Day 29 : The Drawing Of The Three - Book Review

This is book two of the seven part epic fantasy series - DARK TOWER, written by the always-amazing Stephen King.

This book  follows the gunslinger in this pursuit of the all-important Tower. In the previous book we find our hero, Roland Deschain, has finally caught up with the Man in Black and has learnt the secretes of time and space and how The Tower itself is in the center of it all. We learn how 'he who holds the Tower, controls the future/past of the world'. The gunslinger's world has moved on. The things he has loved and cherished is nothing but a distant memory, he is the last of his kind. All he has now is his ka, his destiny, to reach the Tower and defeat the Crimson King. At the very end of his palaver with the Man in Black, the priest tells Roland of the three draws he's been granted. He will have to choose three companions, or ka-tet, that would ride with him during this voyage.

The beginning of the book is quite gritty and dry as any western imaginable. And to add to it quite dark and violent. In the end of which our hero looses three fingers and is poisoned by the venom of huge lobster-like creatures. Now he is weak, thirsty and all he can see for miles is just the dry sand, salty sea and hot sun. Still he drags on, towards the north, for some reason always north. He remembers the palaver with the Man in  Black in the dusty priest's robe. He remembers all of the knowledge he's gained from him. Roland also remembers how even the he wouldn't talk of the Crimson King. How even he seemed nervous to talk about him. All the more reasons for Roland to draw from the three doors that would come his way.

The doors are like a magical windows that opens into another time and somehow always into the same place. New York City. Our hero is tasked with going to their world and draw one person from there to join him on his quest.

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Door #1 - The Prisoner 

When the Man in Black, draws the tarot card for the prisoner, Roland sees a man with a baboon riding on his back. The baboon whips like a slave and the man himself is strong and lanky but nonetheless helpless and chained. When Roland walks through the door, he finds the true prison this man has chained himself to. HEROIN. This man's name is Eddie Dean and he is an addict. The gunslinger walks into his mind, takes control of him. And somehow during the turn of events help each other, him by helping him rescue his equally addict elder brother. And for Roland by getting him the much needed medicine from Eddie's world. In the end, Eddie , the lean and lanky and intelligent addict begins to trust the gunslinger and agrees to join him in his adventure. Just because, he has lost call cause to return to his city, his world. There is nothing waiting for him back there, but another fix, and his own destruction.

Door #2 - The Lady Of Shadows

The second tarot card the Man in Black shows Roland is of a woman. A strong-willed, no nonsense woman who is brave and just and kind in equal measure. When the gunslinger walks into this door and into her mind, he finds himself in a deeper confusion than ever before. When he entered the prisoner's mind, there was shock and confusion and the hunger for another fix. Here too there was confusion and fear, but also a lot of hate. And in measures that did not seem to come from one complete mind. There seemed to two sets of personalities living in this one body. Detta Walker and Odetta Holmes. Alongwith a handicapped body, for the Lady was did not have any legs. She was strong and brave and cruel and smart. But was short two limbs. Roland liked her nonetheless, and decides he cannot proceed in his quest without earning the loyalty of her. And he does earn it in the end, before nearly killing himself.

Door #3 - The Pusher

The final tarot card the Man in Black shows him is of the Reaper. 'Death, but not for you, gunslinger' That is what the priest told him tauntingly. The Crimson King was surely not done with him just yet. When he walks into the third and final door, he returns to the same city New York, only into a more recent time to that of the Lady and of the kid he'd met during the first book - Jake. He loved Jake. He was like a son to him. And this guy behind the third door Jack Mort, a serial killer, the same one that 'pushes' the kid in front of a Cadillac. And also the same one that caused the destruction Lady's mind and loss of her two legs. Jack Mort has by far impacted more to Roland's fledgling ka-tet than anything else thus far. Roland doesn't appreciate that too much.

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At the end of the book. Roland has finally assembled his posse and is now prepared to continue his quest for the Dark Tower. Sure he is short a few fingers, short of resources, short of bullets, is dying of poison spreading up his arm towards his heart. But now, he has the companions he's drawn from the other worlds. He is not alone now after a really long while.

Day 25 : A World That Has Moved On

As mentioned in my previous post here I had just started on the epic Dark Tower series of fantasy books by Stephen King. It is an amazing tale, and is already becoming by favorite fantasy series of all time (Harry Potter will always be 'the one' for me yet. Can't help there, I grew up with it.)

This post is not really for showering praises on the Tower. That would probably come later. This here is regarding a specific phrase that sees repeated use in the book.

"The World Has Moved On"

This phrase is used by the hero in the book show how everything around him has been bespoiled and corrupted. The world is not what he knew once. None of the purity and innocence survives now. He is the only one that survives from the old world. And all that he has are memories of the times gone by. Sure, all this sounds very poetic and artistic and fantastical. How does this mean anything to anyone not reading this book. Well it does.

The world that we live in and the world that is depicted in the book, is not that different. We all have that something that has now firmly placed in the past. Something that is dear to us and now exists only in the past. All we can do is go back to those memories now and then and mournfully think of how things were. That is morose yes, on a personal level yes. But then when you come to think of it on a grander scale. Everything has moved on. The world we see now what our forefathers witnessed, nor would be what our children would live in. The world moves on. Nothing is constant, everything is fleeting. We get used to something in life, and soon we see it evolve into something else, or something take its place.

Sometimes it maybe a good thing. To welcome something new into our lives, we must say goodbye to something else. Our destinies are shaped by the choices that we make to change/better our lives. Or by not choosing to make those changes. But changes will happen, either you choose to make them happen, or they happen to you. The world has a tendency to not stay fixed to your needs or desires. It is a river that flows on, that moves on to deeper valleys. Most of these valleys are deep in sorrows, but now and then they raise to unfathomable heights and take you along with it.

Our destiny is not what you see. It is much beyond our own comprehension. It is not that next promotion, or that six digit salary, or that unattainable lover. Our destiny, our ka, reaches further than all of that. And most of our lives we never really understand what it is ourselves. Most of us know more about the sum total of our lives after we've passed on. We are remembered by the memories we leave behind of us. That is the only world where we survive eternally.

Memories have longer shelf life than anything else that we can create in a life time. I don't suppose there aren't anyone anymore who knows what the heroes in all of those legends and fables look like. But they survive still. Their memories survived ages even after their descendants withered away. This world is theirs too now, even though their doesn't exist any more. That is what I hope for. A world of mine that hasn't moved on yet.

For, my friend, there are other worlds than these.