by Carrington M. Nye

Created on: March 16, 2008

Stephen King: The Great American Voice

One can say quite a bit about Stephen King the person; labels are not new to this author, nor are they all that surprising. Yet there is one label that I would apply to Stephen King the writer: Genius.

His fans rank in the millions, and we are not a brain-dead lot; on the contrary, his writings are profound and deep. One just has to look beyond the words to know this. His writings span the literature realm, he has written first-person and omniscient, his voices have been male and female, adult and child. In each of his stories, whether you are angry in the end or no, he takes you through from beginning to (sometimes) an end; and whether you are happy with this end or no, you have been on a journey that you do not soon forget.

The mere fact that his writings can cause one a deep emotion, such as anger (for me), one cannot argue with the fact that you feel something. This is deeply profound and does not occur when one is simply reading a book to pass the time.

Stephen King is a literary genius. There cannot be an argument on this topic. Oh, there may be some who balk at this, those that feel the only true greats are long dead, for example, but they could not be more wrong. I wonder if they have ever read any of this great writer's many novels. I feel deeply that they must not have done so. Or if they have, it is most likely that they are closet fans of great magnitude.

I am not ashamed to admit that Stephen King's works have touched me deep inside, have made me pause and reflect or to have horrified me beyond measure. It is my opinion (and it cannot be a sole view) that Stephen King is one of the Greats, a living great that should be celebrated in his life and not held off until after his death as we did with Edgar Allen Poe.

The Stand One of the most beautiful works of the human experience and fight, of unity and evil, shows us that we do possess the abilities to stand for what is right and what is truly important to each of us.

The Gunslinger Series A favorite of mine, an epic saga of one man who must travel and fight, suffer and rejoice all for the tower. It is a look at our own struggles in life paralleled in this long and almost painful series. We see ourselves in the characters and as they know weakness and perseverance, so do we.

The Shawshank Redemption One of Mr. Kings many novella's that was adapted into film, is a story of one innocent man's struggles with the knowledge that he is innocent of the crime in which he has been convicted. It is a powerful story of injustice, suffering, friendship, and freedom. I read this story with tears in my eyes.
The Green Mile Is there anything that I can say about this mini-series that no one is aware of themselves? A story of profound tragedy, of sadness and of glory; A story that is not easily forgotten and forces one to face their own personal views on racism, good and evil.

The above are perhaps the most popular of Stephen King's great works, but there have been many, many that I would like to point out are all literary greats.

Stephen King is a Literary Genius and we are very fortunate to call him our own.

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