Line #5 Trivia/StephenKing


1	* BeamMeUpScotty: There's an unflattering quote comparing the rich, moral complexity of ''Franchise/HarryPotter'' to the relative shallowness of ''Literature/TheTwilightSaga'' often attributed to him: "''Harry Potter'' is about confronting fears, finding inner strength and doing what is right in the face of adversity. ''Twilight'' is about how important it is to have a boyfriend." While this does reflect King's personal opinions about both books, the quote actually came from blogger Robin Browne.
2	** He also never said, "I have seen the future of horror, and it is named Clive Barker." According to Douglas Winter (a friend of King's and author of ''Stephen King: The Art of Darkness''), King actually said, "Well, I haven’t read this guy [Barker], but from what I understand, it’s like what Jann Wenner said: ‘I have seen the future of rock and roll, and his name is Bruce Springsteen.’ Sounds like Clive Barker might be the ‘future of horror fiction.’” Berkeley Books transformed that quote into their famous blurb.[[note]] And, ironically, King's actual quote contains a misquote, because it was music critic Jon Landau who originated the line about Springsteen, the actual line was "I saw rock and roll future and its name is Bruce Springsteen," and it didn't even appear in Wenner's ''Rolling Stone'', for which Landau did some writing, but the Boston-based weekly ''The Real Paper''.[[/note]]
3	* FanCommunityNicknames: Constant Readers.
4	* LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition: Many of King's novels have been published as these by specialty presses. Some have even premiered as such; both ''Literature/TheGunslinger'' and ''Literature/TheEyesOfTheDragon'' took years after their limited edition to get published in trade format.
5	* RealLifeWritesThePlot: In 1999, King was struck by a van while walking along a road. His personal brush with death was later incorporated into several of his works, including his ''Dark Tower'' series, which he hastened to complete so he wouldn't leave it unfinished.
6	** Also inspired the short story of "Memory", as the story was inspired by what King was able to remember and not remember from having the accident.
7	* TechnologyMarchesOn: Reading "Word Processor of the Gods" is hilarious 30+ years after its publication in 1983. The WANG word processor as it's described in the story went for a ''starting price'' of $3000, and could cost up to $18k! In the days of $400 desktops, it's funny. Knowing that price got you a whopping [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Laboratories#Wang_OIS_2 64K of RAM]] is unbelievable.
8	* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The entire 200-page manuscript for his novel ''The Cannibals'' vanished midway through writing it. King has never found the missing manuscript, and can't bring himself to start over. He did work elements of it into ''Literature/UnderTheDome'' though.
9	* WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants: Self-admitted, in ''On Writing''. He comes up with a basic "What If?" premise and then makes the story up as he goes along, filling in character traits on the fly and never concerning himself with "theme" or "symbolism" until he gets stuck and needs to find a way out. He stated that -- aside from ''Literature/TheDeadZone'' -- he dislikes his "plotted" books such as ''Literature/RoseMadder'' and ''Literature/{{Insomnia}},'' calling them "stiff, trying-too-hard" novels.[[note]] The heavy plotting was his attempt to tie both into his then-ongoing ''Dark Tower'' series, which was for naught as the latter ended up being hand-waved away in-universe while the former had no relevance[[/note]] However, this approach sometimes backfires on him, leading to criticisms of his rushed, sloppy endings that he often agrees with.
10	* WrongfullyAttributed: As noted on the main page King himself shares his name with former Iowa Representative Steve King [[note]] albeit the politician King spells his name "Steven" rather than "Stephen" [[/note]], something which has caused him [[https://twitter.com/StephenKing/status/1059055138416050176 some consternation]] [[OneSteveLimit given the latter's]] [[MistakenIdentity history of making]] [[MistakenForRacist racist statements]].
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Context Trivia / StephenKing