Jeff’s Reviews > Danse Macabre > Status Update

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.

"....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.

"...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."