Books 6 and 7 and Sai King (Spoilers!)

**MrHappyDaClown** · August 21st, 2011

Sai King's Entrance to the story kind of wraps up my perception of existence in general. I have always felt like the product of someone else's disturbed imagination. To see them come to this realization in the books only made them more real to me.

**jellydonut25** · August 23rd, 2011

Originally Posted by bluesology

"Show, don't tell" is one of those classic workshop notes that everyone gets - because I think it's possible to make that criticism about just about anything. I think it's really subjective to say when you are being "told" something or if you are being "shown" something. In terms of DT7 - the scene where the group is listening to Ted's recordings and the afterword (before Roland climbs the Tower) are all I can think of as being overtly expository in its presentation. I think that the last three books - taken in whole present a satisfying and well paced ending to the saga.

I had a well-typed, thought-out response to this...but I hit "post" like 2 minutes after posting closed on Friday...

so, I'll just say that there are other examples of 'show dont tell' at play, specifically Sheemie's demise and leave it at that because I no longer remember everything I said in my original post...

**JohnDalglish** · August 23rd, 2011

Originally Posted by jellydonut25

I had a well-typed, thought-out response to this...but I hit "post" like 2 minutes after posting closed on Friday...

so, I'll just say that there are other examples of 'show dont tell' at play, specifically Sheemie's demise and leave it at that because I no longer remember everything I said in my original post...

Hi,

Don'tcha just hate it when that happens?

And I've got a bad case of CRS Syndrome too

Long days and pleasant nights

**bryantburnette** · August 23rd, 2011

I get why/how some readers -- especially the ones who are only casual fans of King's work -- responded poorly to the idea of him writing himself into the novels. And I'll admit that when I got to that point in Song of Susannah that it made me quint and put the book down for a few seconds. I didn't really get on board with that element until the end of the book.

Now, though, I almost can't imagine the series without it. I don't claim to be any sort of expert on fantasy literature -- or on non-fantasy literature, for that matter -- but I will say this: I do not know of ANY other work of fantasy that ever managed to become that incredibly personal for the writer. For some people, it ran the series right off the rails, and I'm sure the thought of that being a possibility was not lost on S.K. when he wrote it. I admire the sheer amount of guts it must have taken to just go ahead and write it anyways.

And the side effect is that for others -- me included -- it just kicked the series into a new and higher gear. For me, it didn't rob the series of its fantasy elements; it merely made them even more profound than they had already been.

Good god, how will the movies/tv shows ever deal with that when and if it happens?!? (My answer, by the way, would be to cast Joe Hill as his dad!)

**king family fan** · August 23rd, 2011

I was like it when King appears in his works,

**91rewoT** · August 23rd, 2011

What if all of it is true? The whole Dark Tower story. All of it. Who's to say that it didn't happen on some other level, some other where, some other when...and King just did what he had to do, wrote the story with himself included. Okay, maybe that's all a little crazy, but for me the whole Dark Tower story has become such a part of my existence that I like to think that Jake and Roland really did go to Maine in June of 1999, and Jake really did save Sai King...