Stephen King

784 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Stephen King's impact on literature

BIOGRAPHY ON STEPHEN KING

Stephen Edwin King was born in Portland, Maine, on September 21, 1947, the son of Donald and Nellie Ruth king. His father, a merchant seaman, deserted the family in about 1950. His mother took a succession of low-paying jobs to support him and his brother, David. A lonely, rather introverted child, King invented a more outgoing alter ego – Cannonball Cannon, a daredevil who “did good deeds” – and derived other vicarious thrills from listening to tales of horror on the radio, reading such spine-tingling comic books as Weird Science, Tales from the Crypt, and Tales from the Vault. He also went to see science fiction and monster movies. In October 1957, the local theater manager interrupted a Saturday matinee screening of Earth vs. the Flying Saucers to announce the Soviet Union’s launching of Sputnik, the first artificial earth satellite. It was then that King sensed for the first time “a useful connection between the world of fantasy and that of what my Weekly Reader used to call current events.” Eventually, countless viewings over the years of such classic horror films as The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Thing, and It came from Outer Space convinced him that the horror movie’s chief value is “its ability to form a liaison between our fantasy fears and our real fears.”

The fortunate discovery of his father’s paperback collection of fantasy-horror fiction gave King, in his own words, a “...

Show More
Related

  • Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley and Metropolis, by Fritz Lang

    1922 Words  | 4 Pages

    Literature and film have always held a strange relationship with the idea of technological progress. On one hand, with the advent of the printing press and the refinements of motion picture technology that are continuing to this day, both literature and film owe a great deal of their success to the technological advancements that bring them to widespread audiences. Yet certain films and works of literature have also never shied away from portraying the dangers that a lust for such progress can bring with it. The modern output of science-fiction novels and films found its genesis in speculative ponderings on the effect such progress could hold for the every day population, and just as often as not those speculations were damning. Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein and Fritz Lang's silent film Metropolis are two such works that hold great importance in the overall canon of science-fiction in that they are both seen as the first of their kind. It is often said that Mary Shelley, with her authorship of Frankenstein, gave birth to the science-fiction novel, breathing it into life as Frankenstein does his monster, and Lang's Metropolis is certainly a candidate for the first genuine science-fiction film (though a case can be made for Georges Méliès' 1902 film Le Voyage Dans la Lune, his film was barely fifteen minutes long whereas Lang's film, with its near three-hour original length and its blending of both ideas and stunning visuals, is much closer to what we now consider a modern science-fiction film). Yet though both works are separated by the medium with which they're presented, not to mention a period of over two-hundred years between their respective releases, they present a shared warning about the dangers that man's need fo...

    Read More

  • Impact of the Film, Dr. Strangelove, on American Attitudes Towards the Atomic Bomb and Cold War

    5224 Words  | 11 Pages

    In the third decade of the Cold War, less than two years after the United States population had been scared half-way to death by the Cuban Missile Crisis, Dr. Strangelove invaded the nation's movie theatres and showed the country the end of the world. Touted by critics then and now as the film of the decade, Dr. Strangelove savagely mocked the President, the entire military defense establishment, and the rhetoric of the Cold War. To a nation that was living through the stress of the nuclear arms race and had faced the real prospect of nuclear war, the satiric treatment of the nation's leaders was an orgasmic release from deep fears and tensions. Its detractors argued that the film was juvenile, offensive, and inaccurate. Viewed, however, in its context of the Cold War and nuclear proliferation, Dr....

    Read More

  • Daphnia Essay

    823 Words  | 2 Pages

    The results of the experiment indicate that the initial hypothesis was acceptable as the higher the caffeine concentration, the higher the heart rate of the Daphnia. The results do not show this link in all cases; this could be down to temperature rise because of the heat produced by the microscope lamp, leading to the heart rate of the Daphnia increasing. This could explain the results for the 0.2% caffeine concentration.

    Read More

  • The Possibility of Evil by Shirley Jackson

    1090 Words  | 3 Pages

    Morgan, J. The biology of horror: gothic literature and film. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2002.

    Read More

  • the book thief

    850 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Book Thief is a book written by Markus Zusak, shining in the brilliancy of a holocaust novel it captures the hearts of literature lovers and history fanatics both. The story takes place in holocaust Germany and focuses on the story of a girl named Liesel Meminger. The story starts with her at nine years old and when the story ends she is well in to the fourteenth year of her life. This story is the story of a girl, a girl who learns to read, a girl who learns how to hide in the shadows, a girl who stands strong in a place of mistrust and pain; this story is of the type that takes your breath away.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Why We Crave Horror Movies

    1358 Words  | 3 Pages

    He used rhetorical techniques such as allusion, irony and metaphors. These were all ways of connecting to his reasoning’s by using an element of life or something that we are well aware of. He also used different types of appeals, which were pathos, logos and ethos. Each of these appeals had drawn us into his reading in different ways to connect to our emotions and the most affective was the common logic he brought and his credibility of being a well-experienced person in horror. Common logic is the best way to catch your readers attention because if they understand what you are proclaiming then they can grasp onto your argument. For Why We Crave Horror Movies, King gave both visible common logic and hidden. The hidden had to do with the psychological reasons to why we desire horror movies and how it can release our hidden, evil emotions that we normally keep inside of us. Also, it relieves us of stress to not be in the real world even if it is just for an hour or more. These hidden logic is more of a realization for the readers and come into sense these are the reasons why we truly do crave horror

    Read More

  • Interval Training

    1214 Words  | 3 Pages

    Interval training brings many benefits to the aerobic system. Perhaps the most important benefit is an increase in its capacity to produce energy. This is brought about by increased capacity to consume oxygen during exercise. Several experiments have yielded results demonstrating that interval training increases both VO2 peak (Perry, 2008) and VO2 max (Sloth, 2013). Oxygen is necessary for the conversion of sugar, protein, and lipids into usable energy. The chemical processes involved in aerobic metabolism are not possible without oxygen, particularly the electron transport chain, the mechanism responsible for 95% of the ATP needed to keep cells alive. Oxygen is necessary to capture the large amount of energy locked in the chemical bonds of pyruvic acid, the product of the anaerobic process glycolysis. Thus, the more oxygen the body is able to consume, the greater production of ATP via the aerobic system.

