12-29-2005, 04:02 AM
>I love the entire series, and over time I've been able to forgive or forget some of the major blunders of the story. Many people hated the ending, but I thought it was perfect and powerful ("flamePoster(Zippyy)").
Possible spoilers:
I don't like everything in the series either, (I think he went a bit overboard with the pop references) but I think I have to give King credit for even trying to do, at least what I think he tried to do. On one level it is just a pulp mish mash story, albeit with a killer opening line to me. On another, it's all about obsession, addiction, love and it's power to redeem.
I liked this interpretation I read from another reader. Unfortunately I lost the link and have to badly paraphrase: Roland might be trying to save the tower, but it's really the Tower trying to save him. Like the Browning poem, it's entirely possible the landscape is actually a mirror of what is in Roland's heart and mind. The tower will always be turned away from him if he doesn't reclaim his soul. Seen in this light, the tower is not just a malevolent force out to punish Roland. It's trying to teach him how to love again through the Ka-Tet. Because then and only then can he truly reach the Tower, 'save' the world, and gain peace. It's not about the Tower Roland, it's about the Ka-Tet ya dummy.
Now first I was slightly pissed off with the thing about 'stop reading after this point and go do something else. You might not like what you find if you continue' part. I still think it was a fairly huge gamble to basically try to say if you continue, you might not be that different from Roland. Personally, I think it's not meant so much to be a 'choose your own adventure' type of ending. My interpretation is Roland is both the author and the reader, not literally of course. But the compulsion to reach the end is the same.
How successfully he pulled that off is entirely up to the audience. I can understand how some people wants a kick ass story about a bad ass cowboy knight, guns ablazing on a quest to reach a mysterious dark tower. Getting a sermon about it's all about the journey and not the destination might not be their immediate cup of tea.
I cried twice while reading the last book. Once at the ending. People who have read it can probably guess the other part.
Heh unfortunately I can't guess, but I did get choked up a bit when Oy said bye to Jake, with the way he speaks it has more than just that meaning.