Dichotomy...

I finished the final tale of my Dark Tower books last night. I've been putting it off for a couple months now and the truth is that I just didn't want it to end. Of course I wanted to find out what happens, but knowing that means that there is nothing left to learn about Mr. Deschain and his cadre of gunslingers, and that's kind of depressing. So against my better judgement I started reading the last 130 pages last night around 11. I was hoping Emily would be home before 12 and would call to interrupt me, but no such luck. Instead, I just kept on reading because once you start that last section, you can't put it down. It would be like putting away Lord of the Rings after the ghost army led by Aragorn defeats the enemy at Minas Tirith and never finding out if Frodo and Sam succeed in destroying the one ring. You can't read a little bit and then not read further, not when Roland is only 100 wheels from the Tower. So when I found myself standing in a field of roses at the base of the Dark Tower at 2 am, watching the ghostwood door slam shut behind Roland, I was not in the least bit shocked. I simply cannot put down a book this close to the end when it's this good. As expected, nearly everyone in his party dies, except Susannah which I found a little odd, but I guess someone needed to have a fulfilling enough ending (or beginning) besides the Artist. Stephen King says in his afterword that there is no such thing as a happy ending because an ending is sad by virtue of its nature, and it is the journey that it worth reading about. Although I agree with the latter, I do believe in happy endings, and contrary to Mr. King's assertion, I think the Dark Tower series has a happy ending. Yes, of course I am sad that my favorite story is now over, that there is an ending at all. But Susannah is reunited with Jake and Eddie, who are now brothers, in a different world. Roland finally reaches the summit of the Tower (again). The Crimson King is defeated (if not destroyed). Roland names Jake as his chosen son over Mordred. Was I surprised by the ending? Not so much actually. Ka is, after all, a wheel. And the fact that Roland has potentially changed his destiny (and thus the worlds' destinys) by picking up the Horn of Eld after his friends fall on Jericho Hill is indeed a happy ending. When I first picked up The Gunslinger 10 years ago, I had no idea that almost 4000 pages later, this is how it would end, with the same characters weaving their way through the tapestry of Roland's long life, and pulling together roughly half of Stephen King's other works into a nice neat package. It was a good ending, and a fitting one, to an epic tale and to a career. Enjoy your retirement Mr. King, and thank you for the stories. And if you know where I can get a fiercly loyal friend, pet, and traveling companion like Oy, please let me know.

Posted by Rev. Adam on Thursday, February 17, 2005 at 9:43 AM | Permalink