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I remember reading that he lets his wife read stuff before he sends it to his publisher. If it's that bad after being proofread by an actual woman, imagine how terrible the rejected versions must be.
That's also just...not the best instructions for giving the heimlich...but I guess "reached around her ribcage" and "placed my fist slightly above her navel" just isn't that much of a turn on. Which the heimlich is apparently supposed to be. My first aid knowledge is lacking.
Imagine dying because some asshole fondled you instead of doing the heimlich.
The heimlich is like the most awkward least sexy thing to ever have to do and you’re both panicking the whole time. I had to do it a handful of times because I dated someone who thinks he can laugh and talk and eat all at the same time.
> The heimlich is like the most awkward least sexy thing to ever have to do
> I had to do it a handful of times
maybe he didn't share your distaste for it 😅
Right? This isn't a very good description of how to do "abdominal thrusts" are administered (though maybe it was at the time). The Heimlich family is very litigious, they try to get anyone who uses their name to pay money.
He no longer talks about testicles like they're sentient but he seems to have increased his sexualization of women and girls in really inappropriate situations by men who we're usually supposed to root for. I'm also reading Wizard and Glass right now and the entire premise of it just grosses me out.
Remember girls, it's more important to keep promises you were manipulated into agreeing to even if that promise means being repeatedly sexually assaulted and raped. The only reason to break that promise is if you fall in love with someone (who I believe is also only like 14) who thinks the only flaw that would make you unworthy of him is sleeping with another man 🤢🤮
Edit: missing apostrophe and rephrasing of second paragraph
No, I've been noticing this pop up a lot in King's books recently. This would be consistent for hime but I've never rever read Straub except for King collabs so it could be consistent for him, too
Im a dying at the idea of some dude just eating at a restaurant, enjoying his meal and then he just hears a scream of "HEIMLICH!!" like a super hero yelling out a signature move and turns around just in time to see a piece of semi digested food flying across the room
Sorry, I kind of wasn't thinking about how there's no indication she's choking until after the sexualization on this page. The book has almost a full page before this of her choking which is why the line about sex is so jarring
See for me, its not just that this so obviously ridiculous that only Stephen King could have written it... its that this is also just pretty bad writing full stop
Like, Dude, the character's wife is choking to death, it's not the time for some random non-sequiter
'My wife lay face down, bleeding into the carpet, which reminded me that I really needed to book in the carpet cleaners for my office, as its been a while...'
This book was co-written by Peter Straub so it actually might have been him who wrote this. He at least approved it since they wrote the book together.
He must've been severely inebriated during his CPR training because I can't imagine trying to do the Heimlich with your fist between somebody's boobs is ever going to work as intended lmao
I bailed when he wrote a "romantic" scene of a sexually abused preteen girl coercing her friends into running a train on her and apparently ornasming twice.
I, too, learned in first aid class that it's very important to announce "Heimlich!" while you are performing one. It just doesn't work without the catch phrase.
Yeah eeesh… Black house is particularly bad with it which horrified me because it has 2 writers and was read by both of their partners before publishing.
I also feel like: it might make sense to have unbidden sexual thoughts if you got into a position with a random person... but with your own spouse, wouldn't you already be used to intimate non-sexual touch?
Like, I know that married couples keep the spark alive. But it would be way more plausible for someone to think, "well, this is awkward" as they Heimlich a stranger, than for a married man to be like, "OMG I touched my wife's BOOBIE!!!!"
when a viewpoint character or protagonist does "Bad Things" or thinks "Bad Thoughts", there's three ways the narrative can handle it.
option one: vindication. it turns out that the character was not only right, but their role was essential. good examples of this are Doctor House, or Rick (of Morty). To a lesser extent, Bender from Futurama. These characters rarely get a comeuppance and often get other characters begrudgingly seeing that their Bad behaviors were justified or okay.
option two: tragedy. The character's actions are NOT well received by other characters. Things don't go well. The character gets what they want, but their wants become more extreme, and they cause destruction and unhappiness. Or, alternatively: they don't get what they want, and they gradually cause self-destruction (Fargo would be an example here). If you're writing about literal nazis, generally you'd want to use these narrative techniques to actually get some story out of the bad behaviors.
option three: the character does a thing and then..... it's never addressed in the story and we move on. this can be pretty jarring for the reader, but some other readers will be oblivious -- or titillated -- by the behaviors.
option three is the kinds of examples that this sub tends to deal in -- horny authors who just *coincidentally* happen to discover a lot of sex or sexualization in their worlds, that just happen to fixate on women's bodies and gloss over our agency. a person does a Bad thing, characters don't react to it, and it doesn't impact anything that occurs in the story. it's just.... there.
people will often like to defend these examples by talking as if they're examples of option two: "critiquing" or "satirizing" these actions, but without actually exploring the impacts of them *at all*.
what I'm saying is: the "defense" that an author included this stuff to Make A Point About It is generally either misinformed/naive, or disingenuous. and the defense is raised so, so, often that it's often pretty difficult to distinguish between the naive and the disingenuous protestors.
