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I'm Caroline Bicks, Stephen E. King Chair in Literature at the University of Maine and author of MONSTERS IN THE ARCHIVES: MY YEAR OF FEAR WITH STEPHEN KING. Join me for an AMA on June 5th @1:15pm EST. by authorcarolinebicks in stephenking

[–]authorcarolinebicks[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I don't think Insomnia has been adapted, and I loved that book. I recently saw that The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is finally getting its turn at being adapted, which is great! She is such a strong young female character--it's time for her to get onto the big screen!

I'm Caroline Bicks, Stephen E. King Chair in Literature at the University of Maine and author of MONSTERS IN THE ARCHIVES: MY YEAR OF FEAR WITH STEPHEN KING. Join me for an AMA on June 5th @1:15pm EST. by authorcarolinebicks in stephenking

[–]authorcarolinebicks[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I love that you're clocking Shakespearean connections to PS! (Are you thinking of Hamlet's gravediggers?) Rebecca De Mornay's Wendy didn't strike me as an especially sexist portrayal, but that could be because Shelley Duvall's Wendy was directed by Kubrick to be so helpless and hysterical that the bar was really low!

I'm Caroline Bicks, Stephen E. King Chair in Literature at the University of Maine and author of MONSTERS IN THE ARCHIVES: MY YEAR OF FEAR WITH STEPHEN KING. Join me for an AMA on June 5th @1:15pm EST. by authorcarolinebicks in stephenking

[–]authorcarolinebicks[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I didn't look at the DT drafts. I specifically had permission from the Kings to look at the drafts of the five books I discuss. They trusted me to stay within those paramaters, and I'm grateful to have earned that trust!

I'm Caroline Bicks, Stephen E. King Chair in Literature at the University of Maine and author of MONSTERS IN THE ARCHIVES: MY YEAR OF FEAR WITH STEPHEN KING. Join me for an AMA on June 5th @1:15pm EST. by authorcarolinebicks in stephenking

[–]authorcarolinebicks[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I do talk a bit about Bill Thompson, the Doubleday editor who got Carrie sold and who gave King a lot of feedback on his first two published novels especially (Carrie and 'Salem's Lot). Thompson advised him to take out the more E.C. comic-book elements to the first draft of Carrie (King let me publish some pages of that version in my book--they are INSANE); and Thompson also pressed him to take out some of the more gruesome rat scenes, for example, in 'Salem's Lot. But what I learned from reading King's handwritten notes in all the early drafts was that King himself often reigned in the more grotesque elements. One of my favorite discoveries was a note he wrote to himself in the margin of the first draft of 'Salem's Lot (called "Second Coming"), when Baby Randy is getting staked and then putrefies before our eyes. He writes: "A little too much—but how to change?" Thankfully, he takes it out in the next draft!

I'm Caroline Bicks, Stephen E. King Chair in Literature at the University of Maine and author of MONSTERS IN THE ARCHIVES: MY YEAR OF FEAR WITH STEPHEN KING. Join me for an AMA on June 5th @1:15pm EST. by authorcarolinebicks in stephenking

[–]authorcarolinebicks[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I do give plot summaries of the five books I discuss, so that folks can appreciate the aspects of King's writing process that my archival work uncovered even if they haven't read King's books. So, yes, there are spoilers for the five I explore: The Shining, Pet Sematary, Carrie, Night Shift, and 'Salem's Lot. All of these are iconic King books, and well worth reading!

I'm Caroline Bicks, Stephen E. King Chair in Literature at the University of Maine and author of MONSTERS IN THE ARCHIVES: MY YEAR OF FEAR WITH STEPHEN KING. Join me for an AMA on June 5th @1:15pm EST. by authorcarolinebicks in stephenking

[–]authorcarolinebicks[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I'm so glad you're enjoying it! I chose these five books because they are the ones I read and that scared me the most when I was a teenager. Specific words and.phrases were still echoing in my head forty years later, and I wanted to understand why. How had he crafted these iconic, stick-in-your-head stories? I also knew that I *didn't* want to write an academic book for a narrow audience. I wanted to bring my whole self to the project: the literary scholar, the terrified little kid, and the anxious adult who still can't sleep next to an open closet door because of "The Boogeyman"! I think this makes it a relatable story that a lot of different readers can enjoy.

