Original or Revised, if you HAD to choose

[Jack Mort]

Don't know if people are still talking here, but I have to go with the original. Here's why: When King wrote the original, all of the inconsistencies (internally, never mind the later books) of style shone through and made the book fascinating to read. The oddly poetic first person observations that Roland makes; the random switching of POV throughout; the extremely erratic allusions to Keystone Earth, the list goes on and on. The parts of Gunslinger that King leaves out are sometimes indications that King himself isn't sure where the story is going. It is like a homologous relationship between the writing and the reception of the book - we're discovering it together.

Not talking about nostalgia for my own experience of reading, necessarily. I suppose I mean that parts of The Gunslinger point to someone writing at a less mature stage, perhaps, but also to someone not nearly as shackled to specific a style. A King who (as he himself has said over and over again) hadn't yet experienced everything. King's passionate homage to several genres is part of the poetic style of the book, and that style is what I responded to as a young reader. These matters of style, even unintentionally inconsistent ones, are always more interesting to me... they give me more room to "insert" myself imaginatively into the story as a reader.... Does this make sense? Thoughts?