I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.
-- Martin Luther King, Jr.
KingMidget's Ramblings
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Maybe I Shouldn’t Waste My Time
Posted by on May 27, 2017
A week ago, I posted about getting sucked back into Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. After publishing that post, I sat down with the first book in the series and had it finished twenty-four hours later. I decided to move on to the second book.
There’s an intriguing thing going on. Now that I know how the series ends, I can see things he’s doing …
well …
I guess I have to do this.
[Spoiler Alert]
If you don’t want to know the ending to the Dark Tower series, read no further.
You’ve been warned.
Last chance.
So, after seven books and thousands of pages, the Dark Tower series ends in a reveal that the entire thing, the whole story, the whole universe created in the books, is entirely in the writer’s head. Which I get — that’s the truth of any piece of fiction. But after seven books of the gunslinger looking for the Dark Tower, he reaches it only for the creator of the story to snatch it away from him and … start the quest for the Dark Tower all over again.
The fascinating thing about this is what it says about the writer’s curse. I think that’s really what the series is about. We writers never stop our own search for the Dark Tower. We never stop sending our characters out there in search of that something. That answer to everything.
The thing is when I read somebody else’s story, particularly one that goes on for seven books, that cannot possibly be the ending. Roland needed to find the Dark Tower and the story needed to end.
The problem now is that I’m halfway through book two and it is just plodding along with so much detail, so much back story (I mean seriously, there’s more back story than there is actual story going on). I don’t know how much more I can take.
KingMidget's Ramblings 
Stop reading and move over to something else (reading should not be a chore, you know?). Hope you’re all having a happy holiday weekend. P.S. Didn’t have time to comment to your previous post but I don’t like musicals, either. They feel fake to me. I feel almost embarrassed when people suddenly start singing in the middle of a scene. P.S.S. When I go to concerts with my partner, I take my Kindle and read because I simply cannot just sit and listen to music without becoming restless. It’s a good solution. He gets my company and I get to enjoy a good book for a few hours.
I agree. I should move on to something else. Got any suggestions? Your last round of ideas worked out well.
Regarding musicals … I like movies and plays where the story and acting are so good that you forget you’re watching actors act. That’ll never happen with a musical.
Ugh, knowing that ending I definitely won’t read the series. Endings like that drive me crazy. Seems like such a cheat. Like I wasted my time, somehow.
That’s exactly why I was so outraged at the ending. It felt like all of that time had been wasted on a monumental ego trip for the author.
Bummer. Wanted to finish your post but also might read the series some day. Well, I was here. Sort of.
Glad you didn’t read the rest of my post then. Let me know if you ever do read the series. I’ll be curious to hear what you thought of it.
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