ll be appearing in next years Terror Tales anthology from Rainfall books. Sorry, just had to share that!
Carl.
Jul 20th, 2005
Monty Grue
Authors and readers change over time. While I truly enjoyed early works like “The Mist” or Pet Semetery when they was first published, I can’t say the same for the last three Dark Tower novels. But twenty some odd years intervened between publications, so our interests as author and reader went in different directions. No big deal. There is no need to tear down the icons over it.
Just as bad as iconoclasm, in my humble opinion, is lionization. Maybe there is too much putting Mr. King on a pedestal. He is only an author; some of his writing is great, some good, some medicore, and some less than satifying. I hope I can say that without drawing out the ire of authors and readers alike.
Jul 20th, 2005
Scott Nicholson
A baseball bat beats most other weapons in the dark
Jul 20th, 2005
Renfield
Great essay. Would say more, but after reading that, I need feel the need to run down to the bookstore and pick up Terminal. (Been meaning to do it for a couple of weeks.)
Jul 20th, 2005
Anonymous
So, whose this Art guy and can I have his number?
Jul 20th, 2005
Anonymous
Stephen King rocks. Come-come-comallah, baby.
Jul 20th, 2005
Anonymous
I agree completely with the thoughts on King. He was (and is) an amazing writer despite what the literary crowd thinks.
But…
Fuck pretension. Fuck art and morals and deeper meanings and literary form. If you want to create art, go paint a picture.
…is just an idiotic comment.
The only thing scary about 99% of horror released today is the bad writing. What’s wrong with trying to write well AND scare people at the same time? Why is there an Army of hack writers who think good writing is a bad thing? Is it because most current Horror writers couldn’t form a decent sentence if Hemingway wrote it for them? Unfortunately, that goes for storytelling as well.
The modern Horror genre provides an outlet for these people because the current standard is so low.
Go back and re-read Lord of the Flies, The Exorcist, Misery, and The Haunting of Hill House and then compare those to any handfull of current horror novels. You pick. You’ll see what I mean.
Jul 21st, 2005
David Niall Wilson
Another wise and pretentious missive from the great anonymous void.
“I think what you said is idiotic, but don’t expect me to tell you who I am…”
And there’s a reasonably large school of critics who don’t believe Hemingway’s sentence structure was anything to write home about, so to speak.
Of course, I could say that most anoymous posters couldn’t post a useful comment if someone with half-a-lick of courage posted it for them…
Go back and read some of the thoughtful essays posted here and across the net, then read the anonymous, insulting comments that follow…you’ll see what I mean.
DNW
Jul 21st, 2005
Mary SanGiovanni
As I mentioned before, I don’t think Brian was saying horror couldn’t be deep and thought-provoking (not that B needs me to defend him, but…). I think he was saying it doesn’t need to be work that is so busy being self-important that it forgets to be entertaining. Good writing is both meaningful and entertaining, as Nick and others have said. And I think the large body of works by Brian and the other authors involved in this forum attest to that.
Just my own humble two cents.
Jul 21st, 2005
Brian Keene
BileDragon (?) wrote:
“Fuck art…is just an idiotic comment. The only thing scary about 99% of horror released today is the bad writing. What’s wrong with trying to write well AND scare people at the same time?”
Not sure I understand your criticism. Writing well involves sentence structure, grammar, flow, plotting, dialogue, etc.
Art, deeper meanings, etc. are a different animal. Even a bad writer can set out to create art…
My two cents, of course. You’re free to disagree.
Jul 21st, 2005
terry
Is it because most current Horror writers couldn’t form a decent sentence if Hemingway wrote it for them? Unfortunately, that goes for storytelling as well.
Gee I for one do not want to read a book by someone who ‘can’t form a decent sentence’.
I’d be really greatful if you would provide a list of authors and site examples of their sub-par writing. I’ll be sure to avoid those titles…
I’m sure you have lots of evidence to substantiate your comments.
Why else would you make them.
Jul 21st, 2005
Jeff Mariotte
Too many boobies?
I don’t understand the concept.
Jeff
Jul 21st, 2005
terry
So are we worried about the fact that there hasn’t been a new post for a couple of days, or are we just milking Stephen King for all the responses we can get?
I hope all our bloggers are well and that the delay isn’t due to some unfortunate event.
Jul 22nd, 2005
David Niall Wilson
It appears that we have some sort of server glitch on our hands. Hopefully Joe will straighten it out shortly…I suspect then we’ll see a whole FLURRY of posts…
DNW
Jul 22nd, 2005
Nicole
First of all, fantastic essay, Brian!!
For as long as I can remember I have read horror books, and whenever people find out I read horror, their first response is always the same, “Oh, you must like Stephen King…”
When I was younger, I immediately refuted this saying that there is more to horror fiction than just Stephen King.
It is humourous now how indignant I was. And I don’t think it was so much that I did not think King deserved to be mentioned, but to the “mainstream” reader, King is the only name that ever comes to mind for them. I admit, it is still mildly irritating.
Now that have…ahem…matured, I try to discuss not only King but other writers such as Barker, Bradbury, Matheson, Keene :), Tanith Lee, Lebbon, Bowles, Jackson, and of course, the list goes on and on and on…
If the topic comes up now, I feel more confident in actually having a conversation with someone about why horror kicks ass and in my humble opinion is some of the best, most creative, most thought provoking writing going on right now.
As for the anonymous comment above stating that 99% of horror writing is complete crap, well, you for one are a moron.
And thanks to everyone who has posted essays so far. Great stuff!
Nicole
Jul 27th, 2005
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