August 30, 2010
Childe Roland (spoilers abound)
Andrew over at Wongablog has just finished reading the Dark Tower, and typed up his thoughts here – it’s a terrific introduction to the series, and well worth reading for a spoiler-free grounding that’ll help explain what the hell I’m on about in this post. I thought it might be a good way of bringing this blog out of retirement to write something of my own about it. Beware, however; unlike Andrew’s post, the following is riddled with SPOILERS, and written for those that have finished the series. It ends ‘So overall, it’s brilliant – read it.” This is good advice.
Among that subset of the population that has slogged through the entire Dark Tower series, I don’t think I’m alone in saying that part of me wishes Stephen King had never finished it.
Firstly, even King at his absolute best could never have followed through on the promise of the early instalments – not in terms of quality, but literally in terms of what was promised. I remember when I was about 12 (ok, 16. Ok, fine, 20) and thought I could write a novel. Chapter one (I don’t believe in dicking around with scene-setting or character building; when I write something, shit gets real, fast) contained a line about the greatest secret of the universe, one so mind-buggeringly devastating that all who discovered it would prefer death over living with such appalling knowledge. Clearly, I hadn’t a clue what this secret might be, or how it might factor in to whatever story I was trying (incredibly badly) to tell, but at the time it seemed that the way to hook the reader was to promise earth-shattering revelations regardless of the ability to deliver.
The early instalments of the Dark Tower do something similar. The promise of unimaginable battles beneath a far distant tower in a blood-red field of roses, of a struggle between titanic, dimension-straddling forces, a final showdown between a ragged bunch of human gunslingers and an immortal Great Evil, with the very existence of reality at stake – such talk is cheap. Following through is much tougher, and King is somewhat notorious for failing to bring his tales to a satisfying end (there are a number of exceptions, for example The Stand, Pet Semetary). It might have been better to leave our imaginations to fill in the blanks, to leave Roland’s quest unfulfilled. More appropriate, even, given the story’s ‘endless journey’ structure. The actual ending was always going to be more prosaic than that early, achingly romantic prose suggested. In a coda towards the end of the seventh book, King writes of those who demand to know what happens when Roland reaches the Dark Tower: “you are the grim, goal-orientated ones who will not believe that the joy is in the journey rather than the destination”. He has a point, but if he really believed that then perhaps he shouldn’t have been in such a rush to finish the series.
Which brings me to my second point – he really shouldn’t have been in such a rush to finish the series. The first book was written when he was 19, and you get the impression that each of the next three followed naturally, whenever inspiration struck. Then some tool named Bryan Smith cleared him up one day while he was out for a walk, which inspired him to rattle off the last three books in quick time lest it remain unfinished.
Andrew considers the last three books a tour de force, and apparently it was book five that got him hooked. For myself, books five and six are worth reading only because they’re necessary components of the larger story – I believe Wolves of the Calla is easily the worst of the series – and book seven is only a partial return to form. I have re-read the first four books a lot, but never bothered with the last three even a second time. In this AV Club review of the final book, Robinson says “It’s easy to wonder how the series might have concluded had the accident not forced major health issues and the specter of imminent mortality into King’s life”. It’s not just easy, it’s also frustrating. Book five introduces entirely new dialogue quirks for the main characters – it seems to be a hangover from the Hambry dialect of Wizard and Glass’s flashback sections – and some meaningless guff about the number 19 and ‘going todash’. Some random – and jarring – Harry Potter and Fantastic Four references are thrown into the mix, characters from old King novels crop up seemingly because he’s realised that this series defines his entire career and so it’s worth crowbarring these survivors into the narrative and then, worst of all, King introduces himself into the story and things get seriously metaphysical. It’s a matter of personal taste, I suppose, but I didn’t like it. He even includes the Bryan Smith episode as a crucial point in the story, which was clearly not part of his long-term Dark Tower plans prior to the accident (King maintains he has no long term plans when he writes, so this is probably unfair).
