[2Wycked]

Just finished re-reading Different Seasons. Stellar, absolutely outstanding collection of novellas. It has two you have most likely already heard of -- Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption and The Body (which became the movie Stand By Me). I would recommend the collection based on those tales alone, but the other two stand out:

Apt Pupil: This is a ghastly, hideously dark story about a wickedly disturbed boy and an elderly Nazi set in the early '70's in California. The boy learns that a Nazi war criminal is living under an assumed identity in his hometown. He reveals this knowledge to the old man not to confront him and turn him into the police, but to blackmail the old man into divulging his darkest secrets about the atrocities the Nazis visited on their prisoners.

The story progresses from there, as the power balance betwixt the two waxes and wanes as they feed off one another. Both the boy and the elderly man confront some of their darkest aspects of their souls. It really is a very dark tale -- well-told by Mr. King, of course -- that one shouldn't read on too light of a stomach. There isn't a happy ending, to say the least.

The Breathing Method: I've read this story before -- the gentleman's club in the story was the inspiration for one of my more popular posts on ROK, "Men Need A Return Of The Male-Only Gentleman's Club" -- and it is a fine short story. It really is a story within a story, as the protagonist hears a story at a gentleman's club from a doctor. This doctor describes a unique former patient of his, a headstrong young women who became pregnant in the 1920's. She was an unmarried woman, so she faced quite a bit of social stigma at the time. It is clear from his story that this doctor admired his patient for her forthrightness and her quiet decency in the face of her situation. He taught her a breath method to alleviate stress during her pregnancy that comes in handy during the climax of the novella, as she faces a life-threatening situation during labor.

10/10 from 2Wycked, would and will read again. Hope you pick this gem up as per my recommendation and hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

[Tail Gunner]

(03-06-2016 07:59 PM)2Wycked Wrote:  

Apt Pupil: This is a ghastly, hideously dark story about a wickedly disturbed boy and an elderly Nazi set in the early '70's in California. The boy learns that a Nazi war criminal is living under an assumed identity in his hometown. He reveals this knowledge to the old man not to confront him and turn him into the police, but to blackmail the old man into divulging his darkest secrets about the atrocities the Nazis visited on their prisoners.

The story progresses from there, as the power balance betwixt the two waxes and wanes as they feed off one another. Both the boy and the elderly man confront some of their darkest aspects of their souls. It really is a very dark tale -- well-told by Mr. King, of course -- that one shouldn't read on too light of a stomach. There isn't a happy ending, to say the least.

The movie version of Apt Pupil is also outstanding and highly underrated among the Stephen King movies. If you liked the novella, the movie is a must see. There are two completely different endings. The ending works well for the novella, while a different ending works equally well for the movie -- and is just as disturbing in its own way.

[Paracelsus]

The Stand. And I'll get tomatoes for this, but I liked large tracts of the CBS TV miniseries -- probably because of the jangly soundtrack by Snuffy Walden.

And oh boy, The Dark Tower series. "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed." I even moderately liked the last three books or so, warts and all.

[El Chinito loco]

I read 11-22-63 when it first came out and enjoyed it a lot. In case you don't know what it's about it's about a school teacher who is let in on a secret time rift of sorts in a diner. The guy who runs the establishment originally discovered it and was planning on stopping the murder of JFK. The teacher ends up taking on the mission and it's a pretty interesting time travel story. The greatest thing about it are all the period details and you can tell Stephen King really loved that era a lot because he grew up in it.

They have a tv mini series out right now too but I think the book is better of course.

[Paracelsus]

And now, ladies and gentlemen, I've got good news and bad news sourced from Wikipedia with some reputable backing (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_T...adaptation )

The good news: they're finally going forward with a Dark Tower film!

