On Stephen King and the King of Kings

"Go Then, There are Other Worlds Than These"

If you're a Stephen King fan, then you know these words. They're from The Gunslinger, the first book in King's Dark Tower Series. And they're uttered by the character Jake just before he's "sacrificed" by Roland in his pursuit of said tower.

I read through The Gunslinger a few years ago and was impressed to find out that King wasn't the slush-novelist I originally thought him to be. I wanted to shove him into the John Grissom/Danielle Steele beach book category. You know- quick reads with a good story, but not a whole lot of literary content.

Now, I doubt that King will go down in history with Shakespeare or Hemingway. He's not THAT good. But as I got further into the Dark Tower, I realized that his genius isn't in crafting specific symbolic or minimalist prose, it's his ability to create volumes of metanarrative.

You see, all of the books King has ever written are actually about one story.

The Dark Tower the linchpin at the center of all his stories, holding the entire thing together. So as you read through each volume, you realize that these bits and pieces of all his stories are pointing toward something bigger.

Characters show up over and over again.

Sometimes they have different names, but if you look closely into the prose you come to find out that Randall Flagg is Raymond Fiegler, Walter o'Dim, Flagg, and just about any other character with the initials R.F.. Likewise, the Crimson King is (probably) IT, and he is mentioned over and over again in a number of books. King even writes himself (or another version of himself) into the Dark Tower.

How postmodern is that?

Anyway, when I was reading through this metanarrative of interconnected story, it made me think about Christianity and how, as a Christ-Follower, I believe that my story and the stories that I read and the lives that I interact with are bigger than what you see at face value. There are deeper meanings and hidden mysteries pointing to other worlds and other lives in the narratives that we live. We all know it, because no one escapes life without trying to figure out what it all means.

Marriage, food, sex, fashion, customs, relationships, parenting, and all the other things that happen aren't simply isolated unto themselves. They all weave in and out of each other, creating a wonderful tapestry that helps us see that we aren't alone- that something wonderful and terrifying is going on in the background.

And not just something, but SomeOne.
You see, all the great stories are about Him.