Between food and horror. Here's how Stephen King's delusions and culinary phobias "interfere" in the writing of his novels
Some would say that to feed the stomach of Stephen King above all fear, the torment that arouses in the hearts of its readers. In fact, ever since he achieved international success by becoming one of the most sold and appreciated authors in the world, the thrill is undoubtedly the main dish of his existence: awakening the deepest nightmares and finding the right weapon to face them becomes a subject of study, predominant subject of his novels. It is no exception it, what has been hailed by many as his masterpiece and that, after the box office success achieved in 2017, returns to the cinema with a second chapter starting on September 5th. To embody the fears of the protagonists is Pennywise, the dancing clown who gives shape to all the anxieties of the "Club dei Perdenti" by Derry, those kids who for one reason or another feel they are misunderstood and who, thanks to their union, will be able to be stronger than any else. Among them there is also Ben Hanscom, who Henry Bowers, the school bully, will enjoy hounding to the point of trying to engrave his name on his belly with a cutter. Ben's fault is, in fact, that of being too fat: a distinctive trait of many of the characters of Stephen King, a connotation that can take on a positive value, as in the case of it, or negative, as for the Annie Wilkes of Misery, the woman suffering from mental disorders who keeps her favorite writer against her will in her home.
Pleasures at the table of the king of fear
Many figures in the writer's universe appear greedy, needing to store fats and sugars not so much for a physiological need as for the habit, for a private ritual that is celebrated day after day, hour after hour. And to think that Stephen King, 350 million books sold in the world, at the table prefers simple things, not at all elaborate. His favorite dish is, in fact, the baked salmon, fish that his wife Tabitha prepared for him in the first months of their marriage, before success reached them and they could afford a comfortable life. If we really had to find Stephen King the sin, that would be a dessert, one cheesecake to be precise. Sweet that the novelist admits to taste to give a sprint to writing, to the creative process that leads him, from time to time, to create more and more extraordinary stories. In an interview with Bon Appétit a few years ago Stephen King also revealed that he often tried making and baking bread: "It makes the house smell wonderful", he confessed, transporting those aromas to the places of his imagination.
His food phobias are an inspiration
And yet, especially at the table, even Stephen King has his weaknesses, his fears to fight. According to his words, he carefully avoids all those foods that seem to him "slimy or slippery". First of all, the oysters, the most delicious food for which the writer has a certain repulsion: "The way in which they slip into your throat is horrible". And yet, due to the law of retaliation that leads us to insist on our fears in order to exorcise them, Stephen King often slips things that appear slippery in his novels. Just as Peter Jackson undertook to make Shelob, the giant spider of the last chapter of The Lord of the Rings, as true as possible due to its arachnophobia, so Stephen King plays on what disgusts and exasperates him to the nth degree. This characteristic leads him to be one of the greatest living novelists.
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