The STEPHEN KING Drinking Game

[Amnesiac]

Have you ever done one of those drinking games for movies and television and wished that you could do the same with books? Of course not! But I have figured out a way to do it anyway so feel free to give it a try. The basis of this game is to Steven King books.

How to play the Stephen King drinking game:

- Narrative segues into copious flashback that ruins rhythm: 2 drinks

- An perfect sentence summarizes the detail that an entire paragraph was spent describing: 3 drinks

- Someone says "I love you" out of the blue: 1 drink (warning: do not attempt this with "The Stand")

- Character cries: 1 drink

- Character with abusive parents/spouse is introduced: 2 drinks

- LORD OF THE RINGS reference: 3 drinks

- Inner thoughts broken with contradicting parentheticals: 1 drink

- Main characters have Harlequinn romance-novel sex: 2 drinks

- The paragraph starts addressing the reader or someone else halfway through the book for the first time: 2 drinks

- Someone gives dramatic death speech: 2 drinks

- Someone dies in strange and painful horror-movie fashion that may be physically impossible in real life: 1 drink

- The plot change is hinted at 100 pages before it actually happens, usually with the phrase "(a decision he would later regret)": 2 drinks

- Character calls out overractive expressions of grief in all-capital letters: 1 drink

- Character develops lethal infection from a minor injury: 2 drinks

- Reference to Frank Dodd, Dick Halloran or Randall Flagg in other books: 3 drinks

- Indications that the Dark Tower book you're reading is even worse than the last one: fill in your own quantity here

- Retarded person with magical abilities appears: 2 drinks

- Black person with magical abilities appears: 2 drinks

- Retarded black person with magical abilities appears: whole bottle

- Wishing that King would go back on drugs to write the kind of books he used to write on drugs: 1 drink


Drink responsibly...stop when the words start to blur

 

[Dave2112]

King introduces (damns?) us to the inner workings (clank-clank-clank) of his plot with italicized break-away sub-paragraphs. 2 drinks

Do NOT attempt this with "It".

 

[BigJim]

King introduces (damns?) us to the inner workings (clank-clank-clank) of his plot with italicized break-away sub-paragraphs. 2 drinks

Do NOT attempt this with "It".

Awww, shit! I do that all the time.


BTW Dave, love that new sig line! 🙂

 

[Neutron]

I Liked ...

The Stand, It, and Salems Lot.
Then King became a lot like Tom Clancy, he got so big no one else is allowed to edit his work, and it shows.

Personally I think Robert McGammon is a LOT better.
Read Swan Song (His view of the post apocalyptic world)
Stinger
and They Live

Another Decent McGammon book is Gone South.

Dan Simmons is also arguably better than King.
Summer Of Night
Carrion Comfort (HIGHLY recommended, a real doozy of a book)

Hell Peter Straubs Ghost Story is as chilling as anything King ever wrote, and he did it in half the words!.

Tron

 

[dskodj]

..anything you say loyd..anything you say...

 

[Dave2112]

Tron, you read Swan Song? No shit. I mention that book to anyone else and I get a look like my teeth sprouted fur. I completely fell into that world. It was a little far-fetched with the ring of glass and all that, but for the most part, it could happen that way.

And in an ironic twist of fate considering the recent threads about wrestlers, ain't it kinda neat how a pro wrestler helps save the world in the book?

I haven't read much of his other stuff, but I've just finally completed the New Jedi Order series, so intend to check out a few others.

 

[Admiral Trouser]

Neil Gaimon (sp, again. argh) is arguably a better King, also: His best work is probably American Gods, so give that a try first, but Good Omens is also a cracking yarn, co-written with Terry Pratchett, so obviously its dark, but humorous too. And for lovers of comic-books, check out his current offerings in the series "1602", which is essentialy the Marvel Universe set in Medievil Europe. All good stuff indeed 🙂

AT

 

[Amnesiac]

Bump

 

[drew70]

I've never needed a game to entice me to drink. 😀

Amnesiac, in a way I feel sorry for you. I could be way off base here, but from what I read from you it seems like you get actual satisfaction and entertainment from maybe 10% of the stuff you read, watch, etc. I've often wondered what makes people set their standards so high that few works ever reach it.

Yet just the same, I've got a book for you to read, if you've not already read it. It's a graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons called The Watchmen, originally released by DC Comics as a 12-issue limited series in 1986-1987.

If you can read that and tell me it sucked, I'm afraid there's no hope for you. It's sheer brilliance, the like of which I've never seen since.

 

[TicklishGrl4Lfe]

BLAH! Just reading how to play makes me feel hungover! XD I gotta try it!!!!

 

[BigJim]

The age of the thread doesn't really matter, it's whether there's anything new to say in it.

 

[chicago]

This game has too many rules.

