Stephen King and Twilight author Stephenie Meyer have got two gigantic thing in common.
Number one: their books get turned into awful, awful films. Number two, both Stephen King and Stephenie Meyer write books for 14-year-olds. True, Stephen King writes books for 14-year-old boys who smell of BO and secretly want to machinegun their school, while Stephenie Meyer writes books for 14-year-old girls who can’t spell and wet themselves every time they think of Robert Pattinson. But it’s true.
So you’d think that Stephen King and Stephenie Meyer would get along, wouldn’t you? Wrong – Stephen King hates Stephenie Meyer rotten.
Take it as a given that Twilight is critic-proof. You can say what you like about it. You can say that it’s a Harry Potter rip-off. You can say that it’s a deliberately manipulative and poorly-concealed conservative manifesto written in the form of a schlocky fantasy book. You can say that even thinking the word ‘Twilight‘ will immediately bring you out in 19 different types of ulcers.
But it doesn’t matter. So long as there’s at least one scene where Robert Pattinson gets to suck his cheeks in and look away into the middle-distance, millions of teenage girls will snap Twilight up and spend the next few hours urinating themselves and sighing wistfully at the same time.
The worst thing is, Twilight knows that it’s critic-proof. You can see it in the cavalier way it’s treating the sequel to the Twilight movie – letting Robert Pattinson cut his hair, not sacking that scrawny boy who looks like a toilet brush, not hiring that teenager who spends most of her time naked.
However, just because Twilight is critic-proof, it doesn’t mean that some critics aren’t having a go. Specifically Stephen King. Since he’s a) not 14, b) not female and c) is capable of rational thought, it’s no surprise that Stephen King isn’t a Twilight fan. But what might be a surprise is that he’s starting badmouthing Twilight’s author Stephenie Meyer in public. The Guardian reports:
King compared the Mormon author to JK Rowling, saying that both authors were “speaking directly to young people”. “The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can’t write worth a darn. She’s not very good,” he told an interviewer from USA Weekend.
What prompted Stephen King’s outburst? It could be jealousy – Stephenie Meyer’s books get turned into hopeless films that make millions of dollars, while Stephen King’s books get turned into hopeless films called The Mist that everyone ignores. It could be a generational thing – Stephen King remembers when he was the author of choice of creepy teenagers who smell like old towels, and he doesn’t like that someone else has taken his position. Or it could be that Stephenie Meyer actually is a terrible writer.
We really couldn’t say for sure. Because we’d need to read a Twilight book to find out, and we’re not mental.
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As the self proclaimed Queen of Twatlight, this post made my day. I write a blog dedicated to horror films and bash the living daylights of Twatlight whenever given the chance…and it KILLS me to know that my biggest tag is Twilight. At least its for the right reason…ripping it to shreds.
i hate whoeva put this on and they oviousley have nothing better to do with there lifes and perhaps girls ‘wet there selves’ when they think about robert pattinson is becouse hes hotter than you
just sayin so
you pretty much fail. gtfo.
“Stephenie Meyer writes books for 14-year-old girls who can’t spell ”
Well… that just about says it all really…
I literally just laughed out loud.
Well, all Meyer does is use big words. If you put synonyms in their place it’s the most boring crap ever. No action at all, not to sound morbid but she never kills anyone important. JK Rowling killed half the people in her stories. Just sayin’.
Oh please you can’t compare Harry Potter with Twilight.
Twilight is a lovestory and Harry Potter is the battle of a sorcerer’s apprentice against Voldemort.
The core of the storys is totaly different.
It is like you compare apples with blubs.
Yeah, but there are actual good love stories out there. Twilight isn’t one of those.
Well the last 2 books are more of the battle, but the begging HP books are more about the development of friendship and finding his identity, and there is a bit of romance in the middle of the series.
is the author of this page an ignorant moron?
What about Carrie?
The Shining?
The Shawshank Redemption?
It?
of all the Stephen King movies to make an imprint on you.. you choose THE MIST? Unfair article
Agreed completely. Stephanie Meyer simply writes silly vampire stories at a fifth grade reading level to an increasingly ignorant society. People are stupid in more ways than just being ignorant, however, people are just plain stupid. Thats why newspapers are at about a third grade reading level and books like twilight are best sellers, because that is merely the extent to which the American public can comprehend.
Oh! I forgot to address the counter argument. Stephen King does not only write to creepy, stinky adolescent boys; have you ever read On Writing? He has more in that one book than Meyer could ever achieve, intellectually anyway. She could definitely learn a thing or two from that book, so Stephanie Meyer should add that to her reading list. So should all the Twilight fans out there so they can see how moronically simplistic the series really is.
