Inside the Dark tower series : art, evil, and intertextuality in the Stephen King novels

201 Pages·2009·1.571 MB·English

by  King, Stephen, McAleer, Patrick, King, Stephen

Inside the
Dark Tower Series
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Inside the
Dark Tower Series
Art, Evil and Intertextuality
in the Stephen King Novels
PATRICK MCALEER
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina, and London
LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA
McAleer, Patrick, ¡980–
Inside the Dark towerseries : art, evil, and intertextuality
in the Stephen King novels / Patrick McAleer.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7864-3977-5
softcover : 50# alkaline paper
¡. King, Stephen, ¡947– —Criticism and interpretation.
2. Fantasy fiction, American—History and criticism. I. Title.
PS356¡.I483Z783 2009
8¡3'.54—dc22 2008052460
British Library cataloguing data are available
©2009 Patrick McAleer. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
Cover photographs ©2009 Shutterstock
Manufactured in the United States of America
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 6¡¡, Je›erson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
This book is dedicated to my folks, Lee and Denise.
Thanks for opening the door(s) for me.
Acknowledgments
THEBOOKCONTAINEDHEREINcould not have been accomplished alone.
And although there will certainly be many names I forget to include in
the following list of individuals to whom I owe a debt of gratitude, I do
extend a heart-felt thanks to everyone named hereafter (and those not
named who undoubtedly have been of help and inspiration). First, I
would like to thank Mary Findley who encouraged me to write this text
and connected me with the editors at McFarland. Mary, your influence,
guidance and friendship are treasured and valued more than you know.
Next, I thank my parents Lee and Denise, to whom this book is dedi-
cated, as they introduced me to the world of Stephen King as a child. I
also extend my appreciation to my friends Matt Campbell and Kim
Socha, whose support (and editing) has been invaluable. I would also
like to thank Tony Magistrale, who has been an excellent source of infor-
mation and scholarship on Stephen King as well as a very helpful col-
league. Thanks to my extended family, namely Candace Dunlop, Jennifer
McAleer, and Art Novosel, as well as my friends Joel McKinney and
Sandy Krenkel, is also given. Next, I would like to acknowledge all the
students who I have taught over the last several years as they not only
were subjected to, from time to time, my musings on King, but also pro-
vided insights and suggestions to me alongthe way. And I thank the many
friends, family members, and teachers who not only have been there for
me and have nurtured my interest in King in their own ways, but who
also have been a pleasure to know—while your names are too many to
list, I am sure that you know who you are.
vi
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments vi
Preface 1
Introduction—The Dark Tower:
A Literary Anomaly, an Experiment in Horror,
or a True Mark of Literature? 5
✦ CHAPTER 1 ✦
The Ending Is Only the Beginning:
Genre and Its Influence on Climax 27
✦ CHAPTER 2 ✦
Illustrating Imagination: The Infringement (and Evolution)
of Visual Elements in the Dark Tower Series
and The Gunslinger Born 71
✦ CHAPTER 3 ✦
The Face of Evil: Behind the Hood and
Under the Cowboy Hat 107
✦ CHAPTER 4 ✦
Repetition, Integration, Immersion, and Intertextuality:
A Tale of At Least Two Stories 137
Conclusion—“Time is a face on the water”: or
Will The Dark Tower Endure? 173
Works Cited 183
Index 189
vii
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Preface
ASSTEPHENKINGISCONSTANTLYtypecast as a horror writer, The Dark
Tower series seems to be a drastic departure for King’s Constant Reader
as well as those who have seen King’s films and have been swept up in
the horror label attributed to him. The discrepancy between King’s bet-
ter-known fiction and The Dark Tower instigates several questions,
including those which ask why King decided to write outside of his des-
ignated genre. The resulting initial reluctance from readers to approach
The Dark Tower, along with the harsh criticisms from book reviewers
and scholars, suggests that these texts hardly reflect King’s best writing.
And although King himself says, “I know—none better, alas—that it
[The Dark Tower] has not been entirely successful,” the perceived faults
of the series should not be seen as motive to either condemn the books
or avoid reading them (The Dark Tower 845). To the contrary, even
though The Dark Tower may not be King’s most representative work or
wholly indicative of the skill and craft observed in his other novels, it is
the cornerstone work for an oeuvre that consists of over forty novels and
hundreds of short stories. It is with this in mind that this book has been
written—not only does The Dark Tower call for attention and study as
the center of King’s fictional universe, but also with no purely scholarly-
oriented texts available on Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, the need
for a book like this is evident.
I became immersed in the world of The Dark Tower in the mid
1990s just before Wizard and Glass was published. While I am by no
means a fanatic of fantasy tales, I do consider myself a fan of story, and
King’s Dark Tower books certainly provide an abundance of story. Like
J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and Ursula LeGuin’s A Wizard of
Earthsea books, The Dark Tower immerses readers with a taste for the
expansive and even the epic, tales which focus on the imaginative and
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