THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY
Eight secondary characters from the Dark Tower series
By Bev Vincent
Published by Cemetery Dance Publications at Smashwords
Copyright © 2005 by Bev Vincent
All rights reserved.
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Cover Artwork Copyright © 2005 by Glenn Chadbourne
Introduction
My contract with NAL (New American Library) for The Road to the Dark Tower stipulated that I would deliver to them a 70,000-word manuscript. Ron Martirano, my editor, said I could probably go as high as 80,000, but my publisher wanted to keep the book from appearing too thick and daunting on the shelf.
Early on, I had an idea I was going to have a hard time keeping it under 100,000 words. What I ultimately submitted ran slightly over 130,000 words, including footnotes and appendices. I fully expected to be told I'd have to cut some—or a lot—of material, a process I did not relish.
Fortunately, my editor is as big a fan of the Dark Tower series as I am and he made no mention of the fact that I'd delivered nearly double what my contract specified, concentrating instead on the content.
However, I had already removed some material before I submitted the manuscript. The Dramatis Personae chapter was by far the longest in the book and my first draft featured not only the principle characters but subsidiary characters who either made repeat appearances throughout the series or who I considered pivotal for other reasons.
Rather than reduce the space devoted to the major characters, I decided, after much soul-searching and regret, to delete some of the lesser players. Now, thanks to this Cemetery Dance chapbook, I have the opportunity to reintroduce readers to eight characters worthy of scrutiny.
Here, then, are the good, the bad, and the ugly.
The Good
Calvin Tower (Toren)
Like Roland Deschain, Calvin Tower is the last in his line. For generations, the Torens (Tower changed his name legally from the original Dutch version) have been custodians, overseeing the safety of the rose, Keystone Earth's representation of the Dark Tower. His family once owned most of the Turtle Bay region of Manhattan, but Tower has sold off everything except the vacant lot at Second and 46th to pay taxes, mortgages, and medical bills. Even his bookstore, the Manhattan Restaurant of the Mind, occupies leased property.
He dreams about the empty lot but he hasn't been there since he paid to have Tom and Gerry's Artistic Deli knocked down after it went bankrupt and he had a fence erected around it, which was almost as expensive as the demolition. Sometimes he dreams of a field of flowers that goes on forever from the lot beyond First Avenue. Roland believes that the voice of the Beam told Tower to keep the lot, which is worth millions. Even so, Tower's resolve is weakening and, under considerable pressure, he accepts $100,000 in earnest money from Enrico Balazar on behalf of Sombra Corporation, thereby agreeing not to sell the property to anyone until July 15, 1977.
At the age of twenty-six he inherited a considerable sum of money. He should have been one of the most successful antiquarian book dealers in New York given his location and talents. However, his bookstore isn't a moneymaking venture. Balazar calls it a hole that Tower pours money into and estimates that Tower does $50 worth of business a day at best.
Though he has divested himself of most of his real estate, when it comes to his beloved books Tower has issues with letting things go. He hounds the owners of books he wants until they relent but he in turn hates to let the books go again, even if he could make a tidy profit. On one occasion he didn't sleep for a week after he sold a valuable edition. He allowed his insurance policy to lapse so he could use the money to buy a book collection. His first wife called him a packrat. He's reluctant to let Eddie even hold one of his valuable tomes. Afterwards, he looks sorry, the way an alcoholic might look after a particularly destructive bout of drunkenness. He calls himself a coward and says that his analyst describes him as the archetypal child of an A-male father and a B-female mother.
He has been married more than once but now he lives alone. He's in his fifties, stands five foot nine and, at 230 pounds, qualifies as heavy set. His hair is gone on the sides of his forehead. He has no children and Aaron Deepnau is his only friend. Eddie Dean is surprised that there's even one person willing to befriend him. Tower thinks he and Aaron are friends because "we fit around each other's wrong places, make something that's almost whole."
Though he is a force for good, he's often not a terribly likable person. Even Jake, who buys Charlie the Choo-Choo and a book of riddles from him, isn't sure he likes the man. Moses Carver calls him a greedy highfalutin whitebread sumbitch. Eddie respects any man who could hold out against Balazar's goons but he dislikes Tower passionately.
In addition to stubbornness, there's a kind of willful stupidity about him. Eddie believes Tower uses this homemade static to luxuriate in what he's become without having to examine it very often. His analyst has probably propped up Tower's belief that he needs to be the author of his own destiny and that it might even be noble to be a selfish fuck. Such a man could never be ka-tet and Eddie is uneasy to think that their destinies are so tightly bound together.
Tower has in his possession an envelope with "Stefan Toren" and "Dead Letter" written on it. Below are the hieroglyphics that mean Unfound. The envelope once held his great-great-great grandfather Stefan's will. Now it contains the name of Roland of Gilead. Tower knows the High Speech and can converse in it with Roland once he accepts that the gunslinger is, indeed, the last of the line of Eld.
After Eddie intervenes on his behalf with Balazar's thugs, Tower agrees to go into hiding until the ka-tet figures out how to deal with the situation. By demanding that Eddie help him save his most valuable books, he unwittingly delivers a copy of 'Salem's Lot into Roland's hands, their first indication of Stephen King's importance to their quest.
Tower can't fight his nature, though, and is unable to keep a low profile in Maine. He goes on book-buying expeditions, leaving his tracks everywhere. Deepnau says, "He's a decent enough man in most ways but he does not enjoy being taken to task." He proves to be a difficult man for Roland to deal with and it is all Eddie can do not to kill the man. He reneges on his promises to sell the property several times and only Deepnau's badgering wins him over in the end.