Stephen King on J.K. Rowling, Stephenie Meyer
Feb 3rd, 2009 | By Krystal | Category: Book News, Featured Articles
USA Today has an interview with Stephen King, where he discusses his feelings on Stephenie Meyer (though not very favorably). He does seem to get what the whole phenomenon is all about though. Do you agree with any of him commentary?
“People are attracted by the stories, by the pace and in the case of Stephenie Meyer, it’s very clear that she’s writing to a whole generation of girls and opening up kind of a safe joining of love and sex in those books. It’s exciting and it’s thrilling and it’s not particularly threatening because they’re not overtly sexual. A lot of the physical side of it is conveyed in things like the vampire will touch her forearm or run a hand over skin, and she just flushes all hot and cold. And for girls, that’s a shorthand for all the feelings that they’re not ready to deal with yet.”
“Both Rowling and Meyer, they’re 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.”
telling a story in first person justify anything….twilight could still be better written
Chuck Palahniuk’s novels are written in first person and he is an amazing story teller and is a better novelist that JKR and King
For one all of they’re books are written in first persons. Except a Breaking Dawn and a few of Stephen Kings books. Bella is a bland character like Harry Potter. And the characters around them are more interesting. I get that Edward loves Bella, but its not organically. Its all for the hype which she barely does. It goes from 5 to 5. As far as Stephen Kings books are creepy but I like them for some reason. Maybe because I’m like everyone. Everyone’s a little sick on the inside.
*doesn’t
“In first person, you are writing someone’s THOUGHTS. Stephenie was writing from an average 17-year old girl’s mind. So of course the writing isn’t going to be that great. You’ve got to look from the perspective. It’s not like a girl is going to use all of this high writing abilities in her head; it doesn’t make any sense.”
Bella is good in bio, works well in calculus and reads novels by Austin and Shakespeare yet she’s unable to think on a higher level in her head?????
Thanks for the laugh
So your saying its kind of like Push by Saaphire. So all 17 year old people are bland. And Edward watches her sleep. Stalker! And her subcontious is like a blank chalk board. At least when you read Push, you have feelings. The’res no crying. No emotion what so ever. The only kind of emotion that she shows is pain.
So you mean to say, that if a writer is to write about the thoughts of a kid, who cannot speak properly, he/she should write gibberish, not to be understood. What a lame excuse. Think before you write, you moron. King is absolutely right. In Rowling, at least there was development in plot, characters, and emotions. The complexity of plot and character was there. But in Meyers I can’t find a damn thing. neither plot nor character and forget about the development of either.
I think that he took only the Twilight series into account. He ignored The Host, which is some of her more mature writing.
ok, just ignore what he said, does his comment affect the fandom? are you going to stop reading twilight because of it? do you love the characters less? does it change the way you see stephenie? NO! right? so who cares what Mr. king says????? stephenie is Stephenie and we love her just the way she is, right?
i dont care if stephenie isn´t the next shakespeare or something, i still think she is amazing, the twilight series is great, and the host rocks!
Lena, cancun, mexico : )
WTF!!!!! I don’t see Cornlia Funke saying JKR is a suckish writer…but of course SM gets all the junk saying she can’t write! If she couldn’t write why do we all like her books? HUH! Answer me that KING! >:X <—-very angry face
“stephen king is an idiot he is so caught up in writing horror books that he couldnt see a good vampire love story if it came up and bitch slapped him in the face!!!”
Which is why King has more best-selling novels than Meyer has teeth in her head.
Because he’s an idiot.
Riiiiiiiight.
Many people ask why so many people read her books. This is because because age 10-20 girls like the idea that the most attractive guy in the entire school likes a completely average girl. Many of them have not read any decent piece of literature so they are willing to compromise plot and character depth for *Edward*. Both the main characters in this book, Bella and Edward, have only two real emotions. It is also very anticlimatic as a series. This shows how shallow the fanbase for twilight is and that in 10 years very few people will remember how the series ended.
This is for the 90% of Twilight fans who thing but Edward is so hot is a good basis for your entire argument on why it is a good book reading. Plain and simple, it is not. Edward is a word. Edward exists on paper. Edward is not real. Edward is two-dimensional. Edward Sparkles.
