Stephen King says Twilight author "can't write worth a darn".

[cynatnite]

LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- Stephen King's opinion may drive a stake through the heart of "Twilight" author, Stephenie Meyer.

In an interview with USA Weekend, the bestselling author compared Meyer with J.K. Rowling , the author of the Harry Potter series.

According to Stephen, "Both Rowling and Meyer, they're speaking directly to young people... The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can't write worth a darn. She's not very good."

http://omg.yahoo.com/news/stephen-king-on-twilight-author-stephenie-meyer-can-t-write-worth-a-darn/18406?nc

ouch!

[Lyric]

1. I'll probably get pilloried for it, but he's right.

I read through some of it the other day. It's really not very good writing at all--and I'm a BIG fantasy lit fan.

[NashVegas]

76. Of Course He's Right, But Does It Matter?

Maybe King could step up to the plate and try to write something with 12 year old girls in mind.

[EastTennesseeDem]

2. Atta boy Stephen

I'm sure the pitchforks will soon be out though.

[The Backlash Cometh]

47. One of Meyer's fans shot back saying that Stephen King is just jealous because

he'll never be an Edward.

[Danger Mouse]

3. Stephen King's not exactly fantastic himself, but he's right about this.

[The Backlash Cometh]

32. I don't think anyone would disagree about her writing style,

but it still worked for her target audience. Who by the way, no hw to read txt.

[ogneopasno]

4. Yup, he's right.

Meyer is a hack, and a Mormon hack, at that.

[SidneyCarton]

58. Which, of course makes her worse than any other type of hack?

Shades of Radio Lady's "asian woodcutter" here.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

5. Epic win by Stephen King.

:thumbsup:

[no name no slogan]

6. Hello Kettle. This is the Pot. You know what? You're black.

King is a good writer in his genre, but he's not a great writer. However, he's still a lot better than Meyer, who I put on par with the "Left Behind" guys. :puke:

[Chan790]

10. Well...

and this is just my opinion. He's occasionally a better writer and a better student of the art of writing than people give him credit for. His work is uneven and some of it is out-rightly terrible.

He just really liked the pulp monster novels of his childhood...all writers emulate the the style of the books they love to read. King writes in a style which draws a lot of inspiration from the dime-store monster magazines, comic books, cowboy shows and monster flicks of his childhood. Having read some of the material he has written outside of the horror genre, it's some of the best prose I've read from a major author publishing within the past 20 years. His journalism work for a variety of publications, but most notably EW, is insightful and knowledgeable of modern culture and possesses a strong critical eye for the talent of other writers.

He taught creative writing and people I know who have taken the course he taught from time-to-time at U of Maine prior to the accident say that he made them better writers. Personally, his book On Writing is a staple of my creative writing instruction.

That said...he's not my cup of tea. I don't really like horror fiction. I do think that he will have a far greater amount of respect as a writer in 50 years than he does now. The high-quality work will stand through time and the shit will be lost forever to history, same as other writers. Some of the great writers of history...Dumas, Hugo, Balzac, Zola, Stevenson...were held in equally-low regard in their day as writers of poorly-written pop-schlock. Having read a good deal of it, a lot of it was pop-schlock...but those works are for the most part not widely-read any longer.

[blondeatlast]

26. "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" is my favorite novel ever next to "To Kill

A Mockingbird."

I know I'm not SUPPOSED to like King that much but and that he isn't a great writer, but he is a great storyteller. I read "Tom Gordon" out loud with some 9th graders--it was wonderful.

[raccoon]

81. never mind, someone answered my question downthread. nt

[jobycom]

21. Not true.

I wouldn't put King in the Nabokov or Fitzgerald category, but his writing is better than most other best sellers these days. "Bag of Bones," "Lisey's Story," and "Duma Key" easily transcend their genre.

"Twilight" is really poorly written. My teenager and her friends laugh at it, though they still like the story. Putting her and King in the same category is like putting Bush and Obama in the same category because neither is JFK. There's a world of difference between the two.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

38. King's ON WRITING is a legitimate look into the craft.

I learned a lot, including a hate of adverbs, from that book. He definitely is not a classic author, but he is not a hack, either.

[Richard Steele]

100. You are so WRONG, I am feeling EMBARRASSED on your behalf.

King is not a GOOD writer, he's just a POPULAR writer...
But he's never made any pretense towards anything otherwise.

He described his own body of work once:
"My books are the Literary equivalent of a Big Mac with Fries".

