Stephen King's Master Of Horror

Stephen King is a titan when it comes to horror books. He has published at least 100 books. He didn’t start that way. At first he struggled quite a bit. But he didn’t stop when he failed.

So say my personal tastes in movies make me a sick bastard just because of the subject matter portrayed in the narrative. Ok, well that isn’t exactly about what Stephen King was saying. King tells us that the horror movie does a dirty job of satiating our urges and letting our instincts run free, which in turn means that most people have something deep and dark inside them, merely a hairpin away from freaking out and murdering adorable puppies for no good reason (and there are plenty of good reasons, stop lying to yourself). I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel anything deep and evil inside of me that must be satiated so I don’t go on a weekly blood rampage so I feel like that isn’t the reason.

In every time period there is always a writers that dominates a certain genre. These individuals are masters in their fields and can evoke the deepest feeling in their readers. There are many of these writers in every generation for every genre. In the field of horror two writers should spring to everyone's mind. Edgar Allen Poe and Stephen King. Both writers have made their marks in literature for exploring the darker sides of imagination producing writings that can leave readers shaken from freight. Although both authors are from different time periods they have similarities in writing that shows their skills.

Stephen King, in his chapter titled “Toolbox” in On Writing, aims to convince the struggling writer that taking simple steps to organize a metaphorical box of writing tools will improve their writing. He does so through the use of organization, substance, and style and by appealing to his audience with logical examples to support his claims. “Toolbox” is, in summary, a crash course given by King on writing improvement. He depicts the fundamentals of good writing as levels of a toolbox then demonstrates how and when each writing tool should be used (King 106-107). The chapter is a veritable response to the question, “How can I improve my writing?” which one can imagine King is routinely asked as a world-renowned author. He already enjoyed an immensely successful writing career when Hodder published On Writing in 2012, so King wrote the chapter “Toolbox” as literary advice to fellow writers by drawing from his own success (“Stephen King”).

Stephen King said, “Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They’re inside us, and sometimes, they win.” This quote sums up the arguments made in the article “Why We Crave Horror” and what King believes. Stephen King makes three correct claims saying that humans crave horror to have a peculiar sort of fun, face our fears, and reestablish our feelings of normalcy.

To begin with, Stephen King says that people watch horror movies “to re-establish our feelings of essential normality” when really if we

To set the mood in this piece, King describes where he is writing his work and calls it his “far-seeing place,”(103). He says that he is writing this chapter at his desk down in his well lit basement in the winter, and this place is his sanctum away from the stresses of life. By writing about his current setting in his sanctuary, King showed that he was just like any one of us. King reads books as a release from life’s frustrations.

Good and evil, almost everything can be categorized as one or the other. Although is it fair to label a person after one situation? A “kind” or “nice,” a person can go from looking harmless and innocent too vicious and hateful. If it is villainous to do something, is it not also villainous to watch it for entertainment? In Stephen King’s essay “Why We Crave Horror Movies,” he states that we are all as much of a psychopath as the people we put in asylums. The human condition has a corrupt core, even if some people conceal it in a dark place and fight their urges with horror movies. While many may believe the horror genre is childish, King’s ideas are accurate because the human condition feeds off of terror.

“Why we Crave Horror Movies” is an essay written by the most popular horror author, who works included Carrie (1974), The Shining (1977), The Dead Zone (1979) and Misery (1987), Stephen King. The excerpt originally came from his book “Danse Macabre.” “Why we Crave Horror Movies” was originally published in Playboy Magazine in 1981. The essay was an explanation of why King felt that people craved horror movies. He goes into great detail throughout the essay and gave various reasons of he felt the way he did. While reading the first the that came to mind was the ‘target audience’ because he is speaking to a certain group of people. Then ‘logos’ because King is making a huge assumption throughout the essay, which came of very strong. Lastly, ethos’ because of the tone King sets in the essay, and ‘pathos’ because overall King has a purpose for the essay he wrote.

In Stephen King’s somewhat subjective essay in the 1984 Playboy magazine, Why We Crave Horror Movies, King describes his reasoning behind why so many people are fond of watching movies residing in the horror genre. The content of his essay, though inserted in an unconventional area for

In this short story, “Reading to Write” Stephen King believes that it is paramount to read a lot, in order to become a great writer. All the infamous writers, read a lot before they started to write. Stephen king says “Every Book you pick up has its own lesson or lessons, and quite often the bad books have more to teach than the good ones” (King pg.221). King claims that the books that we read teach us invaluable lessons on writing. Reading helps author compare their work to others.

In this story, Stephen King provided several different reasons as to why people like horror movies. It is almost too simple, but yet not many people notice. In our human nature it is normal for people to want to show that they are strong, courageous, or they want to assure to not only themselves, but to others that they are normal compared to the actions or people in horror movies. Another important reason, according to King, is that people go out and watch horror movies in theaters because horror movies may provide psychic relief and free their emotions from what is going on in their personal life. King also argues that everyone may be insane to a certain degree, although the word insanity is ever changing, but it also changes in our own

King takes the view that, “If we are all insane, then sanity becomes a matter of degree” (8). The author demonstrates that many people have different levels of sanity either one is on a higher level due to their reaction to scary things. After I was going home from a Halloween party, there was this guy that looked like a clown chasing us with a chainsaw on the streets. Half of my friends enjoyed the guy with the chainsaw but me and the other two friends ran really fast we were about to start crying. As Chocano contends, “But as frightening as the actual news has been, these tabloid tales aren’t mere escapism” (3).

Paranoia is an enemy to many people in the darkness. This irrational fear accounts for many sleepless nights, and horror only fuels the fire. Yet, these people are still captivated by something that produces such unpleasant results. The culprit just might be one thing-- the characteristics, events, and situations that humans all share-- the ingredients of what makes things such as emotions and ambitions exist; otherwise known as the human condition. Based on these two notions, it is safe to say that in the article “Why We Crave Horror,” Stephen King is correct in claiming that humans crave horror to display some sort of bravery, to reassure feelings of normality, and to simply have a good time.

Horror is a genre of fiction intended to frighten, scare, or disgust its readers by inducing feelings of terror. The dark allure of the this genre calls to many readers, writers, and people of the world. This ghoulish world of horror is created by masterful writers, such as Stephen King. Self-proclaimed horror and suspense writer, King is one of the world’s most popular authors. With his show-stopping novels IT and The Shining, he has forever impacted the horror genre. Stephen King’s writing, inspired by his life experiences and imagination, appeals to the masses, yet remains eloquent enough to appease critics, leaving a lasting legacy in psychological horror literature.