White Over Red, Thus Gan Wills Ever

[boztopia]

I had a wonderful weekend--probably the best I've had in ages--but before I get to that, I want to talk about "The Dark Tower." Having finished the final volume in a marathon three-day press, I find I have a lot to say about it.

Comments

[plsurkity]

wonderful. just wonderful. i'm so glad that you enjoyed this, and i'm even more thrilled to have seen your reactions along the way. when pere took his own life, i bawled fit to split. when oy howls at jake's grave, i went through a half of a box of tissues and had to put the book down for twenty minutes to let it all out in wracking, choked sobs. it was wonderful, delicious and so very striking, and i'm very glad that you have taken insperation from it.

but i have to ask- did you cringe when suze tossed that ancient gun, with all it's glory and history and meaning, into the trash can? i actually yelled out loud at her, as though she could hear me as she was racing to the good cocoa, good company and good life. i know, deep down, that it had served it's use to her, but roland is back on the trail yet again, the wheel of ka turns and turns, and she threw it aside like a used rag. i suppose i hate her a little for that. ;)

pk

Indeed

[boztopia]

It bothered me as well that Susannah would just toss away the gun, after how much it had become a part of her new life as a gunslinger. I suppose King was making a point about how she was moving away from that life and embracing something better--what Roland could not do--but it did bug me a bit.

I like to think that maybe some enterprising folk found that gun in the wastebasket and did something interesting with it. ;) And, as both Gan and you say, Roland will wield those guns again. :)

Re: Indeed

[secret_stuff]

The only thing I say about that, was that the Guns were done at that point. At soon as she crossed over, it was no longer the same, it had been reduced to a plugged up fake, a showpiece for the mantle, but not functioning.

And that was part of what doomed Roland in the end, in choosing his Guns over the Horn, he chose the wrong talisman. Both were of Arthur Eld, but in the end the Horn was apparently more important.

Just as in the Arthurian legend, Exclaibur is eventually discarded, returned to the Lady of the Lake, those big revolvers with sandalwood grips were a means, not an end.

That's a good point

[boztopia]

By choosing the guns over the horn--and by extension, the way of the gun--Roland took an important step towards sealing his fate.

[2eclipse]

i wish king hadn't put himself in the books. i don't like it when artists of any sort reference themselves in their work. it seems gratuitous and self-serving to me.
i do think i understand what he was trying to do with it though, that people like roland touch lives and change them in places far outside their own experience....susanna, eddie, jake and oy were also changed by their experiences with roland....in my opinion for the better, although with jake and oy it is arguable.
i like the reference to the story going on forever....but the ending also made me mad. as though somewhere someone is being REALLY tortured because someone writes something harsh, as though someone has to suffer so that we can have entertainment. i am bothered deeply by that idea and i'm a bit mad at king for not coming up with a better way to put it. the end of the dark tower reminds me a bit of "nicholas was" by neil gaiman.

[secret_stuff]

I think we are supposed to left with the hope that Roland only has to do it one more time and he'll find rest... he goes out of his way to say that Roland gets sent back to the Desert - which is not far enough in the past to really change the major decisions that led to his doom (as in well after Jericho Hill), yet here he is given the Horn of Eld.

I don't agree...

[boztopia]

that it's too late for Roland to change the decisions he makes. I think the first thing that really fucks him is abandoning Jake, then later on the many little decisions that alienate the Ka-tet and end up getting most of them killed.

Indeed, I think the whole point of the story is that Roland was given a chance to be whole and to redeem himself through his new fellowship, but the obssession with the Tower was still too much to overcome. This time.

Re: I don't agree...

[secret_stuff]

If you re-read what Roland was thinking as the Tower was sending him back to the desert, he himself was realizing that it was at a point too late to make an important change: The Horn.

Yet, the Horn was retreived anyway, presumably as a gift from Gan. I am unconvinced that it is the things we saw on his journey (letting Jake die etc.) that are what damned him. By that point he had long since made choices that set him on his path. Remember that even Walter O'Dim knew that Roland's quest was NOT to save the Tower. Oh no! In his hubris he merely wanted to reach it, to breach it and read his litany of names before it fell. However, during the course of the books that we read, that part of Roland's journey (but how much of his journey did we not see?) he tempered that view and came to some realization that his path was wrong and made changes.

[secret_stuff]

One thing about the comics and the Crimson King, going with the little 'extra' material they provide it seems to set it up like a classic Greek prophecy - Roland will be the end of the CK so the CK has to try and destroy him first, in effect giving Roland the means, motive, and opportunity to destroy him, which would have not otherwise happened. :-p

Wow!

[anonymous]

I love that last paragraph. Can't wait for the stories you'll tell.

- Sherin