THAT gives him the cred to call Meyer's work what it is,
and makes your pot/kettle analogy completely inappropriate.

[graywarrior]

7. Stephen is becoming much freer with his opinions lately

Hmmmmm....I wonder why?

[XemaSab]

24. 'Cause he's a brazillionaire and doesn't have to prove shit to anyone?

:D

[graywarrior]

27. Kind of

but he's too nice for that

[redqueen]

62. That's making me think bad thoughts.

Stop that, you! :P

[graywarrior]

65. I know what you're thinking.

:spank:

[redqueen]

79. I didn't want to think it.

:(

[graywarrior]

80. go ahead....

I do

[MadMaddie]

8. Hmmmm where to start...

I have read most if not all of Kings books and many are entertaining. But there are some where I have to put the book down because I was drowning in too much detail.

King writes for an adult audience many teens would not read his books.

The Twilight Authors target audience is teenagers and guess what the teens are reading. I have read all of the Twilight series and I found the books engaging and rather captivating.

That's my two cents..

[DarkTirade]

9. I still haven't read Twilight yet, but from everything I've heard, it's basically bad fan fiction.

And we've already got plenty of that on the internet for free.

[MountainLaurel]

37. Even worse, Mormon fan fiction n/t

[DarkTirade]

57. Ewww, now I really don't want to read it.

[SidneyCarton]

59. Sigh,... which of course makes it infinitely worse than?

Catholic fan fiction? Muslim fan fiction? Hare Krishna fan fiction?

[MountainLaurel]

69. That's the thing

Most fanfic doesn't have such an overtly religious viewpoint.

[Phillycat]

89. Yes. It espouses a particular brand of Mormon abstinence which is both

misogynistic and patronizing. :puke:

[SidneyCarton]

93. I see...

Well then, as it is obviously a more popular read than the Book of Mormon, I suppose that the missionaries will start handing it out.

sigh...

[Phillycat]

97. What are you sighing about? Are you a Mormon?

[SidneyCarton]

102. Yes.

n/t

[Phillycat]

105. Okay, first of all, you don't understand what n/t is for.

Second, you can't actually expect to receive sympathetic understanding on Democratic Underground for belonging to a religion that espouses hate and intolerance. Your brethren just disenfranchised and removed BASIC CIVIL RIGHTS from a huge part of our base in California. Mormonism = hate. If you want to participate in an online forum that believes differently, I encourage you to look elsewhere.

[SidneyCarton]

108. Thank you Skinner, I take my pizza with extra cheese and bacon.

:sarcasm:

[ghostsofgiants]

11. Do Meyers' vampires die when you stake 'em in the heart?

They don't tend to comply with your usual vampire mythology.

Seriously, diamond skin is why they can't go out in sunlight? Get fucked.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

15. "Get fucked" - LMAO!

:rofl:

[ghostsofgiants]

18. Seriously, I couldn't believe it when I saw that in the movie.

I didn't pay attention to whether they could enter a house without being invited in or not, but they probably start smelling like fresh baked cupcakes if they do.

[EastTennesseeDem]

23. That sounds like an inventive compromise.

Definitely one Miss Meyer might like to add to her tool belt.

Seriously, Let the Right One In had the mythology down.

[ghostsofgiants]

34. I could totally write shitty vampire stories too if I wanted.

:P

[DarkTirade]

74. Man, you and I should collaborate.

When I get bored I can write the most godawful goth poetry... :P

[PVnRT]

28. +1

:thumbsup:

[Aristus]

12. King is an excellent short story and non-fiction writer, just like Harlan Ellison.

He's a very poor novelist, though. I can't read his new stuff anymore.

[SoxFan]

13. I agree with you on this

King's short stories are much better than his novels, generally speaking.

His biggest problem is that he can not for the life of him get to the point in less than 800 pages. His earlier novels, such as Carrie and Salem's Lot, were much shorter and much better than The Tommyknockers, It, etc.

[wickerwoman]

44. That's a good point.

I read almost almost everything he wrote in the 1980-2000 period and can't for the life of me remember how a single novel ends. I know I made it to the end but his resolutions are almost always terrible and it's obvious in a lot of books that he didn't plot through the end.

He tends to embrace kitschy non-linear story-telling just for the hell of it and even when it detracts from the story rather than enhancing it. Wizard and Glass really pissed me off because he was trying to be Joseph Conrad and he just isn't. And don't get me started on the ending of the Dark Tower series. Fucking literary masturbation of the worst kind.

