The Dark Tower.

I finished reading Stephen King's Dark Tower series on the way back from South Dakota. He's said he's going to retire, at least from writing fiction, and now I understand. Maybe he won't be able to do it this time, but I can hope for him.

I love talking to Lee about this kind of stuff. He hasn't read the books, so I didn't tell him any of the plot, but I still worked out something by talking to him that I couldn't have worked out on my own.

The actual books that Stephen King wrote are like a story that Jorge Luis Borges would write about. For instance the one where the guy tries to rewrite Don Quixote, exactly as it already is, without reading the book himself.

Anyway, my thought:

There are two series of books going by the name The Dark Tower and using the same text. The first series of books is the series you read when you read the books the first time. The second series of books is the series you read after you've read the ending. These two series are congruent but not equivalent. After you see the ending of The Sixth Sense, the movie isn't the same. Like that, only better.

I think I've figured out the point where the ending didn't have to come out the way it did. It had to end the way it did--I get that--but I can see where it might have turned.

Here's to Stephen King's retirement!