Why did Stephenie Meyer kill a good thing? That good thing was the vampire. She turned blood sucking monsters into veggie eating queers. Another thing, how are the twilight “vampires” even vampires? They have none of the defining qualities of vampires.
I only have one last question. How the hell could vampires have sex they have no blood? I’m in med-school and plan on becoming a surgeon and I can expressly tell you that you cant reproduce without it. On top of that you need semen, which oh wait Edward once again lacks. Those are just a few of the problems with Stephenie Meyer’s series that I could come up with in a few minutes five in the moring. I can guarentee I can think of more I just don’t want to type any more and am very tired.
Heh, its funny how people are saying that Stephen is jealous. Why would he need to be fucking jealous you idiotic teeny-boppers? He has written hit-after-hit, and all of them do not in any way MURDER the thesaurus like poor, untalented SM. The only book he’s written that’s close to Twilight is Desperation, because it sucks massively, just like Twilight. Go pick up Interview with a Vampire and read a GOOD book. And 56, you all like her books because you are a part of the pathetic, Poppy age where anything that glitters is the newest fad, and nobody realizes that all this book is is the pathetic sexual fantasies of a talentless writer who seriously needs to learn some vampire culture.
JK’s books have been well-worn and lovingly shelved in my room. Twilight is the emergency toilet paper I use when we run out in the middle of the night.
I couldn’t agree more, Stephen King. Thank you.
A proud member of twilightsucks.com
King is absolutely correct, and if you’ve never heard him criticize other writers before, you’d think what he said was harsh. Really it’s not. I haven’t read The Host yet, and I kind of plan to, but Meyer’s writing in the Twilight series is not great. I think she drags and that what connects with the people isn’t her writing but her overall topic/message.
Also, you few who believe that he’s jealous of Meyer, get a clue. He has no reason at all to be jealous of her.
King has the right to criticize. And, I kind of agree with him. JK Rowling is obviously a much better writer than Stephenie Meyer is. And for the person below me, how in god’s name can Stephenie write a better ending hten JK Rowling? If you’re talkign about JK Rowlings epilogue, it was terrible, but it was probably better than the ending to Breaking Dawn. At least in Harry Potter, it was realistic: preparing was being made the final way between good and evil came, and sacrifices were made. Breaking Dawn’s ending was a joke. No fighting, no one dies…it’s just so ridiculous.
I don’t really agree with stephen king because i really like the twilight series they have a way of making you believe in vampires and being a teenager i naturally feel attracted but i have to say Rowling writes much better she shows the bad side of a character too as well as the good side whereas Meyer’s stories are a bit fairytalish, they have angelic people in them which can’t really exist. Rowling stories are more like a classic whereas Stephenie’s book seem the ordinary high school romance.
What I mean is Stephenie Meyer can obviously write worth a darn, but rowling still writes much better.
an I really wish she won’t murder the thesarus in any upcoming books.
King is full of himself and thinks that he is the best freaking writer in the world…well sorry king but your stories are extremely cliche and you can always predict the ending…GO STEPHENIE!!!!
oh oh and we could have NEVER guessed the ending of twilight. -____-
because edward is so pretty and sparkley i thought he was going to end up as glitter glue and not with bella at all ^___^
excuse me but sk has won more than 50 awards and SM has won um 2???
and what is the plot of twilight anyway? edward love bella?? HOW ABSOLUTELY SWEET AND IMAGINATIVE AWWWW <3
in case u havent noticed SM gave bella her own features cz edward is a part of her wet dreams
and also, SM has no imgination cz she had a DREAM of this idea. she never thought of it herself
where as JK created a whole new world which SM cdnt have done if her life depended on it. enough said.
and finally id like to say that
EDWARD SPARKLES LIKE A GAY BITCH ^_^
stephen king is an idiot he is so caught up in writing horror books that he couldnt see a good vampire love story if it came up and bitch slapped him in the face!!! STEPHENIE MEYER is an AMAZING author!!!!
i completely agree with Stephan King. Twilight is a shitty story and Stephenie Meyer is a shitty writer. most people who like Twilight are retarded and the other part read so few books that they cannot identify how shitty twilight is. those people who like twilight should read a REAL book then reread twilight and see if it isnt shitty.
