The main quality of literature in our society is its ability to entertain the masses. Some authors use horror and mystery to keep their reader's attention. Stephen King is the epitome of horror writers. In writing horror mystery novels, Stephen King utilizes small towns, a unique writing style, and people's inherent fears to scare the pants off his readers.
Fear is the basis for nearly all horror fiction, especially in Stephen King's novels. 'Everybody goes to horror movies, reads horror novels-it's almost like trying to preview the end' (King 219). In all of King's horror books somebody always dies. Horror fiction 'Lets you become a child again' (King 220). King can bring out the fears that are kept deep down in our souls. He knows that we have been set down in a frightening universe, full of real demons like death and disease, and perhaps the most frightening thing is the human mind.
Horror is 'one of the ways we walk our imagination' (King 218). King takes ordinary emotional situations and translates them into violent tales of vampires and ghosts. 'You never have to ask yourself who's afraid of the big bad wolf?--You are' (Yarbro 220). 'King has a talent for raising fear from dormancy. He knows how to activate our primal fears' (Nolan 222). Where does he get these fears? His own personal fears in (descending order) are the fear of someone else, others (paranoia), death, insects (especially spiders, flies, & beetles), closed in places, rats, snakes, deformity, squishy things, and his number one fear is fear of the dark. 'At night, when I go to bed I am still at pains to be sure that my legs are under the blankets, after the lights go out. I'm not a child anymore...I don't like to sleep with one...
Stephen King
I agree whole heartedly. King is vastly underated. His ability to ensure the reader identifies with the character in the mundanity of their character ensures we lkive the horror (and wonder at times) with them. I feel very strongly that as King matures his work matures with him and works like the green mile and the girl who loved tom gordon prove this. However that childlike glee in making his reader squirm never leaves him.
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