The Gaming Den

Posted: **Tue Apr 05, 2016 1:44 am**

I broke down and decided to read a Stephen King book, and went for It.

I have had three different Who's On First exchanges trying to talk about this.

I'm 700 pages in out of more than a thousand, and so far I'm digging it. I'm not scared of the clown, or any of its other incarnations. Hell, I kinda dig that there's something of an identifiable person there, and it's not all-powerful or infallible. It makes mistakes and errors in judgment and people get away or drive it back because of it.

The parts with the childhood bully bother me way worse than Pennywise does, if it comes down it. Hits closer to home, and it's right that bullies don't back down when they're stood up to, instead they go crazy.

Posted: **Tue Apr 05, 2016 1:48 am**

Oh man, you had to pick that book. Jesus. That's the one where Stephen King's editor completely lost the battle and the war. I mean...well, you're not there yet.

Posted: **Tue Apr 05, 2016 2:02 am**

Ancient History wrote:Oh man, you had to pick that book. Jesus. That's the one where Stephen King's editor completely lost the battle and the war. I mean...well, you're not there yet.

I agree with this.

Posted: **Tue Apr 05, 2016 4:32 am**

Ancient History wrote:Oh man, you had to pick that book. Jesus. That's the one where Stephen King's editor completely lost the battle and the war. I mean...well, you're not there yet.

I'm aware of what you're talking about, I think I saw someone having an 'oh christ' moment about it.

But the book was cheap and, c'mon, evil-clown.

I'll let you know down the road if I had to grab a garbage can to hurl into.

Posted: **Tue Apr 05, 2016 1:41 pm**

I didn't even make it all the way through to "that scene". I plodded through about 75% of the book as a sunk cost fallacy thing, before I decided I didn't even really care about how it ended.

Posted: **Tue Apr 05, 2016 2:31 pm**

You're talking about the scene where

the kids are lost in the sewers after defeating the clown the first time, and so they all fuck... Beverly, I wanna say? And then after that they are somehow able to find their way home.

right?

I mean, I'm a humongous King fan, but I won't even try to defend that.

Posted: **Tue Apr 05, 2016 2:55 pm**

Honestly, while that particular scene is squicky beyond belief, my pet peeve with It is

the whole Turtle cosmic horror clusterfuck. It really drew me out of the personnal horror/triumph over past trauma theme straight into OMGWTFBBQ befuddlement.

Posted: **Tue Apr 05, 2016 2:59 pm**

I don't remember that in the tv movie, presumably thanks to sane tv editors. Thank goodness for small favors, I only made it a hundred or two pages when borrowing it off a hotel nightstand one evening as an impulse read.

Posted: **Tue Apr 05, 2016 3:21 pm**

Shrapnel wrote:You're talking about the scene where

the kids are lost in the sewers after defeating the clown the first time, and so they all fuck... Beverly, I wanna say? And then after that they are somehow able to find their way home.

right?

I mean, I'm a humongous King fan, but I won't even try to defend that.

Yeah. They edited that out of the film, for obvious reasons.

Posted: **Tue Apr 05, 2016 6:06 pm**

See, I think It could've been one of his best works... if that scene didn't exist. I don't even know why it's in there; it's totally unnecessary and detracts from the narrative flow.

Posted: **Wed Apr 06, 2016 2:54 am**

Well.

THAT was gratuitous.

And the ending dragged on for too long.

Had some sweet bits, especially the Ritual.

Posted: **Wed Apr 06, 2016 3:19 am**

I really liked King when I was younger. But now, whenever I pick up one of his books, it seems really meh. Like, I heard all kinds of praise for 11/22/63, but after finally reading it, I didn't think it was particularly good. And let's not talk about Under the Dome...

And King really makes me uncomfortable with his black characters. Maybe I'm being sensitive or have white-guilt or whatever, but it seems there's always a black character in his books that talks like a terrible slavery-era caricature of a black person, with plenty of n-bombs thrown in for good measure. Cringe-worthy.

Posted: **Wed Apr 06, 2016 4:10 am**

I've only ever read a couple of short stories by S. King. Having seen a few adaptations, he's never struck me as an author I'd be into. I'm currently laid up from recent surgery, and painkillers are rendering me willing to give him a shot. What one-and-done book might be a good choice for this?

Posted: **Wed Apr 06, 2016 4:13 am**

phlapjackage wrote:
And King really makes me uncomfortable with his black characters. Maybe I'm being sensitive or have white-guilt or whatever, but it seems there's always a black character in his books that talks like a terrible slavery-era caricature of a black person, with plenty of n-bombs thrown in for good measure. Cringe-worthy.

As someone who works with a lot of black people, I can verify that this isn't uncommon, at least in my corner of the South. Well, not the talks like a caricature. But the n-bombs? Spot on.

Posted: **Wed Apr 06, 2016 5:07 am**

Maxus wrote: As someone who works with a lot of black people, I can verify that this isn't uncommon, at least in my corner of the South. Well, not the talks like a caricature. But the n-bombs? Spot on.

Yeah, I'm from the south also (and I have black friends!) so I know about that too...it wasn't so much that there were n-bombs, but how they were used...seemed, i dunno, unrealistic and gratuitous to me (shock value, I guess). I might post a few examples later if I can be arsed about it...

