What Steven King thinks about our troops

[Lammie]

I think that historically, the well-off could get out of going to war if they could buy their way out of it. There were riots during the Civil War over that very thing. It is no secret that boys got out of Viet Nam by going to college. Traditionally, the military has been a good place for minorities to have a career when they could not do as well anywhere else. And I don't see any rich boys volunteering to go to Iraq. There are some who go out of a sense of duty, but more than that, I think, they go because the armed services are offering good incentives and bonuses to entice people to join. Nothing wrong with that. I have a young friend who is 23 and is joining the Navy in August. He's not exactly college material, but his heart is in the right place. He wants to learn a marketable skill for when he gets out and he needs to get away from influences that are keeping him from reaching his potential in the small town where he lives. I think joining is a sound decision for him.

 

[iowahawkeyes]

I got teed off at him for dragging his feet so long on finishing that Gunslinger/Dark Tower series. Coming soon doesn't mean seven years later. Never read another one of his books.

Well, I don't know when he started that, but I will cut him some slack since he did get hit by a car and it scrambled his brains for a while.

Ever seen Kingdom Hospital? Now that's a freaky mini series. Giant anteaters... strange. Good, though.

I have never seen a Stephen King novel adapt well to a movie. They all have hokie endings. [i]The Shining [/i]comes close, and that's cause Stanley Kubric directed. The first one with Jack Nicholson. "Heeer's Johnny!!" And it was not true to the ending.[/b] I just develop a vision of what I think characters should look like, and if they don't look like that on the big screen I don't like it. He had a collection of short stories called Night Shift and they are all good. And my fave is
The Tommyknockers. Now that's a good book. I make Tommyknocker jokes all the time.

they did a tv version probably 5 years ago with the funny guy from "Wings" as the dad. It was very close to the book, ie, the ending. The first movie was way off!, but still good.

 

[Lammie]

Yes, but the first movie was way scarier. The twins, the bar, the party, the elevator of blood, the lady in the tub, Jack Nicholson. Shelly Duvall kinda ruined it. It is hard to watch the parts of the movie with her in it. She's such a simp. But Jack, man, he's fantastic. I really like Stanley Kubrik's entire body of work, as well. I tend to watch films for directors and he was one of my faves. He died much too soon.

I also liked the first Shining because it was a feature length film and not a mini series. I don't have a lot of patience for mini series. That is why I didn't much care for The Stand. Loved the book but the television treatment was too tedious to watch. There were great parts of it, but it became so long as to be preachy. I might like to see that book made into a feature length film instead.

 

[Frankie]

I think my favorite Stephen King book is the Dead Zone. We don't watch the TV series, though. I don't think his books translate well to the screen. I have made up my mind what someone looks like, how they act, and when I see it on the screen and they don't fit my vision, it's always a disappointment. Another one of my favorites is Thinner. I think he wrote it under the Bachman name. We watched The Mist recently. It was ok, but, man, he's tough on little kids.

 

[Lammie]

I think my favorite Stephen King book is the Dead Zone. We don't watch the TV series, though. I don't think his books translate well to the screen. I have made up my mind what someone looks like, how they act, and when I see it on the screen and they don't fit my vision, it's always a disappointment. Another one of my favorites is Thinner. I think he wrote it under the Bachman name. We watched The Mist recently. It was ok, but, man, he's tough on little kids.

Thinner was a short story about getting your finger cut off if you didn't lose weight, right? Then the wife's? It was in Night Shift. . Good story. Great way to lose weight, too, I should think.