Important Writers...again
I discussed the idea of Stephen King as an important writer.
I'll atempt to make an argument as to why he is an important modern writer without discussing his massive sales, which makes him someone of interest anyway.
He is prolific. The man has written some 40ish novels, published what? 4 or 5 short story collections, written countless short stories and more.
He is versatile in form. Short stories. Novels. Novellas. A comic book. A serial. Screenplays. Non-fiction essays. Non-fiction books. He's written them all with great success.
Though classified a horror writer, he is cross-genre. Some of this stories definitely cross into the realm of science fiction and fantasy. Others are quite literary. Remember, this is the man who, in addition to the Shining, Carrie, Salem's Lot and the like, wrote Apt Pupil, Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and Stand by Me.
His influence spans into all media -- the Internet, books, comics, television, radio and movies.
He has spawned imitators and inspired other great writers. He's been a collaborator and is a cheerleader for those struggling to succeed as a writer.
Yes, he is an important writer -- perhaps the most important of our modern time.
posted by Clay @ 5:56 PM
1 Comments:
I hate to confess that "On Writing" is the only Stephen King book I have read. Funny, after finishing that book I am now actually interested in his fiction.
I guess I found his description of the genesis of a number of his stories interesting.
The man definately has his finger (quite successfully, I might add) in a number of different pots. There are just too many different types of people out there who like too much of his obviously diverse output to dismiss him as either base or common.
I personally think that jealousy figures into quite a bit of the professional critisicm. He has been tremendously successfull - scads upon scads of dough.
P, Carter
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