Wizard and Glass is a very emotive book. A very large part of it is dedicated to the adventures of fourteen-year-old Roland in Mejis, and his love for Susan Delgado. It gives us a lot of insight into why Roland feels so driven to find the Dark Tower - not just because it is failing, and not just because the Grapefruit planted the idea in his mind, but also because of what it had cost him at that point, so young - his love, his child, and later, his mother, by his own hand. Susan and Roland are the embodiment of careless love, and it was necessary to see their downfall to understand a little more why Roland was able to be so detached from his new ka-tet at first.
In the more chronologically relevant part of the story, we see the ka-tet work to defeat Blaine through their individual strengths. Jake brings the treasures of another world to help fight the battle, and is given clues that identify Blaine is not to be trusted. Charlie the Choo-Choo is rife with symbolism, and even stresses how they may defeat Blaine - although I suspect that defeating him too early would have been as bad as defeating him too late. Susannah is able to crack the password to get them into the coach at all, while Roland is able to talk Blaine into some semblance of reasonable conduct, in the form of their altered Fair-Day riddle contest. However, it is Eddie that saves the day, with his silly games. This is important for Eddie's own development, as Roland has earlier scolded him for asking silly joke-riddles. Roland is only human, after all, and this book really shows us his humanity.
As for Walter/Flagg, we are told that he is in league with Farson as Walter, because he shows up as Farson's emissary to the Big Coffin Hunters in a priest's robe, with the name, and with the tittering laugh and discomforting presence that we now expect. Marten is supposedly in Cressia with Farson at the time of Roland's mother's death, too (although it becomes apparent later that he is not). Finally, when they fight Flagg in the City of Oz, he is dressed as the Walkin' Dude (the jeans, the boots, the smiley-faced badge) but is addressed by Roland as Marten - either he has the same face, or he is the same person, but I don't feel we can be sure either way just yet.
Bends O' The Rainbow that we are told of are Black Thirteen, the Pink Grapefruit, Blue, and Green. In Mejis, there are statues of seven of the Guardians - Bear, Turtle, Fish, Eagle, Lion, Bat, and Wolf. The Gates of Oz have a yellow bar filled with fish, and a purple bar filled with birds, as well as the pink bar filled with horses - this suggests to me that the colours are indelibly linked to the Guardians, although I could be mistaken. I was thinking that the Rainbow and Guardians might make a good basis for a tattoo, but I've come to realize that even though I like the aesthetic appeal, I don't support the ideas it would represent. Doing harm for the fun of it is not something I wish to support. Plus, I am so far unable to gather definitive data on the links between each Guardian and each Colour, and their positions relative to each other on opposing Beams, and within the circle of the world. As such, that idea has been shelved for good. My other idea is as yet quite unformed, and requires a lot more thought before I'm willing to disclose it.
No comments:
Post a Comment