Underneath the Stephen King, Stephenie Meyer Sagaby Reg Seeton

This week in an interview with USA Weekend, acclaimed horror writer Stephen King, one of the best selling authors of our time, revealed his thoughts about the literary skills of Twilight author Stephenie Meyer. King, author of such best selling horror suspense thrillers as Cujo, Carrie, the Shining, the Dark Tower, and many more, told USA Weekend that Meyer isn’t very good and “can’t write worth a dam” when comparing Meyer’s Twilight work to that of J.K. Rowling’s popular Harry Potter series. the interview with Stephen King is slated to be the cover story in the USA Weekend’s first week of March issue.

As terrible as King’s words may sound, the Misery writer went on to explain the context of his comments as referring to how his writings have influenced new writers in the way that the great Richard Matheson had an impact on him as a young man. In that context, King elaborated that he believes he’s served the same purpose for some of today’s new writers. However, Stephen King is also quick to point out that even bad writers have become successful, as he references Perry Mason author Erle Stanley Gardner and the Perry Mason books as an example of how people are attracted to the stories and momentum and not necessarily the author’s abilities. King then goes on to explain that Meyer is writing for a specific generation of young females that joins love and sex in a safe manner.

As reported by MTV from the USA Weekend interview, King goes even deeper into the romantic appeal for young teens and the gargantuan success of Twilight, “It’s exciting and it’s thrilling and it’s not particularly threatening, because they’re not overtly sexual. A lot of the physical side of it is conveyed in things like the vampire will touch her forearm or run a hand over skin, and she just flushes all hot and cold. And for girls, that’s a shorthand for all the feelings that they’re not ready to deal with yet.”

So, what do Stephen King’s comments mean to you? does he have a point? Is there merit to what he says? And before you answer those questions, just remember that you can’t really use the knee jerk argument, “Well, Stephen King’s a horrible writer anyway.”

Here’s the interesting thing that I see beyond Stephen King’s comments. although King is widely regarded as one of the best writers of our time, Stephen King hasn’t been free of criticism during his career. although King’s literary talents to craft the written word have never been called into question, many, including authors, have labeled King’s work as the McDonalds of horror fiction. Others have suggested the point that Stephen King’s literary success is nothing more than a cash cow in which King’s books and stories feel as though they come off an assembly line, flood the market en masse, and smother the literary world. Is it true? there is no right or wrong. some authors love to write and barely make a dime while living in poverty their entire lives under the umbrella of the creative arts and the craft. Others who come from poverty want to make a living, and good ones at that, where they never have to worry about being poor ever again. And neither one has more merit or weight than the other.

There is, however, something even more interesting in that some could make a case for whether King is one of the “best” authors of our time. But it’s hard to say that Stephen King isn’t one of the most “popular” authors of the past century, if not the most popular. And here’s where the legacy of King and the appeal of Stephenie Meyer and the Twilight books begin to meet, and largely reinforce what King says about Erle Stanley Gardner and the popularity of the Perry Mason books. Whether Stephenie Meyer is a good writer isn’t the point. obviously Twilight appeals to millions. However, just like Stephen King when he burst on to the literary scene with Carrie in 1974, Stephenie Meyer is good enough as a writer to launch a popular, top selling franchise of novels under the Twilight umbrella. In King’s case, his entire career became the franchise and his name a brand.

So, how do you clearly define bad writing when a book goes on to sell millions. It’s the same question of how do you explain the many “so called” bad movies that film critics lambaste on a weekly basis yet go on to take the #1 spot at the box-office and make millions? There’s no denying that bad directors make popular movies that appeal to a wide range of people. And to the general population, obviously neither a director nor a screenwriter’s abilities matter as long as moviegoers get something out of the experience that appeals to them. It’s one of those intangible things in life that you can’t quite explain. For me, it’s kind of like what George Carlin said about swimming, “Swimming is not a sport. Swimming is a way to keep from drowning.” yet millions of people tuned in to watch Michael Phelps prevent himself from drowning for a record breaking eight times at the Beijing Olympics. okay, Ill concede, Michael Phelps isn’t a bad swimmer.

