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the nature of Roland and his world.
I expect few if any are going to agree with any of what I say here. That's why I offer this up in the spirit of friendly debate.
This thread has to do with my take on the Dark Tower series as a whole, specifically the exact nature of Mid-World, it's history, Roland and the Tower.
For the record, my take on the series as a whole isn't my own. Rather it belongs to the remarkable Robin Furth as outlined in her indispensable introduction to the Complete Dark Tower Concordance. In her intro, Ms. Furth brings up a work of fiction, a play actually, by another author in reference to the Tower series, "Five Characters In Search of an Author to be specific. That other work detail how five fictional characters who are part of a fictional story come to life in search of anyone willing to tell their story.
The play is a deep meditation on creativity and asks the interesting question of whether some stories demand, even fight to be told. The point is "Five Characters" is the story of a work of fiction coming to life on a writer. That in a nutshell is Ms. Furth's take on the entire DT series.
In effect, Ms. Furth sees the story as of a piece with works like "The Dark Half", "Secret Window Secret Garden" and especially the short story "Unmey's Last Case." What connects each tale is the conceit of a real life author life author living in the real world, only to have the fictional worlds or characters they create come to life on them through processes they don't understand. The key text in my thinking here, more than either "Dark Half" or "Window", is "Unmey's Last Case". At the risk of major spoilers,
The way I read the whole Dark Tower series, Roland, his world and the Tower amount to the same thing as outlined above. On this reading, the reality is the Ronald's world and all the characters in it, even all the way to Moses Carver and the Tet Corporation (say sorry), Henry Dean, Enrico Balazar and Cimi Dretto (not to mention Ted Braughtigan) and most especially the Tower are all fiction (unreal estates was a good word C.S. Lewis once used) and the only reality is the fictional Stephen King finding his books taking on a literal life of their own.
In this reading, there really is no Tower, no mystical linchpin holding all possible worlds together. Instead, all the fictional Stephen King universe consists of is this world we call our own except with monsters, haunted houses and killer cars. Also in this fictional yet interconnected universe is a fictionalized version of the author himself who finds his his work coming to life for a brief time, long enough to save his own before retreating back to the words on the page they always were (let's not forget, that's what fiction is after all).
It's best to be as clear about this as possible. In my reading, the Stephen King Universe contains just our world with the fictional tack-ons of Derry, Lewiston and Bridgeton, Castle Rock and Salem's Lot Maine. Also the Overlook in Colorado and the town of Desperation Nevada. In my reading, that's all there is really, except for the ghoulies, ghosties and long legged beasties that is, and some Other, along with some folk with the ability to brings their own fictions to life. This is what the Dark Tower stories really is about, in my reading of the books. It's not about this Tower in some surreal other world and this gunslinger trying to find it, it's about an author who finds his fiction coming to life and that fictions impinging on the real world for a time.
I know there's a lot of repetition in the paragraphs above, and you know what they say about hell. Still, it's there for a reason, and that was to make sure a clear idea of how I look at Mid-World and it's denizens. Now I know I'm in the minority when it comes to the reading of the books, in fact the only other I know who shares my view is Ms. Furth. That's okay, I'm not asking others to agree with me, though you can if you want. I'm just voicing one guy's opinion here.
My question is what do you think about what I've written above? One suggestion I make is hunt down a copy of the complete DT Concordance by Robin Furth and read the the two intros for a better understanding of what I've written above.
One thing I think we can agree on is an observation she makes. It has to do with how sometimes fictional characters can nurse a real creator back to health, how fiction can sometimes save lives. In Mr. K's case, I'm definitely willing to believe that's true.
Like I say, what do you think?
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