Note: I am not really doing this justice here, but having read this book again I feel like this may be the real linchpin of the series. I don't if what I wrote makes adequate sense, but hopefully you'll get something out of it.
THE WASTE LAND
We’ve talked about settings.
We’ve talked about dreams.
We’ve talked about the world that has moved on.
In the Book 3, Mr. King provides something different from either. “Your shadow at morning striding behind you/Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you.”
Now we’ve entered “The Waste Land.” A place of dual meaning, dual memories, dual existences and not by chance a book split into two parts.
A week ago or so, I wrote a free writing loosely based off the song “Hold On.” This series is loosely based off the Robert Browning poem “The Childe Roland to the Dark Tower came.”
But this book isn’t about the Browning’s poem; it’s inspired by the T.S. Eliot poem entitled “The Waste Land.”
I don’t pretend to understand much of Eliot’s poem. I studied another one of his poem’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” in college and never got a firm grasp of it. The relevant thing to note about Eliot’s style is that it’s very stream of conscience. He also turns a lot of great lines.
The opening line of Prufrock is iconic – “Let us go then, you and I, /When the evening is spread out against the sky/ Like a patient etherized upon a table;
In the selection below the final line is prevalent in King’s book and is also one that sends chills through one’s spine – “I will show you fear in a handful of dust.”
What all this adds up to is paradox. Roland the Gunslinger and the boy, Jake, must deal with a very literal paradox throughout the first part of this book. Resolving that paradox opens the door for part 2 and the continuation of the search for the Tower.
The paradox of the series is that King is presenting a Tower with many levels, not unlike the theory of multiple dimensions, yet deciding if any of this adventure is real. It appears that creative minds like Eliot, Browning and others have had glimpses of other levels of the Tower without realizing it, but have used those glimpses as inspiration that now provide keys to the character and reader.
King appears later in the series as a character writing the story of the Gunslinger in our world. His completion of the series is paramount to the success of the characters.
Which leads to the main paradox of the series – Are the characters only a figment of King’s imagination or is the world of the Gunslinger a real story being told through King?
Below is the stanza from Eliot’s poem “The Waste Land” that is most prevalent in the book.
From the The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot
Second stanza of section entitled “The Burial of the Dead”
What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only
There is shadow under this red rock,
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.
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6 comments:
I am pretty sure my head just exploded. :) I have recently given up the novel and have stuck to short stories. They work a little bit better in my short time spans that I get to read. I don;t have to remember things 2 days later when I get a chance to read again. That is where I think I would get lost in a book like this cause I tend to miss scenery changes or movements to the mind or alternate dimensions. Still this is very interesting to have you tell me about so I like that. I feel like I get some of the nourishment without the headache :)
Don't worry my head almost exploded trying to write this in a way that made any sort of sense. Like I've said,the charm of this series is there is a lot of deep stuff going on, but I read it the first time and just really enjoyed the plot.
I'd "The Wastelands" is the peak in terms of metaphor and depth of the series. Although, I continually am surprised by everything I missed the first time.
I am on "Wizard and Glass" and now and haven't had a lot of time to read the last couple weeks. I seem to remember not being that wild about this book, but maybe I just wasn't focused enough when reading it. We shall see.
How long are the books on average? I started trying to listen to books on CD during my commute as evidenced by one of my stories. Except that soon got old too. Also does know one write poems anymore cause we now have music mass produced? Is it our current form of poetry or has it replaced poetry?
The first book is short (200 pages at most, I'd have to look again). The next two run at about 500 to 600 pages, I think. Depends on what copy you get and how big the text is. I read fast now, so I don't know if those counts seem cumbersome or not.
I've never tried the books on tape. It seems like cheating to me for some reason.
Poetry is still alive, it's just not sexy in pop-culture. Eliott was considered a turning point in poetry from the emphasis of rhyming to the stream of conscious stuff more popular today.
The difference between Eliot and a lot of modern poets, is that he knew what he was doing. Also, he worked with allusion, most modern poets are caught up in illusion.
Frankly, I am not a big poetry reader (my few attempts at writing were terrible). Plus, the few 'poets' I've met seem to be sad and brooding all the time. What's there to be so upset about?
Writing usually puts me in a good mood. Go figure.
i have trouble getting through 20 pages without falling asleep usually, most cause i dont read until late at night once the kids go to sleep. i feel like books on tape are my only resort. and i do like the element the readers voice can add. usually makes the stories funnier.
all poetry is sad in some way it seems. nobody wants to read happy crap. i'd prefer the blues
There's plenty of happy poetry (most of it turned into song).
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