I came across this because I read a review on stumbleupon that mentioned how “Bella” had no physical description. She was an empty shell that any young girl could identify with and furthers the assumption, proof, that people are truly ignorant. On Writing was awesome and although I’m not a true Stephen King fan I do admire his writing style.
what’s wrong with stephan king. I LOVE HIM. and i’m a girl.
but I do have to admit, twilight it shit
I didn’t know she was a Morman.
Latter Day Saint, not Mormon and please don’t use her as an example of our faith. She is an idiot.
When Stephen King first became an item, critics were saying insulting things about him too. And I am sure he just laughed all the way to the bank. But now someone else is mega successful and he doesn’t like it. Maybe Meyer just used too many adverbs. You know Stephen King hates adverbs, right? I bet that’s what ticked him off. lol.
I personally like a lot of King’s work. I haven’t read Twilight. But I think I need to. That way I can review it on my blog and start getting hits on my site.
The ironic thing is Stephen King is just as bad as she is. They both write ridiculous stories with overly convenient plot devices and more plotholes than swiss cheese. Both have very very lifeless main characters who seem to have a supernatural presense that either causes everyone to love them or things to bizarrely end happily. The only difference is that, as simple as her writing is, Stephenie Meyer’s stories are more engaging than Stephen King’s.
wow.. i like stephen king AND twilight (i know a bunch of you are going to start attacking me with hateful comments about how much of a loser i am, yadda yadda. have fun.), but stephen king is sort of an asshole for putting down another writer. i know, i know, lots of famous authors do that, but stephen king really is an inspirational horror author, he really brought it out there, and hes sort of a role model to some to-be writers, people look up to him, stephenie meyer even reads his work and is a minor fan, so ive heard dont take my word for it but i have heard. and for him to just put her down, not even in a more mature way, just to say “she sucks, she cant write”? thats really mean, and really rude to just say that. at least be constructive or something, i know she is getting famous now and maybe not as many people are reading stephen king now as they did before, doesnt mean u have to say such horrible things in such a rude, short way. if you hate twilight you dont agree with me, if you were brought up with morals and manners, maybe u will.
I tottaly agree with you, I myself look up to Stephen King and he inspired me to start writing, but hearing him say someone elses writing sucks was shocking :0 Not everybody has the same writing style, maybe he doesn’t understand that. I’m not a Twilight fan and I love horror, love novels aren’t my thing but I’m not saying she’s a bad writer.
Fail at the “Stephen King’s books get turned into awful, awful films”
The Shawshank Redemption (AKA The Best movie ever)
Kubrick’s The Shining
The Green Mile
The Mist
Stand By Me
All these have something to say to you.
Don’t forget:
Carrie – Classic!!
Firestarter
Christine- Made into a movie and a cool Futurama episode
sammyd-you’re kidding, right? Yeah, Meyer’s stories are more “engaging”. If you consider that nothing even remotely interesting happens until the last 20 pages of each book. And if you by into the whole BS that Edward and Bella are true love. The fact is that sexually frustrated women and girls can’t tell the difference between love and lust/obsession-the latter of which certainly fits Edward and Bella. Those of us who have more than 2 brain cells aren’t fooled.
Your comments make me wonder how many King books you’ve actually read-my guess is none.
I’ve never read the Twilight books (and have no real desire to) but they can’t be worse than Stephen King. King hasn’t written a good book in years and years. I read his book on writing (which largely reads like a defense of his crappiness to critics), and in it he maintains that a person either can write or they can’t. He doesn’t believe a person can learn or improve really, so what he said isn’t that big a suprise. It just annoys me that an author who continually fills his books with pointless sections that dont further the plot, sets limit on how much he’ll edit his books to twice regardless of whether they need more editing or not, and can’t end a story for the life of him (almost all of his books are good examples but “Under the Dome” might be the worst since you have to waste so much time reading it). I’ve given up on King and should have long ago.
Just for a laugh I thought I’d watch that first Twilight film, even though it wasn’t made for me. It used to be, even fifteen years ago, that when a movie came out that was that successful, there was usually a reason for it. With Twilight, there isn’t. Even that weird looking Pattinson guy knows the movies are absolute shit. The thing that bothers me is that it’s OBVIOUSLY bad. Has culture really gotten to this point? Why not just get a bunch of retards to write three pages, then have millions of dollars come to the table and produce it. Don’t have a story, don’t have actors, don’t have anything. Just tell little girls that some guy is supposed to be hot and then put their pictures everywhere. DONE. Cha ching
watched twilight. chucked $12 away.
I’ve watched Stephen King’s movies over the years, and have enjoyed myself each time. From Carrie to the Green Mile, from Shawshank Redemption (one of the best stories ever) to, and I can’t believe people forgot about this movie, Pet Sematary, every movie contained a plot that was intriguing and kept my eyes glued to the screen. Years later, I attempted to watch the first Twilight movie after renting it from Blockbuster, and each time over that 3-day period I fell asleep before getting even 20 minutes into the film. So needless to say that as a fan of Stephen King’s work, I find myself both disagreeing with and offended by the author of this article’s point, as not only does my Mom enjoy a number of his works (dispelling the idea that his works target 14-year old boys), but also that I enjoy his work, and I am not only 26 years old but also practice good hygiene daily.