Even more good news: Anders Thomas Jensen and Nikolaj Arcel are rewriting the script, taking it out of the hands of (shudder) Jeff Pinkner and Akiva Goldsman, a pair of TV hacks. Jensen was the story supervisor on Von Trier's Antichrist, and hasn't worked much in Hollywood - hopefully it'll be a very distinct look and feel that he brings. And Jensen wrote the script for Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, which regardless of the feminist bullshit was a tight piece of work. Again, they're Danes, so I'm actually slightly hype for this looking and feeling a lot more alien than standard Hollywood shit. Arcel gives a fuck and seems to be a Stephen King fan, which is promising at least.

The bad news...
















- It's a single film, so who the fuck knows how much they'll try to cram in.
- It's being made by Sony. Also see: the new Ghostbusters reboot.
- Ron Howard is still there, but is producing it.
- They've cast Idris Elba as Roland of Gilead. I will not start race wars here, and Stephen King has given his usual faggy approval for whatever shit they throw at the screen, but Roland for the past thirty years has been all but explicitly described as Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name on steroids. I don't remember said MWNN being black.
- They've cast Matthew McConaughey as Walter O'Dim. (Interestingly, he's also been sought/cast as Randall Flagg in a new upcoming TV movie of The Stand.) I....am not certain whether to call this bad news or not. If McConaughey is directed right he's fantastic. But frequently he's not directed right.
- They have also cast Abbey Lee Kershaw (model - one of the wives in Mad Max) in the role of Tirana for this film. Fans reckon she doesn't come in until the seventh volume. Fuck, I don't even remember anyone by that name in the series at all. A quick Google-fu says Tirana was a low woman in the Dixie Pig who knocks Callahan's charm out of his hand, so fuck knows what the hell they're going to do with her. But hey:


WPWAETTDT (Would Palaver With And Escort To The Dark Tower)

[Heinrich von Geobbels]

My absolute favorites:

The Stand (that almost everybody has mentioned here)
From A Buick 8 (I've reread this several times)
The Mist (novella)
Mrs. Todd's Shortcut (short story)
Desperation
Danse Macabre (nonfiction on the history of horror fiction)
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (If you want to write, this is a great how-to book to start with)
Crouch End (Lovecraftian short story)
Mile 81 (a novella related to From A Buick 8)

[Paracelsus]

Necroposting, but, well, the Dark Tower trailer is out, and...

...yeah, it's a fucking mess by the look of it.

I have a hope that it looks a fucking mess because it's complicated and doesn't have a Hollywood-ish ending, making it near impossible to easily sum up in a trailer. But I don't think so. Aside from the Gunslinger's creed, the script sounds like shit. And leaving the black dude thing aside, Elba just doesn't fucking fit as the Gunslinger.

[Laner]

Race never had anything to do with this series. But I do remember Susanna being black? Not that it matters either, but I pictured her black.

Elba is a fucking great choice. If Clint Eastwood was under 50, then it would be a huge overlook not casting him, as King himself modeled Roland after him. But Eastwood is 80 or some shit.

I think the film looks great. I know they would never be able to put all the series into film, so I have to be OK with what they deliver. The Danes have some of my favorite film noir so I know that it will crush anything Hollywood could deliver.

I am looking forward to this. And as much as I have come to despise King as a person, I will always acknowledge his genius as a writer and hope that this film is successful.

The Dark Tower - especially Wizard in Glass - have been among my favorite reads of my life.

[Tail Gunner]

I am also a fan of Idris Elba. I hope that the movie is great. I enjoyed the books.

[Elster]

Eh,it looks like the kid isnt gonna have the same fate as in the first book.
I'll be on the fence for this one.
I do love Mcconaughey and he does fit the man in black very well but a great actor does not save a movie...

[sterling_archer]

Beginning of the trailer, Jake at the psychiatrist, look at the photo at psych's table that is shown for couple of seconds. Hotel from Shining easter egg? Around 0:30 mark.

[Laner]

(05-03-2017 11:59 AM)sterling_archer Wrote:  

Beginning of the trailer, Jake at the psychiatrist, look at the photo at psych's table that is shown for couple of seconds. Hotel from Shining easter egg? Around 0:30 mark.

I noticed this too. Awesome.

