A Fresh Journey to the Tower

The Dark Tower and other works of Stephen King.

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lucimay
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Post by lucimay »

i thought for sure he'd talked about knowing the ending when he first wrote Gunslinger a hundred years ago. i could be wrong about that.
i'll check in my books (altho i'm missing Drawing and Wastelands cause i've loaned them out to friends)...

a few minutes later...

well, i checked the afterwords of both versions of The Gunslinger and the last three books and i think you're right, Warmark. it may have been something in the afterward of the first edition of The Gunslinger that made me think that he had always known the ending.

or maybe it was just the ending itself. maybe i felt like i always knew how it would end, because...that's how i felt when i got there. it was like an "Aha! of course!" moment.
you're more advanced than a cockroach,
have you ever tried explaining yourself
to one of them?
~ alan bates, the mothman prophecies



i've had this with actors before, on the set,
where they get upset about the [size of my]
trailer, and i'm always like...take my trailer,
cause... i'm from Kentucky
and that's not what we brag about.
~ george clooney, inside the actor's studio



a straight edge for legends at
the fold - searching for our
lost cities of gold. burnt tar,
gravel pits. sixteen gears switch.
Haphazard Lucy strolls by.
~ dennis r wood ~
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Post by Cail »

Yeah, King didn't know the ending at the beginning, but there's no other way the story could've concluded.

Though I dearly wished I'd stopped when King told me to.
"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." - PJ O'Rourke
_____________
"Men and women range themselves into three classes or orders of intelligence; you can tell the lowest class by their habit of always talking about persons; the next by the fact that their habit is always to converse about things; the highest by their preference for the discussion of ideas." - Charles Stewart
_____________
"I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." - James Madison
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Post by Menolly »

About this stopping when King tells you to...

It strikes me as similar in concept to Annie being told to say '19' to the guy who gets reanimated in The Gunslinger?

Or am I totally misreading the intent of this 'epilogue before the Coda' thing in the last book? I am still a long way away from there, but it seems like an interesting similarity...
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Post by Cail »

Menolly wrote:It strikes me as similar in concept to Annie being told to say '19' to the guy who gets reanimated in The Gunslinger?
I don't remember that, it must be in the "new" Gunslinger.
"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." - PJ O'Rourke
_____________
"Men and women range themselves into three classes or orders of intelligence; you can tell the lowest class by their habit of always talking about persons; the next by the fact that their habit is always to converse about things; the highest by their preference for the discussion of ideas." - Charles Stewart
_____________
"I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." - James Madison
_____________
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Post by Menolly »

The edition I read is 'revised and expanded throughout.'

Sorry, not Annie, Allie...

On page 48 of the paperback edition, Nort hands Allie a note from Walter O'Dim that reads:
Allie

"How'd he know my name?" she asked Nort, and Nort only shook his head.
She opened it and read this:

You want to know about Death. I left him a word. That word is NINETEEN. If you say it to him his mind will be opened. He will tell you what lies beyond. He will tell you what he saw.
The word is NINETEEN.
Knowing will drive you mad.
But sooner or later you will ask.
You won't be able to help yourself.
Have a nice day! :)
Walter O'Dim
P.S. The word is NINETEEN.
You will try to forget but sooner or later it will come out of your mouth like vomit.
NINETEEN.
And then when the whole town turns on Roland, Allie is shouting that she finally said NINETEEN to Nort and she can't stand what she learned...
Last edited by Menolly on Sun Apr 08, 2007 1:50 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Post by Cail »

Gotcha. I bought it but never read it.
"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." - PJ O'Rourke
_____________
"Men and women range themselves into three classes or orders of intelligence; you can tell the lowest class by their habit of always talking about persons; the next by the fact that their habit is always to converse about things; the highest by their preference for the discussion of ideas." - Charles Stewart
_____________
"I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." - James Madison
_____________
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Post by Menolly »

So that whole thing wasn't in the original TGS?
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Post by Cail »

I believe the "19" was added after the fact. I haven't compared the two books, and it's been a while since I read it.

But luckily, someone else has....

www.thedarktower.net/gunslinger/index.php
"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." - PJ O'Rourke
_____________
"Men and women range themselves into three classes or orders of intelligence; you can tell the lowest class by their habit of always talking about persons; the next by the fact that their habit is always to converse about things; the highest by their preference for the discussion of ideas." - Charles Stewart
_____________
"I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." - James Madison
_____________
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Post by Avatar »

Yeah, King pulled a George Lucas on the original. personally, I find it sorta offensive. (More offensive than Lucas' own attempts in fact.) I won't be reading it as a matter of principle.

