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Danse Macabre by Stephen King
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Danse Macabre

by Stephen King

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1,630172,089 (3.72)67
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Berkley (1987), Paperback, 464 pages

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This book length essay on the horror genre turned out to be much more entertaining than I expected. Even when writing a nonfiction genre-study, King cannot avoid being King. His goofy sense of humor, absolute frankness, and the occasional crass comment made me feel more like I was having a beer with the guy and discussing books than sitting in a lecture hall. King fans who want to hear where he gets his inspirations from and what authors/films he has taken enjoyment from will get a lot out of this book.

A word of caution however, if you hate spoilers, you WILL hate this book. King goes in depth in discussing several movies and books that he feels have had major influence upon the genre and he doesn't hold back from describing major plot points or endings. If you think that you might have the urge to read older sci-fi, fantasy, or horror and don't want to have any spoilers, this is not the book for you. ( )
1 vote StefanY | Nov 20, 2009 |
This was an interesting read. I liked learning what King thought about the horror stories than influenced him. ( )
  Anagarika | Oct 30, 2009 |
This is a fascinating and humorous book, worth reading and enjoyable for fans of horror in any form, film or television or fiction. I'd also go so far as to say that readers and watchers of sci-fi or readers who simply like to talk about books and writing would enjoy this. King spends equal amounts of attention on writing, film, and fiction, and his insights well worth looking into. If you're interested, I'd strongly recommend this book. King's voice makes it an enjoyable read, and it reads more like fiction than anything else. The one warning? Your list of to-be-watched movies and to-be-read books is sure to grow.... ( )
1 vote whitewavedarling | Sep 24, 2009 |
Nice retrospective of horror in fiction and film, if a little dated. I particularly enjoyed King's analysis of horror films and how they mirrored the real-world fears of the era in which they were made. The book provides lots of suggestions for reading and watching material, if you want to expand your education in classic horror. ( )
1 vote sturlington | Sep 20, 2009 |
I found the author and subject quite interesting. But I am a little younger than King himself and did not grow up with the sci fi and horror that he did. I would, however, be EXTREMELY interested in King's take on horror novels, movie, and television from 1980 onwards. I feel that horror became much more acceptable as a form of entertainment in this generation. I do enjoy Stephen King's work though. He is the only author that I ALWAYS read the introduction or preface to his work, because he is just as interesting in nonfiction as fiction. ( )
  bookwormteri | Aug 19, 2009 |
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Epigraph
Enter, Stranger, at your Riske: Here there be Tygers.
"What was the worst thing you've ever done?"
"I won't tell you that, but I'll tell you the worst thing that ever happened to me...the most dreadful thing..." Peter Straub, Ghost Story
"Well we'll really have a party but we gotta post a guard outside..." Eddie Cochran, "Come On Everybody"
Dedication
It's easy enough--perhaps too easy--to memorialize the dead. This book is for six great writers of the macabre who are still alive. Robert Bloch, Jorge Luis Borges, Ray Bradbury, Frank Belknap Long, Donald Wandrei, Manly Wade Wellman.
First words
For me, the terror--the real terror, as opposed to whatever demons and boogeys which might have been living in my own mind--began on an afternoon in October of 1957.
Quotations
Have you ever stood in a bookshop, glanced furtively around, and turned to the end of an Agatha Christie to see who did it, and how? Have you ever turned to the end of a horror novel to see if the hero made it out of the darkness and into the light? If you have ever done this, I have three simple words which I feel it is my duty to convey: SHAME ON YOU! It is low to mark your place in a book by folding down the corner of the page where you left off; TURNING TO THE END TO SEE HOW IT CAME OUT is even lower. If you have this habit, I urge you to break it...break it at once!
Being who I am, I cannot find it in my heart to wish you pleasant dreams.
Last words
Disambiguation notice
The french book "Danse macabre" is the translation of "Night shift" book. English book "Danse macabre" was translated into "Anatomie de l'horreur".
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Book description

Amazon.com (ISBN 0425104338, Paperback)

In the fall of 1978 (between The Stand and The Dead Zone), Stephen King taught a course at the University of Maine on "Themes in Supernatural Literature." As he writes in the foreword to this book, he was nervous at the prospect of "spending a lot of time in front of a lot of people talking about a subject in which I had previously only felt my way instinctively, like a blind man." The course apparently went well, and as with most teaching experiences, it was as instructive, if not more so, to the teacher as it was to the students. Thanks to a suggestion from his former editor at Doubleday, King decided to write Danse Macabre as a personal record of the thoughts about horror that he developed and refined as a result of that course.

The outcome is an utterly charming book that reads as if King were sitting right there with you, shooting the breeze. He starts on October 4, 1957, when he was 10 years old, watching a Saturday matinee of Earth vs. the Flying Saucers. Just as the saucers were mounting their attack on "Our Nation's Capital," the movie was suddenly turned off. The manager of the theater walked out onto the stage and announced, "The Russians have put a space satellite into orbit around the earth. They call it ... Spootnik."

That's how the whole book goes: one simple, yet surprisingly pertinent, anecdote or observation after another. King covers the gamut of horror as he'd experienced it at that point in 1978 (a period of about 30 years): folk tales, literature, radio, good movies, junk movies, and the "glass teat". It's colorful, funny, and nostalgic--and also strikingly intelligent. --Fiona Webster

(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:05 -0400)

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