02-01-2006, 09:53 PM
Nay, Brother Greg!
The Shining is a great novel (one of my favorites), but it is not traditional horror. It is a commentary on idealogical differences reduced to a microcosmic stage.
Liberals, conservatives, independants are developed as single characters. Even the politically ignorant are reduced to a single character (Tom) for the sake of drama.
Nay - The best Horror novel is and proably always will be 'Salem's Lot'. My sophisticated, intellectual side says 'The Shining', but I realize that images from the movie are clouding my judgement. Kubrick's vision has some seriously fucked-up scenes that send nightmares into overtime.
'Salem's Lot' provided my brain with enough information to generate nightmares way before the TV movie. Thinking of my friends being turned into vampires who would gently tap at my window kept me awake many a night. Eventually I grew used to my friends tapping on my window and this fear went away, but still, geez.
Any way you cut it I still say Stephen King is the best horror novelist ever and even his crappiest books are light-years better than Dean Koontz and John Saul.
The Shining is a great novel (one of my favorites), but it is not traditional horror. It is a commentary on idealogical differences reduced to a microcosmic stage.
Liberals, conservatives, independants are developed as single characters. Even the politically ignorant are reduced to a single character (Tom) for the sake of drama.
Nay - The best Horror novel is and proably always will be 'Salem's Lot'. My sophisticated, intellectual side says 'The Shining', but I realize that images from the movie are clouding my judgement. Kubrick's vision has some seriously fucked-up scenes that send nightmares into overtime.
'Salem's Lot' provided my brain with enough information to generate nightmares way before the TV movie. Thinking of my friends being turned into vampires who would gently tap at my window kept me awake many a night. Eventually I grew used to my friends tapping on my window and this fear went away, but still, geez.
Any way you cut it I still say Stephen King is the best horror novelist ever and even his crappiest books are light-years better than Dean Koontz and John Saul.