[stylist] Stephen King Fans

Tue Oct 11 19:49:16 UTC 2011

Stephen King readers may have noticed that he has included references to
blindness and blind people throughout his works.  Without exception he has
used blindness and blind people to evoke fear and images of the strange,
repulsive, clueless, stupid, incompetent, hopeless, evil, unaware, and more.
I have never encountered a positive reference to blindness, or blind people
in King's work.  Could this be the subject of a graduate level English
paper?

But his negative stereotypes have helped him to make a lot of money at our
expense.  Now its time for us to request recompense for our unintentional
work.  Hence the following unsent letter.

Dear Mr. King,

The power of your imagination has, for some 30 years, held me fascinated;
many a time when I should have been asleep or doing other productive work.
And I am pleased that I have made a small contribution to your success.

How have I contributed?  In a number of your 50 books you have  enhanced the
mood of sinister/spookiness with vivid descriptions of blind people.  I am
blind.  Your images were not flattering and often inaccurate, but they used
your readers' perceptions of "the blind" to great advantage.  I admire that
aspect of your imagination.

I have been a member of the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) for a few
years longer than I have been reading your books.  We are using our
collective imagination to change the future for blind people by developing
the tools for blind kids to use in careers in math, science, and
engineering, by developing a car that we can drive ourselves, and other
national and local initiatives that may help sighted people to imagine blind
people as less scarey, sinister, or forbidding.

Images of blind people like me helped you to create a mood that contributed
to the sales of a number of your books.  Now please help us to bring our
imagination of a new future for the blind by contributing to the NFB
Imagination Fund.  You can do this by contacting Marc Maurer, NFB President,
at 410-659-9314.  Dr. Maurer can provide a complete description of our
current efforts to change what it means for us to be blind.  He can also
arrange a tour of our national headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland and show
you our programs and initiatives..

Perhaps together we can change the public's fictional images of blind people
from those you so effectively depict in your novels to accurate images that
will lead to lowering the 70% unemployment rate among working age blind
people.  Perhaps we can provide blind kids with the tools and education they
will need to work along side sighted co-workers in science, technology,
engineering, and math careers.  Imagine that.

William Meeker

I've been thinking about the above for some time, but have done nothing.
That makes it, in baseball parlance, a nice pitch with no follow-through.

Bill Meeker

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of The Crowd
Sent: Monday, October 10, 2011 9:52 PM
To: Writer's Division Mailing List
Subject: Re: [stylist] Stephen King Fans

"The Stand" uncut version, "The Girl Who Loved Tom Jordon" and "The
Shineing"

I loved the audio versions of "Nightnares and Dreamscapes" since he had
famous people reading them. He even had his wife read one of them.

Write On,
Atty

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