BTKs daughter is breaking a 9-year silence because her father inspired a Stephen King character. Nine years of silence and this is what brings her out? I dont get it. It isnt *based* on Dennis Rader, he only raised the question in Kings mind of how can you live with someone and never know what was going on inside their heart. And lets face it, King has been our tour guide into such places for years. He doesnt just scare you, he gives you a vessel to explore what makes the world scary, and in the end he gives us peace. Dennis Rader isnt a star, he just made us confront a very unsettling question, and it seems perfectly natural that a story like this would grow from it. In fact, Ive thought about Rader many times while creating characters of my own. Not every boogeyman is hiding in the closet, he might just be sipping coffee and reading the sports section right now. Thats real horror. Weve matured beyond haunted cars and cursed mirrors, and King has grown with us. We will get to experience the idea of a man who can hide his inner evil, safely from our couches and coffee houses, and through that we can get a little perspective and wrap our minds around the beasts who know how to smile and play normal. His daughter says King is exploiting her fathers victims, I respectfully disagree. I think to allow that train of thought, then any writer who has mentioned a Holocaust victim, or rape survivor, or whose character succumbs to cancer was disrespecting someone. That cant be the case. Writers see people, we read about people, we know people almost as well as career psychologists. The stuff we write has to come from somewhere, you dont cut this stuff out of whole cloth. My writing is full of people Ive met or read about. I may only borrow one trait, or I may just have them on my mind when I write a phrase. Im not offended by her stance, I just simply dont understand it. She would likely be horrified then to know that I thought of her when I wrote a scene in the Daylight Man, where a daughter was pulled from her fathers arms upon his arrest for the murder of sixteen girls. I didnt know this ladys name, I didnt bother to look it up because I just knew she existed, and she was in my thoughts when I created the scene in my imagination. I dont think King owes an apology for this one, and its not just because I love the guy.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Sep 2014 15:22:48 +0000
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