Talk:Stephen King

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Stephen King is a former featured article candidate. Please view the links under Article milestones below to see why the nomination failed. For older candidates, please check the archive.
January 19, 2004 Refreshing brilliant prose Not kept

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Stephen King article.

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Stephen King was selected as the Portal of Horror Horror-related bio of the month for August 2006.


Contents

[edit] Still writing?

It says at the start of the "Recent years" section "in 2002, King announced he would stop writing". None of the article from this point on contradicts this, but quite clearly he hasn't stopped writing. Why didn't he, and shouldn't the article mention the small point that he hasn't in fact stopped? - rst20xx (talk) 22:33, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

I think he said he considered retiring after he finished Dark Tower because he felt a bit burned out, but he changed his mind later on.--CyberGhostface (talk) 00:59, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Don Robertson

I added Don Robertson to the influences in the author box. I also added a couple of sentences about King publishing DR's "Ideal, Genuine Man" and calling him one of three main influences to the Influences section. I can't figure out how to add a citation/reference. Idlewarnings (talk) 03:07, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

Hi Idlewarnings, here's a pretty easy utility for adding references. Just fill in as many fields as you can, click the button, then copy the code to wherever you need it. That's all you have to do. It will automatically add a footnote at the end of the article. You can also find general information at WP:CITE. Take care. --Bongwarrior (talk) 03:29, 7 February 2008 (UTC)


[edit] Steve Lightfoot conspiracy theory

Is it worth mentioning the wacky conspiracy theory advanced by Steve Lightfoot about Steven King and John Lennon? At one point, King did have restraining order against Lightfoot. In case you are not familiar with "theory" you read about it on http://robalini.blogspot.com/2007/12/stephen-king-murdered-john-lennon.html (I'd rather not post Lightfoot's actual website) Gnmtndogs (talk) 16:08, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] rework the whole thing

I'm working on a revision of the whole article. Here are some issues I'll be addressing:

  • The introduction paragraphs of the current article contain some information that would be better placed in the main body of the text.
  • The biography section is very messy and needs arranging in chronological order. In particular, the sub-section "Baseball" has a bit of unnecessary trivia.
  • There needs to be a proper section on "Works", with a sub-division focusing specifically on horror and then further subdivisions on (off the top of my head), the Dark Tower series, his short stories, fantasy novels, non-fiction works, and work in other media.
  • The Richard Bachman section should be incorporated into the biography section, and there should be a sub-section in the "Works" section on "Works written under a pen-name" (but more elegant!) and including discussion of the Swithen novel.
  • The "recent years" section is really scrappy.
  • adding references where possible.
  • keeping what great stuff there is just as it is! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Beanrobot (talkcontribs) 12:33, 4 March 2008 (UTC)


I'd welcome comments/criticisms/edits at my userpage or in reply to this thread. If anyone else is working on a similar thing then I'd love to collaborate, please get in touch. I won't be making vast cuts to the text but will make some small ones where necessary. I'm more interested in moving things around so they make more sense, adding information that deserves inclusion, and making the prose a little more elegant. If I spell things weirdly it's 'cause I'm British! - please bear with me. I'm going to work on it at my userpage for a while and then introduce my changes to the text - just want to emphasise: VERY willing to collaborate! Beanrobot (talk) 12:32, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

You guys forgot to mention that one of his key characters saved his life and put him on the path to finish writing the dark tower series. (Just kidding of course ;D ) Worldgate (talk) 13:00, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

I've just spent the whole day on it. I've made some changes to the text of the biography, but otherwise the changes are simply ones of order. I've divided the whole thing up into three sections for comprehension - Biography, Work, Response - and rearranged things so that the order just makes a lot more sense. I have got rid of a few bits which I think would be classified as trivia but they can be retrieved if necessary.Beanrobot (talk) 16:13, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

All in all it could use a lot of grammatical revision. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.214.112.47 (talk) 17:20, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Influence on popular culture

The wording about "popular shorthand for the Vengeful Nerd Wronged, the Killer Car, the Evil Dog, the Evil Clown, and the Haunted Hotel" seems to be non-NPOV and seems to be wording by a fan. At the very least a citation is needed (I already added the citation needed link), but I'm thinking that sentence should be removed. Limasbravo (talk) 13:12, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Broken link

I don't want to the edit the page in case there are actual procedures to follow, however, Liljas-library homepage http://www.liljas-library.com/accident.html is broken.