” Stephenie’s books are well-written and ORIGINAL” . 1 nothing is original. 2 Twilight is just a skeleton of a story, the basics of any story, which means that it is the opposite of original. it has no meat.
This is ridiculous. There are people in this country who are terrible writers, but they’re not publishing novels and selling millions of copies. Stephen King used to be a high school English teacher, so presumably he knows this.
When SK says SM “can’t write worth a darn,” it’s the equivalent of a one-star rating on amazon: it’s a protest vote. He’s saying, “This writer is selling too many books and getting too much attention … I think there are better writers out there.” That’s fine, but I’d like it if he said that instead of trashing her. What he did in the Parade interview is just plain tacky.
I don’t think you need to be a great prose stylist to be a great writer. Neither SK nor SM is going to be knocking Nabokov off his pedestal any day soon, but I love both their books. SK has an extraordinary ability to take an ordinary person, make you care, and then shove you way down deep into the dark & troubled waters of his psyche. That’s how he makes you believe in all of his incredible stuff (the clown, the magic bike, etc.). He’s awesome!!! SM, meanwhile, has perfect pitch for all those shivery teenage fantasies. (Note to Steve: please don’t diss teenage girls! My inner girl is alive & well and loving every second of her SM fix.) Both of these authors connect with readers like gangbusters; shame on Steve for dumping on another writer with the popular gift.
As far as JK Rowling goes: her books are absolutely brilliant, and I wanna send her flowers for giving us stories that are also cultural touchstones. Tens of millions of us love Harry & Ron & Hermione, and the world is a better, smaller place because of it. As far as her writing goes, it’s deft and snappy (“Very safe,” said Hermione, “as they’re both dentists.” Smile!!!), but not especially limber or precise. There’s no extraordinary grace or remarkable ability to delineate emotion there. (Cf “Atonement” & “Engleby,” two recent favorites–both brilliant novels with a strong genre hook.) The HP books are enormously satisfying, and they succeed as both plot & milieu books–but JR is a popular writer, not a great literary talent. (btw–I would be very surprised to learn that SK actually feels differently about this than I do.)
The reason I’m making this really long and serious post is because it’s clear that the criticism SM gets weighs heavily on her. I love her books and I feel for her as a person. When she says she feels more fragile now than she did a year ago, it makes me sad. I want her to keep writing.
[And if SM, SK, or JR suddenly turns out a National Book Award or Booker Prize winner … I’ll be shouting congratulations at the top of my voice. They’re all wonderful writers, and nothing would make me happier than to see them knock something right out of the literary ballpark.]
Mr King, I salute you.
What he said was truth.
And, some of you don’t seem to realise, he was asked for his opinion.
And having written hundreds of (brilliant) stories himself, I think he has every right to criticise Meyer.
When I first read the stories I found them engaging (until I came to the ridiculous Breaking Dawn) I’ll admit I liked them.
But I did recognise that-
1. It was poorly written
2. Nearly all the nasty characters were the less attractive ones
3. It was a little chavinistic
but, most of all it was NOTHING compared to Harry Potter. Or Stephen King’s books for that matter.
Harry Potter teaches things like loyalty and equality and love. Twilight teaches things like outer appearance and needing a boy to survive and paeophilia(joke).
I quite agree with him
And sadly, people who don’t know what a good book is *cough* crazy teen girl *cough*, are the ones who disagree
Twilight is original?
Funny
A lot of people say it is a cliché
Its kind of disheartening to hear that some people GENUINELY think that Stephen King, ( a criticially acclaimed writer for over 30 years, who’s sold over 350 million copies worldwide and is known as one of the greatest writers of the century)
Is supposedly “jealous” of Stephenie Meyer.
Why on earth would He be jealous?!
That’s like saying the Beatles are jealous of the Jonas Bros!!!!
You can see how ridiculous that is.
Also.. Although Twilight’s story is cute and cuddly, its not a well writtten book.
