“Master of horror” Stephen King turned 70 years

Stephen King Photo: JFK Library

September 21 "master of horror" Stephen King turned 70 years. The American writer writes in different genres, but became famous due to horror and thrillers.

During his career, King wrote 55 novels, 5 non-fiction and more 200 stories. More than 350 million copies of his books were sold, on which films were shot and comics drawn.

Literary critics argue. Some believe that his books are a cheap fake, others call him one of the most profound authors of modern times.

King himself does not give an unequivocal answer to the question of which camp he counts himself. On the one hand, he is a staunch admirer of mass culture and likes to call himself "the literary equivalent of French fries with a big mac."

But at the same time, he does not look at his literature as a cheap hack. “I have struggled all my life with the idea that entire areas of fiction can be discarded, because this is“ genre ”prose, which cannot be real art, - he said in his time in an interview with the magazine Rolling Stone. “I don't want to seem smug.” Raymond Chandler brought the detectives to a new level. People who do something significant in their field, destroy the boundaries between genres. And I can say one thing: to some extent, I made the horror genre closer to high literature. ”

Most often, journalists ask King about his fears and what allows him to write fascinating horrors. King calls a lot of fear: the fear of death, “what happens to us when we die”; fear of change, strangers, chaos; he even calls the cartoon "Bambi" a horror.

"I am in a sense afraid of everything without exception," the writer sums up.

In one of his interviews, King said that scary stories make us children.

In his research work, The Dance of Death (1981), King himself explains the nature of fear, which, in his opinion, is closely related to political processes: the greater the tension in society, the more complex the economic and political situation — the more artistic works that reflect these moods.

According to the books of the author has repeatedly filmed a movie. So, in the year of the writer 70 anniversary several film versions of his works appeared at once. Shortly before the anniversary in early September, the film “It” appeared, which already earned $ 371,3 million in the world box office (this is 10 times more than the budget of the picture), and at the same time broke the record set by 31 a year ago with the film “Crocodile Dundee”.

A little earlier, in August 2017, the Dark Tower was released to the world - a screen version of King’s most extensive work. The epic, which consists of 7 books, differs by eclecticism: its different parts are written in different genres.

The writer claims that he does not like almost all the film versions of his novels, with the exception of The Dark Tower.

King is known for his eccentricity. But, as his biographers write, he was always like this. For example, in his youth he could quietly come to visit a friend in slippers - probably, he simply forgot to change his shoes. In the same strange and eccentric, he remains in the public view to this day. Loyal fans also know him as a person who actively donates to charitable foundations. Those close to you are like a cheerful, generous friend with a many-sided character.

Stephen King himself gives almost no interviews and claims that he is “an archaeologist who digs up the most valuable artifacts — shakes off the dust with great care and examines the patterns cut from above.”

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