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Wuducynn
03-18-2008, 08:19 AM
Do you folk think that they are the same as the bugs we see in the Dixie Pig? Or are they maybe just related? I'm thinking they're a related insect but not the same.

Storyslinger
03-18-2008, 08:21 AM
It seems that the ones in the Dixie PIg ate and killed, where as the Little Doctors healed. The fact that they are both controlled by vampires means they are related, but not the same in my opinion.

MonteGss
03-18-2008, 08:26 AM
I thought they were the same.

jayson
03-18-2008, 08:48 AM
doesn't it say that Roland would have recognized the bugs bc had seen them before and it goes on to ref his time with the Little Sisters. i think it's strongly implied if not outright said that they are the same creatures.

Wuducynn
03-18-2008, 09:07 AM
doesn't it say that Roland would have recognized the bugs bc had seen them before and it goes on to ref his time with the Little Sisters. i think it's strongly implied if not outright said that they are the same creatures.


Hmmmm I don't remember that. If you could find that and quote it, that would be cool. So, the purpose of the bugs. To get the folk the Little Sisters nabbed, or had nabbed for them, healed up so they could drain them dry? Basically season the proverbial meat? Thoughts?

jayson
03-18-2008, 09:31 AM
i'd have to be at home to find the quote but it's when they first come out in the dixie pig, so early in dt-7. does the concordance say? i may have to start carrying mine to work with me. as for your theory that they are meat tenderizer, it makes as good as sense as any.

MonteGss
03-18-2008, 09:33 AM
I also remember reading a passage like that about the Doctors. If nobody has provided the quote by tonight when I get home, I can do that. :)

Wuducynn
03-18-2008, 04:50 PM
I remember Roland mentioning Sisters of Eluria along with the mysterious story about the Walking Waters of someplace, I don't remember him mentioning remembering the bugs in the Dixie Pig in relation to the Little Sisters of Eluria story.

Woofer
03-18-2008, 05:44 PM
They're definitely the same bugs; it's mentioned very early in DT7.

These hatched on our window on 11 Sept 07. They reminded me of the doctor bugs (thumbnail is a link to a larger version).

http://www.thedarktower.org/gallery/data/562/thumbs/Doctor_Bugs.JPG (http://www.thedarktower.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=2246)

John Blaze
03-19-2008, 12:26 AM
i pretty much agree with the "tenderizer" comment.

jayson
03-19-2008, 03:08 AM
I remember Roland mentioning Sisters of Eluria along with the mysterious story about the Walking Waters of someplace, I don't remember him mentioning remembering the bugs in the Dixie Pig in relation to the Little Sisters of Eluria story.

roland doesn't remember it bc he's not there. it's the narrator voice that tells us that if roland was there he would recongize the bugs from Eluria [in contrast to jake and callahan who don't know what the bugs are, roland would have].

ManOfWesternesse
03-19-2008, 04:35 AM
I figured them to be the same bugs, yeah.

Wuducynn
03-19-2008, 05:15 AM
roland doesn't remember it bc he's not there. it's the narrator voice that tells us that if roland was there he would recongize the bugs from Eluria [in contrast to jake and callahan who don't know what the bugs are, roland would have].

Even so, could you point out where the narrator says it? Cause I don't remember a narration about it either.

jayson
03-19-2008, 05:16 AM
roland doesn't remember it bc he's not there. it's the narrator voice that tells us that if roland was there he would recongize the bugs from Eluria [in contrast to jake and callahan who don't know what the bugs are, roland would have].

Even so, could you point out where the narrator says it? Cause I don't remember a narration about it either.

yeah, i juts forgot to look last night. i will try to remember tonight lest you get in your portable storm and come kill me.

Wuducynn
03-19-2008, 05:18 AM
:lol: Thats only when I'm having Can Calyx cravings...

jayson
03-19-2008, 05:32 AM
i did actually write it down and put it in my backpack, so if i remember to look at the paper, i will remember to look for the passage. or i will look at the paper and think "what the fuck does 'look up dr bugs for ck' mean?"