Stephenie Meyer is a horrible writer. She over describes stuff, over uses some words, and creates cardboard characters.
Even if it WAS her first book, when you write something, you’re going to get critiqued. If stephenie sucked at twilight, she should have gotten better along the series, but she didn’t.
In fact, some say that with Breaking Dawn she got worse.
people say “oh cut stephenie some slack”
But NO. What about the many talented NEW writers who CAN write and are far more brilliant then her? Those writers ALSO have first books that are FAR better then Stephenie.
Also- JK Rowling is THE BEST YA fantasy writer out there right now. Period.
Stephenie Meyer can never be that good as JK.
That’s just a fact.
Jk Rowling’s prose and books are full of brilliance. She uses symbolism and has fantastic and original themes.
Sorry- But JK Rowling is WAY BETTER then Stephenie ever will be.
Agee 100%. SM is a terrible writer. Too many adverbs and too many adjectives. I don’t need to be constantly reminded how beautiful the man who is abusing the main character is. I also don’t need a Mormon to tell me what true feminism is. SM does not talk directly to young people. All she does is lure tweens into thinking that abusive, man-in-control relationships are okay. She needs a serious reality check.
JK Rowling writes books that are good based on the plot, characters, and writing
were as SM writes unoriginal plots with terrible writing and bad morals
im from pakistan too =D SM SUCKS
JK IS AMAZING
My books are why you should not smoke crack.
Infact that is the subliminal message.
Also I am a lesbo and a paedophile and I hate all my fans.
Stephen King: I am not jealous of Mrs.Meyer whatsoever.
I have written scores of bestsellers.
There are more movies based on my books than any other author.
Teenage girls have one purpose, being my sex slaves.
P.S my dick deserves an introduction your dick don’t even function.
Dear Melissa,
You are an idiot.
Love,
J
Dear J,
I think I love you.
Love,
Jojo
I have to say that I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Stephen King; although, I would’ve used more heated words. The Twilight series, believe it or not, does not have a plot. There is next to no character development, Bella would be the epitome of “Mary-Sue” if she didn’t fall down all the time, and Edward is an abusive pedophile. I’m not necessarily saying this from just a Harry Potter fan’s point of view, I’m saying this from the point of view of a nineteen year old reader who enjoys reading well-written works of literary art. The Twilight series is not my idea of a well-written work. Moreover, absolutely nothing can compare the two series of Harry Potter and Twilight.
Although there is one original characteristic of Edward and his clan and that would be that they “sparkle” in the sunlight, whereas in every other vampire story, he would’ve been burned to death had he walked out into the sunlight. Something that I picked up from another site (http://vulpeslibris.wordpress.com/2009/03/07/why-i-hate-twilight/ – Read it if you want to learn something new today). Anyway, I quote, “But the thing I won’t forgive is the portrayal of women as weak-without-a-man creatures who need told what to do and who should follow exactly what their men tell them without question… that’s a dangerous message to give our children.”
Damn straight.
If I wanted to be honest (which I have been this entire message), I would say that I am KIND OF, if not in a completely miniscule way, glad that the Twilight series came out. Solely due to the fact that because more people want to be “romanced” rather than read about Hogwarts and the amazing and epic tale of Harry Potter (which I’ve been following since I was eight), Twilight got the eight – twelve year olds of the world to start reading. But again, that brings me back to the fact that this series sends a strong message of women’s obedience. What the hell? Stephenie Meyer, due to her novels alone, set the women’s right’s movement back by about a hundred years. Maybe that’s why Edward is so old…?
And to say that Stephen King is jealous of Stephenie Meyer is possibly the biggest joke I’ve heard in quite some time. With thirty years of literary experience and also being an English teacher, I think Stephen King has more than a right to say that Stephenie Meyer sucks ass at writing. If you call her junk writing…
I agree! yes yes yes i agree! I’ll admit, while i was reading twilight i was indeed obsessed. But really, it is NOTHING compared to jk rowlings work! jk rowling has a wonderful simple plot/problem, but there is no simple solution. it has loads and loads of things that could happen and many side plots and characters and things which add so much to the book. While twilight, you could take out all the characters but bella and edward, and the story wouldn’t suffer one bit. There’s no plot really but edward and bella being obsessed with each other.
i’ll admit. Stephanie meyer is good at writing. She can get you to think and feel EXACTLY what bella is feeling. She is very discriptive without boring you out of your pants. But she cannot get a good story out worth beans. She writes wonderfully, but she doesn’t have anything to write about. There is no plot, no characters really besides bella and edward, they are all perfect, no flaws, no nothing! please! we want a story! not a description of what kissing feels like! that’s worth nothing! we can go find out for ourselves if we want, and it will be much more pleasing as well.
