[Books] The Dark Tower series by Stephen King
Yes, I finally finished this. Yes, I am on a Stephen King kick.
Okay, so... yeah. I dig it, I do. Roland's doing this cyclical life reincarnation thing, repeating his quest for the Dark Tower over and over again. I'm cool with that, I am, and I don't necessarily need to know if he finds release and/or salvation in the following life because he finally has the horn with him (though what the fuck the horn has anything to do with anything is beyond me). It's enough for me to think that if it's not in the next one, it will happen eventually.
What's bothering me is about a million rather obvious and unanswered questions of the sort I suppose makes me one of those people narrator!King was sighing about, because I guess I just don't get the high art he was creating or what the fuck ever.
First off, it's strongly suggested at that Roland simply steps right into the room at the top of the Tower and directly into the desert on the trail of the man in black/Marten/Walter/everyone's favorite Walkin' Dude. Which also suggests that when we pick up with Roland at the beginning of The Gunslinger, he's just stepped out of the Dark Tower from his last cycle. Which is kinda awesome. But did he just not exist in this time or whatever before that? What I'm getting at is... what about his childhood, and Cort, and Meijis, and Jericho Hill and Tull and everything before that moment? Did they actually ever happen? Or did they happen once and only once, and Roland picks up his quest again at this particular time, skipping over all of that?
I'm going to go with that. Even though that's not true reincarnation, but more like a time loop.
Which, brings me to what's really bothering me.
Which is Jake, and Eddie, and Odetta/Detta/Susannah, and Oy.
(FUCK I cried when Jake died, AGAIN, and cried again when Oy died. I mean, even if none of this shit makes sense in the end, it made me cry.)
Does ka force them to relieve all of this with Roland? Because if so, that's kinda shitty. I mean really shitty.
And what about the Beams, and Stephen King? And the Breakers? I mean, are Ted Brautigan, and Dinky, and Sheemie all back in the Devar-Toi again just because Roland keeps fucking things up? (And what, exactly, is he fucking up that he keeps having to do all this?) Are all the Beams all of a sudden just broken again, and is Roland and his ka-tet going to have to save them all over again?
And again, will it be Jake, and Eddie, and Susannah and Oy? Or will he draw three different people and will they find a different billy-bumbler? How many people in how many worlds have been drawn to Mid-World and become ka-tet with Roland in these cycles?
Basically, did ALL OF TIME IN ALL THE WORLDS just reset itself JUST so Roland can relive all this?
Or is it all happening in his head, or soul, or on some plane separate from the other levels of the Tower?
I don't like that explanation, because it's a cop-out, and because we're in the heads of other characters a lot, and they're too real for it all to just be happening in Roland's head.
Basically, I am confused and not in a good, artsy-fartsy this book is elevating me spiritually sort of way.
Look, I get the whole idea of leaving a few things to the reader's imagination. I've done it myself, and I strongly believe in it as a literary practice. But not anything that leaves the entirety of your plot hanging on a few flimsy strings.
It's fine not to know what Roland's fate in this new "incarnation" is, and it's even fine not to know why he's caught in this loop.
It's not fine, at least to me, not to know how this concept works with the rest of the plot. It's not fine for this concept to leave me scratching my head and wondering how all of this makes any logical sense and don't even start on the fact that it's a fantasy, fictional series. Writing fantasy or fiction does not give an author, not even Stephen King, a pass that says "No longer have to use logic."
:(
I am sadface, because I wanted to like this more. I still do. Seriously, I am cool with Roland's funky karmic loop. I just want it to make sense with what's happened in the past, considering it's all apparently going to happen again, but how can it???
Sigh.
I need to read Insomnia again. Roland may not like the feel of it, but I love that book.
Okay, so... yeah. I dig it, I do. Roland's doing this cyclical life reincarnation thing, repeating his quest for the Dark Tower over and over again. I'm cool with that, I am, and I don't necessarily need to know if he finds release and/or salvation in the following life because he finally has the horn with him (though what the fuck the horn has anything to do with anything is beyond me). It's enough for me to think that if it's not in the next one, it will happen eventually.
What's bothering me is about a million rather obvious and unanswered questions of the sort I suppose makes me one of those people narrator!King was sighing about, because I guess I just don't get the high art he was creating or what the fuck ever.
First off, it's strongly suggested at that Roland simply steps right into the room at the top of the Tower and directly into the desert on the trail of the man in black/Marten/Walter/everyone's favorite Walkin' Dude. Which also suggests that when we pick up with Roland at the beginning of The Gunslinger, he's just stepped out of the Dark Tower from his last cycle. Which is kinda awesome. But did he just not exist in this time or whatever before that? What I'm getting at is... what about his childhood, and Cort, and Meijis, and Jericho Hill and Tull and everything before that moment? Did they actually ever happen? Or did they happen once and only once, and Roland picks up his quest again at this particular time, skipping over all of that?
I'm going to go with that. Even though that's not true reincarnation, but more like a time loop.
Which, brings me to what's really bothering me.
Which is Jake, and Eddie, and Odetta/Detta/Susannah, and Oy.
(FUCK I cried when Jake died, AGAIN, and cried again when Oy died. I mean, even if none of this shit makes sense in the end, it made me cry.)
Does ka force them to relieve all of this with Roland? Because if so, that's kinda shitty. I mean really shitty.
And what about the Beams, and Stephen King? And the Breakers? I mean, are Ted Brautigan, and Dinky, and Sheemie all back in the Devar-Toi again just because Roland keeps fucking things up? (And what, exactly, is he fucking up that he keeps having to do all this?) Are all the Beams all of a sudden just broken again, and is Roland and his ka-tet going to have to save them all over again?
And again, will it be Jake, and Eddie, and Susannah and Oy? Or will he draw three different people and will they find a different billy-bumbler? How many people in how many worlds have been drawn to Mid-World and become ka-tet with Roland in these cycles?
Basically, did ALL OF TIME IN ALL THE WORLDS just reset itself JUST so Roland can relive all this?
Or is it all happening in his head, or soul, or on some plane separate from the other levels of the Tower?
I don't like that explanation, because it's a cop-out, and because we're in the heads of other characters a lot, and they're too real for it all to just be happening in Roland's head.
Basically, I am confused and not in a good, artsy-fartsy this book is elevating me spiritually sort of way.
Look, I get the whole idea of leaving a few things to the reader's imagination. I've done it myself, and I strongly believe in it as a literary practice. But not anything that leaves the entirety of your plot hanging on a few flimsy strings.
It's fine not to know what Roland's fate in this new "incarnation" is, and it's even fine not to know why he's caught in this loop.
It's not fine, at least to me, not to know how this concept works with the rest of the plot. It's not fine for this concept to leave me scratching my head and wondering how all of this makes any logical sense and don't even start on the fact that it's a fantasy, fictional series. Writing fantasy or fiction does not give an author, not even Stephen King, a pass that says "No longer have to use logic."
:(
I am sadface, because I wanted to like this more. I still do. Seriously, I am cool with Roland's funky karmic loop. I just want it to make sense with what's happened in the past, considering it's all apparently going to happen again, but how can it???
Sigh.
I need to read Insomnia again. Roland may not like the feel of it, but I love that book.