 

[BigJim]

You spend fifteen years building up to the climax of a brilliant story and the ending is the shittest cop-out in the history of the written word. - A whole case of Lamb's Naval Rum

 

[Avenger314]

Favorite Stephen King books:

Insomnia
Bag of Bones

Stephen King books I really like:
The Shining
Dolores Claiborne
All his short stories, pretty much
Gerald's Game
Misery
Cujo
Needful Things
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon

Stephen King books I hate:
The entire Dark Tower series.
It
The Stand
Lisey's Story

 

[Amnesiac]

Amnesiac, in a way I feel sorry for you...from what I read from you it seems like you get actual satisfaction and entertainment from maybe 10% of the stuff you read, watch, etc. I've often wondered what makes people set their standards so high that few works ever reach it.
drew70

It happens when you piece learn the chronological progression of trends and tropes in a medium and how it influences that which follows it. Then you start keeping track of how many old pieces turn up in new work, and this leads you to notice how often new works rely on recycling instead of innovation. And when, after this, you realize that new creators are more interested in grafting old tricks with new twists for the sake of entertainment at the expense of standards and experimentation. The result is that you develop a contempt for those who don't care enough about the field to put any real work in it aside from grinding out the page length and ticking off the cliches. When a sub-par work aspires to a grandeur beyond its abilities, it's like watching a bad actor trying to do Shakespeare: painful and embarassing.

Plus, when you read the best work by the best writers out there, its hard to overlook the mediocrity of others. Especially when the creator/author is deliberately trying to do something different but in a subtextual way that isn't obvious to the casual viewer, much like Bill Watterson did with Calvin & Hobbes (read the C&H 10th Anniversary Book and see how much more the series is than a mere kids cartoon). The thrill comes in having to work as hard as the author did to decipher the layers and layers of meaning and coming to grips with the massive, intricate and dense network of details that revive the familiar and bury it. Case in point...

It's a graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons called The Watchmen,

No, it's called Watchmen and it is NOT brilliant. IT IS UNCONQUERABLE GENIUS! Alan Moore is one of the greatest (if not THE greatest) living writers in the world, and I would dare say a bit better than Neil Gaiman (although Gaiman has wider range). People like Moore, Gaiman, Pratchett, Mike Carey, Brian Azzarello, Brian Michael Bendis, David Mamet, Tom Stoppard, Samuel Beckett, Chris Ware, James Joyce, Alex Robinson, Mark P. Danielewski, and especially Thomas Pynchon not only know where they're going...they know where their medium has BEEN...and they're going to show you how the past and the future meet, but in different ways each time.

If there weren't bands like Radiohead, we'd only have bands like Puddle of Mudd and Pussycat Dolls. If there werent films like Two or Three Things I Know About Her, we'd be stuck with Pirates of the Caribbean. All things would be alike and no great innovations would be made. And we'd be so used to it, we'd have no idea how repetitive and unimaginative our media had become.

If you don't believe me, here's Mr. Moore's own direct opinion on the matter:

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Why do you guys do this? Bump an old post? What's the point?
denver tickler

I did it for Mistress Aura who is VERY fond of Stephen King--she says so in my 'The Mist' is incredible thread and who I felt needed a leeeeeeeeeeetle reminder of his repetitive hackneyed habits.

 

[The Last Laugh]

Dan Simmons is also arguably better than King. Summer Of Night

I've read that. A decent book, but isn't it basically a total rip-off of King's "It"?

 

[drew70]

No, it's called Watchmen and it is NOT brilliant. IT IS UNCONQUERABLE GENIUS! Alan Moore is one of the greatest (if not THE greatest) living writers in the world, and I would dare say a bit better than Neil Gaiman (although Gaiman has wider range).

Wow. I guess I owe you an apology. I'm now coming to understand that you read so much that you are plugged into the really great, if relatively lesser known authors. I can see how reading the great works could make those of the mega-authors pale somewhat.

When The Watchmen was being released an issue at a time, my friends an I would pour over each issue, pointing out all the nuances, the "layers" of meaning as you say. I'd say Watchmen is the most realistic thought out scenario of how it would be if there really were costumed heros in the world. I would really dig having a conversation with you about that story.

I did it for Mistress Aura who is VERY fond of Stephen King--she says so in my 'The Mist' is incredible thread and who I felt needed a leeeeeeeeeeetle reminder of his repetitive hackneyed habits.

I guess you didn't get the memo. Ticklishgiggle owns the exclusive rights to the word "hackneyed" here at the TMF. 😛

 

[Amnesiac]

Wow. I guess I owe you an apology. I'm now coming to understand that you read so much that you are plugged into the really great, if relatively lesser known authors. I can see how reading the great works could make those of the mega-authors pale somewhat.
drew70

Apology accepted. That's almost exactly the point. The writers of merit and depth are little-known because their work is not marketed or accepted by publishers and readers. And the writers who sell don't put forth the effort or scale that these guys do...they'll write EPICS, yes, but not anything that isn't a mishmash of other, better things. And quite frankly I get my enjoyment out of both a challenge adn in the discovering of breadth of complexity found in each story. I don't get that in contemporary writers; I see dull, uninspired, whiney, unimaginative shite and I lament the lack of truly innovative writing.

Ticklishgiggle owns the exclusive rights to the word "hackneyed" here at the TMF.

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH No she doesn't! If she thinks she can take away one of MY words for hersefl, I'll give her armpits SUUUUUUUCH a POKE!

Or maybe I'll take a vacuum cleaner tube to her neck. That'll learn 'er!

 

[steph]

Well done!
I usually hate when people re-visit the old stuff but I gotta give it to you, this one kicks ass!
XOXO

Bump