I couldn’t agree more!
Truth: Stephenie Meyer’s books are like fanfiction – BAD fanfiction. That they have reached such popularity really diminishes my faith in the average America’s intelligence. They’re sickening, terribly written with no plot, twisted morals, and the most ridiculous ideas about love.
I agree with King. I’ve read and enjoyed all the Potter books, but I quit reading Twilight halfway through mainly because I thought the writing was awful. In the HP books the characters have motivations and actions which are consistent and believable even though it’s a fantasy world. In Twilight the motivations and actions don’t make sense, unless you concede that Bella is a mindless hormone-driven twit, and Edward….lets see, he’s about 100 years old, so he should have a depth of wisdom and sophistication of an old man, yet he chooses to spend his time attending high school over and over again studying the same subjects over and over again and chasing after underage teenage girls? Just so people won’t get suspicious? Right. Apparently Ms. Meyer hasn’t heard about home schooling, which would be the logical choice if they don’t want to ATTRACT ATTENTION. About Edward… ignoring his looks, would you find a 100 year old man behaving as Edward does plausible or attractive? Face it, he’s a perv.
I’ve read both series multiple times, and enjoyed them. Both are very plot-centered novels, and I would not have continued reading either of them if all they had to offer was the way in which they were written. The writing is just a vehicle for the plot.
BUT….
J K Rowling’s writing, though never particularly extraordinary, never got in the way of my enjoyment of the story.
Stephenie Meyer’s writing style sometimes irritated me so much that it was difficult to enjoy the story because of it. That didn’t happen all the time, but it did happen.
So I guess I agree with King’s appraisal of their relative writing skills, although I would tone it down a little.
Thank goodness there are many people out there who think that Stephanie Meyer’s writing is dreadful. I started to read the first book because I was curious about its popularity. What a shock! It is so poorly-written, that it is difficult to plod through. Unfortunately, I do think it is reflective of our educational system. As a Baby Boomer who attended school when grammar, sentence structure, spelling and writing skills were emphasized, and having seen what my daughter learned (or didn’t) in school, it’s obvious that people are undereducated now. As I was reading this book, I kept asking myself, “What in the world has made this so popular? It is so boring.” This is a good example of what can now be a bestseller — pretty appalling. At least I see I am not alone in the opinion that Stephanie Meyer is a horrible author. It’s sad, actually, because she has gained such popularity and it probably reinforces the idea that her writing is good, which it’s not. Thanks for acknowledging the poor writing of this author, because I thought I was missing something — now I know what it was: great writing!
I agree that the Twilight series is shockingly written. Prose is not Meyers strong point, however what people overlook is that she is still talented. Meyers has woven up into four paperbacks the exact romantic notions 90% of teenage girls have. Think about it, she has created the perfect man, the perfect relationship, the perfect way to escape from reality and the perfect world to escape from.
I do not like the books because her writing annoys me and the constant adoration of the wonderful Edward bugs me chronically, but that is what she does best and she’s got the gold for it. I don’t think it’s fair to pass Meyers off as fraud or a waste of space; she’s just written what people want to read, no more, no less.
First, my option of Mr King
1) Steven King is best know for his horror (check out his first ever book, Carrie by the way), but he has gone outside that many times (the Shawshank Redemption and Stand by Me being but two).
2) Steven King writes for all ages, not just Teenage Girls
3) Read the Dark Tower if you want something trully orignal. Lord of the Rings meets The Good, The bad and the Ugly.