But the point here is that both Stephen King and Stephenie Meyer are popular writers with different styles who create compelling characters and approach material in two vastly diverse manners. Also, King and Meyer write for two completely different audiences. Truth be told, their literary abilities, skill for language, and talents as storytellers are worlds apart. However, what they do have in common as authors is an ability to evoke the powerful emotions that they intend to convey through their words and stories. how they get there for the end result is unique to both writers. At this stage of the game, comparing Stephenie Meyer to Stephen King is like watching the Boston Celtics leave the basketball court to play the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park in a regular season game that actually counts in the standings for both teams. Theyre two popular teams but from completely different sports worlds. And if you start out your career as a designated hitter or relief pitcher, you don’t have to be good for the entire game as long as you get the job done, your team wins, and the fans walk away happy.

are they really writing a book togethermy dad loves stephen’s writingi love stephenie’s writingthis would be amazing

“It’s the same question of how do you explain the many “so called” bad movies that film critics lambaste on a weekly basis yet go on to take the #1 spot at the box-office and make millions?”

You consider this a difficult question? You must have a hard life…..Allow me to help you (drumroll): most people are sheep and will buy/see/read everything marketing tells them is good/fun or makes them belong to a certain group/scenel. Clear enough for you?

I’m not entirely sure why Stephen King felt the need to go after Meyer quite so blatantly, and I’m not going to speak to whether he’s any better, but I have to say that he’s probably right: Meyer is not a good author, by conventional thinking. She is a successful author because she has found a niche and exploited it (which I think is the point of this article), but I argue that making money and and showing real skill aren’t even close to the same thing. Meyer overuses her phrases. her dialogue is tedious at best. many of her turns of phrase go beyond melodramatic and into laughable. above all, she is writing about fairly shallow characters who are defined not by steady identities but by assigned emotions. Meyer fails to give us a realistic, fleshed-out world. She instead gives us a popcorn read, a diversion, something essentially amusing and harmless but not at all thought-provoking. There’s no intellect behind her work. only sensation.

the books were assume and well i read them way to many times but i still say that she could put better porblems then the ones that are in them right now ^_^

“You can write off anyone over the age of 10 proclaiming their love for these dull, clunkily-written books as woefully Simple.”

I have never read any of Stephen King’s books. I haven’t read any of the Twilight books yet either; I plan to. And if I do like them? I’m “Simple”? Get over yourself. Reading tastes are extremely subjective and labeling people for their reading tastes like that, IMO, shows great narrow mindedness. You are NOT the be all when it comes to what is good literature and what isnt.

I really do like Stephenie Meyer and Stephen King. Stephenie did make a few conventions. She included too many unimportant details but her characters do have their flaws. Bella: she doesn’t have to keep blaming herself and she really does bring everything upon herself. If your going to blame yourself at least in do something about it instead of moping around and mean COME ON!!!!

I only read 200 pages before tossing it, since anything resembling an actual plot had yet to happen, and was bored by repeated references to the making of Chicken Enchiladas.

Paper-thin characters, including one of the most obvious Mary Sues (Wikipedia it) i’ve ever read in my life, where every male character in the book instantly falls in love with her, including some random strangers so she can be AlmostRaped(!) no forward momentum to the plot, no real personality to the characters, who are in Total OMG True Lover 4Ever! because they… um… look Pretty I guess, and nothing else.

I kept thinking Bella needed a healthy dose of reality to stop her selfish constant self obsession.

This is FanFiction.net quality writing. You can write off anyone over the age of 10 proclaiming their love for these dull, clunkily-written books as woefully Simple.

The gift that writers like King and Rowling have is that they have the ability to tell the story without making the writing a distraction. Meyer’s writing is distracting to the point where the story isn’t even worthwhile. the woman abuses the thesaurus and uses horrendous dialogue tags. Why is everyone hissing and groaning and sighing and glaring all the time? And the dialogue; Joss Whedon would weep if he read Meyer’s horrible dialogue. then there’s Meyer’s inability to properly construct a plot and ridiculous story pacing.

