Text and Photo by Nora Vasconcelos
Fear is in the air…
It was when I was a little girl when I first discovered that clowns might be something children could get afraid of.Those were the times when after several times watching the circus shows, I happened to watch, by a mere accident, some scenes of the movie It.
I was then, when I also learn that Stephen King was the master of terror and for that reason, I thought I’d never read a book written by him.
However, as it always happens, life has a funny way to take us to unexpected paths, and the same as I happened to watch the IT scenes by a mere accident, one day I happened to watch on TV the movie Misery, based on King’s novel under the same title.
As shocked as I was for all the terrible things that happened to the kidnapped writer, I barely moved during the whole movie until it finished.
This movie left a deep impression in my mind, however I didn’t make much of it until many years later when a good friend of mine made me watch The Shawshank Redemption.
With not more expectations besides the enthusiasm of my friend, I watched the movie with great attention, up to the point when the intense drama caught my whole attention.
I like the story so much that I got curious about it and immediately I check on it on the internet, to learn (for my surprise) that the film was based on the book Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption, by Stephen King.
That moment completely changed my perception about Mr. King’s work.
I was absolutely impressed by the depth of the story and the extremely detailed work made by the author to create this intense characters with all shades of emotions and thoughts.
I was also then when I remember that while watching Misery, I had the exact same impression. In both cases, it was like being inside the story, like a silent witness, living intensely the drama, sharing the suffering of the characters, the same as one does when a dear friend is in trouble.
This thoughts made me see Stephen King’s work from a new perspective. Of course, I still avoid the horror genre, and I’m still refusing to read most of King’s work, but I’ve come to the terms that there are many things that one as a writer can learn from him, and, of course, Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank, is already one of my favorite books.