4) He is intitled to his own option. Something most stupid teenagers can’t seem to understand. It’s funny that they believe that way of looking at things is the only wa
Now Twilight (cracks knuckles)
1) Easy to read. Thats right. So is See Spot run
2) I thought it had the depth of a paddling pool
3) The Vamps where the weakest I’ve ever encountered. I’ve read everything to do with Vamps since I could read (about 5, as of 1st of November, 2009 I’m 26.
4) What consirns me is how little confidance most Twilight fans show in their most holy of holies by going completely nuts whenever anyone dares to challenge their oh so great love story. Blind fanantics.
5) while my own spelling could be better, The isn’t spelt teh, Are isn’t r, etc. I have only seen this kind of lazy writting in large numbers from pro-Twilighters.
6) You don’t like what I’ve said, TOUGH! If you want to like this woman, I won’t stop you. But it doesn’t matter how much you cry and threaten, None of you can change my mind.
WRONG WRONG WRONG to all the commenters that “disagreed” with King’s remark.
Do not get me wrong, I used to be like you. I was once the 14 year old girl who absolutely was nut crazy about Twilight. I fell in love with Twilight the very month it came out. But since the Twilight hype has gone global, I have lost my touch with the series.
Harry Potter is 10x better than Twilight. Don’t be fooled by the irresistibly hot vampires and/or werewolves in the book. The whole Twilight series is poorly written. Sit on your damn chair and think about it for a minute. There is no freaking plot for the first 350 pages of Twilight. It’s all just build up to the plot, and that plot being: a vampire wants Bella’s blood, therefore the Cullen family has to jump in and save the day. With Harry Potter, the plot is introduced, immediately.
This happens for the next 3 or so books. The plot doesn’t appear until the middle or end of the book. Meyer also does a lot of “repeats”. I don’t even remember how many times she commented on Edward’s exquisite body as an “Adonis statue”, or “white chiseled marble”, or whatever she used. I don’t remember how many times she used “hyperventilating” in the first book. Her writing style is either not my type, or she’s just a bad writer.
She is a poor writer that happened to write a book that appealed to teenagers. Most adults and men won’t even touch the cover of the books.
Rowling, on the other hand, wrote a very engaging novel that can touch people of ALL ages. I first read Harry Potter when I was in the 4th grade, and I absolutely loved it. To this day, I reread the books constantly. She has built a franchise that every one can enjoy. Her story flows and the freaking plot stays with the books through out.
As much as I used to love Twilight, Stephenie Meyer is not very good. Although I do give her credit for being able to cook up a story that caught the hearts of many people out there.
the difference is because one is written in 1st person and 3rd person. hp wouldnt be very drawing if it was in first person and twilight in third person and each have their own style and its awesome!!
Idont get why people like a book about a vampire that sparkles AND stalks a mary-sue…..I agree with Stephen King that JR is a better writer and im only 13
The truth has been acknowledged, through the voice of Stephen King. Having read all of the series in Harry Potter, and Twilight, my verdict is this-
Jo created a world.
Stephanie wrote a book.
The long and short of it that as compared to the three writers, Stephen King is the heavy hitting veteran for the better part of 30 years, it’s not like he said SM can suck my d***. He just said that he didn’t think she was a good writer. I’ve read most of King’s work and have also read both Rowling and Meyer and I agree with King, SM writes for a younger audience but doesn’t do it as well as Rowling, the mark of a good writer is how well you craft your fiction and SM has the leg up because her movies have such a huge fan base of youth that prety much live at Hot Topic. King and Rowling have made movies, that’s true and Rowling’s movies have had a huge fan base as well but they’re appreciated by larger group and doesn’t rely on the power of angsty teenge girls. If anyone has the write to say anything about writing, it’s King who’s had 30+ years worth of experience
I love stephen king books…but stephany meyer can’t end a saga…twilight is the best!!!
