Better late than - oh, wait. NEVER MIND.

[d_aulnoy]

I've just finished The Dark Tower.

My first thought is, he lied in every word: or, more bluntly put, ass.

Years of back-of-the-head curiosity, for this?  As my newly favorite and most maltreated character would say ... oy.

Comments

[davekirtley.livejournal.com]

> My first thought is, he lied in every word

I see what you did there.

Browning, FTW.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Did you dislike both endings?

Honestly, I had been wondering for three or four books how the hell he expected to end the series, given the premise of the story. While I'm not sure I would call either ending satisfying, per se, I think any satisfying ending would have been inescapably trite. I think both endings were interesting, and I'll be honest: I can't really think of anything better.

But that's what happens when the goal of the quest is the World Axis itself. I mean, there is no good way to end that.

[belecrivain.livejournal.com]

I thought Ending #1 was pretty stupid (especially the reference to Reagan) and Ending #2 halfway decent, although the whole berating-the-reader-for-wanting-an-ending preface came off as childish.

[d-aulnoy.livejournal.com]

Browning is MADE of win. And, damnit, Browning implies an actual CONCLUSION to the quest!

Wah.

Hey, P.S. - You in town over Thanksgiving?

[d-aulnoy.livejournal.com]

Ending #1 struck me as a giant cop-out: first, he kills our favorite characters, but ... not really ... and then, of all people, he has *S.* quit with the end in sight? The hell?!?

Ending #2 struck me as a cheat, plain and simple ... a blind-siding, half-nostalgic, half hellacious cheat. Argh - must remember to write more on this once I've got my brain back at the end of the term

[d-aulnoy.livejournal.com]

There are ways and ways: for example, I think _The Talisman_ was a more successful take on the same story, in a lot of ways. These don't bug me because they're unsatisfying (though they are): it's more the complete and total rug-pulled-out-feeling that comes when you realize that he's written it so that none of their sacrifices *matter*, in one way in ending 1, and in a whole 'nother way in ending 2. And, for that matter, neither does yours as the reader ....

[davekirtley.livejournal.com]

> You in town over Thanksgiving?

No, I'm going to visit relatives in Ventura.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

It's been long enough since I read it that I remember my reactions but not the reason for them, so don't ask me to back this up. But I remember feeling thusly.

The Dark Tower that can be entered is not the Dark Tower, so ending #1 was a good ending. I'm not sure what it would have been like were E and S still with Roland -- certainly interesting; possibly better -- and I will freely admit that crowbar-ing them out of the plot was ill-done. But aside from that, I liked ending #1, and think it was the right choice to make.

Ending #2 . . . makes the most sense when seen on a meta level. I don't know The Talisman, but it seems to me there is NOTHING he could have shown inside the Dark Tower that wouldn't make me feel cheated, and probably cheated worse than what he did write. It's the nature of the beast. So the Dark Tower can't be a destination; instead it flings you back out again. And while from one philosophical point of view that means their sacrifices don't matter, from another, I'd disagree; the journey matters, not the destination, and their sacrifices shape that journey. Those choices matter, every time they make them.