Stephen King's Modern Macabre: Essays on the Later Works

221 Pages·2014·1.271 MB·English

by  Patrick McAleer (ed.), Michael A. Perry (ed.)

Stephen King’s
Modern Macabre
ALSOBYPATRICKMCALEER
The Writing Family of Stephen King: A Critical Study of
the Fiction of Tabitha King, Joe Hill and
Owen King (McFarland, 2011)
Inside the Dark TowerSeries: Art, Evil and Intertextuality in
the Stephen King Novels (McFarland, 2009)
Stephen King’s
Modern Macabre
Essays on the Later Works
Edited by PATRICK MCALEER
and MICHAEL A. PERRY
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina
LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA
Stephen King’s modern macabre : essays on the later works /
edited by Patrick McAleer and Michael A. Perry.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
♾
ISBN 978-0-7864-9400-2 (softcover : acid free paper)
ISBN 978-1-4766-1745-9 (ebook)
1. King, Stephen, 1947– —Criticism and interpretation.
I. McAleer, Patrick, 1980– editor. II. Perry, Michael A., 1973–
PS3561.I483Z884 2014
813'.54—dc23 2014023733
BRITISHLIBRARYCATALOGUINGDATAAREAVAILABLE
© 2014 Patrick McAleer and Michael A. Perry. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
On the cover: The White Commands You, an interior illustration
for The Dark Tower© Michael Whelan
Printed in the United States of America
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
To Julie, Brenda, and Ann
and
to Karen, Caleb, and Julian
This page intentionally left blank
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: A More Subtle Macabre
MICHAEL A. PERRY and PATRICK MCALEER 1
Part I. King in the World Around Us
Fantasy in Fiction: The Double- Edged Sword
JENNIFER JENKINS 10
King Me: Inviting New Perceptions and Purposes of the
Popular and Horrific into the College Classroom
MICHAEL A. PERRY 24
A Taste for the Public: Uncle Stevie’s Work for Entertainment
Weekly
SCOTT ASH 41
The World at Large, America in Particular: Cultural Fears
and Societal Mayhem in King’s Fiction Since 1995
MARY FINDLEY 56
Part II. Spotlight on The Dark Tower
Roland the Gunslinger’s Generic Transformation
MICHELE BRAUN 66
“Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came”: The Heroic
Aspects of the Gunslinger
T. GILCHRIST WHITE 81
Riddles Wrapped in Mystery Inside Enigmas: Anglo- Saxon
Literature as the Key to Unlocking the Ending of The Dark
Tower Series
JENNIFER D. LOMAN 93
vii
Table of Contents
A Rose, a Stone, an Unfound Door: Metaphor and
Intertextuality in The Dark Tower Series
GEORGIANNA O. MILLER 107
Part III. Writing into the Millennium
Survival of the Sweetest: Little Miss Bosox and the Saving
Grace of Baseball in The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
ABIGAIL L. BOWERS and LOWELL MICK WHITE 122
More Than Just Ghost Lore in a Bad Place: Mikael Håftröm’s
Cinematographic Translation of 1408
ALEXANDRA REUBER 136
“Born in Sin”: Millennial Anxiety in Storm of the Century
PHILIP L. SIMPSON 150
The Fallen King(dom): Surviving Ruin and Decay from
The Stand to Cell
PATRICK MCALEER 168
“The Word Pool, Where We All Go Down to Drink”:
The Irresistible Pull of Language in Lisey’s Story
JENNIFER ALBERICO 185
Bibliography 195
About the Contributors 205
Index 207
viii
Acknowledgments
First and foremost, the editors owe a debt of gratitude
to Mary Findley—she is the original driving force behind
this volume, and we are thankful that we were afforded the
opportunity to complete the task set forth. Additionally, we
would like to thank each and every contributor for this vol-
ume—you all have been a pleasure to work with.
Michael A. Perry would like to acknowledge his wife
and forever partner, Karen—your unconditional support in
all things is a blessing and a gift that I do not take lightly. I
can’t wait to see what we do next. My boys, Caleb and Julian,
for being Boys with a capital B. I would also like to thank my
parents. My mom for reading to me nearly every night as a
child. My dad for modeling what it means to be a lifelong
reader and for placing a huge book called The Stand in my
lap so many years ago. Who would have thought I could have
turned that into a career?
Patrick McAleer would like to acknowledge his friend,
love, and partner Kim Socha—you are always supportive of
everything that I do, and I thank you for bearing with me as
I took time away from our wonderful days and evenings to
work on this volume, and I am especially thankful to you for
bearing with me and my shifting attitudes while editing and
writing. You are a treasure, and I hope to repay your kindness
and understanding each and every day. I would, of course,
also like to thank my parents, Lee and Denise, who have,
simply put, been wonderful folks and friends.
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