All I can say is that love him or hate him, Stephen King had a very good point in describing Stephanie Meyer’s works, there’s nothing interesting or captivating about them, unless your a pubescent girl who hasn’t had any real dating experience at all, or a woman who hasn’t yet figured out how to maintain a proper relationship and what real men are supposed to be like.
THANK YOU for saying that. I have to say that it’s good to see someone who truly appreciates his work and looks deeper than the most recent of his movies/books.
Thank you to @theOrator i loved your point, also thank you @walle
Honestly, it seriously hurts as a writer to see one writer criticize another. Yes, it’s a hard world, and it’s difficult to make it. It’s great that Meyer is doing well in the writing world, however I would like to say that it hurt watching the Twilight movies. Most books are hands-down, better than the movies, however with Twilight, it’s hard to tell. Mostly for the reason that Twilight has so many flaws in terms of writing conventions. Were you to, like another member said, replace the long words in Meyer’s work with synonyms, there isn’t much to her writing. Her story line arc is extremely anti-climactic. Most of the writing in her books is much like a diary gushing over a cute boy at school. Like theOrator said, most of it doesn’t deal with “true love’ and speaks mostly of feelings of lust. King, even in his earliest books, such as The Shining, which was his second novel, (Second New York Best Seller’s out of over 45 others) deals with internal conflicts and emotional aspects of love, family, and many other themes. If you took the time to read the foreword or even the story, that would become apparent to you. Meyer has released several Twilight novels, all of which follow pretty much the same story line arc and lack of literary elements as the ones prior. Stephen King, though his writing career was somewhat rough, as you may read in his biography, releases writings that speak to more age groups. Both writers have released New York Best Seller’s, but which writer’s works actually speak to many age groups in more ways than love, sex, and danger? Which ones truly exemplify emotional depth and versatility? Meyer has her one claim to fame-Twilight. Stephen King’s writings have been adapted into over 40 TV Shows and movies, all of which have found large success, with the exception of “The Mist”-a.k.a. the only movie mentioned in the above article. I find it very unfair of the author of this article to use this movie as an example and exclude the others, such as “Carrie” (based on Stephen King’s first novel) “The Shining” “Shawshank Redemption” “Misery” “Storm of the Century” “Children of the Corn” “Stand by Me” “Hearts in Atlantis” “The Green Mile” and many more.
Looking at the differences in genre in the above movies, it is apparent that King is not only a master of horror and suspense, as many critics would comment, but also a master of the sociological aspects within these writings. For example, “Hearts in Atlantis” does not focus on dead horror or suspense, but also the emotional gaps in a boys childhood during the 1960′s, as well as cultural features of its time. It is a reminiscent writing to which people of all ages can relate. Contrasting this is the movie, “It” which does show his ability to write in the horror genre. There are many movies that fill the gap between his non-horror and horror, and all of these writings have been successful. Also, Stephen King’s writings capture stories with different voice and narrative in each. Though many are written in first person narrative, the book, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, for example, shows his ability to write from different perspectives-this story’s perspective being written from a young girl lost in the woods.
Stephen King’s writings include many different pieces that appeal to many different people. To judge without further reading than one or two pieces is entirely unfair. In reading the Twilight novels, you will not find much diversity in writing elements, just as in Meyer’s collections, you will not find different pieces that speak to multiple audience types.
All-in-all, Stephen King does have status over Meyer, and while his criticism may or may not be out of good motives, he does address extremely valid issues within Meyer’s writings and make very good points. His status and motives do not change the validity of his statement, were you to investigate for yourself. His status would be likely only to change the bias of those who read his commentary. As a last point, @coling, Stephen King has not published a book in years, as he wants to keep the integrity of his writing, and not release “watered-down” or lesser forms of writing into his collection. As a writer with so many best sellers behind you, wouldn’t you like to quit while you are still ahead? Regardless of the books he has or has not released, Meyer has none of the elements King had to establish herself as a writer as of yet. Am I condemning her entirely? Hardly. I am merely stating that Stephen King has a very valid argument, regardless of how he presents his information. It is not necessarily right to speak of others in such a manner, however quality of writing is key in becoming a writer of truly quality works.
You can’t fool me, this is stephen king isn’t it?
But seriously, I sat down to watch the Twilight movie on tv because my friends, who loved the books and seen the movies, said it was really good.Lets just say I’ll never trust them again. I found the movie to be dreary and bland, it felt like I was watching a really long episode of a not so good tv show.
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