Why do I keep going back to Brown?

He seems so insignificant, I don't even remember a time when we see him again after the first several pages, but I cannot keep my thoughts away from Brown whenever I think of this story (which is often, let me tell you).

Anyone got any ideas as to what kind of role Brown played that was bigger than what it seemed in the pages of this fine book?

Maybe you feel him this important because Roland opened his heart to him. However we know very well how closed Roland is. Roland must have felt something about him, too that he told the whole story about Tull. So yes, he was significant because he was Roland's first real listener after many years of silence.

I always felt he was important. And Zoltan too...

Spoilers for Wizard and Glass:

Spoiler:

Well, Brown does appear again briefly. Or rather earlier from a chronological point of view. He is the first to throw the corn shucks at Susan.

Taking that into account it casts an interesting light (or shadow?) on the conversation between Roland and Brown. Here we've got a man confessing the massacre of a mob of people who were raised to kill him to a man who was a member of a mob of people who killed his one true love.

I'm not sure if Roland recognized Brown at the time... but it's interesting all the same.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LadyHitchhiker

I always felt he was important. And Zoltan too...

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it has always bothered me that the picture on the front of the unrevised gunsliger is of roland with what appears to be his pet crow on his shoulder like a pirate, as if zoltan had oy's role

of course one might argue that in another

Spoiler:

time through the loop

roland killed brown and took zoltan with him

but still, that illustration bugs me lol

Quote:

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Originally Posted by flaggwalkstheline

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LadyHitchhiker

I always felt he was important. And Zoltan too...

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it has always bothered me that the picture on the front of the unrevised gunsliger is of roland with what appears to be his pet crow on his shoulder like a pirate, as if zoltan had oy's role

of course one might argue that in another

Spoiler:

time through the loop

roland killed brown and took zoltan with him

but still, that illustration bugs me lol

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I'm pretty sure the illustration must be of David. But that presents a problem, too. Roland was barely a young man in the time of David.

i think of brown as a plot device. he's there so roland has someone to talk to in order to get out his backstory to the reader.

I would agree that Brown is a very interesting character. He is definately a plot device to allow Roland to tell his backstory at the onset, however I always thought of him as more, particularly after reading about him again in W&G. He instigates Susan's death...granted the crowd was already there and Rhea/Cordelia wanted to give her her ticket...but it seems that the crowd needed a spark..and it was Brown (or the farmer with the lamb slaughterer's eyes) that initially did what no one else could (up to that point).

Roland thinks to himself that perhaps Brown is the man in black...this is an interesting line of thought as Flagg (or any one of his different personas, which Walter appears to be one) has often been at the root of mass violence (see the examples laid out in The Stand)...and this would have been just another example of what Flagg does best...although this time it would seem a bit personal.

It is also interesting that Brown also appears to be seen (along with Sheb and others) flying in the Glass at the end of W&G...

Regardless, I think that Brown is a very notable and unique character in this series.

It's been some time since I read The Gunslinger.


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I can't remember exactly "when" Roland loops back into the desert... somewhere between Tull and the Waystation. When "the man in black fled across the desert, and the Gunslinger followed..." has Roland just left Brown's shack, or is he just about to arrive?
In either case, this would make Brown either the last person Roland interacts with before he "enters" the loop, or the first person he meets "within" the loop.
Not sure if this is significant, but I also find myself thinking of Brown more frequently than his role on the story would seem to justify.
I like the comment above about how Brown could be the first person Roland opened his heart to in a long long time - quite significant in that a major part of Roland's quest is re-finding his humanity/emotion/love.
Almost like Brown's some sort of "marker" at the loop "perimeter".

I believe that Roland encounters Brown just prior to entering the desert...therefore "the man in black fled across the desert, and the Gunslinger followed..." should have occurred sometime after Roland left Brown. Therefore, I think if anything, Brown would be the last person that Roland encounters prior to starting the loop which begins at the marker "the man in black fled across the desert, and the Gunslinger followed..."

Zoltan. He's the one that bugs me. I have some vague memory of some kind of video game or amusement machine with a mechanical talking bird on it, possibly even named Zoltan. Was that part of some old movie from the 70's or 80's? I just can't remember.

You are almost certainly thinking of Zoltar (not Zoltan) a fortune telling machine that changes Tom Hanks in the movie Big.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Brice

You are almost certainly thinking of Zoltar (not Zoltan) a fortune telling machine that changes Tom Hanks in the movie Big.

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That's the one. Thanks!

My pleasure! :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by flaggwalkstheline

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LadyHitchhiker

I always felt he was important. And Zoltan too...

---

it has always bothered me that the picture on the front of the unrevised gunsliger is of roland with what appears to be his pet crow on his shoulder like a pirate, as if zoltan had oy's role

of course one might argue that in another

Spoiler:

time through the loop

roland killed brown and took zoltan with him

but still, that illustration bugs me lol

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I seriously like that idea of Zoltan joining the loop!