Kas-Ka Gan

[arrawyn]

( A thread for discussing Stephen King as a character within the DT series - Edit by Darkthoughts)

So, i'm just about finished SoS (well still 200 pages but)... i just wanted to ask this question Stephen King writing himself into the plot of his own story.... corny/stupid? or cool. ... or just too weird?

I still don't know what I think about it...

[Brice]

I liked it. I think quite a few people didn't though.

[Empath of the White]

I was very wary of it at first--I was afraid King would just give his characters whatever they needed right on the spot. As it turned out, he was a pain in the ass to the ka-tet. In retrospect, it adds some degree of realism to contrast with the fantastic elements of the novels. I think it was well done. Right off the top of my head, I can't recall any reason being given as to WHY the ka-tet needed to save King, or why the CK wanted King as his own scribe...this is something I feel needed to be addressed further.

Or maybe its just time for another stroll through All-World.:cowboy:

(It was complaints about this very thing, and Mordred, that drew me into the series. I thought to myself "there's no way the books can be THAT bad." Turns out they're in my top 3 listing of fantasy series now.)

[Sickrose]

I liked it but I like meta stuff. It removed a layer between me and The world of tghe Dark tower and made it seem that much more real.

[Letti]

First it terrified me. Then I realised it was as cool as possible. But I needed some time for that.

[DoctorDodge]

I thought it fitted well. It blended the realism and the fantasy just right, which really shows how good a writer Stephen King is: if he hadn't written it so well, it would've been as jarring to the series as Letti's signature!

[pathoftheturtle]

corny/stupid?Yes. Very.
...or cool. ...Yes. In a way.
... or just too weird?Yes. Basically.
...I still don't know what I think about it...Yes. *sigh* Tell me about it.

[fernandito]

I liked it. I think quite a few people didn't though.

I'm one of them. I thought it was very corny, and a little distracting ... but I rolled my eyes and kept on reading, for the sake of the story,

[Girlystevedave]

I liked it. SK has talked about what a big impact DT had on his own life, especially the break he took from finishing the sory. I thought it was cool how he brought the "real world" into the story. Afterall, it's been a part of my world since I read the series.
Hell, there have been plenty of days when I wished to find a door like Jake did. :lol:

[Jean]

First it terrified me. Then I realised it was as cool as possible. But I needed some time for that.
Right. It took me some time too to realize it was necessary given the development of the story and the structure of the multiverse it offers.

[Savvy]

cheesy beans

[disel24]

The first time I read through the last three books I hated it. However I will say this, I waited I don't know how many years between IV and V to be released (I got it as a first edition Grant when IV came out and waited and waited...) and the series grew into something HUGE in my mind, nothing short of Roland reaching through the book and pulling me into would have satisfied that mindset.

Now, years later I'm reading through again and 1/3 of the way through 7... it makes sense. More importantly as already stated it adds realism to the book. Meta is very hit or miss and the way that King did it, in my estimation, was good. Interesting, but even the explination made sense to me. Well at least NOW it does.

[arrawyn]

now that i've recently finished all the books, I think I like it more than not. I do think he did it well integrating himself into the story line for the sake of the plot because of the nature of the story and the plot itself. Interesting to say the least. and as many have stated, it brings Roland's world closer to our 'real word' (IF our world is the real world! LOL :rofl:

[Delacroix]

I just hate it. I really dislike authors integrating themselves in their own books.

Plus I dont' really like how the story is going so far (I've jsut started VII)...

The only good thing is he draws a fair protrait of himself...

[arrawyn]

i personally found VII a lot weirder than the other stories (but i know SK writes weird stuff anyways) which i kinda didn't like too much but i still LOVE the whole series so I can forgive the things that i thought a bit too weird....

In the book 7 i have at the end (i'm sure it's the same in all of them) he talks about why he put himself in the books and also that the portrait of himself is similar to how he is (or was at the age he was in the story), but not totally)

[WeDealInLead]

Who created Roland's world? Gan or Stephen King, the character in the book? If Gan created Roland's world, how does SK the character get to send his own Deux Ex Machina against Dandelo? SK the character sends characters from his other books to Roland's world on a whim. Did he create a paralel reality and wrote its history? If Gan really did create everything, why does SK get to manipulate it?

