As for the last post. Well, Wilshire randomly repeated a question I asked so I thought we were playing a game... sorry.
My unclear point is that the question, or evidence raised, is that TUC was split. As Madness brought up, we don't know the nature of the split. We have a lot of people assuming things, and thats it.
We know that the book formerly known at TUC is being published as TGO and TUC. Is that a 'split'? I don't know. As I said, that's just a further modification of the book formerly know as TAE.
Also, who says TUC is finished? AFAIK there are no final manuscript prints that anyone has read, there are now galley prints, no ARCs. I doubt Overlook has seen a complete final draft.
What defines a book as 'finished'? Technically the TGO ARCs are not even finished books. Things can still change.
Something as fluid as a pre-manuscript draft of TUC probably shouldn't be considered finished.
I'm not aware of ever seeing publishing timelines of final-drafts for any of these books. If you have some evidence that the WLW manuscript/final draft/galley/ARC was more or less finished compared to where TUC is right now, I'd love to see it.
By all accounts, TWP was written, start to finish, in 1 year from TDTCB. Does that mean it was finished when TDTCB was out? Probably not. There have been bits and pieces of this story floating around Bakker headspace for decades. Was the story finished before he wrote it? I'd argue that it was. Since the major story was laid out from the start, any arbitrary 'splits' where the binding of one book ends and the binding of the next book starts are... well arbitrary.
Its a story. Unless Overlook is dumping major plot points so that they can fit it into some page-count or whatever, then I don't see how it matters.
Go ahead and rebind PON into an omnibus, and AE too. But just because you, or I, or Pat, or Overlook, would like to see less covers or bigger books, doesn't mean that its more or less correct.
At least to me, the story being finished is the majorly important part. 3 books, or 9, or 10, if all the pieces are there in the end it just doesn't bother me.
Now, if Bakker comes back some day and says "Gee, Overlook really boned me. Ruined my story. Cut out important parts, made me put in other pieces that weren't important" , etc. etc., then I'll be irked.
Otherwise, passing judgement, getting upset about a possible perceived future, just doesn't seem worth the effort. I worry that if 'the internet' spends its time complaining about how 'the story is ruined', then no one will read it, no books will be sold, and then a future where TUC and TSTSNBN even exists to be read will cease to exist. Then I'll be upset, because the story wasn't told.
So, maybe, withholding judgment until we can see the story proper, might be a better path. Which is why, for my part, I rail against the negativity. Sorry if that's upsetting to anyone.