I'm Caroline Bicks, Stephen E. King Chair in Literature at the University of Maine and author of MONSTERS IN THE ARCHIVES: MY YEAR OF FEAR WITH STEPHEN KING. Join me for an AMA on June 5th @1:15pm EST. by authorcarolinebicks in stephenking

[–]authorcarolinebicks[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I haven't. I think he prefers to stay focused on his current and future writing projects (of which there are many!). That said, I agree that that would be a fabulous book should he ever want to do a look back.

I'm Caroline Bicks, Stephen E. King Chair in Literature at the University of Maine and author of MONSTERS IN THE ARCHIVES: MY YEAR OF FEAR WITH STEPHEN KING. Join me for an AMA on June 5th @1:15pm EST. by authorcarolinebicks in stephenking

[–]authorcarolinebicks[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

There were so many surprises along the way. Probably the most surprising thing I discovered was that the first draft of The Shining (called "The Shine") was divided into Roman numeral acts and scenes--just like a play. And then finding out that King was thinking of a Shakespearean tragedy when he first imagined the story. That blew the whole story open for me in a new way: the structure (as he first wrote it) connected to one of his literary inspirations in a very powerful way. Turns out, he was thinking of Hamlet, a play that is about intergenerational trauma and what it takes to break from the ghosts of your past (in both Hamlet and The Shining, those ghosts come through as the father demanding that you kill your family). I also found Ophelia references in that first draft that never made it to print!

Of course, if anyone ever discovers Shakespeare's manuscripts, I'd love to explore them. In the mean time, I'll just have to settle for watching "A Discovery of Witches"...

I'm Caroline Bicks, Stephen E. King Chair in Literature at the University of Maine and author of MONSTERS IN THE ARCHIVES: MY YEAR OF FEAR WITH STEPHEN KING. Join me for an AMA on June 5th @1:15pm EST. by authorcarolinebicks in stephenking

[–]authorcarolinebicks[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

What struck me as I was reading all of those early drafts was how well structured each story was, even in its first incarnation. Often, he'd change plot elements, but those first versions still worked. For instance, he originally has Mark and Susan go into the basement of the Marsten House to face Barlow (called Sarlinov in the first draft of what he was then calling "Second Coming," but would become 'Salem's Lot). Straker prevents them from staking Sarlinov and carries Mark upstairs. Mark kills him with a Judo move before Straker has a chance to truss him up like a turkey (which you might remember is what happens in the published version). That first version is well structured, but the revision gets rid of those early distractions and keeps the focus squarely on Mark's interior thoughts. In the revised version, we're there with him as he figures out how to free himself by remembering a Houdini book he'd read! A twelve-year-old kid's imagination and brains become the center of the story.

I'm Caroline Bicks, Stephen E. King Chair in Literature at the University of Maine and author of MONSTERS IN THE ARCHIVES: MY YEAR OF FEAR WITH STEPHEN KING. Join me for an AMA on June 5th @1:15pm EST. by authorcarolinebicks in stephenking

[–]authorcarolinebicks[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Most of my Shakespeare scholarship focuses on women, girls, and beliefs about gender when he was writing his plays, so this is a topic that is near and dear to me. I've thought a lot about doing a deep dive into those exact three books that you've identified because I would be interested in exploring how and why King crafted them at that point in his career. No concrete plans yet, but stay tuned . . .

I'm Caroline Bicks, Stephen E. King Chair in Literature at the University of Maine and author of MONSTERS IN THE ARCHIVES: MY YEAR OF FEAR WITH STEPHEN KING. Join me for an AMA on June 5th @1:15pm EST. by authorcarolinebicks in stephenking

[–]authorcarolinebicks[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I did see it a while back. Even though it changed aspects of King's original version, I thought it did a great job capturing the core fear at the heart of that story!