Not considered DT canon...?

[TheGoodSon]

I just finished reading Black House, and I´m puzzled about a few things regarding the connections to the Dark Tower (which there are in abundance - even more so than Insomnia, I really regard Black House as an "unofficial" DT book).
After I finished reading, I picked up Robin Furth´s excellent DT Concordance, and was surprised and amazed to see that all things Black House had been omitted from the Concordance. The events of Insomnia are often referenced, whereas BH seems completely ignored. No mention of Tyler Marshall or Mr Munchin, Abbalah is not mentioned as one of the names of the Crimson King, not even Jack Sawyer himself is mentioned...

Am I missing something here? Or is Black House simply not considered "DT canon"? If so, why? Because of Peter Straubs involvement?

Also - am I the only one who preferred Black House to The Talisman....?

[Brian - Metro]

Interesting points...

[Moderator]

I'll ask Robin what the reasoning was so that we can have the answer straight from the source.

[TheGoodSon]

Thank you Ms Mod, that would be much appreciated!

[Elemeno P]

Also - am I the only one who preferred Black House to The Talisman....?

I read TT / BH right after I finished the DT series. Probably for that reason, as I was still buzzing on the DT, I preferred BH to the TT.

I need to calmly re-read TT and give it it's proper focus.

Agree also on regarding BH as a sub-chapter of the DT. Loved it.

[kellykid]

Also - am I the only one who preferred Black House to The Talisman....?

No I also preferred Black House. Can't even explain why. I can't understand the omission in The Concordance either. Black House is also mentioned in Wolves of the Calla I believe.

[Moderator]

Robin is preparing a response and as soon as I receive her email, I'll post it here.

[GNTLGNT]

Thanks MM...it ought to make for fascinating reading-she a smaht gurl....

[doowopgirl]

No I also preferred Black House. Can't even explain why. I can't understand the omission in The Concordance either. Black House is also mentioned in Wolves of the Calla I believe.

Preferred Black House myself. I think I liked the bikers

[Moderator]

Here's Robin's response:

Dear Fellow Constant Readers,

Many thanks to the fan of BLACK HOUSE who said that my Dark Tower Concordance was excellent. CHEERS! In the note that followed, this reader also happened to mention that he/she was puzzled by the absence of BLACK HOUSE information in the Concordance, since BLACK HOUSE is a Dark Tower-related book. Since I thought this was a very good question, I thought I’d take a few minutes to answer.
As all of you Dark Tower fans know, there are seven novels in the Dark Tower series and one novella. (Number eight will be out soon!) These seven novels are THE GUNSLINGER, THE DRAWING OF THE THREE, THE WASTE LANDS, WIZARD AND GLASS, WOLVES OF THE CALLA, SONG OF SUSANNAH, and THE DARK TOWER. The novella is called “The Little Sisters of Eluria,” and can be found in the collection of short stories, EVERYTHING’S EVENTUAL. All of these novels take place in Mid-World, or between Mid-World and our world, and all of them have Roland Deschain, the wandering gunslinger-knight, as a protagonist.
As well as the seven Dark Tower novels (eight, including THE WIND THROUGH THE KEYHOLE) and the one Dark Tower novella, there are quite a few novels by Stephen King that are related to the Dark Tower novels. These books do not take place in Mid-World, and they do not star Roland Deschain, but they either mention the Dark Tower books, have a character that later shows up in the Dark Tower novels, or share some Dark Tower-related themes. These novels are BAG OF BONES, DESPERATION, THE EYES OF THE DRAGON, INSOMNIA, IT, ‘SALEM’S LOT, and THE STAND. (If we want to stretch a little more, we could add FROM A BUICK 8 as well.) Also included in this list are “Low Men in Yellow Coats,” (found in HEARTS IN ATLANTIS), “The Mist,” (Found in SKELETON CREW), and the Stephen King/Peter Straub collaborative novels THE TALISMAN and BLACK HOUSE. All of these books are RELATED TO the Dark Tower story cycle, but they are not actually part of it since they do not focus on Roland Deschain’s endless search for the Dark Tower, located in End-World.
As we all know, the Dark Tower universe is huge, and if we include all of the Dark Tower related material, it is enormous. Hence, while I was compiling the Concordance, I had to make some important decisions about the scope of my book. What should I cover and what should I leave out? Did I want to focus on the core Dark Tower books alone, or did I want to expand my scope and talk about the Dark Tower universe as it is explored in all of Stephen King’s other fiction? In the end, I decided to focus on the seven existing Dark Tower novels and one novella that have Roland Deschain as their protagonist. Instead of briefly covering all the DT-related novels, I decided to do an intense, in-depth study of the central novels. For me, this was the right choice. After all, that was the scope of the original research project I did for Stephen King, since what he needed was a way to track the histories of particular characters, places, or words found in Mid-World.
Because of my focus, the only characters to have entries in the Concordance are those that make a physical appearance in the primary DT novels/novellas (THE GUNSLINGER, THE DRAWING OF THE THREE, THE WASTE LANDS, WIZARD AND GLASS, WOLVES OF THE CALLA, SONG OF SUSANNAH, THE DARK TOWER, and “The Little Sisters of Eluria”). I also included characters and places that are directly mentioned in those texts, even if they do not physically appear in the novels.
Since characters from other Stephen King books DO sometimes appear in the Dark Tower novels (for example Father Callahan from ‘SALEM’S LOT, and Patrick Danville from INSOMNIA), these characters have entries in the Concordance. Unfortunately, the strict rules I set for myself also required that the rest of the characters that appear in related novels do not have entries. That is why Tyler Marshall and Jack Sawyer have been excluded from the Concordance.
If I ever get the chance to update the Concordance (which would be great to do now that Steve’s new DT novel is coming out), I would like to expand some of the existing entries so that they discuss the connections between Dark Tower books and Dark Tower-related books a little more fully. For example, in the existing JAKE CHAMBERS entry I talk about Jake as a manifestation of the talented prepubescent/adolescent hero that appears in many of Steve King’s novels. In some ways, you could even go so far as to say that Mark Petrie (‘SALEM’S LOT), Bobby Garfield (HEARTS IN ATLANTIS), David Carver (DESPERATION), Bill Denbrough (IT), and the young Jack Sawyer (THE TALISMAN) are all Jake Chamber’s “twinners”. I would expand the BREAKERS entry and discuss Tyler Marshall, and I would expand the Crimson King essay to talk some more about his appearance in BLACK HOUSE. As you see, already the Concordance is gaining a couple of pounds! And while I’m expanding, it would be interesting to discuss the relationship between the low men of HEARTS IN ATLANTIS and the low men/can-toi of the Dark Tower series. (They are actually very different, when you examine them closely.) Another topic would be why the can toi of DESPERATION have such a similar name to the can-toi of the Dark Tower series, though they actually look completely different. (I have an answer for that one since I had a discussion about it with Stephen King a few months ago, but I won’t include any spoilers here!!!)
So anyway, that’s my long-winded explanation as to why Ty Marshall and Jack Sawyer (both great buddies of mine) don’t appear in the Concordance. Thanks for listening. I hope this helps.

Long days and pleasant nights,
Robin Furth