This is my first encounter with a DNF (Did Not Finish) from the renowned Stephen King. It's quite unexpected, yet I simply don't feel that I'm the "target audience" for this particular book. However, I must admit that I did enjoy certain aspects of what I read.

The excerpts provided offer a glimpse into the author's mind and his unique take on horror and life. For instance, on March 11, 2024, King shares his experience of seeing the Blair Witch in a hospital room, being in a state of pain and under the influence of painkillers. It's a rather strange and somewhat comical situation, with him watching a bootleg videotape.

On March 12, 2024, he makes an interesting point about the good horror tale, comparing it to the works of Albert Camus and Billy Joel. He suggests that a great horror story can find its way into the deepest recesses of our lives, uncovering secrets we thought were known only to us.

March 13, 2024, brings more thought-provoking ideas. King delves into the concept of human connection and the role of positive emotions. He also mentions his love for William M. Gaines's horror comics and the lore surrounding vampires.

Overall, while I may not have finished the book, these excerpts have given me a sense of King's creativity and his ability to explore the darker side of human nature.

What lies closer than to watch the King himself, in his young, wild, completely wasted, and high as hell years, dissect the mechanisms and history of terror, despair, and all our other beloved story elements?

I don't get two of the criticisms of this work. The first one, that King writes too long and wordy, is like saying the sea is too wet. It simply doesn't count. The second one is similar. There is too much info dump and dry, technical information about the history, development, and state of horror fiction in a nonfiction book. But wait, that's exactly what it should be, although some parts could have really been shortened. Don't order fish if you hate it and then say the cook is not good. It's your fault.

It's better to go with the readers who highly appreciate this work, just like his masterpiece On Writing. If they have a special interest in the progress of creative writing or the history of terror in culture and literature, they will love it.

Of course, like any nonfiction, it could benefit from slimming down and adding fewer hard facts for the general readers and audiences. Maybe offering many extra info or links in the addendum would be a good idea. And authors talking about themselves and their autobiographical experiences is often a boring and unnecessary expansion of the work. But this is Stephen King we are talking about here. We watch the show because we want to absorb any grain of content he provides. It sounds wrong, but I'm too lazy to edit.

Besides, he is throwing in Big history and macro socio-economic evolution between the lines in the classical "Hold my coffee, not beer anymore for Mr. King" mentality. While he is sharply analyzing, mining, and producing pure gold for readers interested in the topic or, even more, aspiring authors wanting to better understand their genre. An extra for them might be to take the idea to analyze the market. Nowadays, games, movies, and literature are all fair game. Look at what has worked, what is underrepresented, which style, length, genre, subgenre, new crossover hybrid, etc. the audience might like. And bam, you could have a hit on your hands. Many of the coolest, most successful, and freshest hits in Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and horror might have grown out of this idea of simply making a personal, sophisticated market study.

A wiki walk can be as refreshing to the mind as a walk through nature in this completely overrated real life outside books: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danse_M...

Wow, what an enormous book! It was written by the Godfather of horror himself in the early 80s.

You hear about all the inspiration he had: Weird Tales, E.C. Comics, Tales from the Crypt, and some sci-fi movies. Then Stephen King talks about Lovecraft, The House Next Door, Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist, Ghost Story, Ramsey Campbell, Leiber, Matheson, Romero, the best pulp horror ever (Sucking Pit), James Herbert, Twilight Zone, Rod Serling, Ray Bradbury, to name just a few.

This is a thrilling rollercoaster ride through horror from 1950 to 80, with all the books, movies, and series to focus on. Besides this discussion, Stephen King also refers to his early novels Carrie, Shining, The Stand, Salem's Lot, and provides great background information on why he integrated certain motifs/scenes, what interests him, and what his influences were.

I absolutely loved this book and all the horror stuff it mentions. I read and am still reading many of them as I was a youth in the 80s. This is the door of perception to modern horror. It's a must-read for every fan of horror!

DNF. It's such a huge waste of time. I got to the middle and had to force my way through the sides.

Let's start with the fact that I don't tolerate King. I think he is the best example of how mediocrity in a guy is enough to be hailed as talented. In reality, the good novels he has produced can be counted on the fingers of one hand, and in those there are entire chapters and storylines that need correction.

From this book, I actually only needed one quote to have the official Polish translation, and once I found it, I thought I might as well read on. After all, it's about my favorite genre, so why not?

