Drawing Of The Three Journal #4 : Things I Forgot

My D3 CD's

It's been years  since I read The Drawing Of The Three.  I'm pretty sure I read it several times in High School and College.  What better way to escape midterms and finals than to read Stephen King -- right?  That might also explain my first semester Greek grade.

As I read the book afresh, there are details I'd forgotten!  Here are a few:

1. I'd forgotten just how nasty Detta can be!  Wow, King really drives the point home with this character.

2. I forgot how leery Eddie and Odetta are of Roland when they first  come into his world.  The tension is great!  In fact, the tension that runs throughout the series is part of what makes the story interesting.  Know one of the reasons the prequel Star Wars movies didn't feel right?  I think it has to do with tension between the main characters.  Han and Luke were always at each other.  But in the prequels, there is not that light hearted jabbing.  King does a nice job letting his main characters take exception to one another.

Eddie doesn't trust Roland one bit, because he has perceived that Roland is a "tower junkie."  He will do anything, even sacrifice friends, in order to reach the Dark Tower.

3. I forgot that Roland basically kidnapped his Ka'tet.  They didn't join him!  Now, Roland gives Eddie a very good speech about his  potential that  would please any football  coach, but the truth is Eddie does not have a choice in the matter.  Roland is not  going to let Eddie go back!

4. I forgot that King played with the name of the last door.  It has a double meaning.  For Eddie, "The Pusher" makes him think at once of drugs.  He is filled with emotion over the discovery of this door.  However, Pusher actually means . . . something else.  The card the man in black revealed to Roland was "death."  We would expect the third door to coincide with the third card, but they seem mismatched until the story plays out.  The Pusher is death, since he pushes people.

5. I forgot just how sharp Eddie is right from the get go. Somehow I remembered  him being more spaced out by the drugs than actually is.  The guy is sharp, catching on to what's happening around him much quicker than other characters.  He's able to quickly adapt to strange new situations without coming unhinged.

On another note, I find myself a little stunned at King's work.  The Stephen King who wrote Drawing was a young man, yet  incredibly perceptive to the world around him.  He describes  things in ways I would never think of, and picks up on things in people's behavior that is right on.  As a young man he was a good writer because he had the perceptions of an old man.