Me: Have you ever read any Stephen King?
Ben: I have seen the movie THE DEAD ZONE with Christopher Walken.
Ben: This is my only exposure to Stephen King, ever.
Me: Oh okay.
Ben: Why?
Ben: I mean
Ben: I know of the man.
Ben: I know how Carrie ends.
Ben: And I have seen the trailer for the romantic comedy "Shining."
Ben: And I have seen the Shining parody that The Simpsons did for their Halloween special one year.
Me: Each of the first five Dark Tower books starts with a section called an "argument" where King summarizes what has happened in the series in the previous books.
Me: And each time I read one I'm like "when the fuck did that happen?"
Ben: It's actually genius, because he can advance the plot of the series in the first few pages and then just trip acid while writing the last 700 pages in the book and correct it all in the next book.