I couldn’t agree more with Stephen King. I’ve read “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” first when I was nine years old, and I’ve read it again when I was eighteen. “Twilight” I’ve read when I was seventeen, and I can say that Stephenie Meyer just enjoy to sit in front of the computer and type all day long. No wonder she finished “Twilight” for three months. On the other hand, Rowling write “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” for five years. Stephenie Meyer’s book is a real belletristic shit: it is good when you read it, because there’s nothing to think about at all, and the people this days don’t want to bother their brains too much. No wonder that “Twilight” is popular. But, it’ll be forget several years latter, and “Harry Potter” books will remain for the next generations. Rowling will one day be considered for a classical writer like Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, the Brontё sisters, Jane Austen, Tolstoy, Balzac and many other great names. Stephenie will be forgotten in no time. Mark my words!
Ahhh YESSS YESS!
Finally the oceans have parted! The flood is no more!
Finally someone has said it! What really needed to be said from the beginning. The Twilight series should be shown only on the Disney Channel.
Stephen King has balls btw
Lets be serious he’s completely right, JKR is amazing, SM is gash.
Thats why everyone loves JKR books and only girls from 13-22 like twilight.
SM writes on a personal level and tries too hard to convey her message. JKR’s writing is a thing of art perfectly paced not too descriptive and allows you to fall in love with her story.
And for all the people here saying Stephen king doesn’t no anything, you obviously no nothing he is a master of storytelling, look at what he’s written, then pipe down.
S3fe.
I think people take these books waaaaaaaaaaay to seriously.
1. SK is my favorite author- but his last few books have left me cold.
2. JK knows how to write for kids and adults both- she gave us characters to care about and at the end you wanted to have friends like HP and posse- I know I did
and this brings me to Stephanie- Iam not a fangirl – Iam in my late 40s- and I have to say people just shut up and enjoy the story!!
Yeah SM needed a thesaurus- and yeah I got sick of reading how beautiful Edward was- a good editor would have caught this- a better writer wouldnt have made the mistakes that she did.
Ive read the Host- and I liked the Twilight saga better- because of the story-and in the end thats the only thing that matters at the end of the day………be it vampires – wizards or anything that the master of horror himself can dream up~
I agree with SK: I don’t think she’s that great of a writer. I do, however, respect that she’s managed to get a handful of books published, and has done well for herself. Good for her, on that front. Honestly, I don’t hate her, and I don’t fault her. I fault the company that gave her the book deal. If I churned out a bunch of poorly written Mary Sue fantasy, and someone wanted to pay me for it, well… I’d be a fool not to sell it, even if I didn’t think it was that great.
I guess what I’m saying is: stop the SM hate, cuz really, she’s just done what many of us would do in her shoes: she took the money and the publishing deal.
I happen to whole-heartedly agree with Stephen King. And I also find some of these comments utterly unfounded and some just down right stupid. First of all Mr.King has every right to think Ms.Meyer is a poor writer, if not for his own extreme literary talents then simply because this is in fact a free county. And no, just because you don’t agree with him, that does no make him a talentless hack, or jealous, or stupid, or anything else you might think of. The fact is he is extremely well qualified to judge another writer since the world of literature has deemed him so by showering him with awards for his writing. And in fact his first book was one of his most successful, was made into a movie and is still shown on television today. So as to the argument that Ms.Meyer isn’t as experienced as King or Rowling, well that hardly matters. Sorcerer’s Stone was Rowling’s first book as Carrie was King’s, they were both excellently written and sold remarkably on their own, without movies. One should also not write off comparisons due to perspective or genre, because its not about the style of writing, its the quality. The truth is Stephanie Meyer had a good idea but her execution of that idea was sub-par at best, and while a good idea may make for good sales it does not automaticly equal good writing. Meyer had no plan or overarching conflict, her characters were superficially flawed, with little actual personality and these are the real differences between Rowling and Meyer. Harry Potter was expertly planned out down to the finest detail, her characters have genuine flaws that they must struggle to overcome, and their personalities jump off the pages, you know their ambitions and fears and you know what their capable of doing. Most importantly the villains are actually people and not just far off, distant shadows that leap out to ruin your life just cause. No, they have actual motives and personalities and you actually know who they are. Finally can I point out that neither of these books are exactly ‘realistic’. No you can’t go off to a school of wizardry but equally you can’t rub off with a vampire and live forever with the perfect life. However, I do believe that at the base Harry Potter is more realistic. Because if you move to a small town by yourself, not everyone is going to like you, you won’t be popular on your first day, and all the guys probably won’t fall all over you. And chances are that the two hottest guys in town won’t both fall in love with you and only want to make you happy. Oh, and if you kiss a guy that is in love with you and you potentially have feelings for, your fiance will Not understand, I mean really, now who’s living in fantasy world. But if you go to a new school you might quickly make a friend, or an enemy. You may eventually become friends with someone you wouldn’t have planned on, and offend people you didn’t intend to. You may find a talent you didn’t know about, and find your horrible at something else. And chances are high that at some point you Will make a fool of yourself at some point. Your first crush will be awkward and they may not like you back. But that’s just reality, it &as its ups and downs, and at the end of the day you can only be grateful that your friends stood by you through it all.
