Ranger_Strider
October 14th, 2009, 08:10 PM
I tend to think of the Story of Susan Delgado and Mejis (which is the bulk of W&G) as the best and smartest use of the flash-back device I've ever seen. I thought taking the major characters of 'Lost' (tv series) back to the Dharma period of @1977 was a close second best, but for obvious different reasons.
It all centers on time-travel, the use of flashbacks, that is. Imagine how useless the first volume in the DT cycle (The Gunslinger) would have been to the whole story if it did not contain all those snapshot flashback tales of Roland? It seems to me that the entire DTS is hinged in the middle and wags from both ends of Wizard and Glass. It's the 180 degree opposite in Roland's quest from ascending the tower/crossing the Mohaine (a seamless continuum), and yet pretty much the same exercise: examining the past in order to gain understanding which may yet to prove useful in the next turn of the wheel.
And yes, that is easy for me to say.
It all centers on time-travel, the use of flashbacks, that is. Imagine how useless the first volume in the DT cycle (The Gunslinger) would have been to the whole story if it did not contain all those snapshot flashback tales of Roland? It seems to me that the entire DTS is hinged in the middle and wags from both ends of Wizard and Glass. It's the 180 degree opposite in Roland's quest from ascending the tower/crossing the Mohaine (a seamless continuum), and yet pretty much the same exercise: examining the past in order to gain understanding which may yet to prove useful in the next turn of the wheel.
And yes, that is easy for me to say.