Talk:Stephen King
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Mistakes pertaining to guns
Stephen occasionally makes mistakes when writing about guns,I have put them in the article twice and twice they have been removed as 'irrelevant information.'They may seem irrelevant to a liberal from Kommiefornia,but they are obvious and significant to millions of people who know about guns.Dean Koontz makes no such mistakes in his books.Deleting this information was nothing more that a cheap political stunt.Imagine,the author of the Gunslinger series makes mistakes writing about guns and it's 'irrelevant.Finally,I am continuously amazed by the rudeness of people who are safe behind a keyboard.LAcameraman,you should take your liberal politics somewhere else.Saltforkgunman 02:58, 10 March 2006 (UTC)
Wow. I guess I should have read this rather agressive note from you before I replied in earnest on your Talk page. For the record, this was my reply:
- "Hello. Thanks for the note on my talk page regarding the reversions of your additions to the Stephen King biography.
- I agree with you that Stephen makes errors when it comes to accuracy of the depiction of firearms in his stories. That has no relevance in a biographic entry about an author, however. It is just as irrelevant to state that he erronously describes the color of Nike shoes or that he describes amplitude modulation wrong in three stories... None of this is relevant in a biographical entry. It has nothing to do with politics. In fact I was trained by law enforcement officers in weapons handling for motion pictures and am very savvy when it comes to firearms of many kinds. Your comment was an interesting note to make, but it has no place here. Perhaps you can start an article on firearm inacurracies presented in modern media? That would actually be a very interesting article. The obvious entries would be talking about "endless" ammo in Hollywood weapons, the endless need to cock weapons in movies - especially semi automatics that have already been fired in the same scene. It could be a very interesting article. My deletions had nothing to do with politics or any personal attack. It was merely good editing. All the best LACameraman 09:51, 10 March 2006 (UTC)
Well...Thats nice.I reckon it would have no place in the bio section,but I put it in the writing style section as a point of intrest.I mean,the creator of the most revered gunslinger in the world of fiction,makes a few mistakes writing about guns and it's not relevant?Okay.I am willing to let it be.When I first came here I said I probably wasn't going to engage in these retarded edit wars I read about.And it's not important enough.Best to you too,Cameraman.Saltforkgunman 01:52, 11 March 2006 (UTC)
Why in God's name are the Dark Tower books referred to twice as the Gunslinger books? I'll fix that now. Also, I request that if the person who wrote that section ever writes again, they please put a SPACE in between their punctuation and the next word in the paragraph. I'm going to fix that, too.
- I don't think this is relevant information to put in a biography of Stephen King. Many novels have small factual errors and other inconsistencies. Unless King's errors are particularly notable for some reason, this doesn't need to be mentioned in the article. Rhobite 22:08, 10 March 2006 (UTC)
Cool,Rhobite.You keep on fixing my mistakes.I'm glad for the help.Saltforkgunman 01:52, 11 March 2006 (UTC)
Biography header
Whoever keeps adding "WWW.StephenKingSciences.com" to the biography section header, please don't. There's an "external links" section.Bjones 00:59, 26 November 2005 (UTC)
Death of Steve's Mother
Stephen's mom died after Carrie was published. She had it read to her before she died (while she was on her deathbed.). It says so in On Witing. Theslash 02:27, 8 December 2005 (UTC)
- It would be best if you cited the page in the article. -- LGagnon 03:04, 8 December 2005 (UTC)
On A&E Biography they say that she only read the manuscript, was aware that it was going to be published but died before actually publication of Carrie by Doubleday.
Also they state that she died of lung cancer rather than uterine cancer.
"Shortly after its release, his mother died of uterine cancer. She had the novel read to her before she died".
In the introduction to the new printing of 'salem's Lot, Stephen King says that his mother died just before the original publishing of the book, so she probably did read Carrie.
stat
Does anyone have any idee how much Stephen kings books have been sold ? In the US and worldwide ?
Often?
Stephen King's books often appear on best sellers lists? How about all of his books have made the best sellers lists!? 01:54, 20 December 2005 (UTC)
two things
"Shortly after his accident, King wrote the first draft of the book..." -what accident? there's no other mention of that.
Well, if you look very closely, there's a little section there called CAR ACCIDENT. Try reading that. Gilulit 17:46, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
"this will be his first time writing for the comic book medium" "This is not the first time he has written comics though." -is it or isn't it?
There was a comic adaptation of "Creepshows" (1982) Plume Publications with art by Berni Wrightson. LACameraman 20:36, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
Additionally, there was a comic adaptation of "The Lawnmower Man" by King and Walt Simonson in 1981 for Marvel Comics "Bizarre Adventures" and "Popsy" was adapted for Innovation Comic's horror anthology "Masques" (both referenced in "The Stephen King Universe" pp. 297).
