Acts of a writer who just needs to finish?

[Ophelia]

I just finished DT 7 last night. At first I was like what in the bloody heck was that?! Then as it sank in, I was okay with the ending. However, I was really sad for Roland and felt completely exhausted at the end of it all. I just wanted Roland to get it right this last time. I just wanted Roland to get some rest, some peace. Guess SK did a good job of making us love the cold-blooded killer, eh?

But I had some other thoughts about the book in general--
As I was reading, some elements felt tossed into the story like "Aww, what the heck, why not? Who cares?" Some things felt tossed in because he just wanted to finish the story already, and didn't want to do any long, drawn-out explanations for unimportant facts. And some of it left me just scratching my head.

Of cours, he's using words and phrases and people to keep drawing us back around to the fact that in that world, ka is a wheel.

So I get it. But I tell ya, say true, halfway into DT 4 I completely abandoned even trying to make sense of anything. What's that? This section doesn't make sense? None of it makes any sense. But in the reality SK created, it does make sense. So therefore it is. And all that mixing reality and fiction and even throwing a semi-fictionalized version of himself into the story.

Mind-boggling, say true, say thankya.

SK left some huge, unresolved questions for me:

The tiny little subplot about the superflu. Was that mentioned in another novel? I was very, very interesed in finding out what happened there.
What in the world did the Old People do? Nuke themselves? I'm figuring so with all the muties running around, but nukes don't create crevice monsters and such.
Who started North Central Positronics? Who can we blame for the world falling apart? Oh, how we long for a villain

[/LIST]

Say thankya big-big for responses.

Come-commala, come-commala, come drink a nozz-a-la....

[Bryan James]

...Who cares?...None of it makes any sense.

...

Welcome to Earth.

[Brett Johnston]

I like the roller coaster plunge moment of realization; it was a true to life's wheel effect right there, oh no not again! :) It was strange that no trap sprang up to drag Roland out onto a different level for an eternity, I think most people would be more hounded by the details of each level.

[bluespider]

I just finished DT 7 last night. At first I was like what in the bloody heck was that?! Then as it sank in, I was okay with the ending. However, I was really sad for Roland and felt completely exhausted at the end of it all. I just wanted Roland to get it right this last time. I just wanted Roland to get some rest, some peace. Guess SK did a good job of making us love the cold-blooded killer, eh?

But I had some other thoughts about the book in general--
As I was reading, some elements felt tossed into the story like "Aww, what the heck, why not? Who cares?" Some things felt tossed in because he just wanted to finish the story already, and didn't want to do any long, drawn-out explanations for unimportant facts. And some of it left me just scratching my head.

Of cours, he's using words and phrases and people to keep drawing us back around to the fact that in that world, ka is a wheel.

So I get it. But I tell ya, say true, halfway into DT 4 I completely abandoned even trying to make sense of anything. What's that? This section doesn't make sense? None of it makes any sense. But in the reality SK created, it does make sense. So therefore it is. And all that mixing reality and fiction and even throwing a semi-fictionalized version of himself into the story.

Mind-boggling, say true, say thankya.

SK left some huge, unresolved questions for me:

The tiny little subplot about the superflu. Was that mentioned in another novel? I was very, very interesed in finding out what happened there.
What in the world did the Old People do? Nuke themselves? I'm figuring so with all the muties running around, but nukes don't create crevice monsters and such.
Who started North Central Positronics? Who can we blame for the world falling apart? Oh, how we long for a villain

[/LIST]

Say thankya big-big for responses.

Come-commala, come-commala, come drink a nozz-a-la....

the only superflu that i know of is in The Stand, the greatest ever ever ever!

[Robb]

the only superflu that i know of is in The Stand, the greatest ever ever ever!

Beat me to the punch. If I remember right there also was a mention of "watch out for the walkin dude" which of course points to The Stand. I am unsure though i haven't read DT4 in a long time and I lost my copy in Iraq. I how ever do not agree The Stand was the best ever DT7 :biggrin2:

[Dark Reader]

I finished the last book for the first time yesterday and today i've rushed on to the forum to find out what other people thought.

I too struggle to make sense of certain parts of the tale and felt that other parts weren't explained properly.

The sections that Stephen wrote himself into don't make any sense to me and i think if you took that whole story line out it wouldn't make much difference.

For me the back story of Roland was distorted. Far too much time was spent on the part in Mejis and not enough on his journey or what happened at Jericho Hill.

