Kevin's Watch

I don't know ... that's why I don't try to write stories about dark towers.

People often claim that King's stories have disappointing endings. (I never really did.) If so, then in a way it's fitting that the Dark Tower, once you climb it, is a bit of a disappointment.

But I can't think of an ending that would be more satisfying AND stick to the metaphor he used.

Doesn't mean I hadn't hoped to find one.

So you can't imagine a better ending either.

It was...right. (I don't usually have a problem with his endings, although I know people who do.)

--A

Avatar wrote:So you can't imagine a better ending either.

Correct. But I won't take that as evidence that a better ending wasn't possible.

And it might very well be that the direction King chose made it impossible to have a better ending without violating his own story. That would be an intrinsic flaw in the story he was telling. Which doesn't decrease the disappointment.

hmmm... according to DT, King doesn't actually write his stories, he's only a channel for Gan. But when he completes his story, he gets the reward for it, which enables him to write more stories. And plausibly Gan becomes assured that he is a good channel for more stories. The end result of both of these is that the culmination of a story enables new stories. Similiarly for readers, when you finish a story, you begin a new one. The old story is put aside once it's over, in all cases. And, as we know, every story borrows something from other stories, as it's a shared universe of sorts (united by the Dark Tower), so certainly any new story King writes will have to somehow lift something from his earlier stories.

Therefore, I suppose a good and also valid ending to DT might have had the gunslinger emerge, somewhat superficially transformed, as a new character in a new story, where the quest for the dark tower takes on some other form.

Would that be a bit better?

Hmmm, I like that actually. Excellent idea.

--A

Avatar wrote:So you can't imagine a better ending either.

It was...right. (I don't usually have a problem with his endings, although I know people who do.)

--A

How about the same ending, just executed better? I could live with that.

Certainly I could too. Maybe "arrived at more elegantly."

But it's a subjective, subjective world. What's better?

--A

Then again, maybe a totally different ending where Roland battles the Crimson King (the scary version from Insomnia, not the little old guy chucking Harry Potter snitches) and defeats him using his wits and the relics of Arthur Eld?

And Mid-World regains the majesty it had before it "moved on"?

Dunno...the "happily ever after" style isn't really King...Ka is a wheel after all...

--A

A wheel implies turning, as in Roland restarting his quest over again as King wrote the ending. A wheel could also imply the glories of the past returning.

Sure, only to fall again inevitably.

--A