Stephen King: Literary Genius or Hack?

He's okay.

[QUOTE="mattbbpl"][QUOTE="t3hrubikscube"]

Yeah.

I haven't read any of his books in years, but I remember thinking that he's a good storyteller and that he writes characters well. I don't think that he's a "literary genius" by any means, but then again I don't really know the criteria for that anyway, but he's good at telling his stories successfully. He's a very prolific writer, so he has written some mediocre books over the years, but that doesn't take away from the successful books he's written.

His book IT is honestly one of my favorite books. I remember being so surprised by its depth and the sheer size of its universe when I first read it.

FelipeInside

The standards here seem to be quite high, but I'd say he's closer to genius than anything. I doubt even close to all of us have read all of his books to judge accurately. hensothor

[QUOTE="hensothor"]The standards here seem to be quite high, but I'd say he's closer to genius than anything. I doubt even close to all of us have read all of his books to judge accurately. FelipeInside

[QUOTE="FelipeInside"][QUOTE="hensothor"]The standards here seem to be quite high, but I'd say he's closer to genius than anything. I doubt even close to all of us have read all of his books to judge accurately. mattbbpl

Not my favorite writer, but he's pretty good at what he does. He's not the Jesus of writers, but he's no hack.

I gotta say Stephen King's one of my favorite authors. He's somewhere in the middle. I loved the books he wrote under the "Richard Bachman" name most of those were fantastic. His Dark Tower series is pretty good too, but I didn't read the whole series. I made it till about the sixth book, and I thought it got way to weird and just odd for my tastes. But still he's a really good author. I'd say "The Dead Zone" is my favorite book by him.

I gotta say Stephen King's one of my favorite authors. He's somewhere in the middle. I loved the books he wrote under the "Richard Bachman" name most of those were fantastic. His Dark Tower series is pretty good too, but I didn't read the whole series. I made it till about the sixth book, and I thought it got way to weird and just odd for my tastes. But still he's a really good author. I'd say "The Dead Zone" is my favorite book by him.

HUxDarthRevan

never read any of this books before

With the amount of books he's written there are bound to be some great ones and some terrible ones.

toast_burner

[QUOTE="toast_burner"]

With the amount of books he's written there are bound to be some great ones and some terrible ones.

OmenUK

He's not the best writer style wise, but he tells a good story. In the end, that's probably the most important thing.

I don't know if I would say Literary Genius, but he is definitly my favorite writer. I know that he has had some duds, and also some great books with bad endings. However, the creativity and detail that are in his books seem to blow me away. The Dark Tower series stands as one of my favorite series, and then you have The Stand, Salem's Lot, Desperation/The Regulators, The Green Mile, Under the Dome, and tons of great short stories. I saw someone complaining about a part of Pet Semetary and their complaint was about one of my favorite parts of his writing. Sure, there may have been multiple pages of the characters just walking to the cemetary, but the reason it takes so long is the large amount of detail he puts in so that you can really see/visualize what the characters are going through.

I know that he hasn't been as good the past ~10 years or so, but one of my favorite of his was not too long ago. Under the Dome was a huge shock to me, the way that he showed people's true colors coming out in a small community that was cut off from the world meaning that there was no real consequences for a persons actions. Just a great look at society in an extreme situation.

Older Stuff, and most Richard Bachman stuff - Genius.

Newer Stuff after van accident....not so much.

I've never cared for his stuff at all.

He used to be a genius. Today he's more of a hack.The-Apostle

I love some of his work. The film Shawshank Redemption based on his book is also one of my favourite films

Both. The way he is able to write for the layman is beyond me, and he is capable of conveying depth this way. However, his creativity when writing horror is at its nadir. In the re-release of Salem's Lot, he more or less fesses up to stealing the idea and concepts from Bram Stoker. His dramatic works are much more inspired.

He's terrible. His books are bloated worthless pieces of crap.PateraSilk

Stephen King is a solid writer.Modern_Fit

yeah he is

He's hit-or-miss.22Toothpicks

most of his stuff is good though, imo