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Robert Gray

Well-Known Member
Write it out once, (more) save to doc, copy n paste my friend. :biggrin2:

A "Twinner" is a person in another world within the multiverse that is a twin, both in looks and spirit. They are the "you" of that world so to speak. Places have Twinners too, and Derry is the Twinner of our Bangor. It is important to note that in the world where the Losers live, Bangor is just down the road from Derry.... /but/ that Bangor is very different one must presume. That is because Derry is a reflection of our Bangor.

It isn't unlike the fact that Eddie Dean comes from a New York that isn't our New York. Certain landmarks of note are in the wrong place from our perspective... or his looking at ours. :D The New Yorks are Twinners of each other, but a Twinner is not an "identical" twin. To some degree it works like this, the multiverse is vast place and in some respects it isn't unlike a House of Mirrors. Reality reflects reality reflects reality.... but the reflections aren't perfect because the mirrors all have different imperfections. Think of funhouse mirrors. Moreover, it gets harder to see the detail when you look at a reflection in a reflection in a reflection. It isn't a perfect metaphor but you get the idea.

The Multiverse (or the many levels of the Tower) reflect each other and in some hard to understand interact. Even the keystone world is affected by the reflections of itself. It is important to note that not every world has a Twinner of every thing or every person. I won't go into that level of philosophy to answer the original question.
 

FlakeNoir

Original Kiwi© SKMB®
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Apr 11, 2006
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New Zealand
Nope, that's why I was curious if they are worth reading.
Well by the sound of it you had already formed an opinion on them (see above) so I was guessing that you must have already read them?

They are none of those things that you mentioned earlier but then again, that is just my opinion. The series is in my top 5-10 of Stephen's stories.
 
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staropeace

Richard Bachman's love child
Nov 28, 2006
15,210
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From what wikipedia says about Dark Tower, it looks like an idea from The Castle by Kafka.
The Dark Tower series is Stephen's best work. These books are moving and beautiful. I would say they define him. If you haven't read them, you are missing out on a lot of entertainment. He creates another world with it's own distinct language and culture. It can be a terrible place and a magical place. The characters can step off the page and set up house, they are so real.
 

Van Blaricum

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Oct 28, 2014
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I just always assumed Derry was a made up place based off a composite of maybe lotsa little Maine places.

When I was twelve, we had to do a school geography report on a state. My name is at the end of the Alphabet so choices were slim when my turn came but no one ahead of me had picked Maine so I took it. All I knew about it was that it was the state in the book It, and that SK lived there and that it was all the way over on the end of the US hiding, one of the few states I'd never been to. All the other twelve year old were like " ugh, you picked Maine? " I imagined Maine as a place with lots of guys in fishermans gear just reclining around with lots of lobsters and bowls of chowder. I called the Maine tourism hotline and ordered some materials. Everything I got back was a Schooner trip brochure. I was impressed. I decided then that I was going to take a schooner trip. I made a thermometer on a piece of paper and taped It to my wall and whenever I made more money for the trip I colored more red up. When I finally got enough money for the ticket I filled the red in all the way and then I told my family and they just laughed at me. They said I couldn't go to Maine for a schooner trip I was just twelve. I cried. My brother and mother said how would I get there and where would I stay on the way and when I arrived at the harbor? I said " on an airplane or bus, and at a hotel " then at that point they said that would cost more so I said I would save up more. Then they said even if I did, a twelve year old kid wouldn't be able to fly around and stay in hotels and ride schooners alone. I was so mad. I offered to pay for someone else to go with me but then everyone said they didn't want to and I couldn't afford it even though I had a job. I was pretty steamed. The brochures promised I'd be able to sit on the schooner eating chowder while playing board games and watching aquatic life leaping from the Atlantic.

Oh man. You should take a schooner trip dude.
 

not_nadine

Comfortably Roont
Nov 19, 2011
29,655
139,785
Behind you
Do it, Sai Christan! Joining this board way back when... and seeing all of the post about it, I had to.
Never regretted for one minute. Now I feel bad for the people that had to wait between books.....

And you can learn new ways of speaking... and find out why we all talk so strange at times. :Oo:

(Blaine is a pain)
 
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Robert Gray

Well-Known Member
We all have preferences. I am not sure if being a fan of SK should make me feel obliged to read EVERYTHING ever written by SK.

Obliged? No, but if you were an actual fan you would start them and see if you liked them yourself. A book can, if you aren't enjoying it, be put down. Insulting something you have never read and then strangely ask us whether or not what you just insulted is worth reading is bizarre. Your attitude is odd to say the least.
 

Cristian M

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Mar 2, 2014
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Obliged? No, but if you were an actual fan you would start them and see if you liked them yourself. A book can, if you aren't enjoying it, be put down. Insulting something you have never read and then strangely ask us whether or not what you just insulted is worth reading is bizarre. Your attitude is odd to say the least.
What I wanted to ask is who is the target audience for Dark Tower versus , for example, IT, Shining, Christine, Misery, Cell, Duma Key.
I had the impression Dark Tower is a kind of pulp fiction and comic book, targeted at less intellectually pretentious readers compared to the audience of his other major books.
 

Van Blaricum

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Oct 28, 2014
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" targeted at less intellectually pretentious readers compared to the audience of his other major books. "

I never knew any Stephen King fans to be thought of as intellectually pretentious, quite the opposite. Literary wind bags even griped a lot when he got some major literary award and said he isn't " literature "

Most SK fans I know don't self separate into types. You'll just have to try it for yourself and get in where you fit in.
 

Cristian M

Well-Known Member
Mar 2, 2014
184
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Bucharest, Romania
" targeted at less intellectually pretentious readers compared to the audience of his other major books. "

I never knew any Stephen King fans to be thought of as intellectually pretentious, quite the opposite. Literary wind bags even griped a lot when he got some major literary award and said he isn't " literature "

Most SK fans I know don't self separate into types. You'll just have to try it for yourself and get in where you fit in.
SK is entertaining and many people re-read his books, meaning he is not that bad as a writer. I am pretty sure he has more readers world-wide than Umberto Eco, another favorite author of mine, of which I read many books. What I'm trying to say is that commercial success and a large audience are hardly attained writing cryptic books that require reading of some other books to fully understand the author's allusions, like in Eco's case. On the other hand, some readers get more satisfaction if there is some effort on their side to understand / assimilate the book.
 
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Neesy

#1 fan (Annie Wilkes cousin) 1st cousin Mom's side
May 24, 2012
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What I wanted to ask is who is the target audience for Dark Tower versus , for example, IT, Shining, Christine, Misery, Cell, Duma Key.
I had the impression Dark Tower is a kind of pulp fiction and comic book, targeted at less intellectually pretentious readers compared to the audience of his other major books.
I hope that none of his Constant Readers would consider themselves "intellectually pretentious"