When you first read The Gunslinger

[LovesSweetExile]

Did you start having strange dreams? Unlike the rest of the series, I found the Gunslinger to be very very surreal and very deep (thats not to say the rest of the series wasn't deep and enchanting, but The Gunslinger was special) its like your subconscious travels through every page, the entire visionary landscape was like an abstract nightmare.

Or maybe I took it to serious lol.

[Letti]

Too seriously? That's impossible if we are talking about this series.
Anyway I have never had any dreams of the DT or at least I cannot remmeber them.

[fernandito]

I have had several DT oriented dreams, although I don't believe it was a specific book that ccaused it, more of a collective effort.

[Girlystevedave]

The Dark Tower books seeped into my dreams throughout the entire time I was reading the series. :)

[Letti]

The Dark Tower books seeped into my dreams throughout the entire time I was reading the series. :)

:envious:

[Girlystevedave]

:lol:
If it makes you feel better, I can't remember exact details. It was more of a feeling that came along with the dreams. :)
I do remember always wanting to go right back to sleep when I'd wake up.

[DoctorDodge]

I'm pretty sure I've never had any DT related dreams. To be honest, I can't remember many of my dreams, really. Still, it would be nice to have at least one related Tower dream.

Then again, if I did get a DT dream, i'd probably get the role of "generic resident of Tull"! :lol:

[LovesSweetExile]

One dream I can vividly recall was being surrounded by, what I imagined were mutie spiders...it wasn't very pleasant.

[.daniel]

Did you start having strange dreams? Unlike the rest of the series, I found the Gunslinger to be very very surreal and very deep (thats not to say the rest of the series wasn't deep and enchanting, but The Gunslinger was special) its like your subconscious travels through every page, the entire visionary landscape was like an abstract nightmare.

Or maybe I took it to serious lol.

I've never had a dream, but I know what you mean. I think because the first book was originally a short story, it was quite a bit more vague, and as a result it seemed to have a more dreamy quality to it.

[Grey]

May 9th, 2010
As we do every mothers day, my dad buys flowers for the mothers.

I wasn't with him when he bought them or set them up, if indeed it was him that did it. (It could have been Lydia). And we don't bring them out until afterwards, to give to all the mothers. Pretty much as soon as the sermon started, I fell asleep. I woke up right before the end, just in time to stand up. No one knew that I fell asleep, because somehow I was able to sit up the entire time I slept without slumping or slouching down. The hair covering my face probably helped, and that I was in the front, rather than the back.

I had a dream that I was walking on a large rocky plateau that seemed endless ahead of me and behind me, more like a giant land bridge protruding from the earth, than a normal plateau. And beneath me I could see everything. Trees and mountains and giant bodies of water. I stayed close to the middle though and I was terrified..but I'm not sure why. I started running. Just running straight down the never-ending plateau and it almost seemed like I was making no progress at all, except for the trees and mountains below me passing by. The sky was blue and sunny. The sun was shining so brightly it was almost white. I don't know what was at the end of the path because I woke up before I saw anything and the distance was shrouded in a white mist.

When I awoke, the flowers had been brought into the room by Lydia, my father's wife. Specifically, they were white and red roses.

She passed out the roses to the mothers and I was sitting in the front row, by myself, so she wouldn't have noticed me sleeping. My dad didn't either.

She came to the front of the room and started talking about mothers day and gave up a prayer. That was when I woke up, my vision blurry and bright, like someone had used the "diffuse glow" effect on Photoshop.

I walked on an eternal path, to find myself surrounded in roses.

After the prayer, the service was over. I ordered some Chinese food, my normal Sunday after-service ritual, and as I was enjoying it while sitting in the kids room. I saw one of those abacus toys that kids have. Instead of beads, it had animals.

As soon as I noticed it [the abacus] I thought or felt something was weird about it. So I set it on the table, to a couple of the people in the room's amusement. I realized there were 10 rows of animals.
Each row was supposed to have 10.
Equalling 100 animals in total.
Except that it didn't. One of the rows had 9.
So that means there were 99 animals.
From top to bottom it went: 10 goldfish, 10 frogs, 10 dogs, 10 bluebirds, 10 orange cats, 10 redshelled snails, 10 bumble bees, 9 butterflies, 10 rabbits and finally, on top, 10 turtles.

http://pics.livejournal.com/xthemetalone/pic/0000sx31
(The guy behind the abacus isn't me btw, he's a cool guy though.)

The 10 redshelled snails, their shells almost perfectly spiraled in the same way as the sigil the Crimson King, and they are at the midway point to the top of the tower, where the turtle is, the aspect of Gan, who is God in the Dark Tower.

There were 99 figures in total, 19 and 99 being two sacred numbers. For example "The Ka-Tet of The 99", which is Roland, Susanna, Jake, Eddie, and Oy.

