Aug. 2, 1997
That was many novels ago. For several reasons, King is not an interesting writer now. It's been about 10 books since his last "must-read." Symptoms of this malaise, perhaps a burning out, are the gratuitous and clumsy self-references that pop up: a character talks about that strange old writer (obviously King) in northern Maine. It's a throwaway reference, possibly intended as an light in-joke for readers, but brings whatever story there was to a screeching halt.
Formulaic Clive Cussler, the Dirk Pitt guy, does King one better, by writing himself in as a character: an antique car racer, a guy on a boat, whatever. Cussler has done this at least three times. He doesn't reveal the name until the end of the episode, where a fourth-wall "Who was that guy?" "He said his name was Clive Cussler" exchange evokes, Cussler hopes, a chuckle of surprise.
Arthur Herzog, probably best known for the novelization of "The Swarm," pulls the same stunt in the final pages of some other book.
Does anyone else do this? Is this a trend?
July 13, 1998: S. D. Rhodes writes that Kurt Vonnegut appears as a POW in his Slaughterhouse Five, and as a narrator/author in Breakfast of Champions: "His appearance in "BoC" is particularly twisted because his "character" in the book is the author of the book -- the character decides that something in particular should happen next, and then that thing happens. Totally gratuitous, but then again, the whole book is basically one long joke, so it's not like it matters much."
Also, Vladimir Nabokov subtly introduces himself into King, Queen, Knave, but not by name.
This device is used by amateur authors as well, and in some eyes plagues fan fiction and web-published short stories. Instead of dropping a name no one would recognize anyway, the amateur writer instead introduces a protagonist who is part autobiographical and and part wish-fulfillment. An example would be an "X-Files" fanfic where a third agent helps Scully and Mulder (or Doggett) solve a crime.
The science-fiction community even has a name for this: "Mary Sue." For a Mary Sue self-test and several good links, see The Mary Sue Test: Fushigi Yuugi Style.
Finally, this trick falls into the greater category of "Easter eggs," a term originating in software but now extended to books, films, and more. For more tricks by Stephen King and others, see http://www.eeggs.com.