I haven't read the Twilight books (they lost me at vegetarian vampires) but I do really respect Stephen King's opinion. I just wish he would be what he is (an interesting story-teller with some great characters and plot twists) and stop trying to be an Artist.

[blonndee]

14. I agree. King's short stories are amazing, overall.

His later novels have disappointed me. I really hated "Dreamcatchers" and "Cell," and I thought that my love affair with King was over. But I recently read the novel "Duma Key," which I thought was very Bag-of-Bones-ish in its character development, and liked it. That said, I did indeed get bored with its wordiness and its sagging plot(and did with Bag of Bones, as well.). About 2/3 through, I just thought, "shut up already, tell me what happens!" and was ready to put the book down already, like I have been tempted to do with King before. I had to keep slogging on, though, because that's just part of King for me. His good stuff so heavily outweighs the bad that I just overlook it, deliberately.

[Shakespeare]

16. My feelings exactly.

In fact, I think he's greatly underrated as a short story writer. I like the comparison to Ellison, btw. Interesting, and spot on.

[AwakeAtLast]

17. If anyone wants to argue, two words: Shawshank Redemption

I have really enjoyed his article in Entertainment Weekly, too!

[Connonym]

19. this, exactly

He's got some lemons but he also has a few pieces that are phenomenal. A lot of his haters haven't really ever read his work.

[alphafemale]

106. Shawshank Redemption and a few others will still be read two hundred years from now.

I think it is interesting that most of his best work has nothing to do with the supernatural at all.

[Strong Atheist]

103. Harlan Ellison! Aack!

:puke:

He should have been abducted by aliens at birth!

The most negative sf writer I have EVER read (and I read thousands of stories when I was younger; it pissed my teachers off, because I was always reading sf in class instead of the work... a book a day).

Have you read "I have no mouth, and I must scream"? Did you read his editorial "Reaping the whirlwind", where he calls all of his readers a**holes or words to that effect?

:puke:

[foxfeet]

20. I'm reading the third book now. I haven't been impressed,

but then I'm not, and depite the rumors, never have been a 14 year-old girl. It's blissfully easy to skim though, but I am sick of the teen angst and 'sex as death' ongoing metaphor. At this point I honestly would be pleasantly surprised if Bella gets knocked up and spits out eight little bats.

[Lorien]

73. I didn't think that there was even a hint of chemistry between the characters

in the film. It's so chaste that it seems laughable. Teens have raging hormones-or did she forget already?

[Hanse]

22. I'm a big fan of King's work.

More importantly for this thread, King's got a great ear (eye?) for language.

I don't know of any other author I respect more when it comes to critiquing other people's work.

He's as well read as anybody, and he's the author of the best book on the subject of writing fiction.

[Lucian]

25. He's absolutely right.

[PVnRT]

29. Hell yes

Not only is it poorly-written fan fiction, it's also thinly-veiled Mormon family values propaganda. Blech.

[bigwillq]

30. My sister would probably agree

with King...she thinks the Twilight books weren't very well-written either. And she's read a lot of books so I value her opinion.

[Blue_Tires]

31. i'm not agreeing or disagreeing with king, but for perspective

shakespeare was never thought of as a truly 'great' writer during his lifetime, despite his popularity...his stuff was considered by many of his contemporaries as lowbrow schlock for the unwashed masses...sort of like michael bay today

edit: and I am NOT saying that 100 years from now bay will be considered 'great'

[Strong Atheist]

104. I have a smart friend (smarter than I) who thinks a lot of shakespeare

was stuff written to get him laid/paid. I don't have an opinion on this...

[Mad_Dem_X]

33. He speaks the truth. n/t

[old mark]

35. King has become a pretty good writer over the years - Everything since

"Bag of Bones" has been so much better than his earlier work. He is really amazing.

King really likes Nelson DeMille, so his opinions are pretty valid.

mark

[XemaSab]

95. His early stuff was really good

His early-middle stuff was hit-or-miss, his later-middle stuff was dull, and he's picked back up again in the last few years. :shrug:

[Orsino]

36. Genius grasps the obvious, years late. n/t

[JoDog]

39. Man's got a point

I've read some of it. Couldn't struggle for longer than a few pages each time. And I was an English minor!

King was much more polite than I would have been. Bless Meyer for making a mint of money, but I really hope that when Twilight fans get a little older, they have enough taste to be a little embarassed about the liking the series.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

40. Yes!

Writer fight!