Mainly because you can't learn anything about horror from this book. I don't know if it's the fault of the translation, but the flow of the argument is so disjointed, even within one paragraph, that it's a real jumble. The author is unable to stay on topic. His insertions and digressions are longer than what is supposed to be the topic of the chapter and add nothing. Honestly, I have the impression that after reading this book, I know less about horror than before I started reading, as if some part of my knowledge has been sucked into the black hole of the horrible style and mediocre content.

I'm sort of in the middle regarding this one.

On one hand, I truly relished some parts, while on the other hand, other parts made me feel rather bored.

One of the aspects that I liked the most was that it gave the impression as if King was seated in my living room, and we were simply chatting and exchanging opinions.

It was as if he was speaking directly to the reader, and that was really great.

I also really enjoyed the sections dedicated to horror books and movies.

However, the sections on radio and television failed to capture my attention in the same manner.

This is undoubtedly a must-read for horror enthusiasts, although be cautious of spoilers!

I would also extremely love to witness an updated version of this book, but featuring horror from the 90s onwards!

It would be fascinating to see how King would approach and analyze the horror of that era.

Perhaps he could explore the new trends and themes that emerged during that time and offer his unique perspective.

An updated version would surely attract a new generation of readers and keep the horror genre alive and thriving.

A different read from what is normally expected from King, but enjoyable nonetheless. It offers his unique perspectives on writing, as well as delving into the mechanisms and origins of the horror genre. His insights are truly thought-provoking and have stayed with me. I often find myself reflecting on these ideas when I am engrossed in a horror story. Now that I have explored some of his influences such as Blackwood and Lovecraft, my understanding and appreciation for Danse Macabre have deepened significantly. It's as if a new layer has been added to my perception of this work.

The accompanying image further enhances the overall experience. It provides a visual cue that adds to the atmosphere and mood of the piece, making it even more engaging and memorable.

Danse Macabre is a remarkable book that has been gathering dust on my shelf for years. Oh, how I wish I had delved into its pages sooner! It has truly broadened my knowledge and understanding of the horror, sci-fi, and fantasy genres.

This is Stephen King's first foray into non-fiction, and it explores horror books, movies, and radio, with a particular focus on the 30 years leading up to its release in 1981. It's almost like reading an extended foreword in one of his novels, which I have always adored.

Some might find it outdated and overly verbose at times, but having read quite a bit of non-fiction before, I seem to have a relatively high tolerance for such things.

Here are some important points and warnings:

• King earns the title of the 'Spoiler King' throughout this book! If you come across any books or movies that you plan to read or watch in the near future, you might want to skip those sections. I, however, happily devoured all of it, knowing that I would forget the details almost instantly

Read the review on our site:

http://www.culture21century.gr/2022/1...

In 1981, long before he started writing his treatise "On Writing", Stephen King, upon the proposal of then publisher Bill Thompson - the man behind almost all of King's first books such as "Carrie", "Salem's Lot", "The Shining", "Night Shift" and "The Stand" - decided to engage in the analysis of the concept of horror, to conduct an anatomy of it and a deep study and portrayal of the small and large details that characterize and represent it, focusing on the period from 1950 to 1980, not just staying in literary horror but expanding his analysis to cinema, then-radio broadcasts, and even comics, which看似 are more innocent, but this is not the case in reality.

As you can understand, "The Macabre Dance" is not a story from the king of horror but an extensive analysis of the very concept of horror, by the man who reinvented it, shaped it in his hands giving it a form that inspires and finds imitators even today, and has established him as one of the top - if not the top - names associated with the words horror, fear, macabre, science fiction, thriller - both on the literary page and on the big screen. If you are a fan of King, then undoubtedly this book will delight you, because even in such a text, you will be able to easily distinguish all those elements that make King stand out and his audience love him. If on the other hand you belong to the other end of the debate, then this book is very likely not for you, not only because you do not profess faith in King but also because indeed, in some places, there is a certain dose of nonsense - or overanalysis, if you want to put it more elegantly - which I also believe could have been avoided.

Nevertheless, and leaving aside the aforementioned parameter, no one can fail to recognize in King the deep love and dedication he has to the genre he has served all these decades, but also how deeply he has searched, studied and analyzed it, with him characteristically stating that every horror story, in whatever way and in whatever medium it is portrayed, always moves between two levels, that of the fright where it wants to cause this to the viewer/listener/reader, regardless of how cleverly and masterfully one can be led to the desired level, but also a deeper and more essential one, which has to do with the search in the course of our journey through a story until we reach its finale, with us moving rhythmically, as if dancing to the rhythm of a goal that we cannot avoid even if we wanted to, but which in reality we do not want because its "song" has taken us with it.

