Category: literature

literature

The King in NY!

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This is why Erik Neu is part of my ka-tet – he bought me a ticket to this event while I was away on my honeymoon:

Conversations with Charlie Rose: Stephen King. Boo-ya! In my old hood no less – I’m beyond psyched, I need to invent a word to describe how I feel…

Here is some background info provided by the 92nd St Y web site:

The most anticipated book in Stephen King’s career, The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower is the final installment to the best-selling author’s epic series. The end to a saga hailed as a “hypnotic blend of suspense and sentimentality – a sprawling, eventful tale of demons, monsters, narrow escapes, and magic portals” (The New York Times Book Review), The Dark Tower promises to be the most exciting publishing event of the year. Stephen King is the recipient of the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.

If you’d like to buy tickets, they are unbelievably still available so click here and get some tix!

literature

The Dark Tower V Commala poems

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When Roland danced at the town meeting place in Calla Bryne Sturgis:
Come-come-commala
Rice come a-alla
I-sissa ‘ay a-bralla
Dey come a-folla
Down come a-rivva
Or-i-za we kivva
Rice be a green-o
See all we seen-o
See-o the green-o
Come-come-commala!
Come-come-commala
Rice come a-falla
Deep inna walla
Grass come-commala
Under the sky-o
Grass green n high-o
Girl n her fella
Lie down togetha
They slippy ‘ay slide-o
Under ‘ay sky-o
Come-come-commala
Rice come a-falla!

When Andy was leading the town’s children down the street before the great battle:
ANDY
Commala-come-one!
Mamma hada a son
Dass-a time ‘at Daddy
Had d’mos’ fun!
CHORUS
Commala-come-come!
Daddy had one
Dass-a time ‘at Mommy
Had d’mos’ fun!

literature

Dark Tower Release Dates

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From news@stephenking.com:

“Due to popular demand, the US publication schedule for release of Song of Susannah and The Dark Tower have been moved ahead. The on-sale date for Song of Susannah will now be June 8, 2004 and The Dark Tower will be available September 21, 2004.”

I have only two words – Yeah baby!

literature

Books versus Movies

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My fiance sits on the couch finishing Return of the King as I sit typing at the computer. Having just come from Stephen King’s web site, having just watched a number of DT inspired short films and having made plans to watch The Two Towers on DVD tonight, I feel the need to reaffirm why I love books tremendously more than movies. Mr. King himself said it better than I can, at least right now, so I will lift what he wrote from the FAQ section of his site in response (it was in response to the question “Are you going to make a Dark Tower Movie?”):

“I’ve always resisted that idea because movies have a way of freezing characters and places in the audience’s mind whereas in books everybody has their own different idea of, for instance, how Roland or Susannah looks but if you do it as a movie, immediately that kind of gets frozen in place and you say ‘Oh, Billy Bob Thornton is what Roland Deschain looks like.’ Or you say ‘Brad Pitt, that’s what Eddie Dean looks like.’ You know what I’m saying, or you can say ‘Calla Bryn Sturgis from Wolves of the Calla looks like maybe the Universal back lot’, and I’ve always resisted that.”

‘Nuff said for now…

literature

Long Live The King

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The Tower draws nearer! This past Sunday I read a new introduction to The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three while in a Costco of all places. Stephen King wrote in it about how he wanted to create a Tolkien-like saga in a Sergio Leone movie landscape (think Lord of the Rings set in “The Good, The Bad & the Ugly”) and I immediately and gleefully starting thinking, “Yes! I knew it! I knew it!” He wrote about what motivated him, way back when, to write this series and what is driving him now to finish it. Yes, finish it. Over the next year and a half, expect bold new things from Mr. King!

First things first – Books V, VI and VII of the Dark Tower series have been named and slated for delivery. The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla will arrive in stores on November 5th, 2003. The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah, will arrive in store in the Summer of 2004 and The Dark Tower VII, The Dark Tower, will arrive in November, 2004. It also seems that Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger has been updated to make it more in-line with the other books. Supposedly there is now 10% more content than the previous edition. Speaking of previous editions, new introductions have been written for all the first four books.

Second, at Stephen King’s web site there is a section completely devoted to the Dark Tower. Click here to go check out either a short flash movie or enter the site itself. Overall, it’s a really well done flash site – definitely one deserving to be associated with The Dark Tower.

Third, I learned from George about this book entitled The Dark Tower: A Concordance, Volume 1. It is a comprehensive handbook for all things Mid-World (characters, high speech phrases, etc) from the first four books. Volume 2, published when Dark Tower V comes out this November, will cover the last three books. While my reading load is currently backed up by a couple of books, I will need to buy this ASAP. I think pretty soon I’m going to need a new bookcase.

literature

Thoughts on NY

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From the ruins, lonely & as inexplicable as the sphinx, rose the Empire State Building. And just as it had been a tradition of mine to climb to the plaza roof to take leave of the beautiful city, extending as far as the eyes could reach, so now I went to the roof of the last & most magnificent of towers. Then I understood. Everything was explained. I had discovered the crowning error of the city; it’s Pandora’s box. Full of vanity, pride, the New Yorker had climbed here and seen with dismay what he had never suspected. That the city was not the endless succession of canyons that he had supposed, but that it had limits, fading out into the country on all sides into an expanse of green and blue that alone was limitless. And with the awful realization that New York was a city after all and not a universe, the while shining edifice that he had reared in his imagination came crashing to the ground. That was the gift that Alfred Smith gave to the citizens of New York.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, excerpt from My Lost City