    Read More

  • Carrie by Stephen King

    900 Words  | 2 Pages

    The book uses fictional documents, such as book excerpts, news reports, and hearing transcripts, to frame the story of Carietta "Carrie" White, a 17-year-old girl from Chamberlain, Maine. Carrie's mother, Margaret, a fanatical Christian fundamentalist, has a vindictive and unstable personality, and over the years has ruled Carrie with an iron rod and repeated threats of damnation, as well as occasional physical abuse. Carrie does not fare much better at her school where her frumpy looks, lack of friends and lack of popularity with boys make her the butt of ridicule, embarrassment, and public humiliation by her fellow teenage peers.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of My Creature From The Black Lagoon By Stephen King

    838 Words  | 2 Pages

    King chooses to compare the minds of a child and an adult to see the different resilience levels when exposed to the horror genre. He describes his findings as a paradox, “Children, who are physically quite weak, lift the weight of unbelief with ease” (PP 118). King assumes because the mind of an adult is mature it can handle the horrific depictions within the horror variety yet children seem too be able to withstand the pressure. King backed his theory by analyzing Walt Disney’s movies and their impact on a child’s imagination. Walt Disney’s movie Bambi is what Stephen King pinpointed when comparing the toll of horrific events in children and adult minds. King questioned adults about what was most terrifying about a movie when they were younger and they stated, “Bambi’s father shot by the hunter, or Bambi and his mother running before the forest fire” (PP 119). Another aspect King unveiled was the Doppler Effect and that, “A part of ‘growing up’ is the fact that everything has a scare potential for the child under eight” (PP 119). The cognitive imagination does not stop developing it just suppresses certain mental functions to draw a line between what is real and what is not. Horror novelist mask the tension with comedy yet with one swift motion it, “Knocks the adult props out from under us and tumbles us back down the slide into childhood” (PP

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of King's Why We Crave Horror Movies

    1220 Words  | 3 Pages

    In his essay, “Why We Crave Horror Movies” King attempts to bring understanding to the phenomenon of the horror film genre. He states “sanity becomes a matter of degree” eluding to the theory that sanity is relative and that all humans are relatively insane. Jack the Ripper and the Cleveland Torso Murderer were the examples of humans on one extreme of the spectrum of sanity; saints represent the other safe end of the sanity spectrum. He illustrates the thought that in order for human kind to stay functionally sane there needs to be some sort of outlet for our violent “mad” thoughts. In King’s view horror movies provide a stable outlet and mental relief for innate madness. King argues that his insanity/ant civilization emotions are ingrained

    Read More

  • Intellectual Property in The US

    730 Words  | 2 Pages

    Barnes, D. W. (2011). Congestible intellectual property and impure public goods. Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property, 9(8), 533. Retrieved from http://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1152&context=njtip

    Read More

  • Experiment to Determine How Heart Rate is Affected by Exercise

    1074 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many people know when you exercise for long periods of time; your breathing becomes more shallow and quick. The main human organ system used when exercising is the respiratory system. There are two types of respiration your body can carry out, aerobic, with oxygen, and anaerobic, without. The reason for getting tired from exercise is because when the body runs out of the oxygen it needs, anaerobic respiration takes its place. This respiration has no oxygen which means the body releases less energy and produces lactic acid. Lactic acid is a poisonous waste product that stops muscles contracting and relaxing. In this investigation, I will be finding out whether exercise that has two different types of respiration has a strong affect on the heart and its’ cardiac cycle.

    Read More

  • The Book Thief

    865 Words  | 2 Pages

    Death states that, “I’m always finding humans at their best and worst. I see their ugly and their beauty, and I wonder how the same thing can be both” (Zusak 491). This book shows us human doing things that weren’t even imaginable before this point. Many people give into ideas that were lies. But, we also watch a few people go out of their way and sacrifice everything for a man they barely even know. They do everything they can to keep him safe and alive. They work harder, the get another job, and they even steal. In Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, death examines the ugliness and the beauty of humans.

    Read More

  • Ernest Hemingway

    808 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ernest M. Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway was a novelist and short story writer, who became well known for the passion that he used in all his writings. Many of his works are regarded as classics of American Literature, and some have even been made into motion pictures. The Old Man and the Sea, which is the story about an old Cuban fisherman, was published in 1952. Because of this creation, in 1954 Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Animal Testing

    1185 Words  | 3 Pages

    Animal testing is not only a morally offensive behavior but also the darkest side of human nature.The animal suffers, feels pain or becomes happy or sad as per the situations, but people have been subjecting animals for medical, cosmetics, new drug or chemical testing purpose without considering the suffering that they may be experiencing. According to the article, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, “Each year, more than 100 million animals—including mice, rats, frogs, dogs, cats, rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs, monkeys, fish, and birds—are killed in U.S. laboratories for chemical, drug, food, and cosmetics test.” The worst news is that the majorities of these experiments do not contribute to improving human living standards. However the numbers of experimenters who believe there is no curing for possible without doing an experiment in animals. I agree with Ty Johnson in his position paper Animal Testing is Inaccurate, Unbeneficial that Animal testing should be banned for human health and behavioral reasons.

    Read More

More about Stephen King

Open Document