My dream was the beam, and I woke up in my church (a place of The White), with a red carpet in a room full of roses, walked into a room (also with a red carpet: Can Ka No Rey) and found the Tower of 99 with The Crimson King stuck, nearing the top, with Gan safetly at the top.

I finished the series on May 11.

It wasn't exactly after reading the Gunslinger, but it was while reading them. And this isn't the only dream, it just seems to be the most relevant one.

What are your dreams like, LovesSweetExile?

[PeepleoftheSun]

I agree that The Gunslinger was dreamlike and surreal. Unfortunately I haven't had any DT dreams, only Harry Potter ones, which are about one eighth as cool.

[10luluff]

i remember having wierd dreams about the stand.i was always walking down deserted highways.:orely:

[harrison ryan]

I've been putting on the Gunslinger audio-book (revised edition) for the last couple nights as I go to sleep, but so far, no DT dreams. That I can recall, anyway.

[pixiedark76]

I kept having terrible nightmares about when Roland let Jake drop. Over and over again I heard poor Jake say "Go then there are other worlds than these."

Then I had awful nightmares that I was being chased by slow mutants.

[harrison ryan]

I love that quote. Probably the most memorable of the entire series, along with the opening line.

[Jezminda]

I've had strange aspects on the series appear in dreams, little things like the slow muties wandering around a city I was dreaming of anyway. Creepy stuff.

[pixiedark76]

Sometimes I have nightmares about being caught in a speaking ring with a demon. (The demon does very bad things to me.)
I also have nightmares about a speaking demon in a wall and I end up pulling a jaw bone out of the wall and carry it around like Roland did.

[stone, rose, unfound door]

Did you start having strange dreams? Unlike the rest of the series, I found the Gunslinger to be very very surreal and very deep (thats not to say the rest of the series wasn't deep and enchanting, but The Gunslinger was special) its like your subconscious travels through every page, the entire visionary landscape was like an abstract nightmare.

Or maybe I took it to serious lol.

Like Letti said, you can't take TDT too seriously. I remember having lots of dreams about the Gunslinger but it really was the atmosphere that stuck.
I do agree that the Gunslinger is a lot deeper and I really thought King was taking me way further than where a good story could take me. Like I could touch something else I can never attain. Rereads of the original book still give me the same feeling when reaching the Golgotha.

[LadyHitchhiker]

Taking it too seriously? Now that statement in itself is a laugh... why else would this site exist with 100s of threads on the matter of the dark tower? :) Much love, on your statement, but we take it quite seriously.

[RolandLover]

I love The Gunslinger! I love how badass Roland was in the first book. I wanted more of badass Roland but after the DOTT it seemed his badass kind of simmered down.

[Letti]

I love The Gunslinger! I love how badass Roland was in the first book. I wanted more of badass Roland but after the DOTT it seemed his badass kind of simmered down.

I always felt he became more and more badass with every single page.
I love your nick name. : )

[LadyHitchhiker]

I've always had weird dreams... unfortunately not enough oriented around the dark tower.

[The Road Virus]

The only book I can remember directly dreaming about was The Wastelands. People who are saying DT I was the deepest, does that also mean you think it was the best/ your fav of the entire series?

[Brainslinger]

I love The Gunslinger! I love how badass Roland was in the first book. I wanted more of badass Roland but after the DOTT it seemed his badass kind of simmered down.

I always felt he became more and more badass with every single page.
I love your nick name. : )

I believe Roland was most badass in The Gunslinger in the hard and ruthless sense of the word, which I think is what RolandLover meant. I.e. he let Jake fall, and it's questionable whether or not he would do the same in the later books. Also in the later books we see more of Roland's character, and there is definitely a softening there. Not to the extent that he is a wimp, mind. If anything he is a stronger character by the end because of his friends, but he isn't as hard.

This actually reminds me of another novel in the Wheel of Time series where too wise women are talking about the difference between 'hardness' and strength.. As that's another novel series, I won't go into detail, but the general thing is that hardness is brittle. Strength isn't. A hard man can be unfeeling, cold and ultimately break down and turn bad. A strong man can feel and be all the better for it.

In Dark Tower terms a strong man may save the Tower. A hard man might, but at what cost?

[The Road Virus]

Brain, I would def agree about Roland as a character being the most BA in the first one. (Do not know/think that this is entirely necessary but just to be sure)

The massacre in Tull is probably where he is most BA/ruthless/heartless in the entire series (and as you mentioned he lets Jake drop in the book also). That part of GS (the massacre) is one of my favorite sequences in the whole series

[Oy!Oy!]

Hi. The Gunslinger book began a long journey for me. He always looked remarkably like Clint Eastwood and we often sat around the campfire while Roland cleaned his gun. In my dreams I felt apart of the tet. Also in scene with Susannah listening to Mia while sitting in the tower(wasnt it?) I recall the dreams in parts. Guess its time for a reread!!