Yes, great analysis, I just finished Revival yesterday! I got the impression that Jacobs didn't just want to find out about the other side, he wanted to try to control it while still alive, and that's why he was so obsessed(?)
Yes, great analysis, I just finished Revival yesterday! I got the impression that Jacobs didn't just want to find out about the other side, he wanted to try to control it while still alive, and that's why he was so obsessed(?)
"God punishes us for what we cannot imagine." - Stephen King, Duma Key
I think the possibility of seeing his wife and child again also had something to do with it.Originally Posted by goheat
John
I think there certainly was a concept of lost time and wanting a chance to, at the least, make reprimands for not taking advantage of the time we have on earth.
I think the possibility of seeing his wife and child again also had something to do with it.
John
I think he wanted to find out what happened to his wife and child, but at the same time he was arrogant and thought he could control the 'secret lightning' and control the afterlife. He thought he was smarter than everyone else, and equal to God.
I think we are missing a very important thing about the ending: Charles Jacobs cured Jamie´s brother at the beginning of the story, and at the end, he was part of the suicidal command that was ´cured´ by the electrical (dark) force. That means that Charles Jacobs had that evil curiosity even before his family died (He used Jamie´s brother as guinea pig. He was evil from the beginning).
Bar e vs. power e
I think there is a mistake from the King himself. Maybe he's not a guitar player? Jamie says several times in the book that rock is based on bar e, but that's idiotic. You could say it's based on p o w e r - e, ie. e5. Misunderstanding in research perhaps?
A lot of rock is in e and a lot of rock is played with power chords. And once you can do power e and power a, and b,
you can do a simple rock groove (and blues as well). But to say that you have rock covered by learning b a r r e - e, that's very strange. It's of course possible but who does that?
So I recently did a re-listen to this book. I have to reiterate how much I like 99% of this book and the wonderful character development and telling Jamie's life story.
As far as the ending goes, after really pondering it and thinking on this, I do believe he missed the mark with the ending. Originally it really disturbed me. But being able to put some time between the first reveal and now that changed.
I think there was real promise in the idea of a door between the two that was locked, and should stay locked. And opening that door let Mother into our world. Almost a "Pet Semetary" kind of thing where the person coming through wasn't an angel, but a demon and a big baddie. Instead of getting a glimpse into the afterlife through the key hole, Mother could have come through with the promise of an apocalypse. Maybe.
But the actual reveal of giant ants and crazy colors and enslaved humans kinda went over the top. It was too much Freddy Kruger, and not enough Omen.
Still a fantastic novel, imo. I always find these books/movies/tv shows that cover long periods of a person's life very interesting and they tend to make me introspective on my own life.
I agree with you on that ending. I remember finishing it and thinking "what the fuck is up with the giant ants?!" It seemed out of place somehow.
I agree. I really loved the book up until the ending. It was just so different from the rest of the book, and seemed out of place to me.
Only the gentle are ever really strong.
Amanda.
But I agree with you all. The end was definitely creepy, but a little jarring in that it was so different than the rest of the book. Plus, if I'm remembering right, the ending with the reveal you mentioned wasn't ver long. Just a handful of pages. I think it would've been better had King expanded on it a little more.
A NEW GAME BEGINS
Look, with all the King books we've read, if we finish a story and think it's weird, then it's weird.
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