I posted this on Goodreads, as well. I hope I'm not breaking any rules by doing that, but I didn't feel like re-writing the same thing, and I'm hoping for other insights from people here:
I read the first three books years ago, as they first came out. Then, waiting for W&G to come out, I kind of got sidetracked and never went back, although I think I've read almost everything else King has ever written.
Now I've come back to the Dark Tower series and read them all voraciously, with a new eye. I've gotten to the end, and I'm still digesting. It's left me with a lot of questions, not to mention the strongest sense of grief I've ever experienced while reading fiction.
SPOILERS AHEAD, OBVIOUSLY
Since Jake died I've been waiting for Roland's premonition about Oy to come true, and the two days it took me to get from Eddie's death to Oy's have felt like a funeral. My mind keeps lighting on them as I go about my day, and the grief breaks open again, fresh and sharp. I've never quite had the deaths of fictional characters hit me so hard - especially Oy. He was my favorite. Poor, brave, staunch Oy. I loved him.
I'm left with all these questions:
1) If Roland just has to do this all again, what did his ka-tet sacrifice their lives for? So he could see his baby-clout and Susan's pyre and then start over again?
2) If this is one of the keystone worlds where time only runs in one direction, how can he go back? I assume it's because the Tower itself is both outside those worlds and also contains them, so those rules don't apply. So:
3) When he goes back again, will he meet the same ka-tet? Will Eddie, Jake and Oy be alive again, or will he meet a new ka-tet and sacrifice them as well?
4) When he goes back, are the Beams being Broken again?
I see that the Beam told him that he could have spent three seconds - THREE SECONDS - picking up the Horn of Eld, which has always, always bothered me. So, the fact that he has it on this next go-round gives me hope that the regret he felt at losing Jake might be something he can rectify this next time around. So, too, might he be able to hold his sharp tongue and keep from saying such awful things to Oy the night before Oy's death... which maybe doesn't have to happen.
Twinners: are they the same people? The same souls? Or is Eddie Dean waiting in the clearing for Susannah while she lives in the Takuro-Spirit New York with other-Eddie, other-Jake and dog-Oy?
On a last note, I found a reading-sequence that seems to have enriched this experience for me: I-IV, Salem's Lot, V, VI, It, VII. Any other suggestions?
I just finished VII last night and Wind Through the Keyhole came in the mail today. Seeing them all alive and together again stings a bit, like watching videos of people we know are dead. Still can't believe how terrible I feel.
I know that we can't require things of artists; we're so nasty that way: we don't want our favorite bands to depart from the classics we know and love and branch out in new directions (FREE BIRD!!!). We want our favorite writers to tell the stories we want to hear and resolve things the way we want them to go. It's ungrateful. I'm just trying to come to terms with the way this has made me feel.
I so hoped, after Roland took his flight through Maerlyn's Grapefruit, that once the inevitable tragedies had happened, our beloved Stephen would give us the kind of resolution we finally got at the end of Doctor Sleep, when (SPOILER SPOILER TURN BACK NOW) Danny finally got to see his father again, after all those years, and they shared that one lovely moment together. I wanted Jake and Eddie and Oy (oh Oy oh Oy) to be together and witness Roland's triumph. I wanted to see that they had met well and gladly in the Clearing - or better yet, when the Beams were healed, that they were alive again. I'm grateful that Oy got a hero's death; he wasn't human, but he was a real character with a real destiny and a profoundly important part to play, and that did my heart good.
But that's not what we got. And perhaps that's because that's not what Stephen King found when he peered into Gan's navel and told us what he saw there.
I read the first three books years ago, as they first came out. Then, waiting for W&G to come out, I kind of got sidetracked and never went back, although I think I've read almost everything else King has ever written.
Now I've come back to the Dark Tower series and read them all voraciously, with a new eye. I've gotten to the end, and I'm still digesting. It's left me with a lot of questions, not to mention the strongest sense of grief I've ever experienced while reading fiction.
SPOILERS AHEAD, OBVIOUSLY
Since Jake died I've been waiting for Roland's premonition about Oy to come true, and the two days it took me to get from Eddie's death to Oy's have felt like a funeral. My mind keeps lighting on them as I go about my day, and the grief breaks open again, fresh and sharp. I've never quite had the deaths of fictional characters hit me so hard - especially Oy. He was my favorite. Poor, brave, staunch Oy. I loved him.
I'm left with all these questions:
1) If Roland just has to do this all again, what did his ka-tet sacrifice their lives for? So he could see his baby-clout and Susan's pyre and then start over again?
2) If this is one of the keystone worlds where time only runs in one direction, how can he go back? I assume it's because the Tower itself is both outside those worlds and also contains them, so those rules don't apply. So:
3) When he goes back again, will he meet the same ka-tet? Will Eddie, Jake and Oy be alive again, or will he meet a new ka-tet and sacrifice them as well?
4) When he goes back, are the Beams being Broken again?
I see that the Beam told him that he could have spent three seconds - THREE SECONDS - picking up the Horn of Eld, which has always, always bothered me. So, the fact that he has it on this next go-round gives me hope that the regret he felt at losing Jake might be something he can rectify this next time around. So, too, might he be able to hold his sharp tongue and keep from saying such awful things to Oy the night before Oy's death... which maybe doesn't have to happen.
Twinners: are they the same people? The same souls? Or is Eddie Dean waiting in the clearing for Susannah while she lives in the Takuro-Spirit New York with other-Eddie, other-Jake and dog-Oy?
On a last note, I found a reading-sequence that seems to have enriched this experience for me: I-IV, Salem's Lot, V, VI, It, VII. Any other suggestions?
I just finished VII last night and Wind Through the Keyhole came in the mail today. Seeing them all alive and together again stings a bit, like watching videos of people we know are dead. Still can't believe how terrible I feel.
I know that we can't require things of artists; we're so nasty that way: we don't want our favorite bands to depart from the classics we know and love and branch out in new directions (FREE BIRD!!!). We want our favorite writers to tell the stories we want to hear and resolve things the way we want them to go. It's ungrateful. I'm just trying to come to terms with the way this has made me feel.
I so hoped, after Roland took his flight through Maerlyn's Grapefruit, that once the inevitable tragedies had happened, our beloved Stephen would give us the kind of resolution we finally got at the end of Doctor Sleep, when (SPOILER SPOILER TURN BACK NOW) Danny finally got to see his father again, after all those years, and they shared that one lovely moment together. I wanted Jake and Eddie and Oy (oh Oy oh Oy) to be together and witness Roland's triumph. I wanted to see that they had met well and gladly in the Clearing - or better yet, when the Beams were healed, that they were alive again. I'm grateful that Oy got a hero's death; he wasn't human, but he was a real character with a real destiny and a profoundly important part to play, and that did my heart good.
But that's not what we got. And perhaps that's because that's not what Stephen King found when he peered into Gan's navel and told us what he saw there.