Before reading: Surprise! I'm reading two books at once. I know this is a normal thing that people do but for me I just cannot handle two books at once without getting plots and characters mixed up. Luckily for me Danse Macabre just so happens to be King's very first nonfiction book. This means that I can read Roadwork at home with my hard copy and DM on the go with a digital copy. I'll be honest, I am not a fan of reading nonfiction. I can very rarely ever get into it. I had never heard of this book before. I knew that Stephen King had some nonfiction titles under his belt but I wouldn't have been able to name a single one if you offered me a million dollars to do so. I'm excited to see how King does nonfiction and if it is something that I'll enjoy or if it'll just be another boring nonfiction book to me. From what I can gather it is just about horror, in general, in film and in books and why people like the genre. It sounds like something I can get into so let's do it!
After reading: Well. That took me literal months to read, I apologize. Because I'm setting out to read so many books I decided right away to read these books on my laptop. Obviously I didn't want to own a whole bunch of books without anywhere to put them and create more clutter than I have already. Unfortunately for me, I'm really struggling to read books this way. For reference, I bought a hard copy of a book while I was 2-3 months into reading this one and read it in two days. I'm fairly certain it has something to do with the fact that paper books don't have the entirety of the Internet inside of them. Also, I can sit down and read a paper book for hours but I get 25-30 minutes into reading on my laptop and my eyes start glazing over. Mix this with reading a nonfiction that doesn't have a plot which means I had no desire to keep reading to find out what happens next and...it ends up taking me months to get through one little book that doesn't even have that many pages. That being said, I don't want the fact that it took me a very long time to get through this book to come off as though I didn't like it. I actually really enjoyed it. The pacing was hard for me being someone that doesn't typically enjoy nonfiction but I have read several nonfictions that I have liked, this being one of them. If this was a college course that I listened to someone teaching rather than me reading a textbook-like book I probably would've enjoyed it a whole lot more.
Now that I got the boring stuff out of the way let's talk about the book and some notes that I took on it. I want to start off by saying that I didn't take a lot of notes so this will be pretty short and sweet. If you're a horror fan I think you will find yourself drawn to this one. It gave a lot of great insight and was a fun topic to explore. I'm not sure if King has done an updated take on this or not (guess I'll find out eventually) but I would love for him to do this again with updated horror of the 21st century. It was fun reading a book stuck in the 80's knowing what happens afterwards and seeing how horror has evolved beyond where the book takes us. Are you out there Mr. King? Are you reading these? No? Well, if someone could let him know I'd like an updated version I'd appreciate it.
My first note was me complaining about reading all three intros. I'll spare you my whining but let you in on the secret that I rarely, if ever, read the intros to books. I did, however, read all three of this one's since it was a nonfiction. The movie version of The Shining had come out already by the time King wrote this text and he had a few things to say. One being that he called Kubrick's ending to be, and I quote, "dorky." He took quite a few digs at the movie throughout the book but never took digs at Kubrick directly and does discuss his contributions to horror as it is seen in films. My next note was more personal but I'll share it anyway- "Just interesting...he says "the only way to stop them is a bullet to the head" and in class today we were reading Carrie and it said the exact same line." Now when I say "in class" if you haven't read any of my previous blogs, I work in a high school. The senior class that I am involved with is Horror Lit. It was especially fun to read this novel because it discusses the different archetypes of horror, which is essentially what we learn about all year in that class. It was enlightening to read this along side that class and get and even deeper understanding of these archetypes and how horror in literature is fleshed out. Another interesting thing I noted was that King mentions horror being frightening when it mimics what is happening in real life and sometimes this is done accidentally. I found this eye opening considering how many times while I've been reading these books that were written in the 70's, I've mentioned it being even scarier or even hard to read because it was too similar to what was happening in the world today. This just goes to show that history repeats itself. My next note is simply "Stephen King wants to dance with me." And dance we did, I will not elaborate. You can tell by my use of exclamation points and CAPS LOCK in my next note that I was clearly excited- discussion about the RATS! Specifically in Salem's Lot! Turns out they are a direct allusion to Dracula! It was a satisfying find to say the least. My next note was that I laughed out loud for the first time while reading something by Stephen King, so that was a nice change of pace.
*cue the sad music* Just realized that a large chunk of my notes are missing. Trying not to cry over spilt milk and move on. I have a single remaining note that survived and then I'll try to gather what I can remember in the summary. Thanks technology. “The symbolism of the lightning rod salesman, who arrives as a harbinger of bad times.” This was a quote from when he was discussing another novel but I found this interesting considering King used a lightning rod salesman who is a harbinger of bad times in The Dead Zone.
Some of what I didn't discuss because it got lost in the abyss was that Stephen King really hated horror television. He went on and on for many pages basically discussing how much it sucks. Personally, I feel like horror television is top tier at the moment. There are so many incredible horror shows now and for the past ten years or so. Also, each time one comes up, Mr. King is usually tweeting about how much he loves it. I would really like to see an updated version of the television chapter just to hear what he has to say about how much that medium of horror has changed. Another interesting chapter was about the radio. He discussed how there were horror radio shows and people would tune in and how that medium was so unique because you really relied on your imagination. King discusses how this is now a thing of the past...which it was in the 80's. However, if you're a horror fan, I have one question for you. What is your favorite horror podcast? I know you have one. The podcast, specifically the horror fiction genre, is today's version of the radio horror shows. Again, I would love to see how King would discuss horror podcasts and how they relate to radio.
Long nonfiction story short, this was an homage, retelling, and love story of horror. Did I struggle to get through it? Honestly, yes. But did I thoroughly enjoy it? I sure did. If you aren't a huge nonfiction fan then maybe this isn't the book for you. If you are a huge horror fan then this is the book for you. If you're a nonfiction fan, why? Just kidding. In all honesty I am glad that I read this. I learned a lot, I feel as though I see horror through a new lens which makes continuing this series that much more enjoyable. I feel like I understand King's perspective of horror more now, as well. I think you should give this one a try. And maybe @ Stephen on Twitter and let him know we want more!
Next up is your friendly neighborhood dog, Cujo! Hopefully we'll see each other soon but knowing me it might be a few months...stay tuned!
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