Introduction and Q&A

Uh, hello there.

Welcome to a rather pointless but hopefully entertaining project, in which I will attempt to consume every Stephen King book, movie, miniseries, etc. currently in existence. This is most likely a stupid voyage to embark upon, but quite honestly I need something to do, and a large, completist “project” like this one seems to fit the bill.

First, though, let’s get some generalities out of the way.

Why Stephen King?

A few reasons. First, he has a huge, sufficiently difficult-to-tackle body of work. Second, most of his books tie together into a coherent canon, so there’s an extra reward for reading all the books in order. Third, sources tell me there are some pretty big climbs and drops in quality, just to keep things interesting. This will be especially true of the movies, seeing as we’ll get to watch some of the most acclaimed films ever made (The Shawshank Redemption) and have to wade through plenty of direct-to-DVD detritus (Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror). Fourth, I have a certain interest in horror fiction, so I’ll probably find at least some of this stuff to my liking. And finally, Stephen King has singlehandedly created some of the most well-known pop culture artifacts of the last half-century, many of which I’ve never read or seen, so he seemed like an obvious choice.

What do you hope to get out of this?

Stephen King has plenty of hardcore fans and plenty of detractors, and I’d like to find out where I stand on their debate. Plus, this project will also take me through lots of books and films constantly referenced in other media (the clown from It, the prom from Carrie, etc.), things that really have become part of our collective consciousness, and I’m intrigued by the chance to write about them. But like I said earlier, I mostly just want an interesting endeavor to pass the time.

So what exactly are you going to read/watch?

1. For starters, every novel Stephen King has ever published. It still counts if they’re currently out of print or written under a different name, or if they were never published in print (I’m specifically thinking of The Plant, but I believe there’s a Kindle-only story as well.)

2. I’ll read the short stories and novellas, but only the ones included in his collections. I think tracking down some rare anthology just to find a single story would be a lot of time spent for little result. A line has to be drawn somewhere, you know?

3. I’ll read his nonfiction books as well (Danse Macabre, On Writing, and maybe that baseball one.)

4. As if that weren’t enough, I’ll watch every movie, miniseries, TV episode or series based on something Stephen King has written, be it a book, short story, or even screenplay. (I guess I should read the one screenplay he’s published, Storm of the Century.) Also fair game: any sequels, prequels, remakes or reboots of the above.

5. I may or may not read the comics. We’ll deal with that when we get to it.

UPDATE: I’ve decided to read them, because why the hell not?

Is there, perchance, a tentative list of everything you’ll write about?

Why, I’m so glad you asked. Here ya go.

How much of this stuff have you already read?

Barely any. I think I read a tattered paperback of The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon a while ago, and I saw the original Carrie movie on TV once, but that’s about it. So it’s safe to say I’m not a Stephen King fan. Not yet, at least.

What happens when you catch up to the present day?

If I’m still alive by that point, then I guess I’ll keep doing write-ups of books and movies as they’re released. Wow, Stephen King should send me a nice fruit basket for all the money I’m about to give him.

What about the revised editions of The Stand and The Gunslinger?

Hmmm. For those who don’t know, Stephen King has twice gone back and reissued older books of his, with various changes made throughout. Originally I was just going to read the newer versions, but I’ve since decided to read both. I don’t entirely trust King not to pull a George Lucas and fix something that isn’t broken, so it looks like I’ll be trekking through the hinterlands of eBay to find the originals.

How often will you update this blog?

Considering that many posts will require me to read a bazillion-page novel before I write them, the updates will necessarily be irregular. I might try to offer up quick posts between the longer write-ups, but I have no idea what those would be about. We’ll see.

So that’s about it. This project could end up a miserable failure, but hopefully it won’t, and ideally we’ll find some interesting things along the way. Fingers crossed.

First on deck is Carrie, King’s debut novel and one of his most famous. Let’s see how things go.

~ by kingproject on June 18, 2011.