[bikebloke]

41. I'm picking up Twilight from the library on Saturday.

I thought I'd give it a go as a popcorn read. If it seems like a struggle, I'll put put it down and grab another. There are too many books to read to waste time on poorly written crap.

I liked Stephen King's early works, but eventually he obviously needed a forceful editor to trim the fat. I'd read that Cell was a return to his old writing. And it did start out crackling that way, but unraveled in the latter part.

[Iggo]

42. What a dick! (n/t)

[Iggo]

48. Oops...wrong place. (n/t)

[LisaM]

43. Stephanie Meyer's not a very good writer

Good teen story, not well executed, and the dialogue was excrutiatingly bad.

On the other hand, I would like to state that I don't think Rowling is that great a writer, either. Her books are hopelessly padded. Compare her to a real writer, like E. Nesbit, and you'll see what I mean. She's not horrible, and I suppose she can write circles around Stephanie Meyer, but I didn't find her writing all that impressive.

[LaraMN]

45. Huh. So it wasn't just the movie that sucked.

Noted.

[Midlodemocrat]

46. Yeah, the movie sucked, but those vampire guys?

Rworrrrrrr. Carlisle is so frickin' HAWT!!!

[Iggo]

49. He's not mad about her writing skills.

He's mad she sells a lot of books.

I ain't selling records, so Yngwie doesn't care that I totally suck. See how that works?

[PVnRT]

52. Huh? King could smear shit on a page and it would be a bestseller

I seriously doubt jealousy is the motivator here.

[Iggo]

53. Evidently, so can she.

[LanternWaste]

56. Consistently, and over a span of thirty years?

"Evidently, so can she."

Consistently, and over a span of thirty years?

Not quite-- her sub-literature is just that.

[Iggo]

60. Not sayin' she's better.

Just sayin' good writers get pissed when bad writers make a ton of money.

[nomorenomore08]

96. As well they should! Being a barely-published "good writer" myself, that is...

:P

[NashVegas]

110. Writers Are Second Only to Jazz Musicians When It Comes to Professional Jealousy

misc.writing used to be hilarious for the ego blow-ups.

[FloridaJudy]

50. I've avoided Twilight

There's so much good young adult fiction, I don't see the need. I'm a voracious reader - about four books a week, most of them fiction.

IMHO, both Rowling and King are sterling writers. People forget that the "classic" authors were also popular hacks: Dickens and Twain wrote for the money just as much as King and Rowling. And believe me, Dickens and Twain wrote a lot of second rate crap. I was once put on bed-rest for a serious medical condition while in a foreign country. The only books I could easily get were in a complete set of Dickens and Twain. Bartleby Rudge and Tom Sawyer, Detective anyone? Nothing that King has written is that bad! Still, when they were good they were very good indeed. Huckleberry Finn and Great Expectations have earned their place in the Pantheon.

I suspect that King and Rowling will still be read a hundred years from now. And Twilight will become a historical curiosity, along with the "Left Behind" series.

[mvd]

51. I've started Twilight

Actually got my interest, but it actually seems a bit run of the mill and more like some of the romance novels than the great storytelling of J.K. Rowling. I'll probably like it but not see it as that memorable.

[ScreamingMeemie]

54. Edward's HOTTTTT...and so is Jasper....

That's all I have to say about that.

[Midlodemocrat]

61. And Carlisle? WooHoo.

Emmett is pretty cute, too.

[dropkickpa]

55. Sweet Valley Vamps

Treacly navel gazing thinly veiled morality play, so I tend to agree with King, who himself isn't my favorite writer in the world. I like my urban fantasy/horror to have a little more bite to it, thank you very much.

[NV Whino]

63. Stephen King is correct

Not that I read his novels either.

[Taverner]

64. Is it true Meyer is a Fundie?

[buzzycrumbhunger]

68. A Mormon fundie (is that redundant?)

She was an English major from BYU, neither of which makes her an expert on writing or vampires. (I'm still trying to figure out why this seems to be such a popular theme with that demographic.)

What's really amazing is the horrible editing that got through to press. I've seen self-published books that were infinitely better on the basis of punctuation alone, and don't even get me started on the limited fund of adjectives and the fact she couldn't settle on one POV to write from.

[XemaSab]

94. I'll tell you why vampires are popular with teen girls

It's like having sex without actually having sex.

Now you know.

[buzzycrumbhunger]

98. LOL. . . I'm not so sure

As a teen girl, I totally would've gone for the real deal. The problem I see is that these Mormons, specifically, don't even realize this is the equivalent. Mothers are going apeshit because they're so glad their girls are reading, and are almost as rabid fans as the kids are. . . but it's like they're culturally retarded or something and don't comprehend what they're encouraging.