The book, despite its some nonsensical points, as I said earlier, is well-written, studied and very beautifully structured, divided into ten chapters, with each one serving its own purpose. The references to beloved books and movies awaken a nostalgic mood in us - perhaps even making us feel the urge to go back to them experiencing the reading or viewing experience with a different mood this time - while the author's humor is discrete in many places and dosed in such a way that it does not show any attitude of superiority, although it could easily fall into this trap, but on the contrary making the whole text particularly enjoyable and pleasant to read. Surely, reading this book 41 years after its first publication, King's writings have a different weight than they had when he didn't even have ten book titles in his bibliography, but in any case, it is an interesting and introspective experience.

I had longed for this book for years. However, once I began reading it, I found it difficult to keep pace. I constantly set it aside.

Admittedly, it is an older book and not in line with modern movies. Nevertheless, hearing King talk about his memories of horror and his perspectives on movies and books from the past seemed like a precious concept to me.

While certain parts are indeed interesting, there is an abundance of repeated and off-topic meandering that creeps in. Ideas are presented and then overemphasized. Twenty novels are discussed as major works in Horror Fiction, but even that becomes a bit repetitive. The movie section is the most extensive, yet it feels disjointed. I wasn't as interested in the TV section, but I will say that King perhaps did the best job there in staying focused and with the appropriate degree of brevity. King doesn't mince words at the best of times, but dedicating almost 20 pages to discussing The Haunting of Hill House is excessive. He writes in a conversational tone without a clear direction and sometimes returns to the same points; although this isn't meant to be a structured school essay, it continuously feels so disorganized and conversational that it dampens enthusiasm.

On the positive side, he mentions some great works and brings to mind others that don't receive enough attention. It's evident in an almost humorous way that he's not a fan of John Saul - did the two have a personal feud, or is he simply unapologetic about his feelings towards the author?

I enjoyed his musings in "On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft". He is adept at capturing the magic of reading and storytelling. I highly recommend checking that one out, but this one didn't make a favorable impression. It functions better as a random reference rather than something to sit and read for entertainment.

Horror Reference Guide!

I truly enjoyed the initial two-thirds of the book. It was engaging and held my attention firmly. However, for a short while, it started to have that somewhat dry and textbook-like feel. But fortunately, it ended on a positive note. This book has been an absolute treasure trove for me. It has given me a whole new and extensive list of horror movies and books to explore. I can't wait to dive into these new recommendations and experience the thrills and chills that they have to offer. It's like opening a door to a whole new world of horror. I'm excited to see what awaits me as I check out each and every one of these titles. This horror reference guide has definitely piqued my interest and has me eager to expand my horror knowledge and entertainment.

This is a re-read, technically.

I think I've actually even got the other edition marked as 'read' on here. The reason is that I found this one in a thrift store and bought it. You see, I'm really bad at not buying every used Stephen King book I see. And that's how we are here.

I absolutely adore this book. I really like King's nonfiction style of writing. I mean, I love his regular prose, but I always have a soft spot for his introductions and such. And this book is basically like a 400-page introduction. So, it's really quite cool.

For someone who likes horror as much as I do, I haven't actually read many horror novels or watched many horror movies. However, this book added so many titles to my ThriftBooks wishlist that you can't even imagine.

So, overall, this is always a good one. It's a great read that combines King's unique perspective and knowledge of the horror genre, and it's definitely worth checking out if you're a fan of his work or just interested in horror in general.

I could easily devour a phonebook-length volume dedicated to King's evaluation of the horror genre.

For those younger generations who might not be familiar, a phonebook was not some early form of an e-reader. Instead, it was a thick, tangible book. In the days when we used to communicate with each other via landline phones (and landlines, well, let's just say they're a thing of the past), we would use the phonebook to look up the phone numbers of people and businesses.

Conversely, when it comes to his political tweets, I have not been able to get through even a single one of them.

There's just something about those tweets that fails to hold my attention or engage me in the same way that his thoughts on the horror genre do. It's as if the two are polar opposites in terms of their ability to capture my interest.