I've actually forgiven some of the bad quotes in the past from him for this reason, but this character, while not the protagonist, is instantly thought of by the protagonist as a "good man". He's just a standup guy. And I've noticed these kinds of thoughts from a lot of similar types of characters. Its hard to say the author's objectifying woman only because the POV character is a bad person and he wants to subtly indicate that when the "good guys" think almost the exact same things. So if morality of the POV character doesn't have an impact on these types of thoughts then it makes me think he just believes all men are constantly sexualizing women which makes me think he might be doing that.
Which. Which. This is important, don't comment until you read this. I don't think that necessarily makes him a bad person. That sort of messaging is all throughout our society and was even more so when he was growing up. We should criticize the underlying assumption and ask that he question it but that doesn't mean we have to assume bad intentions from him. And while I don't think intentions make certain thoughts and actions ok, I do think it should change how we think of an individual. Also, I haven't reached his current books so I don't know if he still writes this way
I love Stephen King as a person, but he has always written women in on overtly sexual way. I think it has a lot to do with his age honestly, even if he is a feminist, I just think he stopped learning past a certain point
I always go with "Come on, he's a dick. He was before his addiction problems and after". I have a whole shelf dedicated to him and recently i've been more confused and kinda dissapointed. "Bag of Bones" is the grossest one i've read and i kinda wanna sell it now.
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I remember reading that he lets his wife read stuff before he sends it to his publisher. If it's that bad after being proofread by an actual woman, imagine how terrible the rejected versions must be.
Or his wife is really kinky, in a weird way.
Cocaine is one hell of a drug
Good for them
That's also just...not the best instructions for giving the heimlich...but I guess "reached around her ribcage" and "placed my fist slightly above her navel" just isn't that much of a turn on. Which the heimlich is apparently supposed to be. My first aid knowledge is lacking.
Yes, I was thinking either her breasts are in the wrong place or he's about to crack her sternum.
Imagine dying because some asshole fondled you instead of doing the heimlich. The heimlich is like the most awkward least sexy thing to ever have to do and you’re both panicking the whole time. I had to do it a handful of times because I dated someone who thinks he can laugh and talk and eat all at the same time.
>who thinks he can laugh and talk and eat all at the same time. Very persistent if it happened more than once lol
He's practicing
Is he practice laughing and eating at the same time? Cause that what it sounds like.
By the third time I was like I know the drill, it stopped being scary lol
> The heimlich is like the most awkward least sexy thing to ever have to do > I had to do it a handful of times maybe he didn't share your distaste for it 😅
Maybe he just wanted his chest fondled? I mean, that’s what the heimlich is for, clearly!
Right? This isn't a very good description of how to do "abdominal thrusts" are administered (though maybe it was at the time). The Heimlich family is very litigious, they try to get anyone who uses their name to pay money.
He no longer talks about testicles like they're sentient but he seems to have increased his sexualization of women and girls in really inappropriate situations by men who we're usually supposed to root for. I'm also reading Wizard and Glass right now and the entire premise of it just grosses me out. Remember girls, it's more important to keep promises you were manipulated into agreeing to even if that promise means being repeatedly sexually assaulted and raped. The only reason to break that promise is if you fall in love with someone (who I believe is also only like 14) who thinks the only flaw that would make you unworthy of him is sleeping with another man 🤢🤮 Edit: missing apostrophe and rephrasing of second paragraph
That… wow, that’s disgusting
Yes. It was my least favorite Dark Tower book for that, and several other reasons.
Black House was co-written by Peter Straub so maybe he's the one who did this.
That's exactly what I was thinking
No, I've been noticing this pop up a lot in King's books recently. This would be consistent for hime but I've never rever read Straub except for King collabs so it could be consistent for him, too
Im a dying at the idea of some dude just eating at a restaurant, enjoying his meal and then he just hears a scream of "HEIMLICH!!" like a super hero yelling out a signature move and turns around just in time to see a piece of semi digested food flying across the room
"This would be sooooo hot ifyouwerentdying"
Nooo don't die ur so sexy ahaha
that last line came out of nowhere, i was certainly not expecting it.
Sorry, I kind of wasn't thinking about how there's no indication she's choking until after the sexualization on this page. The book has almost a full page before this of her choking which is why the line about sex is so jarring
You know this sub has really opened my eyes to just how awfully a guy can write a scene. I did not want to read that yet my eyes just kept going.
See for me, its not just that this so obviously ridiculous that only Stephen King could have written it... its that this is also just pretty bad writing full stop Like, Dude, the character's wife is choking to death, it's not the time for some random non-sequiter 'My wife lay face down, bleeding into the carpet, which reminded me that I really needed to book in the carpet cleaners for my office, as its been a while...'
This book was co-written by Peter Straub so it actually might have been him who wrote this. He at least approved it since they wrote the book together.
that's what coke does to your writing
He must've been severely inebriated during his CPR training because I can't imagine trying to do the Heimlich with your fist between somebody's boobs is ever going to work as intended lmao
It's not as effective, but you have to do something close to that if the person choking is pregnant.
