The Dark Tower VII: The Clearing

Note: I've been meaning to do this for quite sometime, just haven't had the time. I'll try to get to a 1,001 albums group this week also.

THE DARK TOWER

I thought for this last section I’d delve a little into endings. King spends a few minutes at the conclusion of the Dark Tower talking about endings. They are something every writer (and reader) must confront when they sit down in front of a blank screen or open a book fresh off the rack. It’s not surprising that King spends time talking about endings here, because he had stated when he began that he was not sure he’d ever finish this tale in his lifetime. Also, let’s face it, the Constant Reader or the Constant Movie-goer, puts a lot of stock in endings.

And this series built through seven books to one logical conclusion, no matter how much peril Roland confronted. His destiny was the Dark Tower and we, the reader, were fated to climb those steps with him.

The other logical conclusion is that no matter what happens, a certain percentage of readers, were going to be unhappy with what they found. King expects as much, but that is the tale. That is why he implores those who want to keep their ending to stop after he returns Susannah to Eddie and Jake in New York. I’ll say no more than that, as to not spoil anything for those who have not made this journey, yet.

So here are a few excerpts that make you think about endings, whether as a reader or a writer or a human living the life where they owe one death. I’ll wrap things up below with a couple last thoughts.

From the end of the chapter “Susannah in New York” the second to last chapter of the Dark Tower

And will I tell you that these three lived happily ever after? I will not, for no one ever does. But there was happiness.

And they did live.

From the introduction to the Coda (Found) the last chapter of the Dark Tower

…You are the grim, goal-oriented ones who will not believe that the joy is in the journey rather than the destination no matter how many times it has been proven to you. You are the unfortunate ones who still get the lovemaking all confused with the paltry squirt that comes to end the lovemaking (the orgasm is, after all, God’s way of telling us we’ve finished, at least for the time being, and should go to sleep). You are the cruel ones who deny the Grey Havens, where tired characters go to rest…

I hope you came to hear the tale, and not just munch your way through the pages to the ending. For an ending, you only have to turn to the last page and see what is there writ upon. But endings are heartless. An ending is a closed door no can open. I’ve written many, but most only for the same reason that I pull on my pants in the morning before leaving the bedroom – because it is the custom of the country…

Should you go on, you will surely be disappointed, perhaps even heartbroken. I have one key left on my belt, but all it opens is that final door, the one marked (symbols are here that I can’t reproduce). What’s behind it won’t improve your love-life, grow hair on you bald spot, or add five years to your natural span (not even five minutes). There is no such thing as a happy ending. I never met a single one to equal “Once upon a time.”

Endings are heartless.

Ending is just another word for goodbye.


The clearing at the end of the path.

What the stuff above also got me thinking about is the journey. The first time I step foot on this path, I was a teenager (possible not old enough to drive, I don’t really remember the year I started reading the Gunslinger). By the time I finished the series, I was out of college stumbling through the first few year or so of my post-education life. There was a lot of living there. Some joy. Some sorrow. Some love. Some heartbreak. There was happiness. And I did live.

I reread the series this second time in a span of a year and a half (would have been faster, but I waited a few time to get books as gifts). In that time, I built a house, I was promoted, I’ve been thwarted a time or two with getting some of my own tales published, and my body started to deliver a few subtle signs that it is not going to last forever. Since finishing this book before Christmas, that reality was confirmed.

But my days aren’t so numbered that I won’t sit down in a few years and start this path again. I anticipate that I shall walk the journey with Roland a time or two more. Maybe one day, I share it with a son or daughter. Maybe my wife, although she doesn’t seem real enthused by the prospect.

But, for now, I’ll take rest in the clearing. Do some writing myself, do some living. For another new journey is always only a page (or day) away.

The Dark Tower VI: May 17, 2013

Note: I finished the sixth book the series quite awhile ago, and am very close to finishing the last book. The CD Project has ate up most of my free writing time the last month or two, and to be frank, I haven't been real wild about anything I've been writing. But here we go.

SONG OF SUSANNAH

I'm not going spend much time talking about this book. I kind of feel like this is more of a long prologue for the final book. Song of Susannah is broken up into Stanzas instead of chapters. Each Stanza concludes with a verse from a the song. Like this one below that concludes the book . ...

STAVE: Commala-come-kass!

The child has come at last!

Sing your song, O' sing it well,

The child has come to pass.

RESPONSE: Commala-come-kass!

The worst has come to pass.

