The Enchanted Light of The Dark Tower
This has been waiting too long.
When I was 13 years old I found a copy of Stephen King's 'The Drawing of the Three', in a stack of book boxes in my fathers library. Anyone who has read the books knows right away that this, as book number 2, is a strange place to start my relationship with Roland of Gilead, partly eaten (well, nibbled on) and confused on the beach. None the less, as hard as I looked I could not find book number 1 hiding anywhere in my dads treasure of books. I had read Pet Semetary a while before and was already becoming a fan of King's. I cracked the book and by the second page I was hooked.
It wasn't until after the 3rd Dark Tower book that I went back and finally read The Gunslinger. Although much shorter then all the others, and easy to read, the first book along the path to the tower left a sour taste in my mouth. This grisly, emotionally void and all around ruthless man was not the Roland I had been steadily falling into love/hate with. Don't get me wrong, throughout the entire 7 novel story, Roland maintains a type of gristle and dry toast feel, but as the priviledged silent observer, we get to know the warm passionate heart beating within his scarred chest. I didn't much like Roland in the gunslinger, although the setting and taste Mr. King opens the tale with is absolutely intoxicating with potential. The meeting of Roland and the young Jake Chambers was a powerful element indeed. Their eventual parting, as the gunslinger lets the boy fall to his death in an attempt to catch his nemesis, sets us up to despise Roland. Jake says "Go then, there are other worlds then these..." before he allows Roland to drop him. I would have cried, but that I had already read book number 2 and knew full well that Jake and Roland get another chance. The opening line of book numero uno, which by now has been memorized by hundreds of thousands (if not more), is my all-time favorite opening line. "The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed." Even if you are not into westerns, that is a very intriguing opening.
L.Ron Hubbard's first line in Battlefield Earth comes in as a close second; "Man", said Terl, "is an endangered species." Love it. I am so about the opening line!
Back to the point. I was worried, along with countless others, that King would not live long enough to finish weaving the spell he had used to ensnare us all. Poor guy probably had to deal with millions of assholes hounding him day after day to let us off the hook, let us in on what happens. But then again, King's the one that started the tale, and it was only King that could have finished it. The Drawing of the Three was a wild story of magic and horror. A Salvador Dali painting in your mind with a good dose of multiple personality disorder and big guns. Destiny and faith, hard fucking work and pure imagination. A brilliant work of art. I think that this is still one of my favorite books in the whole she-bang. After the man-eating 'lobstrocities', Roland finds 3 mysterious doors on the beach which bring into the story Rolands ka-tet; Jake, Eddie Dean and the half woman split in two known eventually as Susannah. Add some hard lessons in shooting pistols and serious heroin withdrawals and you got yourself thoroughly addicted to this tale. Then we anxiously open the next novel to find ourselves on a fast-paced ride across a landscape of monsters in the belly of a maniacal train engine. Wandering through a strange land that has 'moved on' and encountering futuristic relics that seem somehow too familiar. Puzzles and brain benders on a terrifying roller-coaster. Yup, that sums up the flavor of book number 3; The Wastelands. This book truly sped along like a bullet and in fact I think I read it so fast I hardly retained any small details. Worth reading twice. Well it's all worth reading more then once.
All the DaRk ToWer fans waited with anticipation for the release of Wizard and Glass. It was oh so worth the wait. Finally we really get some real history of what has made Roland into the man he was destined to become. King adds some more delicious elements to his enchanted tale and takes all of us; his 'constant readers', even further through the magic door. There we meet Susan, the love of his life. Yes, this is where we really being to notice the similarities; Susan, Susannah. Something is definitely brewing in the dark cavern of King's imagination. Dangerous crystal balls and crazed townspeople, a disgusting old witch and a beautiful young woman. In this book Roland's ka-tet gets a close encounter with the demons that haunt their teacher.
It was a few years, a few too many, before we got to read the last three books. During these years, the brilliant Stephen King was almost killed by a van on his daily walk. Having read his book 'On Writing', I got an inside look at what that experience did to my absolute favorite author, and I can just say, we are all lucky that he ever got back to it. Boy did he get back to it though. I am almost positive that before the accident, King did not have plans to write the end of the tale the way he eventually did. I know this mainly because King himself has said that he does not write with a plot, he allows his stories to come through him. His near-death changed the story inside of him and what we all ended up with was so much more then I personally ever imagined. Now, its apparent that I could go on to write an entire short-story style synopsis of the complete tale, but I will not. I want to leave the fun up to those of you who wish to read the stories. Well... maybe just one line for each story. Otherwise this post would not have a proper ending I think. Let's see here. Our heros perform some real hero work by taking on the predators who have been stealing the children of a small town. The ka-tet gets divided and its a mad race through time and reality and monters. The dark tower is so close and the cost so much... dun dun dun!!!! There ya go! The tidbits I have revealed are only the smallest cracks in a door you are looking through, and I hope they inspire you to open that door and leap. The last 3 books are The Wolves of the Calla, Song of Susannah and finally, The Dark Tower.