dude ur so rite!!!! how can those noobs not c this!
Okay, let me see…
1) Stephen King does not suck. He has over 51 awards, and 380 million copies sold in the US alone.
2) Meyer sucks. She only has 1 or 2 awards, and only has 100 million copies sold globally, 24 million in the US.
My reactions on the books:
Twilight- Wow, this actually pretty good.
New Moon- <3
Eclipse: ….what happened? Maybe it'll get better with BD.
BD:……WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED?!
Bella is flat character. An anti-sue, if you may. Eddy is a relationship sue. I give Meyer props for switching things up, but she did it so badly I wanna cry. Good idea, poorly presented. Something I like to point out to people about Breaking Dawn:
Bella could not have Edward's child. Ever.Why? He's fucking DEAD. He has no fluids, therefore, he cannot get an erection, nor does he have sperm. Plus, he's over 100 years old, so the sperm wouldn't be potent in a dead body for so long, anyways. Just a note: Bella couldn't have Jake's child either, because since his temperature is higher than a normal human's, and the sperm would die because it cannot live in extreme temperatures.
Also, how would the vampires have sex? If their skin is all rock hard, and their bodies cannot go through physical changes, so yeah.
Maybe, to sum it all up, Meyer got rejected 14 times. That certainly says that her story needs some revising.
I agree with Stephen King. I totally agree with him.
I have to admit that I was completely hooked when I read the Twilight series. What can I say? I’m a teenage girl that loves hot guys, would love to have TWO hot guys after me, have a bunch of friends on the first day of school, and etc, etc. But I realized after a while that the Twilight series was just very empty and basically plotless. I re-read the series again to see what was wrong with it, and came up with infinitely many reasons why it was so horrible.
As for JK Rowlings and her amazing Harry Potter series: it’s just that. Amazing. I can tell that she planned the whole story out very carefully, whereas Stephenie Meyer is all over the place. For example, in one of the books (I think Eclipse or Breaking Dawn?) after Bella found out about Jacob’s heritage, Edward told her that Jacob wasn’t technically a werewolf but a shapeshifter. Then Bella asked if there really were true werewolves, and Edward told her that there were. After that, Bella asked Edward why he didn’t tell her about real werewolves before, and Edward just said “It never came up”.
“It never came up”. Seriously? Could Stephenie Meyer have to be MORE obvious that she never planned out that book while writing Twilight? Oh and to those people whole think that Stephen King sucks, are you freaking mad?? He’s one of the BEST writers ever, regardless of genre! Go and grab yourself a copy of one of his books, and then tell me what you think!
WTF r u all fucking crazy?!?!?! WHAT may i ask is the plot of twilight??? HOW he hell did edward excrete semen when hez a vampire??? SM put herself as bella!! cant u all see that??!?! edward is part of her wet fantasy! SM cannot write at all and has NO imagination as the idea came to her as a dream and she admits that and she made a VAMPIRE SPRKLE. thats efing GAY and does complete injustice to vampires as do her other theories that they dnt die in the sun and other stuff like that. she has jst made some super version of a human. the only thng similar b/w vampires and edward is that they both drink blood and live for eternity.
where as harry potter is completely opposite. it a has a plot and j,k rowling created a WHOLE NEW WORLD that non of u cd do. specialy not SM
The Twilight series is written in the style of a soap opera – poorly and with melodrama. Enough said.