Stephen King's Danse Macabre
by Stephen King
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Book Summary Information
Author: Stephen KingEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1981-01
ISBN: 0896960765
Number of pages: 400
Publisher: Everest House
Book Reviews of Stephen King's Danse Macabre
Book Review: A fast and loose, quick and dirty (and not very complete) survey of the horror genre
Summary: 3 Stars
Although I wasn't quite as disgusted as El Kabong with this book, it truly is nothing more than Stephen King riffing sloppily (as hell) about the "horror genre." There is no pretense of scholarship, and it has a folky tone which makes it quite easy to imagine what it must have been like back in the day when King got a twelve pack of beer in him, had smoked a joint, and done enough lines of coke to get him on a never ending jag about "the deal" with the genre: to put it bluntly, its about as tight as "the blob," its rambling, and its also somewhat amusing. It's admittedly fun to hear his take on horror, and he occasionally makes a good point, but truly, no-one but a diehard King fan will want to read this, or possibly a horror fanatic. By no means remotely close to a definitive survey of the genre, there are gaping shocking holes: he doesn't say so much as a lick about Horace Walpole, Ann Radcliff, Charles Robert Maturin, Matthew Lewis, Arthur Machen, Lord Dunsany, M.R. James, Algernon Blackwood, Ambrose Bierce, Oliver Onions, H.G. Wells, J. Sheridan Le Fanu, William Hope Hodgson, amongst others- namely, the most important writers in the history of horror. And let's not forget that the book is now out of date- a lot has happened since the late 70's. A far superior book, an indispensible book in my opinion, which consists of a series of wonderful essays by writers discussing their favorite "horror" books, is "Horror 100 Best Books" edited by Stephen Jones and Kim Newman, and its sequel "Horror Another 100 Best Books." Final word- fun, not terribly informative but somewhat, for King fans only, a guilty pleasure for people that love horror, like getting stoned with King and having him talk at you for about five or six hours- a not unpleasant reading experience.
Summary of Stephen King's Danse Macabre
Stephen King explores the phenomenon of horror in a century of film, television, radio, and literature. Who better than King to investigate what terrifies his fans?"One of the best books on American popular culture in the late 20th century." (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
"A labor of love." (The Washington Star)
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
United States Books
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