Status Updates From Danse Macabre

Yeah, I think maybe that’s what I want to leave you with, in lieu of a good night kiss, that word which children respect instinctively, that word who truth, we only rediscover as adults in our stories, and in our dreams, magic.

That we may turn the powerful intuition of our imaginations upon them, and regard them in the glass of dreams that we may, however, timidly, place our hands within the hole which opens at the center of the column of truth.

We fall from womb to tomb, from one blackness and towards another, remembering little of the one and knowing nothing of the other, except Through faith. That we retain our sanity in the face of the simply yet binding mysteries is nearly divine.

It’s not A Dance of death at all, not really. There is a third level here, as well. It is, at bottom, A Dance of dreams. It’s a way of awakening the child inside, who never dies, but only sleeps ever more deeply. If the horror story is our rehearsal for death, then its stretched moralities make it also a reaffirmation of life and Goodwill and simple imagination. Just one more pipeline to the infinite.

The job of the fantasy horror writer is to make you, for a little while, a child again. To provide a single powerful spectacle for the third eye.

The imagination is an eye, marvelous third eye that floats free. As children, we see with 2020 clarity. As we grow older, it’s vision begins to dim. And one day the guy at the door lets you into a bar without asking to see any ID and that’s it for you. .. The job of the fantasy writer or the horror writer, is to bust the walls of that tunnel vision wide for a little while….

…. A partner in a rotting ball gown, a partner with missing eye sockets, green mold growing on her elbow length gloves, maggots, squirming in the thin remains of her hair. To hold such a creature in arms?

The Danes macabre is a waltz with death. This is the truth we cannot afford to shy away from. Like the rides in the amusement park, which mimic violent death, the tale of horror is a chance to examine what’s going on behind doors, which we usually keep double locked. The human imagination is not content with locked doors. Somewhere there is another dancing partner the imagination whispers in the night….

Apparently, The Shining is "maddening, perverse and disappointing," and also one of King's favorites! How helpful.

"In no case did I simply reheat something I had written before; I tried as hard as I could to develop each idea as fully as possible without beating it into the ground. In some cases, I may have done just that, though, and all I can do in such cases is to beg your indulgence.

And I think that really is the end."

Doesn't often end books with an apology, also acknowledges trying and failing to wrap up many times.

"If the horror story is our rehearsal for death, then its strict moralities make it also a reaffirmation of life and good will and simple imagination—just one more pipeline to the infinite."

One cohesive argument in 450 pages--not bad, not bad.

"....like talking with an apocalyptic Saladmaster salesman who has just taken three large bennies", yeah, cuz we can all relate to that. Perfect analogy, Steve.

I believe it’s this feeling of reintegration arising from a field specializing in death, fear, and monstrosity, that makes the Danes macabre, so rewarding and magical... that and the boundless ability of the human imagination to create endless dreamworlds and then put them to work.

"...posters in New York suggested, that the Ayatollah Khomeini is a puppet of—yeah, you guessed it—David Rockefeller."

King's recollection of a visit from the Black Panthers is so much more interesting than everything else in this book.

This is the kind of thing King should have reserved for his diary, it's insulting to the reader to be so casual and aimless: "Oh dear God, we're off on another tangent"

King's fixations are admittedly entertaining. His grudge against hypothetical readers who turn to the back of the book to see the ending is almost as funny as his obviously sincere suggestion of publishing a book without the last 30 pages, which would be mailed to the reader only if they could accurately summarize everything that lead up to those pages.

Whoah! Talk about dated. He savages Wes Craven just 4 years before horror fans are treated to Nightmare.

I've never been able to articulate why the Romero movies always frustrated me, despite the fact that they're among the handful of decent zombie movies in existence. King's example about the old woman eating a bug makes me think my issue with them is that the point of those movies is usually to be gross or disturbing. World War Z is a lot more fun.

Wish he'd elaborate on why he thinks Kubrick's Shining is "maddening, perverse and disappointing."

It's crazy that King expects his readers to pay for reprinted reviews of bad movies that he then comments on, in addition to a quiz that takes up a couple of pages. This is Chizmar-level commoditization.

For 55 pages, he's been writing about "William Friedkin's Prophecy" and "tadpoles as big as salmon" but there are 20 or 30 pages between these references. He can't stay on topic for more than a sentence, which serves his purpose because the arguments he's making are mostly facile, very subjective or just one-sided. Wanting to be scared is counterintuitive, but serves a purpose, we get it.