okay back into my hole

might be able to write for real again someday

so shoutouts to ISLB for rendering all that beautifully

which is impressive because rendering SGJ's voice is hard, giving the characters their own unique voices within that frame is harder, and i cant even imagine acting through the pacing of those books in such a way that makes them hit like they do when you read them.

it turns out i do really love the prose of The Dark Tower and reading it in simulated context kinda fucking works, at least for the first two books

reading in publication order though it made me deeply & newly appreciate The Drawing of the Three, and i might keep following Just King Things' method through The Dark Tower, which feels nuts

were there seven stories that were basically the Black Spot that could've been excised to make room for that being more central? yes. did the children fucking strike me as miserable? yes. was it an 1100 page King novel? yes. on balance though, strongest Big Book since Christine.

shout outs to @eggplantshow.bsky.social & @mossmouth.bsky.social for making genuinely transformative things to me. Really looking forward to the Year of Brough & uh, probably beating Pilot's Quest another dozen times

at least this week, which i mean extremely positively

between this & Liz Freeman's review of Cassandra at the Wedding I think the Oakland Review of Books might actually be the best publication going www.oaklandreviewofbooks.org/cassandra-at...