I agree about North Central Positronics. The establishment of the Tet Corporation and what it achieved would have been fascinating.

I'm afraid i was under whelmed by the DT journey :sad: It didn't flow and left too many questions unanswered.

[Ophelia]

Beat me to the punch. If I remember right there also was a mention of "watch out for the walkin dude" which of course points to The Stand. I am unsure though i haven't read DT4 in a long time and I lost my copy in Iraq. I how ever do not agree The Stand was the best ever DT7 :biggrin2:

Awesome. Thanks to both of you!
I will try to find it on amazon or at the library.

I have tried every video store in the area, and no one has The Stand movie. :(

[Robb]

Awesome. Thanks to both of you!
I will try to find it on amazon or at the library.

I have tried every video store in the area, and no one has The Stand movie. :(


The movie is LONG I would get the book personally I thought it was much better. Something is always lost in the translation from book to movie.

The Stand is an amazing book the movie is just OK. I hope you enjoy the read or watch

Long days and pleasant nights.

[thymeoperator]

i got the impression the Old People got so technologically advanced, traveled to so many new worlds and adapted the elements from those worlds into their own, etc. and in the end were so 'far ahead' that they wound up destroying themselves through wars. i loved that aspect of the book because the 'old people' seemed to be our own future, so it was kind of like...this is what we might be heading to ourselves. we, like roland, have got our priorities out of order.

[OhhDiscordia]

You have to think that he knew this ending at last by the halfway point of their journey. If not, when he set off writing this. I think partly, that he just created something so great, a world so impressive and incredibly large, with SO much backstory that there's just no time to scratch the surface on, that it's expected to have that effect, of feeling not quite finished, not full enough. But you just have to go with the flow, because this story does flow, and fast. It's almost as if, trying to overanalyze too much of it, will ruin it because you only WANT to know more. What he tells you is what he wants you to know, what you need to know. It's a fantastic epic tale, and as he writes at the end, read it for the journey, not as a rush to the finish line to find out what happens. The tale of these gunslingers is truly great.

[Wanderer From Ys]

SK left some huge, unresolved questions for me:

The tiny little subplot about the superflu. Was that mentioned in another novel? I was very, very interesed in finding out what happened there.
What in the world did the Old People do? Nuke themselves? I'm figuring so with all the muties running around, but nukes don't create crevice monsters and such.
Who started North Central Positronics? Who can we blame for the world falling apart? Oh, how we long for a villain

[/LIST]

Say thankya big-big for responses.

Come-commala, come-commala, come drink a nozz-a-la....

The superflu elements were most definately the stand. Along with beware of the walkin dude, there was also the mentioning of going to Nebraska to see the old woman. But I think Roland or the narrator says that it's not their tale. But to fans of the Stand this was very obvious.

[terrain]

I finished the last book for the first time yesterday and today i've rushed on to the forum to find out what other people thought.

I too struggle to make sense of certain parts of the tale and felt that other parts weren't explained properly.

The sections that Stephen wrote himself into don't make any sense to me and i think if you took that whole story line out it wouldn't make much difference.

For me the back story of Roland was distorted. Far too much time was spent on the part in Mejis and not enough on his journey or what happened at Jericho Hill.

I agree about North Central Positronics. The establishment of the Tet Corporation and what it achieved would have been fascinating.

I'm afraid i was under whelmed by the DT journey :sad: It didn't flow and left too many questions unanswered.

I think SK constantly asks us to just accept. I think it takes a brave writer to deliver what he sees without feeling a great need to explain every detail of the past. Just accept, don't always expect answers. The Old People, robot bears, glass balls, all that stuff...it is what it is, it's how our world has ended up. The story isn't really about how it got that way, it's about survival in a world as he writes it.
As for SK appearing in his own novel, I always felt this was a master stroke. Talk about ballsy writing. A huge risk, and for me it paid off. Not to overuse a DT phrase, but he is part of their ka. And when SK recognises his own characters and runs away, I just about wet myself.
But that's just me :smile2:

[Electricman707]

Oh you think this is the last book think again! Won't be a 7 book series but I think another book.