Posted: **Wed Apr 06, 2016 5:53 am**

Nebuchadnezzar wrote:I've only ever read a couple of short stories by S. King. Having seen a few adaptations, he's never struck me as an author I'd be into. I'm currently laid up from recent surgery, and painkillers are rendering me willing to give him a shot. What one-and-done book might be a good choice for this?

The Stand is a good un.

Posted: **Wed Apr 06, 2016 10:52 am**

erik wrote:
Nebuchadnezzar wrote:I've only ever read a couple of short stories by S. King. Having seen a few adaptations, he's never struck me as an author I'd be into. I'm currently laid up from recent surgery, and painkillers are rendering me willing to give him a shot. What one-and-done book might be a good choice for this?
The Stand is a good un.

...but a long one. If you're looking to edge into this slowly, grab a collection of short stories or the novel from a decade or so about the girl lost in the woods.

Game On,
fbmf

Posted: **Wed Apr 06, 2016 2:17 pm**

fbmf wrote:
erik wrote:
Nebuchadnezzar wrote:I've only ever read a couple of short stories by S. King. Having seen a few adaptations, he's never struck me as an author I'd be into. I'm currently laid up from recent surgery, and painkillers are rendering me willing to give him a shot. What one-and-done book might be a good choice for this?
The Stand is a good un.
...but a long one. If you're looking to edge into this slowly, grab a collection of short stories or the novel from a decade or so about the girl lost in the woods.

Game On,
fbmf

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, right? I would highly recommend it. Did you know they adapted it into a children's pop-up book?

Personally, I'm not a big fan of Stand. It's not the length that gets me, it's the fact that Molly Ringwald ruined it for me.

Posted: **Wed Apr 06, 2016 2:44 pm**

Shrapnel wrote:You're talking about the scene where

the kids are lost in the sewers after defeating the clown the first time, and so they all fuck... Beverly, I wanna say? And then after that they are somehow able to find their way home.

right?

I mean, I'm a humongous King fan, but I won't even try to defend that.

Cracked mentioned that scene about a week ago. I remember being utterly confused when I got to it.

MisterDee wrote:Honestly, while that particular scene is squicky beyond belief, my pet peeve with It is

the whole Turtle cosmic horror clusterfuck. It really drew me out of the personnal horror/triumph over past trauma theme straight into OMGWTFBBQ befuddlement.

Yeah, I felt anything that had to do with that was unnecessary and weird. I liked how the movie handled it, better. I'd rather just see that the person is catatonic rather than knowing what's going on inside their crazy head.

I think my favorite part of the book that didn't make it into the movies was the stuff regarding Patrick Hockstetter. A loosely based a D&D villain off of him.

The idea is that he was a sociopathic kid who had this delusion that he was the only thing (or at least person) who existed. He didn't really care what he did to anyone, because he figured it didn't matter. Oddly enough, he had an understanding for rules and consequences, so he knew not to get caught. Still, I'm not sure why he was concerned with rules and consequences from people who weren't real. He ends up smothering his baby brother because he fears that he might also be real, and this disturbed him.

Posted: **Sun Apr 10, 2016 2:40 am**

Nebuchadnezzar wrote:I've only ever read a couple of short stories by S. King. Having seen a few adaptations, he's never struck me as an author I'd be into. I'm currently laid up from recent surgery, and painkillers are rendering me willing to give him a shot. What one-and-done book might be a good choice for this?

The Stand
The Gunslinger (revised edition), but I recommend the series (Wizards and Glass and the ending of the series suck, though. When King warns you to stop reading in book 7, please listen.)
'Salem's Lot

Posted: **Sun Apr 10, 2016 8:56 pm**

I recommend not bothering.

Seriously, Stephen King is probably the most overrated author of all time.

Posted: **Wed Apr 13, 2016 2:07 pm**

Rule 34 is real, you guys.

Tired of crooked politicians and broken promises, Lorp is perfectly fine with not even voting during this presidential election cycle. They’re all the same, anyway, aren’t they? But when Lorp’s roommate introduces him to the hot, handsome democratic socialist Bernie Sambers, Lorp immediately starts to change his tune. Soon enough, they are at a Bernie rally supporting the sexiest candidate in the game. However, things start getting fishy once wilderness creatures begin showing up at the event. How is Bernie so perfect, anyway? Could some sort of magic be involved? Lorp finds his answers soon enough in a political anal reaming that will have your jaw on the floor! This erotic tale is 4,000 words of sizzling human on unicorn presidential candidate action, including anal, blowjobs, rough sex, and gay democratic socialist love.

Posted: **Wed Apr 13, 2016 2:22 pm**

Found in the "How to get bestiality by Amazon" category.
There's all sorts of strange stuff like that out there.
Millionaire Bear Boss.
Dinosaur Pornfiction.

Posted: **Wed Apr 13, 2016 3:20 pm**

Chuck Tingle has to be some kind of parody writer, right? He wrote Fucked in the Butt By My Butt and the sequel: Fucked in the Butt By "Fucked in the Butt By My Butt".

Posted: **Wed Apr 13, 2016 4:16 pm**

My favorite title is "Living Inside My Own Butt For Eight Years, Starting A Business And Turning A Profit Through Common Sense Reinvestment And Strategic Targeted Marketing".

The Gaming Den

What books are you reading now?