by Bijesh Krishnadas
[box]Bijesh Krishnadas pays a perfect tribute to an author he loves. Catch him talking about what he loves about Stephen King, the Boogie Man. [/box]My first experience of a horror/macabre novel was ‘The Exorcist’. The book was quite voluminous and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. It wasn’t much of a thriller but it had its moments of mad, pure, chilling horror. It was ages after this book that I borrowed ‘The Eyes of the Dragon’ from a friend. I had never heard of the author – Stephen King and except for the glowering dragon on the cover, I had not clue what the book was about.
The novel was not a literary treatise but the imaginative writing and the brilliant portrayal of the scenes left an indelible mark on me. I knew I was hooked for life. Stephen King became my favourite author of horror/fantasy.
King, sometimes called ‘America’s Boogie man’, specialises in fantasy fiction and horror. His works are based on some very basic premises but he weaves scintillating tales around these premises. His writing style is free flowing – sometimes meandering through scenes, sometimes setting the adrenaline racing and sometimes describing a scene in photographic detail. His books have, hidden between the pages, simple truths of life, especially of adolescent life. His greatest strength is the ‘accessibility’ of his prose. He does not write to please the literary world. He writes to allow the common man experience the vivid canvas of his imagination. This is what riled a few feathers of the elite academic-literature types when Stephen King was awarded a lifetime achievement award at the National Book Awards in 2003. How could pop books share centre stage with ‘literature’? The fact that a large section belonging to the same elite group defended his choice for the award and wrote paeans of his writing goes on to prove King’s writing attributes.
It would appear that many of his life experiences found their way into King’s books. King’s life itself was riddled with its dark moments. As a child, he is purported to have witnessed a friend being run down and killed by a train. He went through a phase of alcoholism and drug addiction during the 70’s and the 80’s and had to go into rehab to change course. Later, in 1999, King had a near-death experience through a freak accident that left him with a shattered hip, a punctured lung and multiple other injuries. The accident’s effects continued to haunt King for a few more years. A fictional account of his accident appears in The Dark Tower series too.
To the ‘Constant Readers’ – the term of endearment Stephen King uses to address his fans – there is also the thrill of discovering links between his various stories – a reference to an incident from another story, a character that occurs in many of his novels and other such links. In fact, one of the characters ‘Randall Flagg’ that King created is a constant fixture starting from ‘The Eyes of the Dragon’, continuing in his other books.
His first published novel was ‘Carrie’ – the story of a little girl with psychic abilities – and it was an instant success. This novel rightfully deserves the acclaim that it claimed. King does an excellent job of building up the girl’s life story from the religious-fanatic mother to the common jeering fellow students to the teacher who understands. It’s not just a tale of psychic abilities but also speaks of the trauma of a girl who is bullied at school and at home. The movie made out of the book was hugely popular too.
The Dark Tower series was his magnum opus – a seven-book series heavily inspired by Tolkien’s epic ‘The Lord of the Rings’ (LOTR). This is the story of a gunslinger and his companions out to save the world from the evil that resides in The Dark Tower. Although the influences of LOTR are clearly there, King’s series sparkles none the less. It kept fans on the edge of their seats asking for more and King delivered it in his usual style. The Dark Tower took him more than 3 decades to complete. According to King himself, he did not have a clue, let alone a plan, of where the story was headed and he considered himself a mere channel for the story to write itself. The series derives from his earlier books. Flagg, as expected, is an important character in the series and appears at various points in various disguises. Salem’s Lot – the fictional place from the novel of the same name – appears too and so do many other incidents, places and characters from his previous books.
Many of Stephen King’s works have made their way into movies and television series. He has also authored stories specifically for television. Who can forget The Shining’? It imprinted Jack Nicholson as the grinning maniac in the minds of all movie-goers. Even without the brilliantly made movie, the novel itself was a masterpiece. Then there is the ever-favourite of movie-buffs – ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ which was based on one of his novellas.
At the age of 63, Stephen King continues to enthrall his ‘Constant Readers’ with his mastery over words. He is a wordsmith par excellence and will remain one of the most enduring authors of popular fiction for a long time to come.
Pic : Bijesh Krishnadas
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