The ending of 'Song of Susannah' -- **SPOILERS**

[thymeoperator]

i LOVED the post-modern author-as-a-character thing. i've read a couple other books before that do this but in a different way, and i think it's a brilliant moment, because it makes the story sort of about making the story. i loved that it basically was like SK saying 'this story is overwhelming, i sort of don't want to finish it, but i owe it to my characters! they're real by now, they've taken on a life of their own and they're yelling at me that i can't stop until i finish their story!' i actually have expressed these same sentiments many times before with my own writing...except, you know, i'm not published (YET), but i think it must be a feeling most (if not all) writers have. it also reminded me a bit of thomas mann's 'death in venice', the idea of an obsession overtaking you, your creative force overtaking you - i remember a line in 'death in venice' where it said something to the effect of 'the writer's worst nightmare is that he'll die before he finishes that last story kicking around in his head' and when i read that i actually dropped the book and took about 3 years to get around to finishing it because it motivated me to go and work on my own novel!

i also thought it was fantastic how he said he doesn't 'write', it's more like he channels - that if he ever has to force it, resort to detailed planning, the writing doesn't work, and it's all a matter of the way the winds of ka blow, whether you're reading to do the story or not. i feel this same way - if i try too hard to write, it doesn't come, and then when the winds of inspiration hit me it all flows out and afterwards it feels like i wasn't the one who did it, it started writing itself, and that's when it's good. i thought this was so motivational because unfortunately these winds of inspiration don't seem to hit me more than every few months, and then i go in huge manic bouts of writing, so i'm getting huge chunks of it done...over a very long period of time - and i always feel so frustrated about it but reading the end of this book made me feel like...it'll come when it comes, and that's okay. i thought that was beautiful and i suppose it can be applied to anything, can't it? you do as much as you can and, if that still isn't working, just wait until the right moment comes that it WILL work - a lovely message.

i also love the theme of obsession all the way through - the way eddie has his former drug addiction, susannah/mia has her baby, roland has the tower, callahan has his religion he needs to regain, they all have the rose, i don't know about jake specifically - it makes me wonder:

what is everyone else's (on the board here) 'dark tower'?

i'm now starting DT7 - can't wait to see where it goes, but also thinking 'what do i do when it ends!?' :)

[Mr Nobody]

Have to admit I approached this book with some trepidation. The author parachuting himself in. Oh dear.
That's what I thought then. Now...what can I say? Could it have been done any better? I don't think so. It even added another layer to the fiction (beyond the obvious one(s), I mean).
The stuff near the end was very thought-provoking and insightful, too. We 'see' SK the famous author; we think of him as this always-bound-for-success type. We fail to see SK the man, with all his normal, natural, human doubts and musings and fears. And that stuff at the end, with Tabby basically nagging him to quit walking you know where, was - if true (and I have no doubt it is, none at all) - downright spooky. Though of course there was the one piece of fiction bolted at the end - the death report - when obviously we all know he survived.

As for writing...yeah, sometimes it's almost like I'm no longer there, I'm not thinking about making the story up in any conscious way; it's just...there, and coming, and coming, and coming. Other times writing's like trying to cut off your leg with a plastic spoon (yes, spoon; far less effective than even a plastic knife, which'd be ineffective enough. Though why you'd try either, I don't know, as it's self-torture and mutilation...not at all like writing, then! :biggrin2:)
It's also weird when you get to reading something back, and it's been a while, and you're reading and going 'Who the hell wrote this?', because you thought it was borderline crap...when in fact it turns out it's actually pretty good.

[DancingCorpse]

Very interesting posts, i will probably contribute more when i mull over it more. In your post Thymeoperator, you mention each character's obsession, do you think that Jake's obsession is a far different drive than everyone else's, he wants love, a family, and perhaps most importantly, a father? I think this could be true with regards to everything. Perhaps his obsession is Roland himself?

[stone, rose, unfound door]

I think Jake's obsession (if you call it this way) is love. He's always been denied of love and recognition from his parents or everyone else for that matter so I think he only needs someone who sees him for himself and that's Roland so maybe, in a way, you could say Roland is Jake's obsession.

[thymeoperator]

Very interesting posts, i will probably contribute more when i mull over it more. In your post Thymeoperator, you mention each character's obsession, do you think that Jake's obsession is a far different drive than everyone else's, he wants love, a family, and perhaps most importantly, a father? I think this could be true with regards to everything. Perhaps his obsession is Roland himself?

yes definitely - he's fixated on roland, being taken care of, making a new family from the other three, plus his bumbler, so yeah. his is a more meaningful obsession.

