How did imagine Susan before you met her?

[cupofcoffee]

Haha, the more I think about this, it's kind of a weird answer—but here it is. Before I read The Gunslinger, I'd only heard little bits and pieces of Dark Tower trivia. I knew it was some kind of post apocalyptic spaghetti western fantasy quest, and that it involved a mysterious cowboy with a pair of long revolvers, a heroin addiction, a woman in a wheelchair, another that gets burned alive, and something about a monorail. I don't think I even really knew that Roland was the main character, but I imagined Susan to look like (and basically be) Karen Allen's character from Raiders of the Lost Ark. I thought she'd be around thirty, brunette, mouth like a sailor, dirty face but pretty blue eyes, putting away Lucky Strikes and blowing the heads off any mutant bandits that came too close. For some reason it was just the kind of character I envisioned fitting in well with the type of story I imagined the Dark Tower to be.

I didn't end up liking the real Susan as much as my mental image, sadly. I was disappointed that she and Roland crossed paths when they were so ridiculously young. It kind of lessens the idea of Roland's continuing grief—yes, it's heartbreaking what happened to Susan, but I find it kind of hard to believe that it's a thousand years later he's still in love with the girl he spent a few months fucking when he was a teenager.

[RolandLover]

Haha, the more I think about this, it's kind of a weird answer—but here it is. Before I read The Gunslinger, I'd only heard little bits and pieces of Dark Tower trivia. I knew it was some kind of post apocalyptic spaghetti western fantasy quest, and that it involved a mysterious cowboy with a pair of long revolvers, a heroin addiction, a woman in a wheelchair, another that gets burned alive, and something about a monorail. I don't think I even really knew that Roland was the main character, but I imagined Susan to look like (and basically be) Karen Allen's character from Raiders of the Lost Ark. I thought she'd be around thirty, brunette, mouth like a sailor, dirty face but pretty blue eyes, putting away Lucky Strikes and blowing the heads off any mutant bandits that came too close. For some reason it was just the kind of character I envisioned fitting in well with the type of story I imagined the Dark Tower to be.

I didn't end up liking the real Susan as much as my mental image, sadly. I was disappointed that she and Roland crossed paths when they were so ridiculously young. It kind of lessens the idea of Roland's continuing grief—yes, it's heartbreaking what happened to Susan, but I find it kind of hard to believe that it's a thousand years later he's still in love with the girl he spent a few months fucking when he was a teenager.

Your last paragraph pretty much sums it up for how I feel about Susan.

[Fyrehardt]

I didn't end up liking the real Susan as much as my mental image, sadly. I was disappointed that she and Roland crossed paths when they were so ridiculously young. It kind of lessens the idea of Roland's continuing grief—yes, it's heartbreaking what happened to Susan, but I find it kind of hard to believe that it's a thousand years later he's still in love with the girl he spent a few months fucking when he was a teenager.

(emphasis mine) You say true, I say thankya. I think Roland was/is more "in love" with the idea of Susan and being in love than he actually was/is in love with Susan herself. Her untimely demise got tied up into a whole lot of other drama, and I think that's why it still cut at Roland for so long. If Susan wasn't associated with the fight, the grapefruit, the matricide, etc, then he may have been able to let go more easily.