A Practice in Masochism?

Constant Reader dani reads all of Stephen King's books (except for the ones she refuses to read) and responds to them (maybe) main @scareoset

[ucantfixhim]

Surviving Stephen King's Oeuvre

Here's a masterpost to help organize this blog!

Tags

interests—unorganized musings about how Stephen's interests are made manifest in his writing

dani.txt—assorted thoughts not tied to any specific analysis or title

dani.ask—responses to asks, also tagged by asker

Books

Currently Reading

[nothing]

To Be Read

Never Flinch (2025)

To Be Read: The Dark Tower (Do I Have To?)

The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger (1982)

The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three (1987)

The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands (1991)

The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass (1997)

The Dark Tower: The Wind Through the Keyhole (2012)

The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla (2003)

The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah (2004)

The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower (2004)

To Be Read: Hard Case Crime (Do I WantTo?)

The Colorado Kid (2005)

Joyland (2013)

Later (2021)

Previously Read

Carrie (1974)

'Salem's Lot (1975)

The Shining (1977)

Night Shift (1978)

The Stand: The Complete and Uncut Edition (1978, 1990)

The Dead Zone (1979)

Firestarter (1980)

Cujo (1981)

Different Seasons (1982)

Christine (1983)

Pet Semetary (1983)

The Eyes of the Dragon (1984)

Skeleton Crew (1985)

It (1986)

Misery (1987)

The Tommyknockers (1987)

The Dark Half (1989)

Four Past Midnight (1990)

Needful Things (1991)

Gerald's Game (1992)

Dolores Claiborne (1992)

Nightmares & Dreamscapes (1993)

Insomnia (1994)

Rose Madder (1995)

The Green Mile (1996)

Desperation (1996)

The Regulators (Bachman, 1996)

Bag of Bones (1998)

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (1999)

Hearts in Atlantis (1999)

Dreamcatcher (2001)

Everything's Eventual (2002)

From a Buick 8 (2002)

Cell (2006)

Lisey's Story (2006)

Duma Key (2008)

Just After Sunset (2008)

Under the Dome (2009)

Full Dark, No Stars (2010)

11/22/63 (2011)

Doctor Sleep (2013)

Mr. Mercedes (2014)

Revival (2014)

Finders Keepers (2015)

The Bazaar of Bad Dreams (2015)

End of Watch (2016)

The Outsider (2018)

Elevation (2018)

The Institute (2019)

If It Bleeds (2020)

Billy Summers (2021)

Fairy Tale (2022)

Holly (2023)

You Like It Darker (2024)

[ucantfixhim]

YOU INSPIRE ME TO READ ALL OF HIS BOOKS 😭 Just seeing the ones you've read gives me hope I can do it. I've only read about 5 of his books, and they were really good! I made this huge list with all of his novels, and I'm planning to read them in no particular order. It's very nice to see someone appreciates stephen king like me :) Have a nice day!!

I believe in you! Personally, not all of his titles have been for me so I encourage you to take breaks as needed and skip the ones that don’t vibe with you. Look up content warnings as needed and read to your heart’s content. 🙂

[ucantfixhim]

Stephen's Interests, Part 1

As I read his novels and collections, I’ve noticed that King has a couple recurring themes. I’m not the first person to recognize patterns and motifs in King’s body of work (he is one of the most prolific and best-selling authors of the past fifty years or so). King’s writing acts as a house, not sane, standing by itself against its hills, holding darkness within. Something haunts King and his work.

The first novel King published was Carrie, a short narrative about the psychic awakening and vengeance of Carrie White in the context of religious abuse, near-total social ostracization, and bullying-cum-assault. It is here that I first read King’s stylistic representation of

(telepathy)

mid-text interruptions. Sometimes I’m reading a King novel, and I think it’s going to end without an instance of this parenthetical psychic message because why would it? The narrative doesn’t have to center on psychic or telepathic abilities; King breaks his own text to interject with a scream from the mind of someone (or something).

King has his vices: writers as (self-insert) main characters, evil cars, the Boston Red Sox, Good versus Evil, the entire state of Maine, processing his struggles with addiction and health through his writing, a neoliberal worldview, a strong focus on domestic abuse, more slurs than I even knew existed, the fear of the loss of a child, and that classic Maine “Ayuh.” King writes what he knows: Maine horror stories. He is after all, only human. What compels me about King and his work is the perspective he writes from, how he sees the world and its systems, what scares him of and—perhaps more tellingly—what doesn’t.

I know that at some point I will formalize my thoughts and observations. Until then, I’ll keep adding to this catchall tag (#interests) for my musings on how King’s interests are made manifest in his writing.

[ucantfixhim]

Background

I’ve been subjecting myself to Stephen King for the past year and a half; I’m reading all his novels and collections in publication order (with the caveat that I’m skipping The Dark Tower, Bachman, and Mr. Mercedes books for now). I refuse to read his Hard Case Crime novels, but that’s because I am simply not interested in his non-horror writing. When I say “subjecting,” I do mean that this has been (largely) a practice in masochism. I am no stranger to this approach to media consumption and analysis—my graduate school career was guided by a hate-read of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight Saga and a hate-watch of the CW’s The Vampire Diaries and The Originals. (Ironically, both of these hate-consumptions were centered around ostensibly heterosexual vampire romance stories, but I am interested in the queer text and subtext of vampirism in media.) Since April 2023 (I am writing this in August 2024), I have read (in publication order) King’s work published between 1974 (Carrie) and 2002 (From a Buick 8). That amounts to 26 novels (Carrie, ‘Salem’s Lot’, The Shining, The Stand: The Complete and Uncut Edition, The Dead Zone, Firestarter, Cujo, Christine, Pet Semetary, The Eyes of the Dragon, It, Misery, The Tommyknockers, The Dark Half, Needful Things, Gerald’s Game, Dolores Claiborne, Insomnia, Rose Madder, The Green Mile, Desperation, The Regulators [technically a Bachman book, but also a mirror novel to Desperation], Bag of Bones, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, Dreamcatcher, and From a Buick 8) and 7 collections (Night Shift, Different Seasons, Skeleton Crew, Four Past Midnight, Nightmares & Dreamscapes, Hearts in Atlantis, and Everything’s Eventual). I am hoping to finish the rest of his non-series novels (with the exception of Doctor Sleep) and collections by the end of this year—13 books to go! As I make my way through Stephen’s oeuvre, I hope to share my thoughts and insight in a series of essays. Hopefully these will be short, but part of me wonders if King’s style will influence my analyses. (That is, what if I end up writing essays that I enjoy and that others feel are too long and drop off in the third act?) I’d ask you to join me, but I am deep in the wilderness of King’s fictional Maine. Instead, maybe I can give you a map through the stories of Derry, Castle Rock, Dark Score Lake, and the rest of this twisted Maine to where I am. When we meet, we can find our way home together.