tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3917612005522287441.post5016055853810735988..comments2023-12-18T23:20:31.042-06:00Comments on Scriblerus Club: The Book of Other Worlds: Childe Rowland (1976).PrisonerNumber6http://www.blogger.com/profile/03156430802462353459noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3917612005522287441.post-2374565052436125982022-04-04T19:32:50.336-05:002022-04-04T19:32:50.336-05:00(1) It's interesting about the process side of...(1) It's interesting about the process side of things. Tolkien once wrote a letter to his son, outlining a rough sketch for where the story of Lord of the Rings was going to go. Then he makes a very insightful bit of observation:<br /><br />"It will probably work out very differently from this plan when it really gets written, as the thing seems to write itself once I get going, as if the truth comes out then, only imperfectly glimpsed in the preliminary sketch ("Letters", 104)".<br /><br />So the picture the writer gives of his own process seems doubled-edged. He might like to rely on what King calls "plotting", yet his actual practice, by his own admission, seems to fall more in line with what King says in the rest of "On Writing".<br /><br />(3) More's the pity.<br /><br />(4) That one is really just the result a long, slow realization about the way certain words, or names can shift in spelling and pronunciation over time. Based on the original Olde English, or possibly Welsh, Merlin could have been an ealry variant on the name Mervyn, or Mervin to give the name its current modern spelling. It's just an insight that's too comedic to not mention.<br /><br />I mean imagine what it means to know the worlds most famous wizard can go by the name of Merv the Magician. It just casts him on a whole other light. Then again, it also probably doesn't help to realize you can also call him Merl.<br /><br />(5) It's the best assessment I can arrive at, I'm afraid.<br /><br />(6) Just barely, I'm told its about time travel (of a sorts?) to a pocket dimension containing an alternate version of an old university astronomy tower, which looks normal on the keystone world of the protagonist, but which takes on sinister associations in the alternate world. You know what, who knows. Maybe I just detailed another source of inspiration for King.<br /><br />(7) Well, I guess that's the one thing all the variants have in common. The ending are a bit less than satisfactory to most readers, and it probably needs more work than its ever likely to get. Add that up, and you get is irony.<br /><br />(8) Interesting question. I almost want to say the next person to try and tackle the concept should try and go back to the original folktale, and see if its possible to flesh it out into a more complete form. Like, I didn't notice any major retellings or fresh imaginings with this one, in the same way as we've been getting with other fairy tales such as "The Frog Prince", "Cinderella", and the like. Maybe it's time Roland and his brood had their turn. I guess the real question for such a hypothetical re-telling is this. Should the Tower be allowed to stand in this version, or just let it fall?<br /><br />(9) Something tells the idea will occur to someone else somewhere down the line.<br /><br />(10) Thanks. Believe it or not, I just finished using a work of King's to help explain another story by someone else. It's kind of whacked-out as well. Stay tuned, if you want.<br /><br />ChrisC<br /> PrisonerNumber6https://www.blogger.com/profile/03156430802462353459noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3917612005522287441.post-66522039379379174022022-04-04T02:25:46.997-05:002022-04-04T02:25:46.997-05:00(1) "I've always been able to see the wa...(1) "I've always been able to see the ways in which Tolkien has impacted King's work to the point where there can be times (especially in his best work) where King almost seems to be copying the old Oxford professor without even trying." -- I don't think Tolkien's influence on King can be disputed; it's impossible to discuss his work fully without "Rings" coming up eventually.<br /><br />That said, they're incredibly different writers from a process standpoint, and that's interesting to me. All things considered, I'm glad that Tolkien did as much planning as he did, and I'm glad King did as much intuitively as he has. I think it served them both well to just be who they wanted to be in that regard. It served us all pretty well in both cases!<br /><br />(2) "If you've only seen this gonzo Western on your television screen, you don't understand what I'm talking about - cry your pardon, but it's true." -- And it remains true even as big as tvs are nearly twenty years later. Any great-looking movie is going to look ten times better in a quality cinema.<br /><br />(3) "It's the kind of exercise that won't matter to anyone else except English Majors, and King fans." -- And maybe only to King-fan English majors!<br /><br />(4) "Some called him Maerlyn the Wise. Although he was also known as Merwyn, or Mervyn." -- Oh-ho, indeed? I'd been wondering whether it was at all likely that King would have ever encountered this pre-Browning Roland tale, but now...?<br /><br />(5) "What I mean is that while I'm not sure King succeeded in the goals he may have had for the series, the broken fragments he leaves us with are still able to fascinate because of how well most of them point toward a sense of greater concepts and ideas that the writer seems to be struggling with." -- I think that's a fair assessment. It wouldn't be mine, but it's very fair.<br /><br />(6) I've never read (nor know much of anything about) C.S. Lewis's "The Dark Tower," but its existence popped into my mind while reading this. Do you have any familiarity with it?<br /><br />(7) I don't how I feel about the ennd of ol' Burd Ellen's tale. On the one hand, there's not much to it. On the other hand, it doesn't involve a dude who looks like Santa Claus being drawn/erased out of existence by a tongueless dude who's tired of having grenades shucked at him, so there's that. Then, too, it sounds as if this version of the Childe Ro(w)land story plays as much like a moral for kids as anything else. Teaching them ... not to wun around a church in the wrong direction? Sure, why not? Can't hurt to do it correctly, I suppose.<br /><br />(8) If King's version is merely the newest in a lineage of Rolands and Towers, then it makes me wonder: what course should the next version take? The likeliest answer is that there won't be one anytime soon, simply because of the nature of media and storytelling consumption. But in a way, it almost becomes an argument for the story-changing weirdness of the movie being okay. Either way, I'd guess that it's King's version which will now be canonized as THE version of the Roland story for a long while. Adaptations might shift it a bit; but even those will be seen as being essentially beholden to King.<br /><br />Almost seems like a shame!<br /><br />(9) "The curious part is how even this doesn't entirely obscure the original well spring." -- If the issue at the heart of the matter really is Inspiration, then this absolutely tracks.<br /><br />(10) Great work here, Chris!Bryant Burnettehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01189356171455609865noreply@blogger.com