MonteGss
03-19-2008, 07:39 AM
"Now the clattering bugs came pouring out from under the table. They were of a sort Roland had seen before, and any doubts he might still have held about what was behind the tapestry departed at the site of them. They were parasites, blood-drinkers, camp-followers: Grandfather-fleas."

p26, The Dark Tower

Wuducynn
03-19-2008, 07:40 AM
"Now the clattering bugs came pouring out from under the table. They were of a sort Roland had seen before, and any doubts he might still have held about what was behind the tapestry departed at the site of them. They were parasites, blood-drinkers, camp-followers: Grandfather-fleas."

p26, The Dark Tower

Cool, but it doesn't say it was of the sort he saw when he was captured by the Little Sisters of Eluria though.

jayson
03-19-2008, 07:42 AM
somewhere right around the passage monte just quoted [good job monte!] i know it says more as a ref to the little sisters showing that this is where he had seen those bugs before...

Wuducynn
03-19-2008, 07:48 AM
Hopefully Monte's looking it up now...

MonteGss
03-19-2008, 09:13 AM
Nope. :)
That was the section I was thinking of. I automatically assumed that part was referring the events in Little Sisters. I guess I'm not sure what other passage there is.

Wuducynn
03-19-2008, 09:21 AM
I was assuming that also when I read that paragraph.

Brainslinger
03-19-2008, 10:20 AM
Here is the rest of that quotation if I may: (Dark Tower 7 and Little Sisters Spoilers,- I won't bother tagging it though since this entire thread is concerned with these books:)

"They were parasites, blood-drinkers, camp followers: Grandfather Fleas. Probably not dangerous while there was a bumbler present, but of course when you spied the little doctors in such large numbers, the Grandfathers were never far behind." The Dark Tower, Part 1, Chapter 1.6.

That at least suggest that the Grandfather Fleas and the cam-tam of little Sisters of Eluria are the same species. Before that was mentioned I was of the opinion that they were not however.

Their difference in function has already been mentioned, 1 being healers, the others scavengers, but they also look different. I.e. the cam-tam were tiny, the size of bees if I remember correctly. The Grandfather Fleas however were the size of rats.

That being said they could be the same species in different stages in their life-cycle. I.e. maybe dead vampires crumble into cam-tam (depending on how they're killed of course, as the vamp Calahan aced in DT7 didn't turn into bugs. Or maybe it's only a sub-species of vampire that do this...) which then heal the wounded for other vampires to feed on. Then maybe the cam-tam grow into the fleas and serve as scavengers?

Maybe they in turn grow and change into the large vampires so the cycle is complete? (I don't like that last theory, cos it sounds a bit stupid. That and Barlow was a Grandfather but there were no bugs associated with him.)

Comics spoiler: It would fit with the insectoid demons that Robin Furth describes in her back-stories though. The grandfathers are demons of the prim, could they be a variant on them?

I can't help thinking that the Grandfathers of this story are different to the 'Grandmothers' of Little Sisters of Eluria though... although the quotation above suggests otherwise.

Also, maybe the bugs can be altered and changed depending on the vampires' will.

Wuducynn
03-19-2008, 11:01 AM
Thanks Brainslinger! That pretty much covers it for me. :cool:

jayson
03-19-2008, 11:07 AM
maybe the ones at the DP were bigger than the ones in Eluria because they were with more vampires and more powerful vampires and thus had more to eat?

Wuducynn
03-19-2008, 11:09 AM
maybe the ones at the DP were bigger than the ones in Eluria because they were with more vampires and more powerful vampires and thus had more to eat?

Yeah, I think those Grandfathers were on a whole other level of might, than the ones in Eluria. So that makes sense.

pinkymcfatfat
12-16-2009, 05:24 AM
I think that the 'grandfather fleas' show up in yet another King book, 'Needful Things'.

It's mentioned that the necklace Polly gets from Gaunt makes insect like sounds and such...it could well contain a grandfather flea. And our man Gaunt does get around. He could easily have picked one up somewhere.