The Dark Tower Q&A - Ask a question, get an answer! *spoilers*

[Tatts4Life]

It's been several years since I finished the series. I just started doing a re read and finished the first book and have a couple of questions.

Why is Roland chasing after the Man In Black?
and
Why is he looking for the Dark Tower?

[Jean]

Tatts, you are pulling my paws...

[Bev Vincent]

It's been several years since I finished the series. I just started doing a re read and finished the first book and have a couple of questions.

Why is Roland chasing after the Man In Black?
and
Why is he looking for the Dark Tower?

1) He owes him money
2) He can't remember where he put it

[Jean]

[Xile]

So dad is working his way through the series now and is about to finish book four. Can't stop talking about it and I haven't seen the man so excited about something in years. He asked a question this morning that reminded me of a question back when I read W&G. Does Mejis have demographics that suggests heavy spanish influence? I can't really remember everyone's name but I recall wondering why "everyone" has spanish-sounding last names but none are described by King to actually LOOK Spanish. For instance, the Delgados'. What were some of the other Mejis character's surnames? They were all mainly spanish surnames right?

Also, after Roland leaves Gilead, there is never any mention of him leaving his world. So basically, he started walking at some point in his young life and that's where we pickup at The Gunslinger. What happened in the mean-time? How did the world move on? Where are all of the people? All I remember about this question is that time is somehow different in his world.

[Xile]

No answers yet? Does that mean everyone is pretty much clueless? I presumed you all to be Tower Junkies.

[fernandito]

I don't remember where I read it, but if my memory serves me correctly Mejis is essentially a twinner of Mexico.

[Merlin1958]

So dad is working his way through the series now and is about to finish book four. Can't stop talking about it and I haven't seen the man so excited about something in years. He asked a question this morning that reminded me of a question back when I read W&G. Does Mejis have demographics that suggests heavy spanish influence? I can't really remember everyone's name but I recall wondering why "everyone" has spanish-sounding last names but none are described by King to actually LOOK Spanish. For instance, the Delgados'. What were some of the other Mejis character's surnames? They were all mainly spanish surnames right?

Also, after Roland leaves Gilead, there is never any mention of him leaving his world. So basically, he started walking at some point in his young life and that's where we pickup at The Gunslinger. What happened in the mean-time? How did the world move on? Where are all of the people? All I remember about this question is that time is somehow different in his world.

OK, I'll give it a try. 1. IMHO the "spanish" theme was more a result of a "Southwest USA"/"Tex-Mex" culture than truly "Spanish". Much like So-Cal and other areas have "Spanish" towns (i.e. San Diego, Los Angeles and Santa Fe). Mejis was a logical progression from those origins.

2. It was always my understanding that the world had "moved on" long before Roland started tracking TMIB. Moving on represented a sort of Apocalypse brought on by North Central Positronics and that generation due to the mixing of magic and technology. As to what happened between Mejis and DT I well, TWTTKH is part of that story I believe. The "in-between" story, to my knowledge, has yet to be told in full.

That about sum it up for ya?

[Xile]

Kinda, right? So Gilead would have been a post-apocalyptic town?

[Merlin1958]

Kinda, right? So Gilead would have been a post-apocalyptic town?

Yep

[BigSchu22]

I just wanted to say something in regard to Godslugs earlier post about RF / Marten / etc. After reading the DT series a couple of times and also all the other King books with connections to the series, even the vague ones like a Buick 8, I know that Flagg / Man in Black / etc. is all one in the same person, but I too was confused at first. MIB admits that he was Marten at the golgotha in the Gunslinger, but the foreward / recap of the story so far at the beginning of Drawing of the Three explicitly states that they are separate individuals. I have an older copy of Drawing of the Three, so I'm guessing this was before the revised edition of the Gungslinger and King's retcon (in the later DT books) that MIB is actually Flagg and the other villians from most of the other stories.

I don't actually remember MIB acknowledging his actions as Flagg or the wizard in Eyes of the Dragon or any other story at any point though, does he?

[cupofcoffee]

I think the differing descriptions of Marten/Walter/Flagg as separate people or the same person are mostly continuity mistakes. I get the feeling King flip-flopped multiple times throughout writing the series on whether he wanted them to be separate characters or the same, and the result is this spread of different versions of the novels—some of which see Walter die multiple times, be multiple characters, not be not multiple characters, and possibly even be John Farson at certain points.

Spoiler:

Somewhere in book 7, Flagg's internal monologue tells us that he's an opportunist who served under John Farson only until it was convenient to switch. He also tells Mordred that he once loved Roland's mother, suggesting that Flagg and Marten are definitely meant to be the same person. But later, that guy in the tunnel under the Dixie Pig recognizes Roland and taunts him by saying Roland's mother "did suck John Farson with such glee," suggesting that Marten and Farson were actually the same person.

And then of course there was the original version of The Gunslinger, where the Man in Black is unquestionably dead at the end of the story. King openly admits that one got a retcon somewhere down the line.

To make things even more confusing, Walter/Marten/Flagg appears in different forms in other books. In The Stand, Flagg appears to have none of his Dark Tower back story. When they hypnotize Tom Cullen, Tom tells them that Flagg doesn't know himself, and it seems to be true—when Flagg is first seen in the novel, walking down a road, the reader learns that Flagg's memories of the past are strange and fragmented. He vaguely recalls being in the military and the KKK, but he doesn't understand himself or his purpose; only that he's beginning to recover his ability to "do magic." Ordinarily I'd just say that's The Stand and doesn't really apply to the Dark Tower mythos, but in The Waste Lands, Flagg appears to the Tick-Tock man in a very Randall Flaggy getup and mentions his soft spot for the Trashcan Man, a main character from The Stand.

