Post by account_disabled on Dec 24, 2023 4:23:38 GMT -5
I don't know how it could have been a perfect ending – which maybe doesn't even exist – for an apocalyptic book narrated in the first person. Certainly the protagonist-narrator cannot die, it would be totally illogical. Teddy is writing a diary, which he wants to leave for posterity, well preserved. If he had died before securing it, Brian Keene's book would not have been published and I would not be writing this article.
So Teddy can't die. And in fact I'm here writing. Everything comes back. Getting him to safety would have been too much of a fairy tale that ends well. Nothing but cliché, then. It would even have distorted the apocalyptic character of the novel. Thinking about it now, coldly, and not Special Data immediately after finishing reading the book, I think - and I am increasingly convinced - that the ending is perfect. We don't know how the story will end.
And Teddy doesn't know it either. There are many alternatives. Kevin can return and take him to safety. Or the giant worm eats it. Or he dies first of starvation. Or he dies while Kevin takes him away. It does not matter. The important thing is that the ending has its own logic. And he has this. My criticism of Brian Keene's The Conquering Worms is over. What do you think of what I wrote? Have you read the novel? Do you agree or do you think I exaggerated by asking all those questions?
So Teddy can't die. And in fact I'm here writing. Everything comes back. Getting him to safety would have been too much of a fairy tale that ends well. Nothing but cliché, then. It would even have distorted the apocalyptic character of the novel. Thinking about it now, coldly, and not Special Data immediately after finishing reading the book, I think - and I am increasingly convinced - that the ending is perfect. We don't know how the story will end.
And Teddy doesn't know it either. There are many alternatives. Kevin can return and take him to safety. Or the giant worm eats it. Or he dies first of starvation. Or he dies while Kevin takes him away. It does not matter. The important thing is that the ending has its own logic. And he has this. My criticism of Brian Keene's The Conquering Worms is over. What do you think of what I wrote? Have you read the novel? Do you agree or do you think I exaggerated by asking all those questions?