Tracing The Trails Of The King : The Talisman

Where do I even begin with the Talisman? What can I say about this amazing epic of a story from the writer so many people associate with ghouls and goblins?

The Talisman (along with the later sequel) are, to date, the only books which King has collaborated with another author. This will be changing soon as he has recently announced a project which he participated in with his younger son, Owen. It is a process that I have always been fascinated with just in terms of how the book comes about. I haven’t read very much of Peter Straub’s individual books so I have always been very curious to know where in the book King stops and Straub begins. According to an old article in Fangoria, evidently neither one of them can really remember who wrote what. And to compound the problem even more, apparently each one of them tried to mimic the other’s style in an effort to trick the readers.

Talisman is a masterful book. It is the epic quest of Jack Sawyer, who is drawn into a cross country journey, between worlds in an attempt to save his mother from a fatal illness. Along the way, he enlists the help of several friends, new and old, who he comes across in the course of his quest.

I love how the book uses the notion of separate realities to represent the idea of dualities within our own natures. I think it is incredibly clever to be able to represent two separate personifications of the same villain and how the version we meet from the other universe is actually more sinister and terrifying than on Earth. King and Straub create some amazingly disturbing and dark imagery and monsters in this book, whether it be the opportunistic uncle Sloat or his twin, Morgan of Orris. I actually was the most terrified of the character of Sunlight Gardner as well as his shrill, maniacal double, Osmond.

I think it would be interesting to see how a book like this would be received now, in the current social and political climate. Even more interesting would be to see what the authors’ vision would be if they were to write it now. While it is certainly nothing new to write a story about a young character on a heroic quest, King and Straub brought a unique element of hard realism to go along with the more fantastical elements. Jack is certainly on a magical quest, but while he is a child, this is not a children’s story. He bears witness to and is the victim of quite a bit of violence and abuse. His isolation and the imminent danger he walks along is palpable. Jack’s travels seem to skirt along the dark underbelly of America, existing in a state of exposed vulnerability. There seems to be a constant presence of wrong-minded adults, lurking just off stage and waiting to pounce on our unsuspecting hero. It seems to me that these elements would be even more amplified if it were to be written now, as opposed to thirty years ago. Like King became fond of saying in the context of another epic series, the world has moved on.

On that note, I would like to discuss one fairly specific issue, namely being this book’s alleged connection with the Dark Tower. There are many who argue for The Talisman as being a part of the Tower universe and while I don’t want to tell people how to interpret the books, my personal opinion is that there is very little, if any connection.

One of the reasons why I think Talisman gets wrapped up into Tower lore is because of the sequel, Black House. There’s no question about Black House being a part of that universe so it would stand to reason that the first book would as well.

My personal opinion is that The Talisman suffers frequently from a certain amount of over-interpretation. One example is the phenomenon of Twinners throughout the book. The idea is that most people have a twin that exists in the other world. Hard-core King fans often make arguments for characters in different King books being Twinners for each other. In this book specifically, I have seen some argue that Jack Sawyer is a twinner for Jake Chambers, he of Dark Tower.

My issue with this is that I don’t feel like it has any basis in the books themselves, that they are connections that are largely fan made. And while this is fine, personally I don’t give it much thought. To the best of my recollection, King doesn’t talk about Twinners anywhere else. My opinion is that this is something that he intended to only exist in the universe of this book, not as a global concept. I think that The Talisman has a certain atmosphere that makes it feel like a Dark Tower book. The notion of alternate worlds that intertwine with each other is one that he would certainly explore further in the Dark Tower. Also, towards the end of the book when Jack and Richard have to travel through the Blasted Lands, it certainly has a similar feel to a trip aboard a certain train through the Waste Lands that exist beyond the shattered city of Lud. For me though, while it can be fun to find connections like this, it is also important to remember that King is not above the notion of repeating or re-using some ideas or concepts. When you write more than seventy books over the course of your life, it’s bound to happen to some extent.

But as I said, this is just my interpretation and my opinion. One of the greatest parts about reading, and this is not just related to King, is that everyone has the privilege to see the story how they want. If you want to see The Talisman as a part of the Dark Tower story, I’m certainly not going to tell you to stop. I have always been a big proponent of the notion that a story begins in the mind of the writer and ends in the mind of the reader.

One last thing, there has been speculation over the years about the possibility of another Talisman book. In 2001, King and Straub joined up again to publish Black House, the first sequel to The Talisman. Ever since, fans of Jack Sawyer have definitely put out the call for one more installment. There have been rumors that this might be happening and that the two authors were trying to make time in their respective schedules.

I recently had the honor of seeing Stephen King speak on his tour for End Of Watch and this was one question that came up. Obviously there has been no official announcement and he didn’t give any details, but King himself did say that he thinks there needs to be a third book and to keep an eye out for that in the future. So while work hasn’t actually begun, I’m taking it as a positive sign that the man himself is willing to speak about it like this in a public forum. It makes me believe that we are closer than we might think to a conclusion to the trilogy.

Speaking for myself, I’m pretty excited about the possibility of seeing King and Straub cross the streams, one more time.

My name is Chad Clark, and I am proud to be a Constant Reader.

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