Page 10 of 13
Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2007 11:40 am
by Cail
Your gripe has been repeated by nearly everyone who's read the series.
Oh how I wonder if that was what he originally had in mind.
Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2007 12:15 pm
by A Gunslinger
Menolly wrote:So...
I didn't bring Song of Susannah with me on our road trip, as I get very car sick if I attempt to read while riding and I figured we wouldn't have time for me to read when we stopped. I just now finished Roland and Eddie's visit to Stephen King as portrayed in this book. It makes sense in the context of the story, but...well...it still strikes me as really egotistical.
Absolutely and utterly bizzar, even if all things do serve the Beam. I hope the story carries me away again. For me, this rankled...
It does break the "4th wall" a bit, that is for sure. One thing I'll give King is credit for not only daring to be so egocentric, but also to write himslef as something of a feckless worm.
Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2007 1:21 pm
by Menolly
I have not read anything regarding the series outside of the series itself and what is posted here. Has King ever said if he did really have an experience as a seven year old that he drew upon to jump off of for claiming to be the Gan in this series?
Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2007 5:08 pm
by Menolly
*musing, feel free to ignore*
Why does King refer to himself as Gan? Does anyone know the word in another language? As a Jew, I instantly associate it with Gan Eden, the Garden of Eden. I am sure most are familiar with the Judeo-Chr-stian story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
But kabbalah says more about Gan Eden. It is sometimes used as a name for heaven, other times used to denote "the" most pure spiritual place to attain through meditation, as being the purest place Man can attain. Since the world in which Roland and Eddie is supposed to be the "real" one, could King have chosen the Hebrew allusion of pure when he chose Gan for himself? Literally it translates as "garden" or "fenced," but mystically it implies much more...
:::nearly finished with Song of Susannah. She's currently inside The Dixie Pig:::
*edit*
Just finished, including the Pages from a Writer's Journal at the end. It always surprises me how there are so many similarities in both words and the definitions of those words themselves between Western and Eastern mysticism. The truth is the truth world wide. It has only been revealed with different faces...
Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007 2:54 am
by Menolly
Oy vey...
Insomnia is huge...
Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007 6:35 am
by Avatar
Uh, as far as I remember, he doesn't call himself Gan.
--A
Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007 12:03 pm
by Menolly
Avatar wrote:Uh, as far as I remember, he doesn't call himself Gan.
:::shaking head vigorously:::
He
does. Or else I am
entirely misreading this passage.
While hypnotised by Roland...
In [i][u]Song of Susannah[/i][/u] Stephen King wrote:
Roland laughed at that--the dry sound of a stick broken over a knee. "Do you know what you are?"
King shook his head. His lower lip had pooched out like a sultry child.
"Do you know what you are?"
"The father first. The husband second. The writer third. Then the brother. After brotherhood I am silent. Okay?"
“No. Not oh-Kay. Do you know what you are?”
A long pause. “No. I told you all I can. Stop asking me.”
“I’ll stop when you speak true. Do you know—”
“Yes, all right, I know what you’re getting at. Satisfied?”
“Not yet. Tell me what—”
“I’m Gan, or possessed by Gan, I don’t know which, maybe there’s no difference.” King began to cry. His tears were silent and horrible. “But it’s not Dis, I turned aside from Dis, I repudiate Dis, and that should be enough but it’s not, ka is never satisfied, greedy old ka, that’s what she said, isn’t it? What Susan Delgado said before you killed her, or I killed her, or Gan killed her. ‘Greedy old ka, how I hate it.’ Regardless of who killed her, I made her say that, I, for I hate it, so I do. I buck against ka’s goad, and will until the day I go into the clearing at the end of the path.”
It goes on, but that’s the gist of it…
Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007 1:01 pm
by Avatar
Menolly wrote:
“I’m Gan, or possessed by Gan…
*shrug*
--A
Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007 1:25 pm
by Menolly
I don’t know which, maybe there’s no difference.”
Hmph...I guess I am feeling contrary...
I know, y'all have finished the series already, so perhaps things are dealt with later that will make more sense out of this. But at
this point of where I'm at, it's the only interpretation I see.
Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2007 4:30 am
by Avatar
Maybe there's no difference.
Maybe there is...
--A
Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2007 1:05 pm
by Menolly
:::I should
know better than to attempt to get contrary with the 'tank master:::
OK, OK, OK. Forget everything I said...
Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2007 3:39 pm
by Menolly
Man, oh man, oh man.
It's been what, four days and I'm only up to page 58 of Insomnia. This is going to take forever. Especially as I have decided to put it aside this weekend to read a new book...
...that is, if I can get the new book...
Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2007 5:23 pm
by Cail
Insomnia is a long, and at times, difficult read. I think it's just a wonderful story.
Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2007 5:38 pm
by Menolly
Despite being long and difficult?
I have made some headway this afternoon. I gritted my teeth and plowed on. Up to page 130. Only 657 pages to go...
*sigh*
Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2007 5:48 pm
by Cail
It reminds me a lot of Wizard and Glass, or the other way around, I think Insomnia came first. The first time I read WaG, I hated it, thought it meandered around too much, and didn't have a point. Because I'd already read Insomnia, I stuck with it, and was rewarded with King's best story.
It's a solid book that you'll appreciate when you're done, and I think it'll grow on you when you think back to it. I've thoroughly enjoyed it with every re-read.
Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2007 6:32 pm
by Menolly
Thanks Cail.
How did you know I needed encouragement to keep going? I was honestly thinking of putting it aside for longer than it would take me to read HP:DH this weekend...
Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2007 9:01 pm
by Cail
A lot of people really slammed Insomnia when it came out. I guess I'm a fan of underdogs, but I just kept plowing through it.
It is tough, but it's one of the very few books that I'll actively encourage people to read (and finish).
Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 6:59 am
by Avatar
Say what? I loved Insomnia...never struggled for an instant with it. (Maybe enamoured by the...hallucinogenic quality of it.
)
--A
Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 1:49 pm
by Menolly
Just now getting to the uber-reality aspects, Av. Up to then, it's been tough for me.
Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 1:57 pm
by Cail
Now I'm really jonesing to read it again.
I want to go up with Ralph again.