There are some fans, whom I don't really consider fans but more like followers, who have all kinds of negative opinions of how King ended the tale of Roland of Gilead... to them I say "HA!" lets see you write it better, or write at all. Art is not an arguable medium. One cannot say to another "you're art is not the way I would have done it." Well sure you could say that, but you can all see how ridiculous it sounds. Art is a personal expression, and I am ever grateful that Stephen King opened his telepathic mind and let so many of us inside. He is a master-storyteller. A natural... The teacher I wish I had. End of story.
When I was 13 years old I found a copy of Stephen King's 'The Drawing of the Three', in a stack of book boxes in my fathers library. Anyone who has read the books knows right away that this, as book number 2, is a strange place to start my relationship with Roland of Gilead, partly eaten (well, nibbled on) and confused on the beach. None the less, as hard as I looked I could not find book number 1 hiding anywhere in my dads treasure of books. I had read Pet Semetary a while before and was already becoming a fan of King's. I cracked the book and by the second page I was hooked.
It wasn't until after the 3rd Dark Tower book that I went back and finally read The Gunslinger. Although much shorter then all the others, and easy to read, the first book along the path to the tower left a sour taste in my mouth. This grisly, emotionally void and all around ruthless man was not the Roland I had been steadily falling into love/hate with. Don't get me wrong, throughout the entire 7 novel story, Roland maintains a type of gristle and dry toast feel, but as the priviledged silent observer, we get to know the warm passionate heart beating within his scarred chest. I didn't much like Roland in the gunslinger, although the setting and taste Mr. King opens the tale with is absolutely intoxicating with potential. The meeting of Roland and the young Jake Chambers was a powerful element indeed. Their eventual parting, as the gunslinger lets the boy fall to his death in an attempt to catch his nemesis, sets us up to despise Roland. Jake says "Go then, there are other worlds then these..." before he allows Roland to drop him. I would have cried, but that I had already read book number 2 and knew full well that Jake and Roland get another chance. The opening line of book numero uno, which by now has been memorized by hundreds of thousands (if not more), is my all-time favorite opening line. "The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed." Even if you are not into westerns, that is a very intriguing opening.
L.Ron Hubbard's first line in Battlefield Earth comes in as a close second; "Man", said Terl, "is an endangered species." Love it. I am so about the opening line!
Back to the point. I was worried, along with countless others, that King would not live long enough to finish weaving the spell he had used to ensnare us all. Poor guy probably had to deal with millions of assholes hounding him day after day to let us off the hook, let us in on what happens. But then again, King's the one that started the tale, and it was only King that could have finished it. The Drawing of the Three was a wild story of magic and horror. A Salvador Dali painting in your mind with a good dose of multiple personality disorder and big guns. Destiny and faith, hard fucking work and pure imagination. A brilliant work of art. I think that this is still one of my favorite books in the whole she-bang. After the man-eating 'lobstrocities', Roland finds 3 mysterious doors on the beach which bring into the story Rolands ka-tet; Jake, Eddie Dean and the half woman split in two known eventually as Susannah. Add some hard lessons in shooting pistols and serious heroin withdrawals and you got yourself thoroughly addicted to this tale. Then we anxiously open the next novel to find ourselves on a fast-paced ride across a landscape of monsters in the belly of a maniacal train engine. Wandering through a strange land that has 'moved on' and encountering futuristic relics that seem somehow too familiar. Puzzles and brain benders on a terrifying roller-coaster. Yup, that sums up the flavor of book number 3; The Wastelands. This book truly sped along like a bullet and in fact I think I read it so fast I hardly retained any small details. Worth reading twice. Well it's all worth reading more then once.
