Stephen King's On Writing, Parts 3-19

Stephen King has led an incredibly interesting life. His tales of brotherly love and scientific woe are so fascinating and bizarre that one is entranced by his telling. It would be perhaps too easy to depict his brother as a cruel tormentor, eager to make his little brother suffer – instead, King describes Dave as simply curious and smart, a dangerous combination. The fact that a ten year old managed to blow out an entire power grid is impressive regardless of whether or not it was intentional, as is his flooding of an entire street in King’s hometown of Stratford. There are so many memorable lines in this section of the book, it’s hard to pick a favourite – “Stratford’s answer to Chuck Yeager” stands out, as does “Wipe yourself with some leaves. That’s how the cowboys and Indians did it.”

I also enjoyed King’s vitriolic and hypocritically self-aware rant on the evils of television. He is perfectly aware that it was his exposure to late-night films that inspired him to earn a living in horror and fantasy, and yet he encourages young writers to turn their TVs into Super-Duper Electro-Junk. This paradox is typical of King’s writing, and demonstrates that even he doesn’t follow all of his own rules.