
Stephen King – How did a misfit high school girl change the author's life? - myth_drannon
http://www.cbc.ca/radio/undertheinfluence/bookmarks-2016-1.3612090
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scott_s
Skip this and read "On Writing". The author of this submission borderline
plagiarized this story from King. Yes, I know that they credit the book, but
by the end, they basically just replace "I" with "he". It's copying what King
wrote, badly. It would take just as much space to just quote King's story.

This bothers me because it's such a poignant story, well-told, and it's _King
's_ story to tell, not this author.

~~~
dean
Geez. "Plagiarize" is a pretty strong word for this. The guy related one small
part of a book, and anyone interested will likely check out the book for
themselves anyway. The article is practically a rave review of the book. Give
the guy a break.

~~~
scott_s
It _is_ a strong word, and I use it deliberately. These sentences were clearly
copied from King. If your reader would be better served by a direct quote,
then you are not "relating" a part of a book.

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codeulike
Wait, it was his wife who 'changed his life' (by rescuing some pages from a
bin). But if they said 'wife' it would be too boring I suppose, so they went
with 'misfit high school girl'.

~~~
matt2000
I agree, this title sucks. How about: "How Steven King's wife's unwavering
support saved Carrie from the trash can"

Or really anything other than this title.

~~~
abraae
How about "terrifying 90 year old tattooed bikini butt"?

Just above half way down. NSFW.

~~~
dang
Not here, please.

~~~
abraae
Apologies. I thought it was a valid example of a clickbait title based on
actual article content.

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bcgraham
King's _On Writing_ is a wonderful book, but the part I most remember is his
answer to the question, "Who is talented?" He said: "If you wrote something
for which someone sent you a check, if you cashed the check and it didn't
bounce, and if you then paid the light bill with the money, I consider you
talented." His blue-collar approach to the job of writing is a great
perspective.

~~~
Dutchie
For me, a European amateur sociologist who's never actually been to the USA,
Stephen King was a great introduction to the American working class,
especially as portrayed in the 1980s.

~~~
scott_s
As someone who can capture a period of time, and the _people_ in that period
of time, I feel King is unmatched. I think decades (centuries?) from now,
people will value King for that quality.

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krylon
I'm not a big fan of Stephen King as a writer, but everytime I come across an
interview, I think I would like to meet the man one day.

Also, at one point in my life I thought I wanted to become a writer, and from
that perspective I am just completely in awe of the guy's sheer volume of
output. Writing _one_ novel can be ___ing hard, but he keeps churning them out
one after the other, almost like clockwork. And it's not like he's repeating
himself, or going through the motions, as far as I can tell. I also envy his
ability to create realistic, likeable characters that have depth. To the
degree that writing is a craft (an aspect I certainly underestimated when I
made my attempt at writing a novel), I consider King a genius.

~~~
awesomerobot
If you read about him some more you'd see that meeting you is probably the
last thing he wants to do though.

~~~
krylon
That is fine with me. I do not actually expect to ever meet him, anyway. Just
saying it would probably be interesting.

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api
On Writing is a great book and I recommend it even if you have no interest in
writing.

As far as King's writing goes some of my favorite work of his are his short
stories The Body (basis of the film Stand By Me) and The Breathing Method. You
can find them in a few anthologies. The latter is actually my favorite for the
odd way it's split into an inner and an outer stories and his vivid
description of the 'club' and what it means to the character. I'm still
puzzling over the possible metaphorical meaning of the story encapsulation
there in relation to the symbolism of both. Or maybe there is none. Shrug. But
it's an awesome piece.

~~~
angersock
King does his best when limited to the constraints of a short story. He tends
to ramble otherwise--look at the later Dark Tower books for an example.

His "Nightmares & Dreamscapes" anthology is a solid introduction.

~~~
sevensor
_Skeleton Crew_ is one of my favorites, mainly because my family used to shop
at the grocery store from "The Mist" when we went to Bridgton in the summer.
It's still open, but it's not really recognizable anymore. When I was a child,
it was pretty much _exactly_ the way he described it, all buzzing
fluorescents, wilted produce, and green linoleum.

I got really mad at Stephen King for writing himself into the Dark Tower
books, but I kind of get it. I see the last two books especially as Steve
plowing through a story he'd basically given up on as un-finishable, because
he also couldn't _not_ finish them. Putting himself in as a character is his
apology to us as readers for there being no possible satisfactory conclusion
to the series.

edit: remove redundant redundancy

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chromaton
One of his essays has a counterpoint to this.

It's an incident that takes place early in his career. He's pretty proud of
his newfound success as a writer. While talking over his finances with his
accountant, it turns out that after taxes, expenses, and his agent's cut that
he made about as much as he would as a plumber.

~~~
api
That's standard issue in the book and movie contract experience, especially
for new entrants.

The tech industry is really remarkable for not being abusive to founders and
developers. If you think VC terms can be bad, look at what musicians and
writers get dealt. Even onerous VC liquidation preferences and ratchet terms
or down round dilution is nothing compared to what gets done to your favorite
band.

I think it's because techies, while not necessarily MBAs, tend to read the
fine print and not be quite as ignorant of business as your average artist.
It's also because it's a new growing industry, while art/music/writing is a
stagnant old one.

~~~
lotyrin
I imagine there's plenty of artists that read the fine print, couldn't stomach
the terms, and were consequently never heard of. Others decided they didn't
mind the terms and the odds, some of those made it.

Software founders are just more likely to be from a social class where saying
no to bad terms means you can still possibly succeed, and so the market
doesn't bear bids of particularly bad terms.

~~~
api
Good point. The high salaries techies can land on short notice are almost as
good as having FU money. You don't _have_ to stick your head in that snarling
contract's mouth.

You also have entities out there like YCombinator and even NVCA that publish
standard deal terms that are relatively founder-friendly. Founders negotiating
deals even outside the orbit of these entities can reference these terms and
say "these are the standard and they were used for 'insert well-known startup
here' by 'top-flying VC here'" and push back on any onerous terms by just
calling them weird and non-standard. That goes a long way toward curtailing
the kind of obscure shenanigans you see in music contracts.

Edit: I'm referring to SAFEs, the YC Series AA docs, and the NVCA templates.

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spdustin
When asked how he manages to be so prolific, he once said (and pardon me if I
got the exact words wrong, but it's close)...

"I have the heart of a young boy. In a jar on my desk."

~~~
jsogbein
“Some people say I am a terrible person. I'm not, I have the heart of a young
boy... in a jar, on my desk.”

