Steven King and Visions of Youth

Steven King is loved by readers and, often scorned by those who consider themselves upholders of fine 'literature.' In a way, I understand this. While King can surely write a suspenseful and frightening tale, he often lapses into the just plain gross. He readily admits this, saying that if he cannot find a way to induce terror, he will go for the gross out.

Okay, that's his choice and should not obscure the fact that he can tell a fine tale. In addition, he is the best, the absolute best, among writers today, at evoking the memories and feelings of young people.. Well, perhaps I should amend that. He is the best at evoking childhood and adolescence as it was during the era I grew up in, the 1950s and 1960s. I have little idea what growing up today is like. From things I have been told, it is both wildly different and still much the same. But, I do know that King nails it when writing of that older time.

In one of his newer novels, Revival, he opens the story with a beautifully written section about a kid playing alone with toy soldiers on a sand hill. The imagery, the description of the child's thought process is perfect.  I have spent hours doing similar things. He goes on with the boy's tale as he goes through the pain and joy of growing, of learning the world, tracing him through the pangs of early teen awareness of sexuality and the finding of one's calling, in this case music.

Even better is It. It, while certainly a horror story complete with a fearsome monster, is really a coming of age story. All of the horror comes from the kids, their fears and fantasies as they begin the passage into adulthood. The monster simply picks up on those fears and projects images that feed the terror back to the children. His pictures of small town adolescence, as the kids pass from times spent on juvenile pastimes to more grown up interests and back again is absolutely perfect.

King is at his best when he writes about childhood. I believe he might be trying to figure out his own and that's okay because most folks I know spend at least some time doing the same. He is the best at it in our time. RL Stevenson and Twain were past masters of writing about children on the cusp of adolescence, and, in this area, King is their equal. In other parts of his writing, well, not so much. Always entertaining, sometimes, his plots collapse a bit but his strengths make him worth reading.

If there are any young folks out there reading this, you may be asking why you would care about kids from the 50s and 60s. Well, they are your grandparents; their upbringing set the tone for how they raised their kids who are now your parents. It's history, without the boring teachers and textbooks.