[DancingCorpse]

I agree, i like how it contrasts with the other's desires - even though over time we can see that the emotion of love is overpowering the original cravings of the other characters too.

[Ilian]

Yoiu are so lucky to be able to finish. I can't find DT7 anywhere!!!! I do believe SK did the work of genius with this book, it's so far my favorite DT book

[shook]

i think the ending to song of Susannah was amazing! i love the "journal entries" that he put after the story! he is just plain genius! this series is THE BEST!!!!

[Bubonic]

This really was an amazing part of the journey, I'd encountered criticism online to King writing himself into the saga, yet I thought it was perfectly executed, fit in with the surreal tone of the series.
The book required close attention for me, especially when unfolding the details of the Mia/Susannah story, and found it quite rewarding when it all solved itself, some really creative writing from sai King!
I loved how this book brought me back to the spirit of Drawing of the Three.

[Nemesis44UK]

Unfortunately, I couldn't disagree more. For me, SK crafted a beautiful other world in Gilead. I would have adored another six books in the same vein as Wizard and Glass. Prequels which were so beautiful in their lore and textures, painting Roland's formative years and illustrating a world that has moved on.

SK once wrote that you should never drag the reader out of the illusion (I'm paraphrasing). Imagine my surprise when he attached a hook to my collar and the other end to a jet fighter. That is how fast I was ripped out of the illusion in Song of Susannah.

Whilst I am one of the few people who seemed to enjoy the ending of the DT books (cynical and bitter, yet so truthful that life is a circle), I couldn't forgive (or forget) the indulgent interjection of our favourite writer into a fantasy setting. It jarred in a way that nothing ever has with an SK book. For me, I found it to be a "jump the shark" moment that spoilt that book and marred the entire series.

Hey, but that's just my opinion! :eyebrow:

[CCAL]

Interesting Nem. Thank God its a free country, cause I couldnt disagree more with your opinion. Ofcourse like you said "Hey, but that's just my opinion!" You are correct in that. We are free to agree to disagree here. The important thing is that we can also listen to each other. You spoke well and gave your reasonng for your conclusion. In MY opinion SK could have stayed with story and explored it more-but he had to make a decision on what pace to make. It cant be easy to choose your pace in a story. Who am I to have the audacity to declare a professionals "pace" is too fast!? I'm just Constant Reader-along for the ride. I dont hold the slow/fast button-just the go/stop button.So if storys going too fast I can take that 'collar' you mentioned off and close the book.Ofcourse I realize what you mean, but the story IS SK's-he owns that baby.Publishers even agree and pay the man his due. They also put the blame if there is any right smack in THE MANS lap. So if you think SK's baby is toddling too fast, you just have to hold your breath & pray baby doesnt fall!Just put thatr book down til your ready to go again.

[Robert Gray]

I try not to read any commentary about books I haven't read yet, so Sai King's appearance in the story was a surprise to me. I didn't have any bias formed one way or the other about it. I was not jolted out of the story by this notion. Everything seemed to follow a logical order to me. My willingness to suspend disbelief was not damaged in the least. Event unfolded in a way best described by a world Sai King really likes, implacable. Of course it could just be that my mind, like that of a child, is still willing to accept certain things. The elastic band of my imagination has not worn out or grown brittle. It doesn't snap painfully back when I encounter something that asks me to redraw the boundaries of reality once more.

Heinlein's "Number of the Beast" approaches this topic, albeit in an indirect way. That story also deals with multiverse, specifically one that spins on like a perpetual motion machine. The dreams and stories of one universe spawning others who in turn spawn others and so on down the line. We actually see one of the characters meet people from the universe created by her own stories. The meeting is uncomfortable to say the least, as it is not everyday that one meets one's creator (moreover when you find them wanting).

If time and space are infinite while the human mind is finite, there is nothing we can imagine that doesn't exist somewhere or some when. That is a sobering thought. The very fact that you and I (and Sai King) can imagine a creature such as Pennywise the Dancing Clown means with an absolute mathematical certainty that It exists or will. If energy cannot be destroyed, i.e. only transformed into another form, does our very practice of imagining these other people, places, and things set the ball in motion. Is that the transformation point? I consider these interesting topics.