[Connie Reader]

The first time that I read through the series I wasn't sure about the W&G book, it was sad and I was so anxious to get back to the meat of the story, that I didn't realize how important it was to the series as a whole. Sheemie's return to the plot in DT7, because of Roland's need to unload this burden of all that happened and how it relates to their ka-tet, and also the way they use the same kind of attack on the Wolves as they did on Farsons men, the book mad more sense than I realized at the time. The part with the thinny in eyebolt canyon was terrifying and awesome! Roland needed them to know everything to not only cement their ka-tet going forward ( as if he were saying "here is a big chunk of what I did wrong and right and can you accept me as your dinh in spite of it?") but to help plan the battle that lay ahead. It was almost as if somewhere in his head he knew he had lived this before and telling them that story was one of the things he had to do differently in this journey.
just my thoughts :)

[Ranger_Strider]

The superflu elements were most definately the stand. Along with beware of the walkin dude, there was also the mentioning of going to Nebraska to see the old woman. But I think Roland or the narrator says that it's not their tale. But to fans of the Stand this was very obvious.

It turns out that WE are the Old People, that's pretty obvious, I think. The crazy twist is that it is the Old People from Derry that forge the undoing of the Crimson King by saving a young boy from a premature death. I see some wicked poetic justice kind of twist in that. Read Insomnia.

[blunthead]

I did not have any of the above problems with DT, including a sense of the climax and ending being rushed. I was a little surprised that Mordred, as cunning as he/it was, was disposed of as he was, but I also was so glad when he/it got it.

[Jaydean]

Some good point here, I must say tho I read the stand after the DT series and its hard to pick a fav, Wizard & Glass was probably my fav of the DT series, mainly because of Rolands Ka-tet and The Big Coffin Hunters, and Cuthberts aim with a slingshot. I suppose everyone is gunna have their opinion, for instance, alot of people said Wolves Of Calla was boring, I loved it, mainly due to the language used. The DT series would be top of my list tho, just for the fact that if i didnt read it, I wouldve picked up Low Men in Yellow Coats and not known an awful lot about Ted Brautigan. The ties make reading other King Novels more appealing, Salems Lot, The Stand, etc. There are many I havent read, but thank my brother dearly for putting me onto DT series. When he told me, he was reading Songs Of Sussanah, Within 3 weeks Id read 1-6 and half of DT7 - thats how ingrossed I was, captivating reading.

[garygak]

I hear you. I could use another ten DT novels. What happened to Roland's belt? I want to see the Tick Tock Man again. I can't believe that Flag died so easily after all that build up. I believe he survived on another level of The Tower in the same way that Jake did way back in DT1. What happened to the Wizard's Glass, deposited so safely in a lock-up? And Now that Eddie and gang are happy and complete, are they too stuck in this infernal cycle of Roland's? I hope not, but where does that leave Roland?

[bluesology]

It's not an easy ending to digest but I think that it felt more realistic and true. My favorite stories are the ones in which the characters are more morally ambiguous - as opposed to really good or really evil. Throughout the books, Roland has some incredible heroic moments but he also has moments of cold blooded disregard for those he cares about. I agree that it is the mark of a good writer when we feel sympathetic towards such a complex character who has sacrificed so many people in the courst of his obsession.

I can sympathize with the feeling that the last books in the series felt rushed and thrown together. However, I just finished my second complete read through the series - and I found that on the second read the narrative made a lot more sense to me. Now that I knew roughly what was coming, little details made more sense to me and I felt stronger the incredible intricacies of the story. Because the last three books were written so much closer together, I thought the continuity blended together amazingly well. Are there issues that will go un-adressed? Probably so. But again I think that this is true to life - sometimes we don't get the answers we want, frustrating as that may be, say thank ya.

Throughout the saga, I think the key is to think of all Stephen King's books as individual universes in a larger macro-verse. Roland and his comrades frequently find themselves thrown into different and alternate realities so his other books become part of this story as well. Case in point - in the fourth book they end up in the universe created in the Stand for a brief period of time (the Superflu subplot). If it interested you, I would definately suggest reading it - go for the later published longer edition. If I had to make a list of "must-read" King novels, this would definately be on the list. I would not reccomend the movie version. I was extremely let down by their portrayal of Randall Flagg. Besides, there's no way to do justice to such a complex book even in an 8 hour miniseries.

In terms of the Old People, I think it was a result of a nuclear war - modern, mechanized society was wiped out and from the ashes grew the society we see in the books, with occasional reminders of the old people, gas pumps and such. Early on, when only three books had been published, I was convinced that Roland was living in our world, in the future.

North Central Positronics as well as the Sombre corporation I think are just meant as faceless entities working to destroy the beams and the dark tower, which I think is always under attack from one quarter or another.

Say sorry for such a long winded response. As I said, I'm almost finished with book seven as we speak so I'm pretty jazzed about the books at the moment.