I love Stephen King.
Yup, i'm one of those.
Maybe because i read his work as a kid (early high-school counts as 'a kid' right?) and he has become one of the standards of fantastical narrative i have jostling around my fur-laden brainpan, but whatever the reasons are, various and soundry that they be, i i know that i love the man's work.
What of it i know, that is.
I read enough (The Stand, Carrie, Shining, Salem's Lot, and others) that when i discovered the first volume of the culminating opus that is his Dark Tower story, The Gunslinger, it's called, i was already so commited to his style of writing that the fantastical setting and apocalyptic tone of the novel…well it sucked me right it.
Before that i had been filling my head with the high flying epics of pulp Fantasy and young adult sci-fi: i went from young adult D&D adaptations to the heart wrenching danse macabre of Mr. King's nightmare brain with nary a Dean Koontz transition period to be found.
I started with Thinner, moved on to Carrie and then dove straight into the unabridged copy of The Stand.
That's the trap with becoming a fan of a famous novelist after he/she/they have achieved their fame; the re-prints, the un-abridgements, the marginalia of a prolific author's career becomes available and begins to muddy a dedicated reader's experience of what is Good with what is Available.
Harry Potter fans may know what i mean with all the journals and side project bullcrap that blossomed up around the original content like so many terdy mushrooms (says the presumptuous prick who never bothered reading them) but i only mention this as a semi-segway into my point; Stephen King worked for me as well as he did for various reasons, but not the least of which was an introduction into the Continuity of his work.
Most stories that i'd read as a kid were all multi-volume series.
As a fun introduction into the geeky pulp that influenced my reading childhood, here's a list!
(in no particular order cause who can remember that far back)
The Dragonlance Quadrilogy (with an embarassing array of the aforementioned fringe contributions to the continuity)
The Dark Elf Trilogy (the retroactive prequel to the Icewind Dale Trilogy)
The Dark Sword Trilogy
The Death Gate Novels
The Discworld Series
Dealing With/Talking With/'Doing Something to' Dragons series
The Earthsea Novels
The Ender Novels
The Alvin Maker Novels
The Narnia Books
The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy five part Trilogy
Harry Potter
…
Yeah, that's about the tip of that little iceberg.
Anyway, i only list off all this bookshelf pissing contest content to contextualize where i was coming from as a reader; i Craved the continuity of a multi-installment series because it's what i knew, it's what i know.
I'll rarely read in a one-off novel what i can read in a series.
Game of Thrones, anyone?
So, when i was skimming through a used book store and found a near mint-condition copy of a thesis paper styled Deconstruction of The Dark Tower's relationship to king's standing body of work…
Well, needless to say, i was like a kid in a horrific candy store.
At this point i'd engrossed myself in a modest crossection of Mr. King's work while also absorbing whatever 'Tower works were available
If i hadn't already been an enthusiastic lover of the books, i would've become one quick enough with the presentation of a mystery adventurer's opportunity to scour his canon for references and suggestions of relationship with the Tower.
Except i didn't.
I finished the tower books my sophmore year of college, nearly wept at the conclusion, was baffled at the Coda, and then stopped.
I listened to a couple audio books as much for the quality as performance over the next couple years, but after the crescendo of publication Mr. King put out around the conclusion of his 'Tower series
(seriously, he let out the 4th book in '97 and didn't put out number the Fifth until '03 at which point he released the 6th and 7th Both in '04; man was Workin it in the early aught-ies)
i think i just needed a break.
And now i'm back.
Yes, that's right, you read through all of that to hear me talk about 'It'
The Pronoun that would be King.
I bring up the far-reaching wierdness of King's canon because what my investment in it has done is made the reading (or, in this case, listening to) of 'It' the fun cross-section/dissection i'd always hoped to have.
Suddenly, i'm getting references that i might not have got, perhaps even expereincing thematic and motificated (shut up, i make up words) prototypes of images that appear in the Tower itself.
Certainly, we get an introduction to a character that gets something of a cameo in the latter pages of the final (well, it was the final, until recently; it looks like he's crapping out another book this year. Yes, i will read it. No, i'm not happy about it.) book.
But then the cynicism shows up, and i'm not sure how much of that series wasn't just self-referential pandering and lip service!
So i listen, i geek a the words i recognize and the allusions being made to the conventions that i know will soon receive more definition in books to come, and i just wait for jake to read the damn books.
Oh, by the way, Jake and i are listening to the audio of It together.
That's all.
Story over.
now, get back to your life and let me think of something of substance to write about.
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