I'm still plugging my way through the seventh book. June 19th features heavily in the narrative, and so today felt kind of like Halloween or something.
No, but seriously. Reading the series has really done a lot to make me become aware of a lot of my perceptions and assumptions about life, and people. One of my favorite characters just died - well, two of them, actually. At first their deaths seemed grossly unfair, but as I thought about it I found ways to trace their demise back to their own choices and attitudes. I don't mean to say that I felt that the characters "deserved" to die, just that they undertook a certain path with the full knowledge that they might not make it to the end, and that was nobody's choice save their own. Nor was there very much dramatic heroism - heroism, certainly, but nothing showy.
At this point (without having reached the climax, or the end yet) I feel like I could sum up the theme of the series just by saying: things happen. What makes these characters so lovable is not that they are perfect, but that they are genuine. The fact that they have a goal that they're so wholeheartedly devoted to doesn't compensate for their flaws, but it gives their struggles real meaning and context. I think many of us would be happier having that sort of purpose - it's okay to fall down if you're going to the one place you want to go more than anything. Maybe it's even okay to die before making it there (again, incomplete book knowledge here) because maybe the point isn't so much that one purpose is more worthy than another, but just having a purpose makes all of the difference.
Why is it so hard, then? I absolutely love that King brings his own struggles as a writer into the story, because it's such a powerful reminder that all the inspiring philosophy in the world isn't much to stand up against laziness or fear.
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