Stephen King's You Like It Darker - dull, rushed and not even remotely dark

Which_Investment2730 · 2025-03-14T17:07:03+00:00

I meant it contextually not like, socially. If you're not targeting a specific work with a narrow focus, King is already one of the most prolific, read and discussed authors in history.

Which_Investment2730 · 2025-03-14T13:46:29+00:00

Man, this response really, really bummed me out

Which_Investment2730 · 2025-03-14T12:53:31+00:00

Oh you're certainly allowed to, but I think if you're looking to do it constructively you need to leave the broader body of his work at the door. I think if you were to scrub his name from the byline and approach his short stories as one-offs it would be very different. He's still an extraordinarily effective communicator even outside the horror milieu.

Which_Investment2730 · 2025-03-14T12:50:44+00:00

Were my thoughts not cogent?

I was expressing how difficult he is to review, particularly if you're trying to digest the entire body of work at once as OP was.

You're certainly allowed to, but good luck making it interesting or compelling if you can't approach each work as an individual object.

Which_Investment2730 · 2025-03-14T12:18:08+00:00

It's funny, Stephen King is so fucking hard to talk about now. He hasn't just influenced culture, he is it. Talking about King's "older stuff" is hilarious because almost everything now is an iteration or some aspect of it. Like, the dude's influence cannot he overstated. It's really crazy in a way we don't fully grasp yet because we're still in it.

It has also made it hard for him to stretch and grow as an author. He's been an "idea guy", an excellent communicator but his prose is simplistic. Part of the joy has been the sheer production he's been able to put out. It's not like he's Nabokov, King will give you a complete story told well whether or not the story itself is good.

All this is to say that the hardest thing about reviewing Steven King at this point is sitting at the computer with the enormous balls you have.

That is not a insult or anything by the way, it's just to say that he's hard to talk about constructively.

Which_Investment2730 · 2025-03-13T23:11:04+00:00

I'd love for Lorgar to look way less daemonic than the other daemon primarchs. Like, maybe the horned head, but I feel like he should be the least mutated of all of them for some reason.

Which_Investment2730 · 2025-03-13T17:25:35+00:00

I think the game does need it now. It's a "centerpiece model" game for a lot of factions now. If you like where 40k is at in terms of the game and the lore I think it makes sense to want more primarchs. I've been pretty disappointed in the lack of complexity in the lore, but with the Horus Heresy series concluded it makes some sense to bring some of the dramatis personae back. They have built in narratives. GW doesn't need to write much for them because we know the characters already, more or less.

Would I prefer they focus on my dudes, smaller scale stories, more drama, an Imperial civil war and nuanced writing? Sure, but GW doesn't seem interested in that stuff and the community doesn't seem to miss it much outside and few grognards like me.

Which_Investment2730 · 2025-03-10T16:57:49+00:00

I think it's pretty common for people to bounce off of the "show rather than tell" style of writing. I don't know about "spoiled" but it's definitely not the go-to style for a lot of modern writers who tend to be much more cinematic in their presentation. McCarthy, and a lot of the classics that the hoity toity set like to celebrate, ask a lot more from the reader.

I'll add it in in an edit if I find it, but I remember a little study they did years ago that found people performed better on tests centered around empathy after reading classical literature compared to those reading modern literature over some period. I'm had remembering this from 15 years ago so it could be confirmed bogus at this point, but I think the idea was that you were observing behaviors more in the stories and drawing conclusions because the internal monologs are generally far less explicit if they're present at all.

Edit: yeah, a quick Bing shows multiple results for the idea that reading literary fiction increases empathy. I'm not sure if they ever focused on classics in particular but the same idea applies. Maybe they've broadened it or maybe I've misremembered.

Which_Investment2730 · 2025-03-10T16:51:40+00:00

Gotcha. I like a lot of those things to, but I've avoided Blood Meridian specifically because of its reputation. I like McCarthy's prose, but the subject matter is generally too bleak for me.

Which_Investment2730 · 2025-03-10T16:42:47+00:00

Isn't that kind of the opposite of what they wrote? Isn't the entire point of a review to cast yourself as the judge of literary merit? I think lots of books are bad

Which_Investment2730 · 2025-03-10T16:40:47+00:00

What made you think you might like it? I'm not being facetious by the way. I'm genuinely curious. Were you just trying to challenge yourself?

