Stephen King's Best and Worst Endings (Patreon Clip)

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Greetings, council listeners. It's your boy, Michael Monroeville-Mall Rothman.

I got to change that name. Monroeville-Mall. It's closing down. Thanks to Good Old Walmart.

So, you can thank them. Thanks, Wally. Thanks for taking away a cinematic masterpiece of a location.

You've done wonders for this country.

Anyway, we are here because I am offering up a clip from our latest episode on Stephen King's Best and Worst Endings,

which is the latest episode in our Patreon, The Barrens.

Patreon.com slash The Barrens.

If you haven't joined, it's 7 bucks a month, which is not bad.

When you consider the fact that none of this is created with AI,

and none of this is basically being overproduced and sensationalized, etc.

Which is quite a steal when you consider the $7 that goes towards most things in the world right now.

I would say it gets you access to probably hundreds of thousands of hours.

No, I'm playing not hundreds of thousands of hours, but thousands of hours, for sure.

And including full episodes like this, which is called this a list, per se.

But we have many lists in there that haven't hit the main feed yet.

And maybe they will in the future, and you could wait around for them.

But you can get them right now if you join The Barrens.

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where you can meet constant readers and listeners, just like you.

We've also offering up bag of bones content, so you could submit all those questions.

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Why do you have to chew? Why do you have to sneeze?

What is going on with you?

You could ask all of those, and maybe I'll answer them.

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But, you know, anyway, anything goes, as Willie Scott says, when it comes to the bag of bones.

So be sure to join us at patreon.com slash The Barrens to get all of that.

And especially the full episode of the clip that you're about to listen now.

Whew, anyway, speaking of bad endings, maybe.

Okay, so I was trying to find the origin of this.

And I did a little bit of Google researching,

and short of looking up every single review of all, like, what, 66 books,

or 66 novels, not including short story.

Like, I just, I don't know if there is a definitive origin to this.

I don't think it's not like Dean Coons laid down the gauntlet,

as like Stephen King writes bad endings, and everybody hopped on board.

You know, I think this is honestly something that is built over time,

and that gives it credit to me.

You know, if this is a consensus that has built,

what I did find is that it tends to kind of fall into three categories.

So maybe we can just kind of talk about these before we get into some specific titles.

The first one I found is that King's writing is so good that the ending does not live up to the rest of the story.

I think, you know, it might be a good example of that.

That's what I was thinking.

So also listeners, we'll give you spoiler warnings too.

We're going to be talking about endings, but just we won't be specific or we'll give you a warning.

But yeah, like, I think that one, it's the story is so good.

The story is so compelling that when it ends, we're like, oh, that, that's what ending is.

Yeah, yeah.

I think there's different ways to look at this too though.

For me, when I was going through the specifically the novels,

although I do have a novella in here that I have to talk about.

I do too.

There are final acts and King books that don't necessarily or work really well, right?

Or don't work.

And then there are final lines or a final page that really works or maybe doesn't really work.

So there's just different ways of looking at it.

Like what people mean by the end?

Do they mean that the second half?

They're named the final act or they mean like the ultimate conclusion doesn't work.

You know, I think there's there's broad ways to looking at too.

Yeah.

That's true.

Yeah.

And I think sometimes it's just the feeling you're left with at the end of the story.

Yeah.

Is it good or is it bad?

And sometimes I think it's not supposed to be good.

Like the ending is successful.

And that's just, you know, rest on the easy like Laurel here.

But I think sometimes it is about the journey with some of these books,

especially the epic books, some a little more forgiving with the very end,

especially when I think about something like the stand,

which is so incredibly strong in that first third or first half of it.

It is, it's going to be hard to live up to that.

It doesn't mean it's bad necessarily.

Yeah.

It works on like the other way around too.

Like I found myself from my worst list kind of struggling a little bit actually

because some of them it's like, yeah, but I didn't really enjoy the whole book.

That's that's how I took it.

So it's like, you know, the ending also kind of not shitting the bed.

But like, okay, you know, I don't know falling a little flat doesn't bother me as much

because I didn't actually like the 400, 500, 600 pages that came before it necessarily.

It doesn't hit the same way as something that you're like so invested in and loving so much.

And then it falls like to me, it's like a bigger crash than it is when it's like you're just kind of coasting along.

I just found it easier to find moments that I remembered and enjoyed a lot versus the bad ones.

Even the bad books, I don't like a lot.

It's not necessarily like you said, I don't necessarily even remember the end.

I remember not liking the book as a whole so that ending doesn't really stick stand out.

But with some of the good books, sometimes they were just made good by the end.

And that's what stands out the most or set that kicker kind of bumps it up a little bit.

I'll talk about one of those later.

I think so too.

And I can't really think of one that is ruined by the ending.

Nothing's ruined.

I think that there are a couple examples.

Not for me either.

I think I have one example of a book.

I really like, I really love that does get knocked down the peg by the final few pages.

I think I might know what you're talking about.

Okay. Well, we will see.

We'll see.

We'll see.

We'll see.

Okay. Well, that's another common criticism that I found is that King kind of runs out of steam.

I think we see that with some of the longer ones.

That's the criticism with it and the stand.

Even though I love those endings.

And one of the things that I've talked about on previous episodes is I on second read

always end up liking the ones I didn't like so much the first time because I know where

it's going and because I'm not so consumed with the ending of the story.

And I can enjoy the journey a little bit more, you know, but I think particularly with the stand

because he's written about getting to a point of really bad writers block and ending up

like blowing up half of the cast, too, because he didn't really know what to do.

And I do think you can feel that at the end of that novel, even though I love the stand.

It's my all time favorite book, but they're in the snow for a long time, you know.

They are. You know, it's fun.

I remember when we covered it for the first time, 10 years ago, Jesus.

What is time?

I still thought the book was very good.

I've read it a couple of times before we did this podcast.

But I will say I actually did enjoy a little bit more when we did the summer of the stand.

I just, I looked at it more from that viewpoint of it being a, what's he saying in the, in the, in the forward?

He says it's a tale of dark Christianity.

Yes.

If you look at it as kind of you're reading a modern Bible.

And if you can take, if we can read a book and accept that there are ghosts and demons and ghouls or a fantastic book like the dark tower,

then I think it's okay if we accept that we're reading a book in which eight God exists and Satan exists.

And so if you can read the stand, checking into that few point while you're reading the book,

I think it's just much more enjoyable, much more palatable.

At least it was for me, especially the last year when I read it again.

Yeah, same.

Yeah, and I'll still think about trash can man as Jesus because of talking about that.

You know, that was never unsee it.

I can't ever unsee it.

Exactly.

Matt Fruer has become my Jesus or the Jesus I picture.

Specifically and was it lot more man too?

Yes, exactly.

Yes.

Beyond cyberspace or Jill's work, everyone you want to call it.

Okay, so the third one that I found, and this is, I didn't find this as much,

but this is kind of a feeling that I've had.

And it's funny because I think it kind of is a good example of all three of these,

is that sometimes the ending defangs the mom.

Critics and audiences agree.

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The new LinkedIn hiring pro can't clone you.

But it can streamline your hiring workflow.

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LinkedIn hiring pro is the hiring partner you need.

So you can focus on connecting with the right talent.

In fact, small businesses report saving over six hours per week.

So, hire right the first time with LinkedIn hiring pro.

Post a free job today at LinkedIn.com slashbendora.

How do you cash back with Chase Freedom Unlimited?

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