[Tail Gunner]

(05-03-2017 11:59 AM)sterling_archer Wrote:  

Beginning of the trailer, Jake at the psychiatrist, look at the photo at psych's table that is shown for couple of seconds. Hotel from Shining easter egg? Around 0:30 mark.

I wasn't going to mention this point, but now that you raise this issue -- I thought that the musical chimes during the same segment of the trailer were quite similar to the chimes in Clint Eastwood's "For a Few Dollars More." They even diminish (wind down) in the same way, leading up to that epic shootout.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LyEvuULDFs

Perhaps they are messing with us.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JPnR7C8mZQ

[Paracelsus]

I'll say this: that last shot he fires, from about the 2:00 minute mark, was fucking awesome. If the rest of the movie is at that level I will happily rescind my pronouncement of suckitude.

[Laner]

(05-03-2017 09:56 PM)Paracelsus Wrote:  

I'll say this: that last shot he fires, from about the 2:00 minute mark, was fucking awesome. If the rest of the movie is at that level I will happily rescind my pronouncement of suckitude.

I think your previous points are spot on, and now that I think back to the books I have some to add.

Again, race. The hundred generations or so in the future had little to do with race and more to do with protected bloodlines, which is why race still matters to some extent. But. The magic was held in a patriarchy, and the whole dark tower starts because of his mothers evil. This is crazy good plot.

Women hold lots of power, but it is the power of destruction. Its a theme that comes up a lot in the book and one that King is masterful at. Its nothing against women, but it just is. There are some good female characters, and I hope that Wizard In Glass gets represented for this reason.

If I didn't have all my book club readings, I would be starting this series again, tonight. Its been on my mind all day, and its been 10 years since I read them.

[Paracelsus]

^^^^

I yield, gunslinger. I yield smiling.

[Crisp]

This September, Stephen King is coming out with a book written in collaboration with his son Owen.

Sleeping Beauties: A novel. The description below is taken from Amazon.com

"In this spectacular father/son collaboration, Stephen King and Owen King tell the highest of high-stakes stories: what might happen if women disappeared from the world of men?

In a future so real and near it might be now, something happens when women go to sleep; they become shrouded in a cocoon-like gauze. If they are awakened, if the gauze wrapping their bodies is disturbed or violated, the women become feral and spectacularly violent; and while they sleep they go to another place... The men of our world are abandoned, left to their increasingly primal devices. One woman, however, the mysterious Evie, is immune to the blessing or curse of the sleeping disease. Is Evie a medical anomaly to be studied? Or is she a demon who must be slain? Set in a small Appalachian town whose primary employer is a women’s prison, Sleeping Beauties is a wildly provocative, gloriously absorbing father/son collaboration between Stephen King and Owen King"

Thoughts? It's monster sized novel, listed at 720 pages.

[Paracelsus]

(05-08-2017 10:48 PM)Crisp Wrote:  

This September, Stephen King is coming out with a book written in collaboration with his son Owen.

Sleeping Beauties: A novel. The description below is taken from Amazon.com

"In this spectacular father/son collaboration, Stephen King and Owen King tell the highest of high-stakes stories: what might happen if women disappeared from the world of men?

In a future so real and near it might be now, something happens when women go to sleep; they become shrouded in a cocoon-like gauze. If they are awakened, if the gauze wrapping their bodies is disturbed or violated, the women become feral and spectacularly violent; and while they sleep they go to another place... The men of our world are abandoned, left to their increasingly primal devices. One woman, however, the mysterious Evie, is immune to the blessing or curse of the sleeping disease. Is Evie a medical anomaly to be studied? Or is she a demon who must be slain? Set in a small Appalachian town whose primary employer is a women’s prison, Sleeping Beauties is a wildly provocative, gloriously absorbing father/son collaboration between Stephen King and Owen King"

Thoughts? It's monster sized novel, listed at 720 pages.