[edit] Corroborating information

The page on Stephen King says "Tabitha King is a published author with 9 novels to her name." Tabitha King's page says she has published 7 novels and a non-fiction book. Who's right? 85.204.141.137 (talk) 17:42, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Did he really have crazy hardcore sex with those girls after selling his first novel? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 125.239.26.7 (talk) 00:10, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Wizarrrrr

Is it only me or is there a weird text saying "Wizarrrrrrrrrrrrrr,", just before "Having sold over 350 million copies of his books, " in the seccond paragraph? What is that? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.48.20.70 (talk) 20:26, 25 April 2008 (UTC)




also, Stephen King lived thorugh the Cold War —Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.101.206.74 (talk) 18:46, 4 May 2008 (UTC)


[edit] Books of Stephen King

If someone has the time (or already done this), please make some pages going over some of his books: i.e. It, Thinner. I would love to read them from time to time. - Helopusobiwa —Preceding unsigned comment added by Helopusobiwa (talkcontribs) 12:59, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

See here -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Novels_by_Stephen_King MichaelCaricofe (talk) 01:26, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

Try reading his The Dead Zone, a great read. --Fleurbutterfly 20:32, 20 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Army quote

I believe this quote is not relevant to this article. What encyclopedic purpose does it serve? Jmj713 (talk) 20:15, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

I agree. Can anyone make an argument for why this should be included? Chaoticfluffy (talk) 20:19, 7 May 2008 (UTC)
Let's see if its discussed in a reliable source and/or gains significant coverage outside of some Conservative radioshow first.--CyberGhostface (talk) 21:08, 7 May 2008 (UTC)
I agree with the statements here. I don't see the relevance. If he has written any commmentary or op-ed pieces on the war in Iraq then these should be referenced.--Perry Middlemiss (talk) 23:05, 7 May 2008 (UTC)
Well, the wording of the version that keeps being reinserted sucks. However, King himself felt the need to respond [1], so maybe there's something to it after all. --Bongwarrior (talk) 23:13, 8 May 2008 (UTC)
I agree, the way it is worded it has no place here. I'll write a more encyclopedic version, we'll see how that works. Feel free to edit it or remove it totally. Jmj713 (talk) 23:21, 8 May 2008 (UTC)
Looking back at the article, I think if it does go back in in a more encyclopedic form, it should go under Society and Politics, not Recent Activity. Seems to fit better there, imho. Chaoticfluffy (talk) 23:29, 8 May 2008 (UTC)
I've put up a version now. Just need to add references. Jmj713 (talk) 23:46, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

It should at the very least me be trimmed signficantly, its recentism, too much detail over a trivial issue. Realist2 ('Come Speak To Me') 00:57, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

Is anyone going to add to this? Realist2 ('Come Speak To Me') 21:42, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

Ok, I think this army quote controversy is getting a little out of hand. I'm fairly new here, so I may be wrong, but is the intent of WP to be an ongoing chronicle current events? A mention of the army quote controversy seems ok to me; a running listing of everything said by King and his opponents in the debate seems...excessive. Would it not perhaps be more appropriate to have the article say something along the lines of "In May of 2008, a controversy emerged over King's comments regarding the US Army being a place for young people who can't read" and then link/reference to...everything else? I'm willing to be wrong on this, but I think at the very least we need to prune the paragraph about it, which is getting a little scary-big in comparison to the rest of the recent activity items. Chaoticfluffy (talk) 16:35, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

