The Cutprice Guignol

Ryan Gosling. Either that name has you trying to pre-book tickets or searching for the “x” button on your browser so fast that your fingers start to melt. For some reason, this leading man seems to be one of those most divisive figures in Hollywood today; either you adore his performances in critically acclaimed movies like Drive and Ides of March and can’t wait to see what he does next (like my boyfriend inexplicably does), or you’re baffled by the spoon-faced, goose-named flavour of the month who doesn’t seem to realize that his five minutes of stardom should have finished about four years ago (like I very logically do). In fact, this is a debate that happens my boyfriend and I have at least twice a week and now we figured that (since we both write and have pointlessly strong opinions about pop culture) now was as good a time…

Like many readers, Stephen King occupies a special place in my pop culture education. For many years I wasn’t interested in reading at all: in fact, I actively avoided it throughout my childhood in favour of TV shows, film, and football. Unsurprisingly it was the Harry Potter series that sparked my interest in the written word. I was 12, the movie adaptation was coming out in a few months, and I decided to see what all the fuss is about. Don’t worry, this article has very little Potter in it: the internet doesn’t need me to keep that obsession alive. What JK Rowling’s novels did do, especially with Prisoner of Azkaban onwards, was gradually delve into darker themes and settings, making it the perfect platform for my introduction to books with more bite. So I asked my mother about this guy called Stephen King. His books could be seen in…