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CTGttW Question 8: The ending
What do you make of the ending? What actually happened? I've heard it described as "open ended", but is that true? Does the train really go on an endless journey of transformation, or is that hallucination of people touched by the Wastelands?
What would it mean, in either case?
Comments
I kind of got lost the first time I read it (which maybe was an intentional authorial ploy) and then decided that the journey was open ended, with a slowly changing crew (Weiwei becomes the Captain and no doubt others drop in and out). The mysterious bit was the train itself, seemingly creating its own rails to ride on as it went along. And of course challenged everywhere by adversaries who didn't want the changes it was bringing.
It was incredibly weak. It reminded me of Harry Potter, where the wizards and witches grow up to be middle class home owners. Weiwei becomes the Captain, Marya finds true love, and everything continues in an unbelievable way. A tale for children.
I also thought the ending was weak. It was the literary equivalent of the "fade to silence" way some pop songs end. The train just ... carried on going, and the Wastelands change just carried on. I'd have liked a more definitive end to the journey.
There was no ending, just a place where the author stopped writing.