--A
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Post by lucimay »

well i read it. i had to just to see what he'd done.

i'd rather he hadn't. i like it that the tone of the books change from Gunslinger. i like The Gunslinger in its original form. as a writer i understand why he did it but as a reader, i wish he hadn't.
you're more advanced than a cockroach,
have you ever tried explaining yourself
to one of them?
~ alan bates, the mothman prophecies



i've had this with actors before, on the set,
where they get upset about the [size of my]
trailer, and i'm always like...take my trailer,
cause... i'm from Kentucky
and that's not what we brag about.
~ george clooney, inside the actor's studio



a straight edge for legends at
the fold - searching for our
lost cities of gold. burnt tar,
gravel pits. sixteen gears switch.
Haphazard Lucy strolls by.
~ dennis r wood ~
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Post by A Gunslinger »

I am such a geek that I loved the change.... it made the works as a collection work better.
"I use my gun whenever kindness fails"



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Post by Avatar »

Bah.

here's just something dishonest about it. "I hadn't made this up back then, so let me go and change it so it looks like I did."

Nah, TGS was raw. It shoulda stayed that way.

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Post by lucimay »

Avatar wrote:Bah.

here's just something dishonest about it. "I hadn't made this up back then, so let me go and change it so it looks like I did."

Nah, TGS was raw. It shoulda stayed that way.

--A
:goodpost:

i quite agree! :thumbsup:
you're more advanced than a cockroach,
have you ever tried explaining yourself
to one of them?
~ alan bates, the mothman prophecies



i've had this with actors before, on the set,
where they get upset about the [size of my]
trailer, and i'm always like...take my trailer,
cause... i'm from Kentucky
and that's not what we brag about.
~ george clooney, inside the actor's studio



a straight edge for legends at
the fold - searching for our
lost cities of gold. burnt tar,
gravel pits. sixteen gears switch.
Haphazard Lucy strolls by.
~ dennis r wood ~
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Post by Avatar »

(Your turn in the trivia thread.) ;)

--A
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Post by lucimay »

oh

heh


ok


be right there
you're more advanced than a cockroach,
have you ever tried explaining yourself
to one of them?
~ alan bates, the mothman prophecies



i've had this with actors before, on the set,
where they get upset about the [size of my]
trailer, and i'm always like...take my trailer,
cause... i'm from Kentucky
and that's not what we brag about.
~ george clooney, inside the actor's studio



a straight edge for legends at
the fold - searching for our
lost cities of gold. burnt tar,
gravel pits. sixteen gears switch.
Haphazard Lucy strolls by.
~ dennis r wood ~
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Post by A Gunslinger »

We agree to disagree. I love you fellow Tower geeks!
"I use my gun whenever kindness fails"



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Post by Menolly »

<--- doesn't know the difference as I haven't read the original except for possibly the original serialized first part in TMofF&SF.
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Post by Warmark »

I've never read the origonal version either, although all the stuff about Legion and the Beast would have been good if it had happened.
But if you're all about the destination, then take a fucking flight.
We're going nowhere slowly, but we're seeing all the sights.
And we're definitely going to hell, but we'll have all the best stories to tell.


Full of the heavens and time.
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Post by Menolly »

Avatar wrote:Bah.

here's just something dishonest about it. "I hadn't made this up back then, so let me go and change it so it looks like I did."
But, isn't that what he did with The Stand? And everyone seems to love the redone version.
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Post by lucimay »

NO. what he did in the stand was to put BACK stuff that had originally been edited out of The Stand.

what he did to The Gunslinger was to REVISE the story to make the language and some of the connections more closely match the tone of the rest of the series.
you're more advanced than a cockroach,
have you ever tried explaining yourself
to one of them?
~ alan bates, the mothman prophecies



i've had this with actors before, on the set,
where they get upset about the [size of my]
trailer, and i'm always like...take my trailer,
cause... i'm from Kentucky
and that's not what we brag about.
~ george clooney, inside the actor's studio



a straight edge for legends at
the fold - searching for our
lost cities of gold. burnt tar,
gravel pits. sixteen gears switch.
Haphazard Lucy strolls by.
~ dennis r wood ~
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