Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Master and pupils

You know all those controversies that rock the art world when a creator has died and someone tries to take over his work, usually for the worst?
It happened for Blake & Mortimer, and it should have happened way earlier than it did when Uderzo tried to script new adventures of Asterix, after its original writer, Rene Goscinny - one of the world's greatest genius, passed away.
Well, I'm now convinced that both Luc Besson and Georges Lucas have died, and that some cheap grad student with a 1.8 GPA took over their work. Fortunately, Besson has always said he would stop after 10 movies, and the 10th is coming up in the form of a weird animation movie, adapted from his own book, "Arthur and the Minimoys". A movie that has not only the ugliest cover design ever, but also the worst title.
As for Lucas, well, rumors say he might stop too. Let us pray it's true.

I'm really really happy, on the other hand, that Stephen King (this one, not this one) didn't deliver on his promise to stop writing.
I don't know where Master King went when he was uncounscious, following the accident that almost cost his life back in 1999, but it must have been pretty scary if we are to believe the visions he shared with us in "Dreamcatcher" and "On Writing".
Once back from the dead, his work definitely took a new turn, often diving into the depth of the human mind, wondering there like it's a personal, physical cave, not unlike what Thomas Harris did in Hannibal, and the metaphor that the batcave has always stood for.


From what the awesome reviews he's already received promise, it looks like his new novel, Lisey's Story, deals with the same trips of the mind one takes when working his imagination. I can't wait to read this one, and if you know anything about great fiction, so should you.

By the way, if you still think Stephen King is only about blood and gore, please know that if he is the master of horror, it's only the horror he creates in the mind of people who haven't read his books. Because most of his work is just pure, fantastic american fiction, usually touching and surprising, and deeply intelligent.


As a reminder, you can check out this video I took of him reading in August, at Radio City Music Hall.
And don't forget to check out his bi-monthly column for Entertainment Weekly, which is an inspiration for this blog.

Here's to reading you, Master King.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey dude !

Who the f... are Goscinny and Mortimer !?

Anyway, Stephen King rules!

Ben said...

Check out the links, you'll find out.
They're part of the world of european comics...

Anonymous said...

Ah ben oui, merde, j'avais pas fait gaffe !

et puis, je connais bien les europena comics, t'inquiète!
C'était juste pour te faire marcher ! Lol (comme dirait Vich)

Bon, j'arrête les blagues et les points d'exclamation...
En tout cas, tu écris vachement bien l'anglais, c'est très agréable.
Maintenant, les choses qui fachent ;c)) Lost passe sur TF1 et je ne supporte pas cette série. Je suis sur Rome en ce moment (on me l'a piraté pour moi) et c'est pas mal du tout.
Sinon je pardonne à Tf1, car ils passent les Experts LasVegas et ça j'aime pas mal aussi. Quant à Manhattan et Miami, à part leurs chefs d'équipe respectifs -Sinise, bien- le reste du staff est chiant.
Et mon avis sur Mr. King : je viens de finir 'This' et je pense que j'aurais mieux aimé si j'avais été américain. Sinon, le côté épouvante et le style sont effectivement remarquables...Mais je ne lirai pas d'autres King.
see ya

signé Paul aka Benson

Ben said...

It's very hard for me to understand french, but I'll try. King's masterpiece is "It", not "This". That way, you can say stuff like "It came back". And if you allow me to say so, King has as many styles as there are books. If you try "Desperation", for example, you'll barely believe it's the same guy writing.

Thanks for complimenting my prose, I appreciate it. Oh yeah, and get Lost :-)

Anonymous said...

Who the f... are Goscinny and Mortimer?
Just kidding ;)