Ahead of what’s billed as the author’s first Canadian public appearance tomorrow, here are a few (okay, 50) of the many things to love about Stephen King.
1 His ability to make grown people want to sleep with the lights on.
2 Teaching us the folly of naming our cars.
3 Using his powers for good and unabashedly championing new authors, musicians and filmmakers in his Entertainment Weekly “Pop of King” column.
4 After injuries sustained in a 1999 hit-and-run, created the Haven Foundation, helping freelance artists who can’t pay for medical bills. All proceeds from Blaze, out Tuesday, go to the foundation.
5 Staying sober but not silent about his lifelong fight with addiction.
6 Admitting he based the father in The Shining on his alcoholic self.
7 On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft.
8 His ceremonial pitch in Fever Pitch and other too-long-to-be- Hitchcock-esque film and TV show cameos based on his work.
9 His love of the Red Sox. See Faithful, the not great, but heartfelt look at the ‘04 season he co-wrote with Stewart O’Nan.
10 Little Red Riding Hood retelling, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.
11 Misery‘s Annie Wilkes’s love of romance novels and hobbling.
12 Short story The Body, which became the movie Stand by Me.
13 Short story Rita Hayworth and the Shawskank Redemption, which became the movie The Shawshank Redemption.
14 “Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.”
15 The long version of The Stand.
16 “Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule.”
17 The cellphone zombies in Cell.
18 Citing the great Richard Matheson (I am Legend) as a strong influence.
19 Publicly pleading with author J.K. Rowling not to kill Harry Potter.
20 “Read four hours a day and write four hours a day. If you cannot find the time for that, you can’t expect to become a good writer.”
21 “In the dark mouth of the garage, Cujo stood up and began to advance slowly, head lowered, down the crushed gravel towards her.”
22 “There was dried blood caked on Church’s muzzle, and caught in his long whiskers were two tiny shreds of green plastic. Bits of Hefty bag.”
23 Making us just a bit afraid that our own pets could go bad at any time.
24 The beautiful, grown-up love story Lisey’s Story.
25 “We each owe a death, there are no exceptions, I know that, but sometimes, oh God, the Green Mile is so long.”
26 “Tommyknockers, Tommyknockers ...” No, sorry, that really was total crap.
27 The story of how wife Tabitha rescued the crumbled pages of Carrie from the garbage can.
28 Carrie.
29 “Batman forever, of course” (when asked his superhero preference). “Supes was too darned perfect.”
30 He isn’t afraid of self-criticism, calling Rose Madder and Insomnia ”...(much as I hate to admit it) stiff, trying-too-hard novels.”
31 His not-so-great fashion sense.
32 His novels and short stories are intertwined; characters from one pop up peripherally in others.
33 “Books are a uniquely portable magic.”
34 His fanboy glee over Lost, which, of course, references him.
35 That he did not write the brutally bad Lost tie-in book Bad Twin.
36 Letting Marvel go comic book on The Dark Tower series.
37 The character Dolores Claiborne who states that, “Sometimes being a bitch is all a woman has to hold on to.”
38 The Dead Zone.
39 An almost-Dickensian talent for naming villains: You never want to meet Leland Gaunt, Randall Flagg, Morgan Sloat, Mr. Straker, Percy Wetmore or George Stark.
40
41 His work with Peter Straub, The Talisman and Black House.
42 “When his life was ruined, his family killed, his farm destroyed, Job knelt down on the ground and yelled up to the heavens, `Why God? Why me?’ and the thundering voice of God answered, `There’s just something about you that pisses me off’.”
43 Alter-ego Richard Bachman, responsible for, among others, The Running Man, written some 20 years before anyone had thought of Survivor.
44 “The beauty of religious mania is that it has the power to explain everything. Once God (or Satan) is accepted as the first cause of everything which happens in the mortal world, nothing is left to chance ... logic can be happily tossed out the window.”
45 He causes self-congratulatory snobs like literary critic Harold Bloom to froth at the mouth and expose themselves for the obnoxious elitists that they are.
46 The notice when King got a U.S. National Book Awards lifetime achievement award that caused Bloom to go ballistic: “Stephen King’s writing is securely rooted in the great American tradition that glorifies spirit-of-place and the abiding power of narrative. ... This award commemorates Mr. King’s well-earned place of distinction in the wide world of readers and book lovers of all ages.”
47 “What I’m interested in is attacking readers’ emotions because I don’t think reading should be an intellectual affair.”
48 He was once a teacher.
49 Consistently excellent and very inspiring use of profanity.
50 And, of course, having guest-starred on The Simpsons as himself.
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