All the DaRk ToWer fans waited with anticipation for the release of Wizard and Glass. It was oh so worth the wait. Finally we really get some real history of what has made Roland into the man he was destined to become. King adds some more delicious elements to his enchanted tale and takes all of us; his 'constant readers', even further through the magic door. There we meet Susan, the love of his life. Yes, this is where we really being to notice the similarities; Susan, Susannah. Something is definitely brewing in the dark cavern of King's imagination. Dangerous crystal balls and crazed townspeople, a disgusting old witch and a beautiful young woman. In this book Roland's ka-tet gets a close encounter with the demons that haunt their teacher.
It was a few years, a few too many, before we got to read the last three books. During these years, the brilliant Stephen King was almost killed by a van on his daily walk. Having read his book 'On Writing', I got an inside look at what that experience did to my absolute favorite author, and I can just say, we are all lucky that he ever got back to it. Boy did he get back to it though. I am almost positive that before the accident, King did not have plans to write the end of the tale the way he eventually did. I know this mainly because King himself has said that he does not write with a plot, he allows his stories to come through him. His near-death changed the story inside of him and what we all ended up with was so much more then I personally ever imagined. Now, its apparent that I could go on to write an entire short-story style synopsis of the complete tale, but I will not. I want to leave the fun up to those of you who wish to read the stories. Well... maybe just one line for each story. Otherwise this post would not have a proper ending I think. Let's see here. Our heros perform some real hero work by taking on the predators who have been stealing the children of a small town. The ka-tet gets divided and its a mad race through time and reality and monters. The dark tower is so close and the cost so much... dun dun dun!!!! There ya go! The tidbits I have revealed are only the smallest cracks in a door you are looking through, and I hope they inspire you to open that door and leap. The last 3 books are The Wolves of the Calla, Song of Susannah and finally, The Dark Tower.
There are some fans, whom I don't really consider fans but more like followers, who have all kinds of negative opinions of how King ended the tale of Roland of Gilead... to them I say "HA!" lets see you write it better, or write at all. Art is not an arguable medium. One cannot say to another "you're art is not the way I would have done it." Well sure you could say that, but you can all see how ridiculous it sounds. Art is a personal expression, and I am ever grateful that Stephen King opened his telepathic mind and let so many of us inside. He is a master-storyteller. A natural... The teacher I wish I had. End of story.
posted by clothosfate at 9:00 PM
8 Comments:
All right. That was enough. Right after I finish up blogging, I'm walking to Borders and buying the first in the series.
Hey, didn't you pick one of those characters as your fictional character to fight zombies with?
hmmmm... very good idea, but that wasn't me, I would remember picking a fictional character to fight zombies with, but if i got to pick one it would have to be Roland for sure.
I'm glad I could entice you to check them out... you won't be disapointed!
I'll do a book review when I'm done, but unfortunately, it's on a queue. :\
So he finished it huh? Guess I'll have to go see about picking the series back up.....
When I first closed that last page of book 7, I was both relieved and disappointed. After it had a chance to sink in, I feel much better now about the ending. I think King himself set me up to think poorly of it with his author's notes, which seemed to say "F off if you don't like it."
My favorite book in the series is also the Drawing Of The Three.
It was truly an incredible series.
I agree with BRFA in that when I finished the 7th, I was both relieved and disappointed. The ending both surprised and sucked all at the same time.
And, after-the-fact, I don't really mind that it took him so long to finish the series, as it gave me the opportunity and the desire to read each of the books twice.
I personally don't understand his need to put himself into the latter books as a character, but I guess he's the storyteller, and can do as he wishes.
Thanks for your comments guys, I love having readers, and I hope to keep entertaining you if I can.
Its funny... I have heard that many peolple were disapointed by the ending, and that surprised me because I felt the ending was so appropriate. In the beginning of the story it already seemed that Roland had been walking for eons... and it appears that he may have.
Also, when I realized that he was writing himself into the story, it made me excited... really turned me on you could say. I thought it was brilliant and daring, I mean who does that? Nobody. I guess the reason it appealed to me so much was because I am in every story I ever write (not personally but pieces) and to actually write yourself in as the medium for your characters existance creates a kind of completion.
It makes me wonder why some people really identify with what he did (like me) and why so many others just shrugged it off as 'writers perogitive'. Am I just a starry-eyed idealist?
I think after I finish this Stephen Donaldson book I am reading, I will start the series again... just for fun.
I enjoyed the Stephen King character. Didn't bother me at all. I like how he was hard on himself, and portrayed himself as a sort of alcoholic bumpkin.
The deaths of various main characters hit me hard, but I thought they were done well. They gave the last book some weight. The cartoonish Crimson King at the tower was what bothered me. He didn't live up to his hype.
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