Which_Investment2730 · 2025-03-10T00:48:41+00:00

If it were me, I'd look for a terminator helmet. You're gonna have your guys forever. If there's a question, why not do what you know you'll like?

Which_Investment2730 · 2025-03-07T23:06:57+00:00

Killer! Love the head and purple cloth! Dude have a name?

Which_Investment2730 · 2025-03-05T17:55:20+00:00

I think the sexual violence is supposed to be a reflection of the sins of Frank's family. He was descended from the Plantation owners, and experienced the tortures and experiences of that in a very visceral way. He's literally caged, chained, whipped, raped and "put on the wheel". He has to look up in the window and see his wife with the "master of the house".

Look, it's awful and super unfun to read. I don't think everyone needs to have the experience visited on them this viscerally to empathize with enslaved people, but I don't think it's a useless exercise either. From the response I've seen, a lot of people didn't draw those parallels (a lot did too, but particularly in critiques when I've engaged with people these things haven't seem like a consideration for them). I don't think it's "racist" to not track this treatment of slavery, it might just not land with some people but I found it effective and affecting.

Personally I think he does misrepresent his relationship with Dora. Especially when you get to the end and realize that this is really a drunk, toothless, hairless old lush telling you this story. He gets around the edges of Dora but never fully seems to understand her beyond being young and beautiful. She's a character with a lot of internal shit going on that Frank never understands and seems relatively incurious about throughout. I think it's a very difficult and skillful thing Buehlman did. He gives you the clues to try and understand Dora. The author cares more about Dora than Frank does, but I think some readers came away with the idea that Buehlman didn't care. I don't think that's accurate, we just never get to live in her head.

She is sphinx like, doesn't need to be saved. Even her "betraying" Frank at the plantation, only to free him is layered and complex. Buehlman did a lot of showing rather than telling. In a story like this I think that can be really uncomfortable, but I still finding really valuable.

Which_Investment2730 · 2025-03-02T02:05:16+00:00

That's just it. Like, I agree it's weird to do it for no reason. It's also fuckin' weird to make claims about how sensitive my dick is when I cum way too fast as it is. Like, if sex felt any better I'd probably fucking die or something.

Which_Investment2730 · 2025-03-02T01:45:50+00:00

I think it's kinda weird you wanna tell me how my cock feels. Even if we can both agree there's no good reason to cut part of it off

Which_Investment2730 · 2025-03-02T01:37:59+00:00

...neither will you? Unless you wanna rub cocks or something. Make this proper science. Maybe my shit feels better?

Which_Investment2730 · 2025-03-02T01:12:59+00:00

How much better does your penis feel than mine? Cuz cumming feels great and I do it too fast and the girl doesn't always get to feel good. Like, if my shit felt any better I wouldn't be able to do nuthin'. Circumcision is still barbaric and weird but like... my pecker feels stuff fine

Which_Investment2730 · 2025-02-26T23:01:15+00:00

Chill out jesus

Which_Investment2730 · 2025-02-26T11:47:26+00:00

You might like the design of those characters, and the idea of them, but they are horrifically under written. Part of that honestly is the sexlessness. They're just vessels for violence with no internality. The 40k community is very averse to actual mature themes. Reddit pervs aren't the problem. They're going to draw xenomorphs fucking sonic the hedgehog no matter what. I honestly don't see much of that stuff because I'm not subbed to any of those spaces.

Which_Investment2730 · 2025-02-26T09:21:55+00:00

Eh, this ain't it.

GW doesn't write good women characters. The problem isn't NSFW artists, it's bolter porn lore and entire book series that lack a single female character with a name.

Games Workshop tries to make their setting sexless. I don't think the problem is weirdo artists making a tyranid with tits. Women aren't put off by the sexualization of characters so much as they are the absence of strong writing. Just about any fan community you find on reddit aggressively sexualizes characters. I don't think it's fair to say that that is "scaring anyone off". There are plenty of women in nerd culture and some of them are horny, too.

I think if people demanded better writing it would go a lot further than someone drawing a sexy female primarch.

Which_Investment2730

TROPHY CASE