Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Now that's a sentence (or two)

Do you ever run across a sentence or a passage that makes you sit up in your seat and go damn! I wish I'd written that!

That's how I felt tonight at the bookstore when I read a New York Times Book Review piece written by Stephen King about a new novel called THE LEFTOVERS. The novel, which I haven't read, is set in a post-Rapture world, which gave rise to this riff by King: "For those of you who wasted the spring of 2011 following less substantive stories--tornadoes, nuclear meltdowns, unrest in the Mideast, the further adventures of Snooki--[Harold] Camping is a preacher with an apocalyptic worldview, moderately hilarious dentures and strong ideas about the biblical prophecy known as the rapture."

The phrase "moderately hilarious dentures"? It is genius, people.

7 comments:

Lisa B. said...

I really, really love Stephen King writing on pop culture stuff. He's astute and you're right, he often nails the phrase. And very funny. Well played, King. Well played.

LucindaF said...

Dang, I thought you were going to talk about my genius writing. ;)

Stephen King, he's always trying to one-up my genius phrases.

Speaking of that dude, Louise gave a fabulous and scary class using, Misery.

Louise Plummer said...

I adore Stephen King. He has a world view I relate to.

Erin said...

It is a great sentence, but I find that when most people try to write great sentences, it usually fails. Thanks for sharing.

Emily said...

It's true about Louise. She's obsessed with MISERY. It makes me nervous how much she adores him...

I adore him too. Sort of.

wjmom said...

Approximately 100 years ago I read an article in RD about Mr. King. I love what a real person he turned into for me. Because they gave him $100K for "Carrie" -- which he sent in after his wife rescued it from the trash can. Twice.

Perhaps there should be something said about Mr. King's wife...

James said...

I believe Stephen King is a very good writer. I read about his dedication to writing once, and it struck me that he is good at it because he works hard at it. I know a lot you are writers, and you probably don't need it, but I think his book "On Writing" is very interesting.