[pathoftheturtle]

All people have different abilities for manipulating reality, but I don't think that proves that there is no God. Indeed, the human capacity for artistic creation tends to imply to me that something supernatural did precede our existence. Isn't the question that you should be asking, "If SK created Roland's world, then where did he get the power to do that?"

[WeDealInLead]

I'd say the answer is (real) SK's ego and pressure to finish all of the books.

I'm not saying there is or isn't God in our and Roland's world. I'm wondering if this was an oversight of (real) SK? Maybe he created the entire parallel reality and than it took on its own life somehow?

[pathoftheturtle]

It is an interesting question. He (the character) says plainly that he's not Gan, that he's an instrument. He's getting information about what to write from the beam, from the song of the turtle. Yet I've wondered, if what he does is basically recording things which are happening already before he writes them, then why exactly is it so important for the ultimate success of Roland's quest that SK be in fact able to write about it?

[Letti]

For me SK is "just" a very powerful protector of the Beams and the Dark Tower. He can make things happen when he writes about them just like Patrick can do the same with his drawings.


(I have changed the title of the thread so that it can get more attention.)

[alinda]

I think , you'r all right. Letti, your mind is a wonder.

[Jean]

Yes. It is.

[Brice]

Stephen King created (by story at least) Gan who King endowed with the capacity to create the rest. Then Gan chose (not really) to create King so he could create Gan (and thus everything else...including King) ...ad infinitum.

[WeDealInLead]

I just find the whole inclusion of SK in the books a cop out... and a major ego trip. Seriously.. it's his 'magnus opus', was it necessary to write about yourself in the book?

[mystima]

I guess you could say that you saw it coming when the book collector sent his collection through the "door" to Roland's world. Almost all the books were SK books. That is just how I see it...take care


tip toes out of thread.

[Letti]

I guess you could say that you saw it coming when the book collector sent his collection through the "door" to Roland's world. Almost all the books were SK books. That is just how I see it...take care


tip toes out of thread.

I have never thought about it this way before. :D

Well, King has some self-confidence, that's it. ;)

[johnnyonthespot1]

I started reading the DT series for the first time about six months ago, and I just now finished reading the "Stanza" in Song of Susannah called "The Writer," where King shows up in the flesh. I must say that I am not digging the whole Stephen-King-as-a-character/creator concept at all. Especially since he admits that he has no idea where the tale is going and has "lost the outline" for the story.

This really seems to kick the dramatic legs out from under the series, just like the silly sneetches, lightsabers and Dr. Doom "wolves" that showed up in DT5 did.

That being said, I am really enjoying the action and fast pace of Song of Susannah and am very anxious to see where everything is headed. I am especially enjoying the Mia/Susannah story, and finally getting to see a little bit of the creepy lands that lie beyond Calla Bryn Sturgis.

Now, back to reading... I plan on finishing SoS today!

[Merlin1958]

With other writer's I would've thought it cheap and easy, but all in I thought King pulled it off in the context of the story. Now, having said that, you may have issues with the overall story, but I thought he did it pretty well.

[Robert Fulman]

No need to spoiler earlier books, right? I think that the development in Song of Susannah is a logical outcome of what was set up in Wolves of the Calla: the Sneetches, laser swords, Pere Callahan, and Calvin's book shelf. I think that is all supported by the introduction of the Wizard of Oz stuff from Wizard and Glass. (It irks me when people compain about books V through VII, as if this idea wasn't introduced earlier in the series). In book three, there was Shardik the Bear (I know that wasn't from a SK book). I honestly can't think of any examples from Drawing, but the Gunslinger has the granddaddy of them all: "There are other worlds than these." Roland's world was always separate from ours, but closely related. We know we live a different world than he does, but once travel between the worlds is established, is what happened in SoS really so outrageous? I vote "no".

But I also vote "corny", as if that were a bad thing.

[susannah-mio]

i loved it!! i thought it was a really good twist that makes the story feel more real

[Darkthoughts]

I think it's an interesting question.

For the purpose of the story I think that we are to suppose that whilst King writes the stories, he does not create the characters, rather he channels them. What it would seem that Gan has given him is the power to manipulate the turn of events the characters take, by way of creating certain choices when he writes their stories.

[Darkthoughts]

I found a lot of these SK/Gan/SK as a character type threads around the Mid World forums, so I've merged and renamed ;)