"current" projects
I think we should take out the paragraph on upcoming projects, as it dates this article and necessitates continuous revisions. This information is available on external websites, I'm sure. 64.185.149.11 16:18, 27 December 2005 (UTC)Casey
I agree with the removal of this section. LACameraman 20:46, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
Missing a book in the List
I know it's not a new book, but in 2004, the Publisher Little Simon released "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" in a pop-up book edition. It's pretty interesting, check it out. January 5, 2005
Although it's noteworthy to point out, as it does indicate a first in the King world, there have been so many versions and reprints of King's books, I think it might be dangerous territory to start to include some. I question the inclusion of the "Gunslinger" as a revised work in this list as well. LACameraman 20:43, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
- The revised Gunslinger is a substantively different work from the origina; (as is the expanded version of The Stand, also mentioned in the list). I don't think any of his other books have been revised to the extent that those have, and I'd argue they're notable enough to appear in the list. The pop-up of Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon isn't, though. Brendan Moody 20:49, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
Linkspam
12.208.243.12 has linkspammed every King related article with a link to http://www.king-stephen.com/ I have removed a few of them myself. -- LGagnon 01:59, 4 February 2006 (UTC)
Writing Style
I'll be working on this throughout the week - but if anyone (especially the original author) can help to give specific citations for the quotes that appear in this section - that would be great. LACameraman 20:39, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
Films and TV
I'm having a hard time with the line written here "disgusted with the treatment most of his work had gotten in film" as it is complete supposition without a direct quote from King. This is more of the writer's opinion than King's and I'm not sure (unless there is a quote I am not aware of) that King would state it quite that way. Thoughts? LACameraman 20:45, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
Bibliography Deletion
An unnamed contributor added The Talisman 3 (tentative) to the bibliography. There is no official word on a third book in the series, only rumors. LACameraman 09:12, 7 February 2006 (UTC)
Influences: Richard Matheson?
I was surprised that the section on King's influences did not mention Richard Matheson. The back of some Richard Matheson books features the following quote from Stephen King: "The author who influenced me most as a writer was Richard Matheson." I have been unable to find the original source for this quote. Googling it just brings me to pages quoting the back covers of the Matheson books. I would be curious if someone could verify this.
New article
I just submitted an article on the poem Paranoid: A Chant, which was immediately tagged for merging into Stephen King. I'm a little confused, there are articles for nearly all of the stories collected in his anthology books. Why is this one marked for merge or delete? Also the adaptation was removed from the article - which makes it even more of a stub. Thoughts? LACameraman 04:47, 16 February 2006 (UTC)
Fact Check?
"In 2002 King announced he would stop writing. He has apparently abandoned this idea, however, as he has written several books since."
From what I can remember, this was taken from a King interview that was later demonstrated to be a hoax. Can anyone prove or disprove this? Gershwinrb 05:38, 28 February 2006 (UTC)
- It was not a hoax. The first to break the news was the September 27th issue of Entertainment Weekly. Stephen officially announced his impending retirement, after he finished up his Dark Tower series. He has since revised this, but has made it clear he is slowing down his publishing.
Stephen's official response to this question is on his website http://stephenking.com/pages/FAQ/Stephen_King/retired.php - captured 2/28/06.
However, I would venture to say the statement above has no place here. LACameraman 08:03, 28 February 2006 (UTC)
Why, LaCameraman? He DID announce his retirement. He has since resumed working. Removing that statement is like omitting his date of birth because he's no longer a newborn. After major trauma, a patient assumes that after weeks of bones knitting and months of physical therapy, that they've recovered as much as they are going to. In fact, it takes years for one to fully regain his physical stamina. Writing is very demanding, physically, and King thought he needed to retire. As he has regained stamina, though, his ability - and compulsion - to write has returned. As writers age, they typically produce richer work, which is understandably produced more slowly, so King may never be as prolific as he once was - but he may well continue to be more and more productive. ClairSamoht 16:05, 4 March 2006 (UTC)
Clair - perhaps my objection is merely in the rather slanted tone the comment was written. If perhaps it was written: King announced his official retirement in 2002, but has since revoked that announcement and explains "I'm writing but I'm writing at a much slower pace than previously... I'm not a kid of 25 anymore... I'm 55 years old and I have grandchildren, two new puppies to house-train and I have a lot of things to do besides writing and that in and of itself is a wonderful thing but writing is still a big, important part of my life and of everyday." (ref: http://stephenking.com/pages/FAQ/Stephen_King/retired.php - captured 2/28/06) - that then makes it a verifiable fact, as opposed to a kind of off-color opinion. If you feel it should be added in, I think some form of the above works. Agree? LACameraman 09:58, 10 March 2006 (UTC)
The "victims" Quote
The version quoted in the Article comes from a TV interview, but I cannot remember where or when this interview took place. I believe the "Stand" reference covers it. Michael David 13:29, 2 March 2006 (UTC)
Ruth
It seems that Ruth should be introduced. Her name appears in 2nd sentence of the biography section: "Ruth raised King and his adopted older brother David by herself". Who is she? Is Ruth her first name or last name? Also it seems strange to refer to Stephen King as "King" and his brother as "David", but maybe this is standard.
- I agree with this, as "Ruth" just suddenly appears in the article. I would chnage it, but do not have a source to refer to regarding this. Panastasia 17:27, 4 April 2006 (UTC)
Quibble with sentence
I changed the sentence, "He also writes stories that cannot be considered horror..." to "He also writes stories outside the horror genre..." A slight difference, yes, but I think it's debatable that stuff like The Shawshank Redemption cannot be considered horror at all. It's outside the genre, but it still has horror elements. It's not like King chose to write a romance or something.
By the way, I'm still looking for feedback on the Richard Matheson connection (see above), yet no one's responded. marbeh raglaim 14:15, 2 April 2006 (UTC)
Hi, I would like to add an external link to the World of Biography entry
- Stephen Edwin King Biography probably the most famous portal of biography to this article. Does anybody have any objections?