Disappointment... Epiphany... Anger... Hope

So, on my quest to find Stephen King scholars and fans i joined a few message boards. One of them was the message board on www.stephenking.com . At first I only wanted to poke around and see what was going on. I wanted to see how many other fans saw as many connections in his work as i did. I wanted to see what the general masses thought of the books that i loved more then others. And i also wanted to see where i could get permission to use his graphics in some of the knit designs i am interested in making. 

I found out to my horror that Mr King is no longer reading fan mail at all. If you have something to ask or say, several people will filter it so that he gets the jist of what you are saying or asking, then if he decides to answer he will. Part of me understands this. The man writes 2 or 3 books a year and has a family with grandkids. He needs "me time" and family time and all kinds of time that he just doesn't have.

The selfish part of me, the part of me that started writing a letter 5 years ago to him and kept editing it so it would be perfect, got really disappointed. The injustice of it ate at me all day long. 

But then i found out while reading this same message board that he likes to read what people are brave enough to write on there.  SO! I joined. I started out defending the actor choice for Roland in the Dark Tower film adaptation.  http://www.darktowermovies.com/

Javiar is a great choice because he can exude a kind of quiet dignity along with a steely determination that few men can acquire and posses let alone convey to screen. Who cares if he doesn't have blue eyes? they have contacts for that. So he has an Accent?  Roland is from another damn universe and ENGLISH ISN'T HIS PRIMARY LANGUAGE! Only the magic of the Ka-tet makes communication possible. Directors look for the acting ability before the looks and honestly, he's not that far off.  but more about that later. You will hear enough about the Dark tower series on here to choke a rabbit.

Back to my day:

So I posted all day. Made 7 posts. All were about different books or my opinion on things hoping that maybe someone would at least understand where i was coming from. 

You know what happened oh hypothetical reader? Today, for the first time sense my 5 year bender of cross referencing and continuity checking and FRANTIC finds of just pure awesome that made sense to no one in the house but me, I felt normal, valued and engaged. 

Like these people love this stuff as much as i do and read it with as much scrutiny as i do and really value other people's ideas and opinions.

So although i was very sad about Mr. King never knowing my existence or that i uncovered something no one else did, i did find people who appreciate it and i think that's worth a bit more. i mean 1 person versus 10 or 20. 

SK wants us to think of him as "just a guy" (he won't sign photographs because that's for movie stars not for writers...wtf?)  but more and more i am finding that he really acts like a star. Don't get me wrong, he is a star. He's been in several movies, written over 50 books and 20 years from now will be compared with Mark Twain as a great american author by everyone. (some people believe he is now... myself included) He really is the Modern American Writer. He has spanned 6 decades of writing, covering genre after genre and making things modern and relevant to the reader at the time. He has adapted to vast medias and created an empire his great great grandchildren will live happily on if they play their cards right as he has. 

I just feel like you can't expect fame-styled privacy if you don't at least fess up to it. You are a literary genius. You won two Soaker awards in one event. Random people will notice who you are on the street. You aren't just some guy. 

You have feelings like a person and worry and love just like the rest of us but come ON! Either act like joe shmoe and answer you  mail yourself , or you can claim your fame by the balls and just live with the knowledge that you really did effect an entire generation's outlook on life strike that, -several- generation's outlooks on life.

Ok, Rant over. I figured I would include my frustrations as this is the entire experience of this adventure, not just book analysis.  But as the title of this blog does specify i do feel a small bit of hope. He's going to attend an award thing in Virginia in September and maybe i will get to go. Wouldn't that be cool?

I will totally share the entire experience with you oh hypothetical reader if i get to go. I will have him sign my first edition "Dark Half" Or one of my Dark Tower books maybe if he does any signing...

In closing, I believe I will be addressing the "Leading Ladies" of his work first as i am currently reading "Lisy's Story" and it makes me think of all kinds of connections... Good night!

ANOTHER FREAKING BLOG!

Ok, everyone and their mother decided to hop on this band-wagon and I guess at this point I am no exception. You see, the thing is, I never really had much to write about that was in blog format. I have written many horrible short stories and have started on no less then 5 novels but every time I become weary, I come back to reading my security blanket which is Stephen King's books.
For those of you that don't understand how a horror writer could be called a security blanket i can pretty much sum it up by dates. I was born in 1983. At that point my parents owned no less then 4 of his novels. By the time I was 5, my mother (who stayed home with us at the time) read me snips of his stories so we could determine literary devices used.
His work is honestly one of the most stable things in my life (if you can believe that) and even in the most scary or disappointing parts of his books, the style and use of descriptions really makes me a happy camper!
A little less then 4 years ago I started getting into his keystone work. (yes i used that word on purpose) I know I was late int eh game for the Dark Tower series but funny enough my parent's passion dwindled for his work and they never got farther then "In the eyes of the dragon". So my access to his books was kind of limited due to the fact that down here in the south the best book i could check out from the library was "Thinner"
With all that said, I started wondering if there was anyone out there that really took his amazing work seriously. His stuff is culturally referenced so much that some people don't even know the origins of it in common TV shows. Has anyone had the delightful privilege to become a Scholar of this great american writer? I really don't know, but from all my observations I feel like someone should at the very least talk about it!
What really got my mind cranking about this was this page where they show the books that he references in the Dark Tower series. It is incomplete. you can see from some of his earliest works the need to write this multidimensional western and it leaked into "Tommyknockers" by way of Bobby writing westerns. So you see? There's a lot more to discover then what everyone's been saying and a lot more connections and it's like all his books could be part of the same freaking series!
So! With all this in mind, I am going to take you through my journey of reading his books. All of them that i can find. i will do segments. Things like "leading ladies" where all his stream of consciousness female writing will be talked about then connections made not only to those ladies but also to his keystone work. Some segments may have multiple entries (probably an entry per book) and there will be spoilers but i will make sure to identify them so you can skip over them as not to crush your buzz.
All that Said, there's the goal and purpose of this and i hope i help or inspire people to read the most inspiring and diverse writer of our time.