{"id":3769,"date":"2026-07-17T17:39:45","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T17:39:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=3769"},"modified":"2026-07-17T17:39:45","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T17:39:45","slug":"stephen-king-calls-out-utah-whats-wrong-with-these-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=3769","title":{"rendered":"Stephen King calls out Utah: \u2018What\u2019s wrong with these people?\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Stephen King is one of America\u2019s most popular fiction writers; more than half of all Americans have read at least one of his books, according to YouGov, which in 2022 also ranked the most popular King titles. \u201cThe Stand\u201d was at the top of that list, followed by \u201cThe Shining,\u201d \u201cIT\u201d and \u201cThe Green Mile.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Deseret News archives: Disneyland opened in 1955. It\u2019s been a family favorite ever since<\/a><\/p>\n

Nowhere on that list was \u201cDifferent Seasons,\u201d King\u2019s 1982 collection that was recently put on a list of titles to be removed from Utah school libraries because it was flagged by four school districts \u2014 Davis, Jordan, Tooele and Washington \u2014 for objectionable content.<\/p>\n

King did not take the news well, writing on X that the book had been \u201cbanned in Utah\u201d and saying, \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong with these people?\u201d<\/p>\n

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They banned DIFFERENT SEASONS in Utah. Contains STAND BY ME and THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, stories of friendship and courage. Readable by teens, too. What’s wrong with these people?<\/p>\n

\u2014 Stephen King (@StephenKing) July 14, 2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

He noted that the book contained two \u201cstories of friendship and courage\u201d \u2014 \u201cStand by Me\u201d and \u201cThe Shawshank Redemption,\u201d both of which were made into movies.<\/p>\n

In \u201cDifferent Seasons,\u201d however, those novellas have different names: \u201cThe Body\u201d and \u201cRita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption.\u201d <\/p>\n

Two other novellas are in the collection, \u201cApt Pupil\u201d and \u201cBreathing Method.\u201d King\u2019s website says \u201cApt Pupil\u201d is about \u201ca golden California schoolboy and an old man whose hideous past he uncovers enter into a fateful and chilling mutual parasitism.\u201d It says \u201cBreathing Method\u201d is about \u201ca tale told in a strange club about a woman determined to give birth no matter what.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf these tales turn out to have an interlacing of nightmarish elements after all, the reason is not the occult, but twentieth-century humanity\u2019s apparent determination to return to the Dark Ages, a time for which Stephen King is obviously the ideal bard,\u201d the website says.<\/p>\n

On social media, people were quick to push back against King, whose strong political takes often cause controversy. Last year, in the wake of Charlie Kirk\u2019s murder, King apologized for, and deleted a post in which he said, wrongly, that Kirk had \u201cadvocated stoning gays to death.\u201d More recently, King deleted a post in which he said he hoped former Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner would stay in the race and called President Donald Trump the \u201cabuser in chief.\u201d<\/p>\n

King\u2019s post about Utahns is still up, however, as well as more than a thousand responses, many of which point out that Utah<\/i> did not ban the book \u2014 it\u2019s available for sale in all the usual places \u2014 and noting that \u201cApt Pupil\u201d is about a teenager who bonds with an elderly Nazi war criminal and commits a series of murders. One person said that he was a fan of King but still considers \u201cApt Pupil\u201d to be \u201ca tough read.\u201d<\/p>\n

In The New York Times\u2019 review of the book, published in 1982, the reviewer noted that the Nazi in the story at one point cremates his cat in his oven, and \u201cthe novella begins to reek of more than baking feline flesh. And later, when each of this unlikely pair begins a series of murders, the stench may prove overpowering.\u201d<\/p>\n

The removal of the book from school libraries stems from a Utah law enacted in 2024 that allows parents to flag \u201cobjective sensitive material\u201d that might not be age-appropriate for students. If at least three school districts, or two districts and five charter schools, remove a title, it triggers removal from all public schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cDifferent Seasons\u201d is the 40th book to be affected by the measure.<\/p>\n

In January, the Utah chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union filed a complaint in the United States District Court, saying that the law amounts to censorship.<\/p>\n

Read more Utah inland port pledges $7.5M to Great Salt Lake \u2018buffer,\u2019 seeks to improve water use<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Author Stephen King had strong words for Utah after learning that his 1982 collection of novellas would be removed from school libraries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3768,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nStephen King calls out Utah: \u2018What\u2019s wrong with these people?\u2019 - American Movers Hub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=3769\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Stephen King calls out Utah: \u2018What\u2019s wrong with these people?\u2019 - 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