To the Dark Tower
For those of you who have any interest in reading the Dark Tower series by Stephen King, stop reading here because I'm about to ruin it.
I've just finished reading the last book in the series that has impacted me more than any other I've read. A co-worker had told me that her husband read the series and was disappointed with the end. I don't know if it's just because I'm partial to King, or if it's the dark storyteller in me, but I thought the end traumatizingly perfect. I reached the end and though no tears fell from my eyes, my heart wept.
I wept for Eddie Dean of New York.
I wept for John "Jake" Chambers of New York, who called Roland father.
I wept for Susannah/Odetta/Detta Walker Dean of New York.
I wept for Oy of Mid-World.
But mostly, I wept for Roland, son of Steven Deschain of Gilead.
I went every step with Roland to his Tower. I felt his grief as he did. I felt the joy that he found at the end of his journey. And I felt his anguish as the story of his life was laid before him.
At the risk of sounding totally and ridiculously silly:
I wish you luck, Roland. My heart longs to follow you yet again, but the retelling of your life is a story that is not for me to know. May you find your Tower. And may it be different this time.
I've just finished reading the last book in the series that has impacted me more than any other I've read. A co-worker had told me that her husband read the series and was disappointed with the end. I don't know if it's just because I'm partial to King, or if it's the dark storyteller in me, but I thought the end traumatizingly perfect. I reached the end and though no tears fell from my eyes, my heart wept.
I wept for Eddie Dean of New York.
I wept for John "Jake" Chambers of New York, who called Roland father.
I wept for Susannah/Odetta/Detta Walker Dean of New York.
I wept for Oy of Mid-World.
But mostly, I wept for Roland, son of Steven Deschain of Gilead.
I went every step with Roland to his Tower. I felt his grief as he did. I felt the joy that he found at the end of his journey. And I felt his anguish as the story of his life was laid before him.
At the risk of sounding totally and ridiculously silly:
I wish you luck, Roland. My heart longs to follow you yet again, but the retelling of your life is a story that is not for me to know. May you find your Tower. And may it be different this time.
posted by Rabies at 4:34 PM
3 Comments:
Dang it - I hate you!! I can't read your blog b/c I'm just beginning the third book. The world is so unfair...
I guess, if one can truly ever 'earn' such a gift - I have earned reading this post. I finished the seventh book today. I took the day to finish since I did not know when in the remaining part of this, my last week in America for many months, I would get to. And I wanted to before I left.
It was a story well told. Never once did I grab onto a detail, expecting it to be important, only to never have it resurface. The groundwork was well-placed for each and every event and new character. It was a "full" story. The world was well created.
My biggest issue was with Mordred - I wanted that fight to be more dramatic. It seemed that here was Roland's past sins all rolled into one, and the fight could have been epic - was built up so I expected it to be so. But it wasn't. Mordred was as easily dismissed as the rest. I mourn Mordred and the lack of love in his life. I guess I'm a sucker for the outcasts. All the same - I would not have the ending of the fight be anything different than it was.
I mourn the potential loss of memory for Eddie, Jake, and Susannah/Odetta/Detta. Memory is so precious, that for them to lose the memory of such a key part of their lives (or some part of their lives since they are themselves but of a different world) saddens me. Yes, the memories are painful, but it is out of memory that we shape ourselves.
I take heart for Roland. Mayhap this is his last journey. And if not - he is getting closer. Ever closer and I'm not sure he'd ever be content to simply sit at the top anyway.
Besides, it is the journey to the Tower that is important, what Roland does along it - not the Tower itself. It is his journey that shapes the Tower, and yet somehow the pursuit of the Tower shapes his life, the journey. I think maybe that is the same for us with heaven and hell if we but knew it.
I think maybe this time, when he reaches the Tower, there will be fewer lost lives he's responsible for. Not fewer lives he's touched, mind you, but fewer for which the end was a result of his quest.
Though, to be perfectly honest, to die along a quest must be a wonderful thing. For the completion of a quest must, to some degree, be disappointing. You can never go back to the life you lived before the quest. You're forever, to some extent, on the outside. So I think the best way to die would be in the lap of one of your dearest friends in the dusty trail of some life-worthy pursuit.
May it be so.
Maybe this is something Roland will learn.
I do not know. I just know that, to some extent this story will live in me until I, too, reach the clearing. Doors will always be a bit more magical, roses more sacred, and fate more...ka.
May you have long days and pleasant nights, sai Bees.
Hile Gunslinger!
Okay - you're officially back at school and I'm impatiently waiting in another country for your genius... No pressure or anything.
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