I took a few whacks at it. See if that's any better. --Bongwarrior (talk) 06:11, 23 May 2008 (UTC)
Definitely an improvement. Thanks! Chaoticfluffy (talk) 11:57, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Removal of citation request

I added a citation tag, requesting a source for the claim that King writes a column. Jmj713 keeps reverting this, why? I never knew he wrote a column and so proof is needed inline with wiki policy. Realist2 ('Come Speak To Me') 01:16, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

Ref added. Jmj713 (talk) 01:17, 9 May 2008 (UTC)
Thankyou. Realist2 ('Come Speak To Me') 01:18, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Headers vandalism May 13

We seem to have had a couple of kids carrying on an argument about their posteriors by changing section headers today. I quickly tossed up a replacement header for the section on King's success with Carrie when I caught it, but someone might want to check what the header used to be (or what it, uh, heads) and correct my effort. Chaoticfluffy (talk) 20:26, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Image copyright problem with Image:Carrienovel.jpg

The image Image:Carrienovel.jpg is used in this article under a claim of fair use, but it does not have an adequate explanation for why it meets the requirements for such images when used here. In particular, for each page the image is used on, it must have an explanation linking to that page which explains why it needs to be used on that page. Please check

  • That there is a non-free use rationale on the image's description page for the use in this article.
  • That this article is linked to from the image description page.

This is an automated notice by FairuseBot. For assistance on the image use policy, see Wikipedia:Media copyright questions. --05:54, 17 May 2008 (UTC)

Fixed. Jmj713 (talk) 21:51, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Interest in a WikiProject?

Would anyone be interested in a WikiProject about the great Mr. King? There is currently a Dark Tower Project, but I see no reason why this could not work in conjunction with a King Project or even become a task force within the King Project. I wanted to see if there was any intrest in the project before proposing one. Thank You! Blackngold29 04:28, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

I'd support an SK wikiproject.--CyberGhostface (talk) 20:34, 1 June 2008 (UTC)
Sounds like fun! Jmj713 (talk) 19:29, 2 June 2008 (UTC)
Sounds like a good idea to me. He's published enough to keep us all busy... Chaoticfluffy (talk) 20:03, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

I have proposed the project here. All interested are encouraged to add your name to the list. There are about 300 different articles contained within the "Catagory" of Stephen King and its Sub catagories. I suppose that will keep us busy for quite a while. Thank you! Blackngold29 22:02, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

I have started building a rough project page in my sandbox. If there's anything that you would like to add to the page please do so. This is the first time I've started a WP and I know I'm not perfect. I have also made a project banner. We have five people who have supported the project so far, but I'm gonna wait until we get the project page pretty good looking and hopefully a few more people interested, before officially launching the page. Thanks! Blackngold29 18:00, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] House?

Is it really appropriate to include a photograph of the guy's house? Seems it should be removed...

[edit] films stephen king was in correction

i would just like to point out that there is no band member called gage creed in the shining and gage creed is the little boy in pet sematery as stated in the film section: [He appeared in Pet Sematary as a minister at a funeral, in Rose Red as a pizza deliveryman, in The Stand as "Teddy Wieszack," in the Shining miniseries as band member Gage Creed and in The Langoliers as Tom Holby.] —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.104.189.233 (talk) 16:35, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Awkward Juniper Hill references

Some readers will know that a mental institution called "Juniper Hill" appears in a fair amount of Stephen King stories. For example, I should mention the following articles: It, Lisey's Story, and Suffer the Little Children, all of which share awkward references to the place. Can't we just make a link to it? For that matter, is it even notable.

I bring this up because I'm making a test version of Suffer the Little Children, and I've cut the reference in my version of the plot summary. However, it's interesting information. Where should I put it? I don't want to put in a "crossover" section, because they're mostly OR, or stylised trivia sections. If you have any information of note on Juniper Hill, please put it on my talk page, because the more I compile, the more likely I can make a worthy article. --MwNNrules (talk) 22:28, 6 June 2008 (UTC)