The Tower trembles on its ground;

The child has come at last.

Basically, the importance of this book is Susannah/Mia traveling to New York to a place called the Dixie Pig to birth the child that is a mixture of Susannah, Mia (a demon) and Roland (the gunslinger). How this happened is very confusing and I am not going to attempt to describe it. Anyways, you find out quite a bit more about the plans of the Crimson King (the ultimate bad guy) and his many minions. Stephen King (the character) also makes his first appearance.

Most of all, this book is about the birth of Mordred (a name that should be familiar to anyone that knows anything about Arthurian Legend). He's a little bastard that tracks our heroes for the rest of the series.

Anyways, you may wonder why I have titled this section May 17, 2013. Well according to the official website of "The Dark Tower" that is when the first movie of the series is set to be released. Obviously, these things are always tentative.

Here's the jist of the endeavor. Ron Howard is set to direct for Universal Studios. The plan is to make three movies with a full season of television episodes to bridge the gap between each film. I think the shows will air on NBC. No actors have been announced yet, but I am sort of hoping they scale back on simply signing A-list people, at least for the main characters.

I see this as either being very successful or completely dreadful. If the first movie bombs at the box office will NBC really want to be committed two seasons of shows to build up for bad movies. If they do drop it, will the entire series flounder after one bad showing. This is possible, because the action early in the series is a little slow compared to later.

You can find out more about this whole situation by Googling "The Dark Tower." I just think this is the most relevant thing about the series to share right now.

The Dark Tower V: The missing key

Note: I didn’t have this book, so it took a little while to get, by then I had started in on some other books and some stupid house-building project. Check out the other installments to refresh you mind.

THE WOLVES OF THE CALLA

There’s a few main plot lines driving this book, which all add up to this becoming the transition to conclusion.

1. The battle for a little town of Calla Bryn Sturgis against the “Wolves” sent from Thunderclap to steal every other child only to return them “roont” or basically useless. Roland and his gang stumble upon the town on their journey to the tower, and like all good gunslingers, offer their “hard calibers” for the fight.

2. The protection of the rose (the embodiment of what is good, what is true in all worlds) that currently resides in a empty lot in New York circa 1977 (I think that’s the year, we have 4 characters from 4 different times in New York, easy to get them messed up.

3. The development of a new personality for Susannah, due to ill-fated pregnancy by a demon. Mia, daughter of none, is born within her head and determined to see the pregnancy through.

4. The introduction of Father Don Callahan, a character from King’s book Salem Lot, who has traveled through alcoholism and the “lost highways” to the Calla. His story introduces us more closely to some of the evil we will encounter in the final two books.

That’s the gist of it.

That being said, King slips something in here, something that slipped right past me the first time I read this book. The second time, admittedly I was looking for signs of things that come at the end of the last book, I was stunned when I read the passage below. In a dream that Roland has from his past, King alludes to a key to the entire journey. Then he moves on. The best readers probably caught this section and wondered why it was here. Like I said, I didn’t remember this at all. Anyways, here is a small sampling from Roland’s dream.

Cuthbert Allgood, who had once ridden into the Barony of Mejis with a rook’s skull mounted on the pommel of his saddle. “The lookout,” he had called it, and talked to it just as though it were alive, for such was his fancy and sometimes he drove Roland half-mad with his foolishness, and here he is under the burning sun, staggering toward him with a smoking revolver in one hand and Eld’s Horn in the other, blood-bolted and half-blinded and dying … but still laughing. Ah, dear gods, laughing and laughing.

“Roland!” he cries. “We’ve been betrayed! We’re outnumbered! Our backs are to the sea! We’ve got them right where we want em! Shall we carge?”

And Roland understands he is right. If their quest for the Dark Tower is really to end here on Jericho Hill – betrayed by one of their own and then overwhelmed by this barbaric remnant of John Farson’s army – then let it end splendidly.

“Aye!” he shouts. “Aye, very well. Ye of the castle, to me! Gunslingers, to me! To me, I say!”

“As for the gunslingers, Roland,” Cuthbert says, “I am here. And we are the last.”

Roland first looks at him, then embraces him under that hideous sky. He can feel Cuthbert’s burning body, its suicidal trembling thinness. And yet he’s laughing. Bert is still laughing.

“All right,” Roland says hoarsely, looking around at his few remaining men. “We’re going into them. And will accept no quarter.”

“Nope, no quarter, absolutely none,” Cuthbert says.

“We will not accept their surrender if offered.”

