Before 1980 or so, the idea of a doorstopper horror novel—something longer than 500 pages or so—would barely even be thought about, much less attempted. The one who changed this, of course, was Stephen King. The Stand and IT were the vanguard. Others followed, but the whole phenomenon has a family resemblance.
Speaking of family, Joe Hill is the author of the nearly 700-page NOS4A2, and his full name is Joseph Hilstrom King. He was the kid with the voodoo doll in Creepshow. He's good at balancing things, with a scaled-up everydayness reminiscent of his father and a slithery Rolls-driving villain who has some Thomas Ligotti qualities.
The author photograph in back shows Hill posed on a motorbike, kind of like a young David Hasselhoff. A poster of Hasselhoff during his Knight Rider days is a recurring element in the heroine's life, so this could be a deliberate effect. Or Hill just has a dorky idea of what's badass. So, funny either way.
Speaking of family, Joe Hill is the author of the nearly 700-page NOS4A2, and his full name is Joseph Hilstrom King. He was the kid with the voodoo doll in Creepshow. He's good at balancing things, with a scaled-up everydayness reminiscent of his father and a slithery Rolls-driving villain who has some Thomas Ligotti qualities.
The author photograph in back shows Hill posed on a motorbike, kind of like a young David Hasselhoff. A poster of Hasselhoff during his Knight Rider days is a recurring element in the heroine's life, so this could be a deliberate effect. Or Hill just has a dorky idea of what's badass. So, funny either way.
2 comments:
It's hard for me to think of much to say about the novels written by Steven King, Thomas Ligotti, Joe Hill or any other authors of modern horror fiction since I haven't read them or not very much (some Steven King long ago). My tastes in popular fiction have always leaned toward the mystery and science fiction sides and a fair amount of non genre specific works too.
I'm not fond of horror movies either (the news is usually enough for me) but oddly enough I do remember going to see the opening of Creepshow in Providence. Jer was really into it and so was Chris but I can't seem to remember if you came too. Do you? Steven King and George Romero were there to introduce the film and it was all very silly. I guess that was the only time I saw Joe Hill.
I bounce from genre to genre in my reading in order to keep some kind of balance. Horror comes up every few weeks. In general, and it depends on the writer as well, I think it works better in short stories. A lot of horror novels wind up failing as horror or as novels, sometimes both. So Hill strikes me as ahead of the pack in that way. Still not to everybody's taste, though.
From what I recall you and Jerry saw Creepshow when I was in Canada. I remember Jerry being pretty jazzed about it. I did get to see it later on. Interestingly enough the water-zombie story featured Ted Danson right before he became famous for Cheers. I think a lot of the silliness was intentional.
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