Here we fucking go, that's what I think. King went into a sort of a thumb-sucking coma when Clinton lost. That combined with the subject matter gives you a good idea of how much of a lecture to men this thing is going to be. If you really think this book is going to be anything approaching red pill or will do anything but suck the clit furiously, I have a bridge I'd like to sell you. Under the Dome was similar, a thinly-disguised global warming rant masquerading as a book, and it sucked just as hard.

[robreke]

(05-03-2017 06:49 AM)Paracelsus Wrote:  

Necroposting, but, well, the Dark Tower trailer is out, and...

...yeah, it's a fucking mess by the look of it.

I have a hope that it looks a fucking mess because it's complicated and doesn't have a Hollywood-ish ending, making it near impossible to easily sum up in a trailer. But I don't think so. Aside from the Gunslinger's creed, the script sounds like shit. And leaving the black dude thing aside, Elba just doesn't fucking fit as the Gunslinger.

Agreed. Gunslingers are white not black. Why? Because every gunslinger from the wild west was a white dude. Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday, Wild Bill, etc etc.

When one thinks of a gunslinger, we think of the old American west and the gunfighters of that age. Therefore, a gunslinger should fit this iconic image. One of a hardened cowboy or drifter. And, yes, a white guy. It's quite simple.

Nothing against that actor. I've seen him in other things and he seems like a fine actor. they just didn't cast the part right.

Hell, why not use Mcconaughey as the gunslinger?

Just another attempt to be all inclusive and politically correct at the sacrifice of maintaining the original feel and authenticity of the novel.

Enthusiasm for seeing the move? Not much here.

[robreke]

delete

[Alsos]

The song is Ennio Morricone's "The Musical Pocket Watch" from For a Few Dollars More.

This looks a lot more interesting than I expected. I read "The Drawing of the Three" and the only thing I remember about it was crab-things making a "dada-chuck, dada-chum" sound. And a crazy woman in a wheelchair.

[LeesaJohnson]

Hi there, I have also read this book and I'm too impressed with the writing style.

[Laner]

(05-09-2017 11:17 PM)robreke Wrote:  

(05-03-2017 06:49 AM)Paracelsus Wrote:  

Necroposting, but, well, the Dark Tower trailer is out, and...

...yeah, it's a fucking mess by the look of it.

I have a hope that it looks a fucking mess because it's complicated and doesn't have a Hollywood-ish ending, making it near impossible to easily sum up in a trailer. But I don't think so. Aside from the Gunslinger's creed, the script sounds like shit. And leaving the black dude thing aside, Elba just doesn't fucking fit as the Gunslinger.

Agreed. Gunslingers are white not black. Why? Because every gunslinger from the wild west was a white dude. Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday, Wild Bill, etc etc.

When one thinks of a gunslinger, we think of the old American west and the gunfighters of that age. Therefore, a gunslinger should fit this iconic image. One of a hardened cowboy or drifter. And, yes, a white guy. It's quite simple.

Nothing against that actor. I've seen him in other things and he seems like a fine actor. they just didn't cast the part right.

Hell, why not use Mcconaughey as the gunslinger?

Just another attempt to be all inclusive and politically correct at the sacrifice of maintaining the original feel and authenticity of the novel.

Enthusiasm for seeing the move? Not much here.

Keep in mind this is set a long time in the future. Probably hundreds, if not a thousand years. I did picture Clint Eastwood, but if he would have been black in the book it would have made zero difference.

King just writes what he knows. A typical liberal artist, living in the north east where his town is 100% white, has zero crime, and he would never change that. However, everyone else is racist.

[sterling_archer]

Interesting thing regarding King is that his lack of knowledge regarding guns produced contradictory descriptions of two six shooters Roland carries throughout the books. Guns "change appearance" during books.

He shares that same thing with G.R.R.Martin who doesn't know very much about bladed weapons.

[Beyond Borders]

Dark Tower movie has an 18% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes so far. Not surprised. I'm a huge fan of the series but not sure how anyone saw a good movie coming out of this one....

Hope someday someone takes an honest effort to this project.