The Dark Tower 1: The Gunslinger by Stephen King

 

Wednesday: I read this book a long time ago. Don't remember much about it other than that it wasn't very compelling, nor was it easy going. Nevertheless, I read the next book in the series and started the third...and then pooped out. 

But I've thought about The Dark Tower series off and on, and when I found out that Stephen King had revised the first book I decided I would read it. The library had a copy (of course...it's Stephen Fucking King, after all) and I got it and brought it home. And despite the fact that I have my eyes in many other books right now, I opened it up and started to read. 

It was a bit of a grind at first. A man alone in the desert isn't that interesting...not even with Stephen King behind it. But I read on, and before I knew it I was closing the book at page 88 to go to bed. 

Thursday: And the next day I was at the library to pick up some stuff, and since I, like Paul Simon, can read the writing on the wall...

Ready for love...oh, baby, I'm ready for love....

After reading for awhile around page 130) it hit me why the first part of this book was a bit of a drag: no dialogue. Stephen King's greatest talent is character development, and you get a lot of that through dialogue. Maybe he should write a play.

With that (☝) thought in mind I Googled "has Stephen king ever written a play?" They came up with Ghost Brothers of Darkland County which, coincidentally, I just bought myself for my birthday.   Haven't gotten around to listening to it yet, but now I suppose I will have to, won't I?

And oh! I am really slow today. I just looked at the picture I posted of Dark Tower 2 and 3 and for the first time noticed that they fit together as one picture. Maybe I should cut down on the Gummies.

Read to page 218 today. Kind of wanted to finish it off, but that would be ridiculous, wouldn't it? BTW, also today I drove Joe to work, went grocery shopping, picked Joe up, took him to the bank, brought him home. A few minutes later took him to the library where we met his brother, and I went into the library with my granddaughter, played with her for about 45 minutes, drove Joe back to his apartment, came back here. And fixed dinner.  Also, somewhere in the earlier part of all this I rode my stationary bike for 30 minutes. So it's not like I was sitting on my ass reading all day. Stephen King is just very compelling-- even when he's not at his best. Though I admit that my disdain for this book has decreased quite a bit. I don't know if the rewrite was that extensive or if something in me has changed, but this seems like a pretty good book to me now.

While I was at the library with my granddaughter, I decided I should pick this up:

Yes, yes, I know. And yes, I have seen it before. You don't really understand OCD, do you? (Can't even tell you how much I wanted that set of Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction issues starting with October 1978.) *

* 

11:20 pm. Couldn't sleep. So I finished the book.

"...he was lonely but did not find loneliness in any way a bad or ignoble thing." (300)

Guess I'll be starting Book 2 tomorrow. Not going to read it in two days, though.

Stoned Thought #3

Maybe it's just me, but I'm thinking that writers are people who are so nervous about interactions in the world that they run practice scenarios and dialogues in their heads on a regular basis. Some of those end up as (or in) stories.

DDR: In the Spirit of Crazy Horse by Peter Matthiessen

Big book...xli + 646 = 687 pages. And tiny  letters...probably 1 1/2 pages' worth of words on every page. Dare I eat this 🍑?

I don't know. But I'm going to take a bite.

Day 1 (DDRD 3,257) October 4, 2026

Read to page 2.

"Let's not walk on the moon, then fail to understand what this creation is all about. This is life, this is beautiful, everything is the way it should be." (xxxviii)

Day 2 (DDRD 3,258) October 5, 2026

Only read to page 17. Not for lack of interest,  though.

I was pretty thrilled to find out that Peter Matthiessen had written a book about Leonard Peltier. I'd seen the documentary Incident at Oglala (1992) and read Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance (with a Great Books class to boot), so I was a bit familiar with Peltier's "case," but I was ready for more.

Day 3 (DDRD 3,259) October 6, 2026

Read to page 47.

Going through the "background" material has been very painful. It's just stunning and psinful to think how the Indians were treated. It makes me want to do something...but I have no idea what.

"I hate all the white people. You are thieves and liars. You have taken away our land and made us outcasts." (Sitting Bull, quoted by Dee Brown in Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee page 607.)

Which makes me think...maybe Trump is the quintessential American president: a thief, a liar, a rapist, a fool. Is that who we are?

I fear that it is so.

Toward the end of today's reading, Leonard Peltier came into the story. The pages before his entry were just horrifying. The Indians were treated so terribly, so mercilessly.  It's shameful. 

Day 4 (DDRD 3,260) October 7, 2026

Read to page 77.

Check out this video: "I Hate the White Man" by Roy Harper https://share.google/ben753zwBpjLFYUmj

Day 5 (DDRD 3,261) October 8, 2026

Read to page 107. Leonard Peltier has stepped out of the picture, but the heinous treatment of the Indians continues: people are beaten to death, children are raped, and the land is plundered. So shameful. It also becomes apparent how important AIM was for the American Indians. Their presence altered outcomes in many important cases.

Day 6 (DDRD 3,262) October 9, 2026

Read to page 137.

2 Years of the Rosary

Today is Anniversary Day: no missed days in two years. Although there were a few getting up out of bed just as I was falling asleeps, some those gummies are kicking in and I'm really going to have to CONCENtrates, and such likes. 

But I've enjoyed the daily twenty minute meditations. I'm going to do my best to keep at it every day.

For one thing, it gives me a chance to think about my family, my friends, people I know who have suffered from tragedies, people I don't like...as I pair each of the 53 Hail Mary beads with a person in one of the four aforementioned categories. It is an interesting bifurcation, focusing on both the rosary and a person I know simultaneously. 

H. P. Lovecraft

I wanted to see if this poignant line

"writing alone will allow me to endure the final mockeries of living"

was really written by H. P. Lovecraft...or if Romuald Giulivo (writer) + Mercedes Gilliom (translator) had written it in the letter attributed to Lovecraft (writing to Robert E. Howard) in The Last Days of H. P. Lovecraft.

So I " " -ed it and guess what? No results found. I did get this unsolicited AI advice, though:

Thanks fot lurking out for me, AI.