A man standing near the outskirts of a small town is being showered by the debris of a destructed airplane and bloody animal parts; this is how Stephen King described one of the characters in his new novel.
"It's a Stephen King moment," he said.
The legendary horror novelist appeared via satellite on the big screen at the State Theatre on Tuesday night. As a part of "NY TimesTalks LIVE in HD," he spoke about "Under the Dome," his latest book, which was released the same day.
King was interviewed by New York Times book critic Janet Maslin, who asked him about topics from his novel, including politics, religion and the industry.
"This is a problem," Maslin said, hefting the 1,088-page tome as she walked onto the stage. "How much does it weigh?"
King replied with an anecdote regarding a critique of one of his books. In it, his critic's number one piece of advice was "Don't read it," he said.
"Two," King continued, quoting the review, "if you do read it, don't drop it on your foot."
He said the book follows a large cast of more than 100 characters during a week as they live underneath a mysterious invisible dome that covers a town in Maine. Originally, he wanted the book to follow them throughout the course of a whole year. However, if he had it would've been 9,000 pages, he said.
He said he first tried writing the book in 1976, but at that time he was daunted by the sheer size of the task. He started writing the book again during President George W. Bush's administration, and it took him two years to write.
Maslin also asked him questions that exposed King's fears about the Internet's effect on the book industry. "You wonder if the printed word isn't becoming the vinyl of the 21st century," he said.
At one point during the interview, he picked up the hard copy of "Under the Dome" and brandished it to the audience to emphasize his preference of printed publications over electronic books.
"I mean, wouldn't you want that?" he said. "That's nice."
King said he went to college to become a high school English teacher so he could support his passion for writing. He said a lot of students had already decided they didn't like reading by that point, and he considered re-attending college to become an elementary school teacher.
"It's like the Catholic Church says: 'Let's get them while they're young, then they're ours forever,' " he said. He also tries to support writers by reading as many manuscripts as he can.
Jason Smutz attended the event and is an avid Stephen King fan, having read novels from "The Stand" and "The Dark Tower" series.
"I thought he was much more outgoing and talkative than I expected him to be," Smutz (senior-psychology) said. "What surprised me the most is how he never seems to run out of ideas."