The last three books are also run through with some of the writing quirks King has picked up in his later career; stuff like “that would be the last time they saw him alive”, or “you’re not going to like what happens next”. In his introduction to King’s short story collection Night Shift, John D. MacDonald – paraphrasing here, I haven’t got the book to hand – talks about author intrusion and “look at me, ma, no hands!” writing, how easily it destroys the suspension of disbelief, and how King never falls prey to it. Showy, clever-clever writing trickery, be it ever so fine, never fails to remind you that you’re reading a book, and what Stephen King is normally so brilliant at is being invisible. His stories seem to enter your brain without you registering that they’ve come via words on a page – J.K. Rowling is also good at this, and anyone who sneers at her ‘workman-like’ prose can piss right off – and unfortunately, the latter Dark Tower books don’t have that quality to the same extent as his earlier work. This might be due to the self-aware, metaphysical twist the plot has taken, but he pulls the same stuff in pretty much every book these days.
The first book in the series, The Gunslinger, is hard going, being the work of a 19 year old who didn’t really know what he was about. I’ve just stuck the boot into the last three books in the series. And yet, after Andrew finished The Gunslinger, I told him that “things are about to get good, and I mean ‘possibly King’s best EVAR’ good”, and I stand by that. The story itself, whilst never living up to its impossible promise, is still fantastic. The world it takes place in is complex and rich, drenched in myth and mystery. The characters are fascinating and flawed, developing in a believable and satisfying way. Moreover, books two, three and four are among the best stuff King has ever done. The plotting in The Drawing of the Three, in particular, blows me away, so intricate and yet coherent it’s like a magic trick. And the flashback section in Wizard and Glass might just be my favourite piece of King writing of all time.
So overall, it’s brilliant – read it.
Andrew said,
August 31, 2010 at 4:01 pm
I can agree with much of that. I didn’t mind the final three books as much, but the quirks and oddities were certainly niggly.
Inserting himself into the book was an interesting decision. I agree that it jarred, but I think he *just* got away with it by being clever. As you said – the language quirks and the self-aware writing style *just about* fall out of that idea of the Dark Tower being a story he is receiving, rather than telling. It’s close, and I agree that it probably would have been better without, but at least it made a kind of sense. Shame if he’s doing the same stuff in other stories, though.
The numerology and weird todash stuff never made any sense, though. But I was basically willing to overlook those things because I found the story compelling. I also put a high premium on things being unexpected (well, up to a point, anyway), and I certainly didn’t know where it was going. Eddie’s death maybe, but Jake’s was a complete surprise (and, actually, holy shit). I kept thinking I’d figured it out, only to have it all overturned a few pages on. I was *sure* Jake and Oy had swapped bodies while Roland wasn’t there – it was all set up earlier in the book – and it all made sense…except not. Hmph.
Plus, the moment where Susannah finds the lifesaving note from Stephen King was utterly insane. In a good way. I mean, it actually made sense. Which is ridiculous. And you only get to pull that trick once in your career. But still. Quite liked that.
I was more bothered by the magic pencil kid at the end. I mean, he could have at least have foreshadowed that somewhere. I’d like to have seen a bloodbath in the roses, with whatever remaining gunslingers fighting an impossible army of vampires / slow mutants / whatever – and probably only Roland making it through. The previous books had already had three large-scale attack plans by Roland that had basically gone according to plan (with Eddie’s death only happening afterwards). A proper all-out everything’s-gone-to-hell suicide run wouldn’t have gone amiss. But I suppose that would have been too obvious. Still better than magic pencil kid, though.
(hmm – bit detailed. Sorry – nobody else to talk to about these plot points!)
Ben said,
August 31, 2010 at 8:37 pm
Yes, Jake’s death and the note to Susannah were both good moments. I also really liked how Roland’s first glimpse of the tower is a blurry polaroid, it gives such a sense of finally entering the end game – the tower is actually just over the next hill, and we’re going to get to see it!
I could have accepted the metaphysics and the introduction of King as character if there had been any kind of hint or foreshadowing in the first four books, but it really feels like a mid-series handbrake turn, from a relatively straightforward(!) story to something much tricksier, and I think that’s what jars.
Have you read Insomnia? It’s not one of his better ones but it’s referenced in DT7, and magic pencil kid makes (ever so slightly) more sense if you’ve read it. It also manages to contribute to the anti-climactic feeling of the Dark Tower’s ending, but if you’ve not read it I’ll say no more for fear of spoilers.
Andrew said,
September 1, 2010 at 11:57 am
The polaroid was definitely cool
Yeah, the break is very obvious. Even before it’s alluded to in the text, I think it’s pretty clear something else is going on.
Haven’t read Insomnia – will certainly look it up. Promised myself I was allowed to finish The Dark Tower as long as I didn’t read any more fiction till my dissertation is finished, though. Grrr.