[Jean]

Dear friends,

please keep it in mind that this thread is only for quick Q/A exchange. If something calls for discussion, please find (or start) a thread where this discussion can be pursued.

[BigSchu22]

Oh, I apologize to you... and bears!

[Jean]

to prove that bears are not in the least offended, they found for you this thread:

http://www.thedarktower.org/palaver/...is-many-guises

[Dandelo]

Back after a long time -- just got a chance to finish Wind Through the Keyhole.

Something struck me as off and I wanted to ask about it: So Roland is the one telling the story -- and while telling it, he speaks of a Red King. Why then later on when we the readers first learn of the Crimson King, Roland mentions being unaware of him?

...sorry for not referencing exact books/quotes, etc. Also apologies for not properly formatting spoilers (not sure there are any here)

[beam*seeker]

I just wanted to say something in regard to Godslugs earlier post about RF / Marten / etc. After reading the DT series a couple of times and also all the other King books with connections to the series, even the vague ones like a Buick 8, I know that Flagg / Man in Black / etc. is all one in the same person, but I too was confused at first. MIB admits that he was Marten at the golgotha in the Gunslinger, but the foreward / recap of the story so far at the beginning of Drawing of the Three explicitly states that they are separate individuals. I have an older copy of Drawing of the Three, so I'm guessing this was before the revised edition of the Gungslinger and King's retcon (in the later DT books) that MIB is actually Flagg and the other villians from most of the other stories.

I don't actually remember MIB acknowledging his actions as Flagg or the wizard in Eyes of the Dragon or any other story at any point though, does he?

Probably deserves its own thread, but maybe he is an unholy trinity that is sometimes same, sometimes different? Not to be blasphemous or anything...

[stkmw02]

I kind of go along with that borderline-blashemous unholy trinitiy idea... perhaps it was the same "evil" embodied in different forms, which is why they are separate individuals but the same villains?

[costanza]

In The Stand Tom Cullen, in a trance, tells the guys that Flagg is Legion. IT also refers to itself as Legion. As does Linoge in Storm of the Century. There may be more but those three are off the top of my head. I don't know if that means that they're all the same creature in different guises or if they're a big group of baddies, minions of CK, looking to cause trouble.

[Brainslinger]

I don't think they all server the Crimson King, or that they're all the same, but I think it refers to many demonic entities rather than just one in many guises.

[Neunzehn]

hey,

I recently saw episode seven of True Blood season five and was surprised to see Ka involved: http://s1.directupload.net/images/120802/knwyl2iu.jpg

funny, huh? where you think that came from? do you know other movies and series which mention the dark tower in on or the other way?


---
Neunzehn

[OchrisO]

Given that Lafayette is a medium, I expect he was talking about the Egyptian version of Ka.

The Ka (k3) was the Egyptian concept of vital essence, that which distinguishes the difference between a living and a dead person, with death occurring when the ka left the body. The Egyptians believed that Khnum created the bodies of children on a potter's wheel and inserted them into their mothers' bodies. Depending on the region, Egyptians believed that Heket or Meskhenet was the creator of each person's Ka, breathing it into them at the instant of their birth as the part of their soul that made them be alive. This resembles the concept of spirit in other religions.

The Egyptians also believed that the ka was sustained through food and drink. For this reason food and drink offerings were presented to the dead, although it was the kau (k3w) within the offerings that was consumed, not the physical aspect. The ka was often represented in Egyptian iconography as a second image of the king, leading earlier works to attempt to translate ka as double.

I figure it was meant in a "I am as I was made" sort of way, rather than a fate/destiny type Dark Tower reference. I could be completely wrong in that, though.

[Neunzehn]

aww... I hope you are wrong! otherwise I would be sad because of a destroyed dream. )

[Chantarelle]

It's been several years since I finished the series. I just started doing a re read and finished the first book and have a couple of questions.

Why is Roland chasing after the Man In Black?
and
Why is he looking for the Dark Tower?

1) He owes him money
2) He can't remember where he put it

This had me literally laughing out loud. Nice to find something so funny in a thread that's mostly deep and serious pondering.

Now my quick question - There's a part of DT VII, Chapter 4 that ends with Susannah saying, 'I don't even want to be on the top floor of that place after dark'. The next part is Stephen King waking from a dream and typing those exact words. So he's writing the books in a kind of 'real time' order (unlike when he meets Roland and Eddie). He then starts thinking about the car accident and how Roland and Jake couldn't have possibly been there. But by this time he would have already written most of DTVII, so how did the fictional author feel about writing himself into the book. And they were true events for him.....

My head hurts now, but during this re-read, it just doesn't gel for me that the Stephen King in the book could have written so much and yet not know anything. I liked it a lot more when he met Roland and Eddie before Eddie had been created. Is this just an oversight from King? I'm looking forward to reading the 'blooper' thread on this site (if I can find it again), but as I've spent most of today reading the 30 pages on this thread, it's going to have to wait

[Tatts4Life]

Nice to see people don't take questions seriously in this thread. Was it really something stupid that roland was looking for the MiB to see how he can reach the top of the tower? Also was his wanting to reach the top of the tower so he can save his world? Like I said it was a long time ago that I read the books and I forget if it was ever specifically told with those two things.