King and Rowling’s books may be long, but they are filled with suspense from page 1 to the end, are multi-layered and feature important details, foreshadowing and symbolism. Meyer’s books are filled with inane details that have nothing to do with anything, like describing every step of Bella filling the car with gas, or how she turned the key in the ignition of her truck and then drove to school. A good editor would have sliced those books in about half with no trouble whatsoever (just getting rid of all the breathless descriptions of how handsome and perfect Edward is would probably take the books down to a few chapters each).

firstly, regarding the ‘mcdonald’s of horror fiction’, there is no doubt, and it has been chronicled, that King is an expert of horror fiction, the Shakespeare of horror fiction. your quote above is misleading. the term mcdonald’s is used for a) quantity, meaning that King churned out a lot of fiction over the years, so much so that he had to use a pseudonym for a period of time because his publishers thought the market was getting flooded with too many King books too fast. and b) mcdonald’s used in terms of ‘fiction’, not ‘horror fiction’, meaning that in terms of fiction writing Stephen King was like Mcdonald’s i.e. very satisfying but not very good for you’

Secondarily, if you saw two of anything being lumped into the same category that obviously shouldn’t be lumped into the same category, wouldn’t you say something. like what if you were Larry Bird being interviewed and the interviewer said “Well Larry, if you look at what Kevin Garnett and Brian Scalabrine have been doing for the Celtics this year..”.

Wouldn’t you, Mr. Larry Bird, have no choice but to perhaps quickly explain the difference between the talents of Garnett and Scalabrine. And before you say ‘well, statistics clearly show the difference…’ there are also fairly extensive rules around the written word, prose, structure that can be referenced in comparing the technical skills of Rowling and Meyer.

Last point (for now) – you say that, just like King burst onto the scene with Carrie in 1974, Meyer is good enough to launch a successful franchise. the difference is that the writing of king with his 1st novel is so obvious superior to Meyer in her first novels. Just being successful does mean it’s good. you have to look no further than the ‘Ernest’ movies to know that.

I haven’t read either Rowling or Meyer, but for those who don’t think Stephen King is a good writer, check out the Dark Tower series. It’s by far his best work, and without a doubt the best story I’ve ever read.

This is like compareing a gasoline explosion to a a bonfire.The bonfire will burn longer brighter and create more heat. But hey the explosion is powerful right now.She will never be a stephen king that doesnt mean she wont make a butload of money.

THIS is the BEST explanation I’ve read!!!

Do I sense a pyromaniac? good comparison.

I’m glad you went into more detail on this. I had read the original article and was angry at the press that they only elaborated on what he said about Meyer. He also commented on what a good writer J.K. Rowling is. I think that Stepehenie Meyer is an okay writer and I have to admit that I love ALL of her books (including the Host). But Rowling is a magnificent writer that keeps me on the edge of my seat. I do love the love stories, but Rowling’s gripping tales left me breathless. I haven’t read much of King’s work (it’s a bit too frightening for me, therefore he must be a good writer, because it’s too real), but he is extremely popular and I think he’s generally correct. an author doesn’t necessarily have to be good to be a best seller. gives us all want-to-be-authors hope, doesn’t it?

The comparison of King to Meyer is like chocolate to caramel, I love both. Sometimes equally, sometimes one more than the other but give me the opportunity and I will take a chocolate covered caramel everytime. I have read many of the King books over my 40 years, almost all the Meyer Books, and almost all the Rowling Books. If I want to be challenged, I read a King book as there is much to figure out, many plot twists, and you have to be committed. After much encouragement by my daughter, I read the first Meyer book in 3 days, couldnt put it down, loved it, made me feel happy/uplifted and then I read the others within two weeks including the leaked one on the web and was devistated to learn it would never be published. the Harry Potter series was the same, just couldnt put them down, read the first 4 in about three and a half weeks. Same result; loved them as they were intriguing and I couldnt wait for the 5th and so on. there really is no comparison to be made with King versus Meyer/Rowling because these authors “sell” to different audiences. the closest you could come to comparison would be King’s “The Eyes of the Dragon” and in my opinion that is the “suckiest” King book I have ever read. King is the old master and should encourage rather than criticize; his opinions would be better viewed if he spoke on Cook/Straub/Benchley and the like.

Underneath the Stephen King, Stephenie Meyer Saga