Stephen King And Catholicism

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juhothenero said:
Hey,

I’ve started this thread because I am reading some books from Stephen King and I am wondering how much Horror fiction can relate to Catholicism. To me there is a clear distinction of Good and Evil always in these books. The good being regular people trying to cope with bad things happening around them. Evil being the monstrous. I’ve been looking for blogs on catholic opinions on Stephen King but not really got anything useful. What do you guys generally think of his books related to your faith?

P.S Two small requests:
  1. Don’t be rude. Explain your position clearly and politely.
  2. Don’t condemn the books without a large amounts of sufficient evidence.
God Bless,

Juho
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The struggle of good versus evil can be Catholic indeed, and horror can simply be a canvas for the painting. I find King’s work to be brilliant in the way of plot and character but extremely humanist, not Catholic in outlook.

For a true Catholic author, equally if not more brilliant, and whose works have become increasingly luminous, try Dean Koontz.
 
Sailor_Kenshin said:
The struggle of good versus evil can be Catholic indeed, and horror can simply be a canvas for the painting. I find King’s work to be brilliant in the way of plot and character but extremely humanist, not Catholic in outlook.

For a true Catholic author, equally if not more brilliant, and whose works have become increasingly luminous, try Dean Koontz.
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Thanks for the suggestion. I haven’t read Koontz in years, but I did like his work at the time.
 
Sailor_Kenshin said:
The struggle of good versus evil can be Catholic indeed, and horror can simply be a canvas for the painting. I find King’s work to be brilliant in the way of plot and character but extremely humanist, not Catholic in outlook.

For a true Catholic author, equally if not more brilliant, and whose works have become increasingly luminous, try Dean Koontz.
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I just bought my first Koontz book ever Odd Thomas. Sounds good but haven’t started reading it yet. I have to see how it goes.

What comes to King i just been reading his dance macabre and found to be a bit chilling experience. I see him as exploring something a bit unknown to human mind, just like Tolkien or Lewis is to me. They all takes us to a totally different world. Kings world is just a bit extraordinary and horrific.

I agree that on many ideas he is not catholic. And most of his books are clearly not catholic either. But to me it is more important what I get out from the story rather than what the writer tried to achieve. Even King himself thinks like this from what I’ve read him. For me personally many of his novels and stories share a belief in something good and evil and that is which is important. I haven’t read Tolkien directly talking about a God either, but his belief to me shows through his writing.
 
Just occurred to me that The Green Mile is probably rather Catholic, but I’m basing that mostly on memories of the film, which I thought better than the book, largely due to the wonderful cast, especially Michael Duncan as Joe Coffy (was that his name?) “He kill dem wif dere love.” “I tried to bring 'em back, but it was too late.”

Initials! Initials! 😉
 
King’s horror stories aren’t necessarily Catholic or Christian in outlook, but neither are Grimm’s Fairy Tales. In his highly readable non-fiction book on horror, Danse Macabre, King explains that the best horror grabs the reader on the same root level as the best fairy tales, though the former may have more modern & sophisticated trappings. It takes some kind of Chesterton to combine intricately Christianized undertrappings with primal, visceral effects on the reader, and saying that a writer’s no Chesterton is “praising with faint damns” indeed.

I recommend King’s first few decades, though; his work’s been an awfully mixed bag since the early '90s. Maybe his well’s run partially dry, maybe the mellowing of age has made him too complex to write effectively in his chosen genre, maybe he’s gotten so rich & famous that his editors are afraid to be blunt with him.

Still, I admire the guy. He doesn’t merit being taught in schools or anything, but neither really does Edgar Rice Burroughs or H. Rider Haggard. That’s not shabby company.
 
I like Dean Koontz much better. Just finished “One Door Away From Heaven.”
 
Good for you…Nice to read something without seeing nasty pokes at our faith.!
 
Sailor_Kenshin said:
The struggle of good versus evil can be Catholic indeed, and horror can simply be a canvas for the painting. I find King’s work to be brilliant in the way of plot and character but extremely humanist, not Catholic in outlook…
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I have read almost all of King, & I have sometimes thought that his work would fit very well into a class called something like ‘religious themes in literature’.
I actually have found that one of the most meaningful things to me, has been the sense of one world bleeding over into another…because isn’t that the reality of the world, really? That both the Divine & the satanic have set foot into our world…The very non-religiousness of his characters enforces that for me; they are typical of human beings without Christ, adrift & under siege by the demonic.
Probably because that is what I find in King, my favorites are the Dark Tower books. There is a strange nobility in these very human tragedies, because in their world, there is:( no Saviour, and they must try to save the world themselves. And yet they try, and fall, and try again. (Human nature is, after all, wounded but not totally depraved as the result of the Fall of man…
Sailor Kenshin:
For a true Catholic author, equally if not more brilliant, and whose works have become increasingly luminous, try Dean Koontz.
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I haven’t read Koontz much, & I have been thinking about what to pick up, my next trip to the library!!👍👍
 
Interesting analysis of King’s work! I haven’t read the Dark Tower series.

I would almost beg you to begin with Koontz’s Odd Thomas series OR One Door Away From Heaven.

I just finished reading Darkest Evening of the Year, and cried like a baby…
 
Sailor_Kenshin said:
Interesting analysis of King’s work! I haven’t read the Dark Tower series.

I would almost beg you to begin with Koontz’s Odd Thomas series OR One Door Away From Heaven.

I just finished reading Darkest Evening of the Year, and cried like a baby…
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All good Catholic lessons.

My favorite are Fear Nothing and Seize the Night. I especially appreciated the Latin exchange (Carpe Nochtum, Carpe Ceviche)
 
Haven’t read Darkest Evening of the Year. Will have to pick it up. Thanks for the reference.
 
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