I found this published in the Toronto Star today. Since Stephen King is my favorite author, I thought it was appropriate. 50 Reasons to Love Stephen King. I have to agree with all of them!! (I too, thought Tommy Knockers was crap and the long version of The Stand was the best!) But what interested me the most is the criticism King receives for not being a "literary" author. When he received a U.S. National Book Awards lifetime achievement award, literary Critic Harold Bloom wrote an Op-Ed piece for the Boston Globe called Dumbing Down American Readers.
He says: "another low in the shocking process of dumbing down our cultural life. I've described King in the past as a writer of penny dreadfuls, but perhaps even that is too kind. He shares nothing with Edgar Allan Poe. What he is is an immensely inadequate writer on a sentence-by-sentence, paragraph-by-paragraph, book-by-book basis. The publishing industry has stooped terribly low to bestow on King a lifetime award that has previously gone to the novelists Saul Bellow and Philip Roth and to playwright Arthur Miller. By awarding it to King they recognize nothing but the commercial value of his books, which sell in the millions but do little more for humanity than keep the publishing world afloat."
Personally, this offends me. I like Stephen King's novels. I like his writing. His books reel me in hook, line and sinker. And I think he gets a bad wrap from the critics. His answer to Bloom's slam was "What I'm interested in is attacking readers' emotions because I don't think reading should be an intellectual affair." When I'm reading, I want to be entertained. I've read a lot of "literary" type books. John Banville's The Sea won the Booker Prize a couple of years ago. It bored me to tears! Watching paint dry was more interesting to me! Maybe I'm just a reverse literary snob!
On a much sadder note.....I read that Natalie from Nattie Writes lost her battle with cancer this morning. She will be sorely missed. Please take a moment and pray for her 2 daughters.
Later!
