Stephen King's IT

[Khrz]

And have you read The Dark Tower series?

Yeah, I started it, and as you could have guessed from my previous comment, I'm not a fan
It showed some promise, great creative work, then more creative work, then it gets really messy. I would have loved to finish it out of curiosity, but having King insert himself into his own serie and somehow shove his accident in that whole narrative ? Made me Nope, made me Nope real hard. But then, that's pretty much what I expect from him nowadays. I like the guy, used to LOVE his work, but now I just find it mostly tacky.

He seems to be having fun, but (and here's Lucas again) he's at a point in his career where every idea is good enough. He could write pretty much anything, and as far as I'm concerned, that's exactly what he's doing. Except I don't mean that as a compliment.

Also, the guy doesn't know how to end a story. Never did. Which worked as long as everything was doom and gloom, because "and then everyone dies" or "this is our life now" are perfectly good finish moves, no need for closure in these cases. But when the hero is supposed to come up with a solution, and that solution is "magic card tricks !" "surprise atom bomb" or "suddenly, aliens !", I feel seriously cheated.

[Jinsai]

Yeah, I started it, and as you could have guessed from my previous comment, I'm not a fan

I think it's great... probably the best thing he's written (aside from IT). I don't get how anyone could read Drawing of the Three and dislike it.

I also never got why people seem to be so stuck on the differences between the film and book when it comes to The Shining. I've heard people claim it's a completely different story. It's a more faithful adaptation than most.

Both the book and movie tell the story of a recovering alcoholic writer and his wife who have a psychic son who move into an abandoned hotel to take care of it during the winter when it's closed and cut off from the world. The hotel is notoriously the site where a lot of bizarre murders happened in the off-season. Cabin fever sets in, and the son's psychic abilities resonate with the ghosts that haunt the hotel, empowering them to materialize and reach out to the father and manipulate him through his alcoholic weakness. His father goes crazy, and tries to chop em all into haggis. In the end of the book, King defaults to his "let's blow everything up!" ending habits, while in the movie the dad freezes to death chasing his son through the hedge maze. The topiary animals don't move around in the film, the wife isn't as hysterical and seemingly helpless in the book, there's more backstory to the ghosts that haunt the building in the book... and that's about it when it comes to the major differences. Oh yeah, and Halloran doesn't die in the book, and I guess it's important that Jack has his moment of redemption in the book, even though I don't think it would work as well in the film.

I kept hearing about how furious King was with the adaptation, and hearing from fans saying that the movie got everything wrong. So when I read the book, I was expecting a completely different story... and ended up reading a book that was more true to the story than most adaptations I've read. It's also a great film, regardless of how it represents the source material.

I think a lot of the King fans who despise the movie are operating on suggestion through the author, who I think had other reasons to hate the film.

[elevenism]

Yeah, I started it, (TDT) and as you could have guessed from my previous comment, I'm not a fan
It showed some promise, great creative work, then more creative work, then it gets really messy. I would have loved to finish it out of curiosity, but having King insert himself into his own serie and somehow shove his accident in that whole narrative ? Made me Nope, made me Nope real hard. But then, that's pretty much what I expect from him nowadays. I like the guy, used to LOVE his work, but now I just find it mostly tacky.

He seems to be having fun, but (and here's Lucas again) he's at a point in his career where every idea is good enough. He could write pretty much anything, and as far as I'm concerned, that's exactly what he's doing. Except I don't mean that as a compliment.

Also, the guy doesn't know how to end a story. Never did. Which worked as long as everything was doom and gloom, because "and then everyone dies" or "this is our life now" are perfectly good finish moves, no need for closure in these cases. But when the hero is supposed to come up with a solution, and that solution is "magic card tricks !" "surprise atom bomb" or "suddenly, aliens !", I feel seriously cheated.

Okay please forgive me this small bit of drift, but what do YOU like to read these days?
This isn't some sort of assholery where i'm going to tell you why what YOU like to read isn't up to snuff. Rather, it's quite the opposite-i read King, Anne Rice (who has been hit and miss for some time but i read it all anyway,) Kathleen and Michael Gear (who aren't good anymore so i stopped) and John Steinbeck (he isn't creating new work for obvious reasons.) I've read most of the requisite Orwell and Burgess and Burroughs and such, and i read all the Infinite Jests and Poisonwood Bibles and Houses of Leaves in between. Quite naturally, i'm running out of things to read! Please PM me some suggestions if you get a chance.

(end drift.)
Maybe there is still hope for It. Andy Muschietti is at the helm, and he directed and produced Mama, which i found to be pretty fucking incredible.
Also. Lately, just this year in fact, i've learned to keep a more open mind about books adapted into film. 99% of the time, all i do is bitch about the differences.
I've finally learned that it's NOT going to be exactly the same. They AREN'T going to capture what was in your mind.
So with 11.22.63, i tried to, you know, celebrate the differences, if you will. I watched it and said "wow, that's different. that's kind of cool."
And i enjoyed it.