“Under no circumstances,” Cuthbert agrees, laughing harder than ever. “Not even should all two thousand lay down their arms.”

“Then blow that fucking horn.”

Cuthbert raises the horn to his bloody lips and blows a great blast – the final blast, for when it drops from his fingers a minute later (or perhaps it’s five, or ten; time has no meaning in that final battle), Roland will let it lie in the dust. In his grief and bloodlust he will forget all about Eld’s Horn.


Next up: The Song of Susannah. This one’s a little shorter and once I find it wherever it’s packed away, I get to reading through it.

The Dark Tower IV: Web browsing

Note: I finished this book a few weeks ago, but a post was pushed back by a few other things that we've been doing on here.

WIZARD AND GLASS

I stated in my last post that this book was probably my least favorite of the bunch the first time I read the series. Until I read the rest of the books again, I can't say if it still holds that spot. What I can say is that I understand better this book's role in the overall story.

"Wizard and Glass" is primarily the backstory of the Gunslinger prior to where we meet in the first book. It's the story of what happens to him after he earns his guns, finds out his mother is cheating on his father with a magician and then is sent away to an outlying region called Mejis by his father with his friends Cuthbert and Alain.

I am not going to hit the whole plot here. Ultimately, this story shouts clearly how Roland became a killer driven by one ultimate goal - The Dark Tower. He's only 14 here as he sacrifices his first love for the tower and foresakes all that would join him that they would likely die in the hunt the tower.

In all, it's an important character developing book. It's also the one in the series that Snake would probably like best. It has an old west feel during the tale of Mejis. There is also an awesome war scene as the Gunslinger rides for the first time into a battle outnumbered.

In conclusion, I decided to make this post more about the allure of the series. So I did some research. I am going to post a Youtube tribute (there are a large amount of these and some them are poorly made and overtop) and some websites. I know Snake likes to troll the web. If he has time, he may enjoy some of this.

No. 1 - Here's a good video. The music is referenced in the final couple books. The art comes from the book and from a comic book series.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wY5Y5gZ060&feature=fvw

No. 2 - The official website - Lots of good stuff here. Check out the connections part. I've been meaning to do a post on this, but why when they are all there for you. There is also an interactive thing that I haven't checked out yet.

http://www.stephenking.com/DarkTower/

No. 3 - Another website. I guess I like seeing that I am not the only junkie of this stuff.

http://www.thedarktower.com/

I'll stop there, but maybe I'll post more as I look around more.

Next up - The Wolves of Calla. I don't have this one, but I am hoping it will be in the stocking this Chrsitmas.

The Dark Tower III: Shadows and such

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.

The Dark Tower II: How Did I Get Here?

Note: I am about 2 to 3 weeks removed from finishing the second book of the series. I haven't found time to write of late, but I have worked my way halfway through the third book, which presents a problem. There are about three of four things I want to talk about from what I am reading now and I am trying to dust off my thoughts from book 2. I'll try my best to make this clear and relevant.

THE DRAWING OF THE THREE

Dreams have always been a conversation piece around my family. Not that we put stock in them like mystics or most primitive cultures. But, alas, we talk about them. The what happened. The who was there. The where. ...

That's tricky isn't it.

The where. My grandmother talks about being lost in all her dreams. That she's always searching and searching, but can't find her way.

The where. We always provide the setting when we talk about dreams, but we're lying more times than not. Because while we sense, for instance, that we were reading a book on the sofa in our living during the dream we had two nights ago or naked in front of a classroom of peers. That particular part, where we are at, isn't that fixed. Dreams' setting are ever-evolving. Morphing sometimes subtly, sometimes drastically and never finding a constant homeostasis.

So what am I rambling about?

The hardest, maybe most distracting part, of the Dark Tower series is trying to understand the setting or the world, in this instance, of the Gunslinger. We're told nothing concrete with the most common answer being that he lives in "A world that has moved on." What does that mean? A lot of things, that I don't have the time to fully explain.

What you really have here is almost a dreamscape. People like to say Stephen King likes to bring nightmares to life. I think the best way to describe Roland and his world is a dream, with nightmares lingering.

Yet, there is the physical, societal and cultural landmarks to deal with. Early in the first book, the Gunslinger (Roland), walks into an old town (sort of a common western movie kind of place), but from a saloon he hears them singing. The song - "Hey Jude."

