Re: The Gunslinger - Initial Thoughts
Gene Poole
> On 3/23/2011 15:45 PM, Trevor wrote:
>> On 3/22/2011 6:47 PM, Francis A. Miniter wrote:
>>> On 3/22/2011 15:36 PM, Trevor wrote:
>>>> On 3/21/2011 12:09 PM, Francis A. Miniter wrote:
>>>>> I just finished this first stage of The Dark Tower series.
>>>>
>>>> Which version of the book did you read? The original, or the
>>>> rewrite that was done to make it fit the end of the series?
>>>> (I actually prefer the original.)
>>>>
>>>> - Trevor
>>>
>>> The rewrite. I have not yet found a copy of the original.
>>> But, being a
>>> book collector, I will keep looking until I do. What
>>> changes were made
>>> to make it fit?
>>>
>>
>> It's good to find another collector. :)
>>
>> Any edition before 2003 will have the original text. The
>> biggest addition I remember is Roland's rape by the demon
>> (which turns out to be quite important later).
>>
>> But the entire thing was rewritten, which is too bad because
>> I prefer the style of the original (which King thought was
>> too amateurish, as I recall).
>>
>> - Trevor
>
>
> As luck would have it, today I found the original version - just the
> first Plume trade paper from 1988. I see the first hardcover edition,
> Grant, 1982, goes for $750 to $7,500.
>
>
The original, IMHO, is vastly superior to the revised edition...and I
think it's terrible to go back and revise previous work. Even if it
doesn't fit, even if there are things that, looking back, one would have
liked to have had the foresight to include, I don't support that kind
of...well...revisionist doctrine.
But that's just me.
I have a trade paperback copy with Michael Whelan's artwork, and of all
of the DT series, the first is my favourite. King seemed to have been
going for a different style, a different plot, in the original. I know
he says now that he had the entire plot laid out from the beginning, but
as he was writing episodically for magazine submissions at the time...I
don't believe he had such grand designs and details laid out right from
the beginning.
A perfect example, to me, was the Rose. in the initial novel, it was a
symbol, just seemed to imply another reality, an alternate universe, in
which our entire universe is contained within a single atom. It was
significant...but didn't seem like it was intended to have the whole
universe centre around it.
In later novels, suddenly it became integral to the plot, but going by
the initial novel, the Gunslinger, it didn't seem that this was the end
goal.
I think I've digressed.
The first edition of The Gunslinger was much better. This, I believe to
be true.
Francis A. Miniter
I will have to go back and read the original version.
It did occur to me when I read the introduction to the
revision that King was emulating Tolkien in more ways than
the one stated way - that he wished to write the great
American fantasy novel. Tolkien also went back and edited
The Lord of the Rings, so that in 1965 the Revised edition
came out and in 1966 the Second Revised edition was
published. Perhaps, King went through the same sort of
reanalysis of his work that Tolkien did.
--
Francis A. Miniter
Mesure is Medicine þauh þou muche ȝeor[n]e.
Al nis not good to þe gost þat þe bodi lykeþ,
Ne lyflode to þe licam þat leof is to þe soule.
William Langland, The Vision of Piers Plowman
Passus I, lines 33 - 35
Trevor
I think his constant notes in the early books warning us that the series
may never be finished, and that if it does, Roland may not be there, are
pretty good clues that he didn't really know where it was heading.
- Trevor