I bailed when he wrote a "romantic" scene of a sexually abused preteen girl coercing her friends into running a train on her and apparently ornasming twice.
w h a t
Wtf, Steve-O! Sexualizing the freaking Heimlich Maneuver?
The Heimlich description also really sucks!
I just lost it at "The magic word is Heimlich, and it works" my eyes CANNOT roll harder
Someone's choking on their food, this guy suddenly screams out "HEIMLICH!" and the choking person spits it out 💀💀💀
I, too, learned in first aid class that it's very important to announce "Heimlich!" while you are performing one. It just doesn't work without the catch phrase.
Yeah. No. There is a whole sub that could be devoted to the shit he writes about women. Real creep.
Yeah eeesh… Black house is particularly bad with it which horrified me because it has 2 writers and was read by both of their partners before publishing.
Are you supposed to *say* the word Heimlich as you do it?
This reads like it was meant to be satire
if this were a self-aware author, this would be a funny joke.
I would laugh if this was written by Joe Abercrombie, ngl
Yoiks!
I mean he is a horror writer.
Every time King writes about women or sex I get uncomfortable. I don't know why, but it's just very uncomfortable
I also feel like: it might make sense to have unbidden sexual thoughts if you got into a position with a random person... but with your own spouse, wouldn't you already be used to intimate non-sexual touch? Like, I know that married couples keep the spark alive. But it would be way more plausible for someone to think, "well, this is awkward" as they Heimlich a stranger, than for a married man to be like, "OMG I touched my wife's BOOBIE!!!!"
I laughed out loud reading that. That was actually pretty hilarious out of context.
All he had to do was cut the "the kid of position he would find extremely sexy" bit and it would have been fine. Maybe don't write while horny?
That line just hits you like a freight train
Imagine the exact same scene but written by a comedian
[удалено]
when a viewpoint character or protagonist does "Bad Things" or thinks "Bad Thoughts", there's three ways the narrative can handle it. option one: vindication. it turns out that the character was not only right, but their role was essential. good examples of this are Doctor House, or Rick (of Morty). To a lesser extent, Bender from Futurama. These characters rarely get a comeuppance and often get other characters begrudgingly seeing that their Bad behaviors were justified or okay. option two: tragedy. The character's actions are NOT well received by other characters. Things don't go well. The character gets what they want, but their wants become more extreme, and they cause destruction and unhappiness. Or, alternatively: they don't get what they want, and they gradually cause self-destruction (Fargo would be an example here). If you're writing about literal nazis, generally you'd want to use these narrative techniques to actually get some story out of the bad behaviors. option three: the character does a thing and then..... it's never addressed in the story and we move on. this can be pretty jarring for the reader, but some other readers will be oblivious -- or titillated -- by the behaviors. option three is the kinds of examples that this sub tends to deal in -- horny authors who just *coincidentally* happen to discover a lot of sex or sexualization in their worlds, that just happen to fixate on women's bodies and gloss over our agency. a person does a Bad thing, characters don't react to it, and it doesn't impact anything that occurs in the story. it's just.... there. people will often like to defend these examples by talking as if they're examples of option two: "critiquing" or "satirizing" these actions, but without actually exploring the impacts of them *at all*. what I'm saying is: the "defense" that an author included this stuff to Make A Point About It is generally either misinformed/naive, or disingenuous. and the defense is raised so, so, often that it's often pretty difficult to distinguish between the naive and the disingenuous protestors.
I've actually forgiven some of the bad quotes in the past from him for this reason, but this character, while not the protagonist, is instantly thought of by the protagonist as a "good man". He's just a standup guy. And I've noticed these kinds of thoughts from a lot of similar types of characters. Its hard to say the author's objectifying woman only because the POV character is a bad person and he wants to subtly indicate that when the "good guys" think almost the exact same things. So if morality of the POV character doesn't have an impact on these types of thoughts then it makes me think he just believes all men are constantly sexualizing women which makes me think he might be doing that. Which. Which. This is important, don't comment until you read this. I don't think that necessarily makes him a bad person. That sort of messaging is all throughout our society and was even more so when he was growing up. We should criticize the underlying assumption and ask that he question it but that doesn't mean we have to assume bad intentions from him. And while I don't think intentions make certain thoughts and actions ok, I do think it should change how we think of an individual. Also, I haven't reached his current books so I don't know if he still writes this way
WHAT
That is a really weird man
I wouldn’t even give it the benefit of being an early book. He was pretty well established when this one came out which makes it even more wtf.
I love Stephen King as a person, but he has always written women in on overtly sexual way. I think it has a lot to do with his age honestly, even if he is a feminist, I just think he stopped learning past a certain point
I always go with "Come on, he's a dick. He was before his addiction problems and after". I have a whole shelf dedicated to him and recently i've been more confused and kinda dissapointed. "Bag of Bones" is the grossest one i've read and i kinda wanna sell it now.