The confusing litany of images and references continues. From Roland's knowledge of the bible to the fact that he carries guns (a modern invention) and that he refers to the line of Arthur Eld (or King Arthur). It is an ever changing, sometimes subtle, sometimes drastic, perception of this world.

In the second book, we get references to the "great old ones" and their dependence on machines.

We also get the major plot line, where he walks upon a beach and confronts three doors. The first he jumps to 1980s New York and brings back Eddie Dean, a heroin addict, the second he brings back Odetta Holmes, a black civil rights activist from the 1960s who's lost both her legs just above the knees and also happens to be a schizophrenic who's alter ego Detta Walker is a real (insert expletive). The third door is Jack Mort, who doesn't get brought into the world of the Gunslinger. If you want to know more about Mort, read the book.

Oh, the Gunslinger also losses his first two fingers on his right hand and a big toe to some sort of mutated lobster in the first couple pages of the book. It's a plot device, but the important thing to remember about King, he loves putting people into situations and seeing how they get out.

Anyways, it's hard not to think about Roland's world. Obviously, the Dark Tower is there also. But if you do read it, don't let it distract you too much. Take it for what's it worth and listen closely to what the characters are saying. There is something abstract about this whole series and it has to do with the world all characters (even you and I believe) live.

Back on the path

Note: I've been meaning to post something either on the following topic or the Chicago Bears the last couple days and just hadn't found time for it. I reserve my thoughts on the Bears for later (probably Sunday when I am yelling at the TV screen). Alright, here we go again.

My wife and I spent part of Labor Day wandering around a flea market. Yes, we are in our 20's, but if you grew up in our families the habit of looking at large piles of aging junk is as genetic as blues eyes and blonde hair.

Anyways, my interest in such excursions usually focus on finding classic records to add to our collection or finding a cheap book to occupy my time. On this Labor Day, being currently without anything to read, I was specifically looking for a good read.

I found it.

But then again, I knew one day I'd end up doing this again.

I found a pristine copy of "The Gunslinger" by Stephen King. For those not keeping score at home, this is the first book "The Dark Tower" series.

Like Snake, who recently returned to the late 90s wrestling scene, I felt drawn to start down the path of the dark tower again.

Before I go any farther, the first copy of this book I had somehow got terribly mangled. The cover was ripped off and at some point the binding cracked and broke leaving the text in two big chunks. It's probably the most damaged I've ever allowed a book to get and I honestly don't know how it happened.

Anyways, I also bought a copy of the fourth book "The Wizard and the Glass," which I never owned. I had borrowed it from a friend for my first read. The two books cost me about $5 (about a $25 savings from buying them new at Borders or Barnes and Noble).

Later that day, I really set out on the path again by opening up the book and following the man in black and the gunslinger across the desert. A few things stuck out to me. One, I am a much better and understanding reader than I was when I first read this book a little over a decade ago. I am sure it took me a couple months to get through the text that clocks in under 200 pages. This reading took me four days and that's mostly because they tell me I have to show up to work on time and stay there.

Second, it's much easier to follow and pick up on all things King is setting up for the series going through it the second time.

Finally, like the Eye of Sauron in "The Lord of the Rings," the image of the dark tower is central to the entire series, but what's interesting is that it takes King 80 pages before it's introduced in this book. That's a pretty long time, but up till then it seems that the pursuit in the man in black is the driving force of the series.

Here is the first reference to the tower, I found it interesting. Plus, this provides a little of style that this book (which is different from the rest of the series) is written. This a scene where Roland (the gunslinger) hypnotizes the boy Jake that he meets at the Way Station in the desert. It's the middle of a long paragraph, so try to keep up.

He (the gunslinger) seemed to hear the sound of wind-chimes. Not for the first time the gunslinger tasted the smooth, loden taste of soul-sickness. The shell in his fingers, manipulated with such unknown grace, was suddenly undead, horrific, the spoor of a monster. He dropped it into his palm and closed it into a fist with painful force. There were such things as rape in the world. Rape and murder and unspeakable practices, and all of them were for the good, the bloody good, for the myth, for the grail, for the Tower. Ah, the Tower stood somewhere, rearing its black bulk to the sky, and in his desert-scoured ears, the gunslinger heard the faint sweet sound of wind-chimes.

"Where are you?" he asked.

What we find out is that catching the man in the black is the end of the beginning. It's a long road to the tower. I am already deep into the second book. I plan on sharing my thoughts and things I notice as I go. It may not interest anyone else, but I enjoy it and sometimes that's all that matters.