It makes me flash on that Steve Martin joke where he's invited to a party with S&M and he figures, "Great! Spaniards and Mexicans. Maybe there will be tacos." :P

[XemaSab]

101. I would have gone for the real deal too

;)

I really think this is it though, especially since a lot of vampire books have the atmosphere of the erotic without being graphic and strangely, without being threatening. Getting bitten by a hot vampire and becoming an immortal vampire yourself is MUCH cooler than getting VD and having your boyfriend dump you for a cheerleader. :P

[leeroysphitz]

66. LOLz. Hello pot? It's the kettle calling...

[huskerlaw]

67. That's true, but

Twilight is like a Twinkie. Absolutely no redeeming value, but damn good anyway. The same cannot be said for some of Stephen King's recent works.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

70. He's not wrong.

Stephen King, at this point, doesn't have to sell another book for the rest of his life. But he will because he is just that awesome. Honestly, after everything that he has gone through in the last decade or two, let him say whatever he wants. He's earned it. Personally, I love Stephen King. Who could be that down to earth being who he is? Only that guy. He's awesome.
Duckie

[Inspired]

71. That might be but my daughter can't put these books down.

So what's the problem?

[oregonjen]

72. I agree, what's the problem?

Many people are enjoying them. What's wrong with that? I happened to have had a great time reading them and then enjoying talking about them with my daughter. It was a great way to enjoy something fun with her, during her early teenage angst years. We're looking forward to the next movie!

[BlueIris]

75. I'm tempted to make a pot/kettle joke here, but since I hate the "Twilight" shite,

I'll just let this go.

[MrSlayer]

77. So says the man who has cannibalized himself more than Mel Brooks.

He's probably right about Meyer but still, much of his later work is just rehashed, inferior material.

[Deja Q]

78. "Stephen King gets $500 for writing 'Boo!' on a napkin."

(I nicked that from 'The Critic' (1994, ABC) so I can't claim it. Would like to...)

[logosoco]

82. I had been wondering what King thought of the Twilight series....

I have almost every book King has written. My 14 year old daughter got hooked on Twilight last summer, so I decided to read them. I think they are good for their target audience. My 18 year old daughter read the Twilight series ,too (I was very pleased because she is not a reader like her siblings). She commented that Meyers writing was very similar to the way my 14 year old writes.
To me, a good book has to have a good story, but then again, I couldn't read Harry Potter or watch the movies(I don't get Brit humor or food either, so I think it's just me).
I am pretty sure , back in the day, there were writers calling King a bad writer.
I like any writer (even if I don't read them) who can get people reading and talking about the stories. I have heard people (elsewhere on the web!)talking, and many of them seemed closed minded, like, if you like one you can't like the other.How boring life would be if that were so.

( I don't really have a point here, I was just enjoying the thread and since I love the subject , wanted to chime in!)

[graywarrior]

83. I'm showing this thread to him

Na na na na na naaaaaaaaaaa

[redqueen]

84. Hahahaha...

I've avoided getting involved in the debate, cause I'm apparently very biased.

[graywarrior]

87. He'll just shake his head and offer me another chocolate

[redqueen]

91. Lucky!

Braggart!

I want a chocolate from Stephen King!

x(


:P

[graywarrior]

92. He's a choco-drug dealer

[MrsMatt]

85. She rolled her eyes. He smirked.

One variation or another of those two statements appears on about every third page of the Twilight story.

For god's sake, throw in an exasperated sigh once in awhile!

[Phillycat]

90. LOL!

:rofl:

[Dappleganger]

86. I agree and so do our teens

ages 17, 15 and 13 who are all big readers. They each read the first book and were bored to death, don't see what their friends like about it. It's dumbed-down literature with thin plots.

[Phillycat]

88. Well, that's the straight-up truth.

I still can't believe those books got published, and I'm not saying that in some sort of holier-than-thou book snob way. They're just horribly written. :shrug:

[malta blue]

99. Many "authors" today can't write.

Have you read Dan Brown? Anne Rice?

:puke:

Flame away...

[mvd]

107. Ok, I'm more than halfway through the book now

The writing is pretty horrible - I mean how many times can you say smirked, caressed, etc. - but I still want to see what happens. It's like an irresistable Britney Spears song.

[mitchum]

109. The pot calls the kettle hack