I'm sending the cross dog to your house in the middle of the night when your sleeping so he can rip out your throat.
I'm sending the cross dog to your house in the middle of the night when your sleeping so he can rip out your throat.
"It's his eyes, Roland thought. They were wide and terrible, the eyes of a dragon in human form" - Roland seeing the Crimson King for the first time.
"When the King comes and the Tower falls, sai, all such pretty things as yours will be broken. Then there will be darkness and nothing but the howl of Discordia and the cries of the can toi" - From Song of Susannah
can he deepthroat me first?
"So many vows. They make you swear and swear. Defend the King, obey the King, obey your father, protect the innocent, defend the weak. But what if your father despises the King? What if the King massacres the innocent? It's too much. No matter what you do, you're forsaking one vow or another."
"It's his eyes, Roland thought. They were wide and terrible, the eyes of a dragon in human form" - Roland seeing the Crimson King for the first time.
"When the King comes and the Tower falls, sai, all such pretty things as yours will be broken. Then there will be darkness and nothing but the howl of Discordia and the cries of the can toi" - From Song of Susannah
no, I don't want the CK special, ty very much.
"So many vows. They make you swear and swear. Defend the King, obey the King, obey your father, protect the innocent, defend the weak. But what if your father despises the King? What if the King massacres the innocent? It's too much. No matter what you do, you're forsaking one vow or another."
This thread has gone terribly wrong.
allhail posted in it, what did ya expect?
"So many vows. They make you swear and swear. Defend the King, obey the King, obey your father, protect the innocent, defend the weak. But what if your father despises the King? What if the King massacres the innocent? It's too much. No matter what you do, you're forsaking one vow or another."
whatever Monte expected, what I expect now is this thread to go back to the topic
Ask not what bears can do for you, but what you can do for bears. (razz)
When one is in agreement with bears one is always correct. (mae)
bears are back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
sowwy
"So many vows. They make you swear and swear. Defend the King, obey the King, obey your father, protect the innocent, defend the weak. But what if your father despises the King? What if the King massacres the innocent? It's too much. No matter what you do, you're forsaking one vow or another."
Ask not what bears can do for you, but what you can do for bears. (razz)
When one is in agreement with bears one is always correct. (mae)
bears are back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I didn't have a problem with the dog coming out of nowhere. I also agree that it wasn't unplanned since it was described earlier in the story.
I do wonder if it would have worked though. I'm thinking particularly of
Spoiler:
Would just having a cross on it's fur give the dog power to destroy the vampire, especially since this is an old powerful vampire, rather one of the 'little ones.' I.e surely it's not so much the icon itself which destroys these creatures, it's faith in what that icon represents.
True, as far as the rules of this particular story is concerned, the icon itself seems to be enough. Hence the medallion protecting Roland, even though he was unaware of it's power and thus couldn't have faith in it's protection. But in the wider rules of the Stephen King multiverse, I'm not sure it would work. For smaller vampires maybe but the big ones?
I.e. if a cross alone were enough, why aren't vampires jumping for cover every time they come across a fence? To keep myself safe from vampires, would tying my shoe laces do the trick? Kick it in the balls, "Bite that toothy" and watch it burst into flame?
Ok those are silly examples and I'm probably being a bit facetious, but I'm sure you get my point.
So how would a dog appearing out of nowhere have any affect? Did the dog have faith? Or was it Roland's faith in seeing the dog?
That being said, I didn't dislike the ending. And the fact that it was a small supposedly insignificant creature responsible doesn't bother me at all. It just seemed to follow a different logic to other King books I have read, but maybe thats also related to the kind of vampire. Or maybe the dog was sent specifically by Gan/Tower/ka giving it the power needed.
Ka. Kaka. whatever.
Great Roland story though! I hope we have more of such from King in future.
Last edited by Brainslinger; 08-11-2008 at 01:52 PM.
thanks for your post, you make some good points, but also one I was making. Just because his fur had a cross shape shouldn't be enough to kill the vamp. After all, remember Barlow and Father Callahan?
"So many vows. They make you swear and swear. Defend the King, obey the King, obey your father, protect the innocent, defend the weak. But what if your father despises the King? What if the King massacres the innocent? It's too much. No matter what you do, you're forsaking one vow or another."
Maybe there was something more about the dog than we know. Considering he was able to take out a "Grandmother" then I'm guessing thats the case.
"It's his eyes, Roland thought. They were wide and terrible, the eyes of a dragon in human form" - Roland seeing the Crimson King for the first time.
"When the King comes and the Tower falls, sai, all such pretty things as yours will be broken. Then there will be darkness and nothing but the howl of Discordia and the cries of the can toi" - From Song of Susannah
maybe he is oy's twinner like wolf is.
Yeaaaaaaaaaaah....
"It's his eyes, Roland thought. They were wide and terrible, the eyes of a dragon in human form" - Roland seeing the Crimson King for the first time.
"When the King comes and the Tower falls, sai, all such pretty things as yours will be broken. Then there will be darkness and nothing but the howl of Discordia and the cries of the can toi" - From Song of Susannah
or just a dog ex machina
People are always talking about truth.Everybody knows what the truth is,like it was toilet paper or somethin...All there is is bull*...One layer of bullshit on top of another...what you do in life...pick the layer of bull* that you prefer...
There is a very fine line between a real case of deus ex machina being used and an author simply trying to create and manipulate circumstances, boldly employing his or her imagination on the page. Was King incapable of extricating Roland by any other means? No. Did King start this little story thinking it would be simple and fun, and then near the end start kicking himself, and wonder how he could've just killed the main hero of his greatest tale ever (before said character even reached the tales he was already so well known for) and, scrambling, decide to go back and write the dog in, to give himself a way out? Surely not. That would have been deus ex machina.
When we find something that seems a little too convenient, perhaps seeming to lack the "umph" we were hoping for, it's too easy to assign that Latin term. The truth is far more direct: we, or in this case you wanted something more than he offered. In fact, the ones writing themselves a cheap way out are those who'll apply this term without digging deeper, or without accepting that he may have had a reason you failed to see, if ye kennit. Personally, I didn't even think deus ex machina was an accurate appraisal whenSpoiler:(well, ok maybe that one a bit, lol).
Anyway, about the cross dog, my thoughts were more along these lines: The whole story was to give a small glimpse into the trials Roland had come through to reach us in The Dark Tower saga's epic first line, and the greatest fact about him continuing through those trials to that point was that his victories were not purely due to his will or his grit, or even his bad-assery with the irons--and certainly not his mental acuity. Nay, he stood because he was determined to stand, and AS A RESULT OF THAT WILL, all of creation, ka itself, stood with him. He lost and he lost, but he always got back up and his boots never stopped. So ka was like, "send an angel, send legions god dammit, this is the one!" And they even sent a dog with a cross on its pelt because that's what was needed.
There'll be water if ka wills it; water if ka wills it, even in the desert. That's how I see it.