Meg Elison on Stephen King and Fatness
Added 2022-02-02 15:00:19 +0000 UTCIn this Patreon exclusive episode, Losers' Club co-host Randall Colburn speaks to writer Meg Elison about her Fantasy Magazine article, All the King's Women: The Fats. It's a breezy and lighthearted chat that should prove enlightening to Constant Readers everywhere.
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Comments
This was a great interview. Like Meg Ellison, I started reading King as a kid and had to rethink my relationship with his work and what his stories said about women, fat people, minorities, and eventually the working poor.
Jessica C
2022-02-06 16:46:09 +0000 UTCI guess the apple didn't fall far from the tree!
Bryant Burnette
2022-02-06 08:26:09 +0000 UTCSpeaking of Joe, I just read The Black Phone (how the movie would be longer than 85 minutes is beyond me). One of the first descriptions was of the “fat” baddie.
Brett Littman
2022-02-05 14:23:58 +0000 UTCIt would have been mildly off topic, but even so I was sort of hoping somebody would mention Joe Hill's novel NOS4A2, which features a very lovable fat guy named Lou. (Lou Carmody!)
Bryant Burnette
2022-02-05 11:11:02 +0000 UTCTHis was really insightful and enjoyable. Meg obvisouly knows whereof she speaks, and calls out a number of instances in Stephen's books where I myself felt a bit queasy. Ben in It is an obvious one, but there are many others. I have been a Constant Reader since the 70s when my mom started letting me read her SK books, mostly in order of publication (with some exceptions). My first recollection of his writing a scene that seemed unecessarily mean involved the main character walking past a swimming pool (maybe in a apartment complex) where a "fat woman" was feeding her "fat" kids Devil Dogs by the poolside. I recall a pretty vivid description of how awful she looked, and there was an obvious effort of his part to get his readers to feel disgust for her and what an awful mother she was. I want to say this is in the beginning of Christine, published in 1983. That would make me 23 when I read it. I apologize that I can't exactly recall if it was Christine; maybe one of you remember. Anyhow, that's probably the first time I noticed his tendency to write fat people so negatively--and it really made me feel conflicted, since I loved his writing so much. Meg is articulate and talented, and I hope you have her back Thanks, Randall, as always--great job:)
Jennifer Urbain
2022-02-04 17:37:25 +0000 UTCWhat a great and thoughtful chat. I look forward to hearing more from Meg in the future.
Brent Warren
2022-02-03 08:57:01 +0000 UTC
