Dallas (November 1963) / Fedic

[Letti]

As Susannah was trying to get to the New York / Fedic door travelling on the back of Nigel she saw many doors and she saw this one too: Dallas (November 1963) / Fedic

What are you thoughts about it? Why did this very door exist? Did the men of the Red King go there to watch OR to make things happen? Maybe both?
Did they want to see the fall of a gunslinger or did they want to kill him?
These questions bring up many more questions in my head but let's start with these.

[turtlex]

Letti - I took this as a reference to the Kennedy Assassination.

Perhaps, if Susannah had chosen that door she could have intervened? Changed history? But, then never reached NYC.

ie : The assassination of John F. Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, took place on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas, at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time (18:30 UTC) in Dealey Plaza.

[Letti]

Yes, I am sure it's a reference to the Kennedy Assassination but I don't know if they had this door to go there to enjoy the view or to make the whole thing happen.

[turtlex]

I thought it was a portal to the event.... like it was up to Susannah....

Find NYC and Jake/Eddie....
..... or change history.

What a choice, hunh? Do you change the course of history? Or follow your heart?

[jayson]

I thought of it more as a door to simply watch the event itself. He mentions it around the same time as the door to Sept 11, 2001. It seems like he's trying to say the people who built the doors were using the ability to travel to different times as a gruesome tourist attraction.

Whether or not Susannah, or anyone else, could have gone through that door and "changed" something would bring up a lot of questions about what world that actually was through that door. Was it the JFK murder in the Keystone World? In Susannah's world? In one of the many worlds Callahan went to on his travels? Would saving one Kennedy save all Kennedys?

[turtlex]

Well, I say "change" because of that whole Butterfly Effect theory. Who knows what would have happened if a woman in a wheelchair on Dealy Plaza might have caused a ruckus or something....

[jayson]

Right, but I still wonder how much of an effect it has if she does prevent the murder in that one specific world. With seemingly infinite worlds at play, does she save all the JFK's with that one act? Does she just save the one? Does saving that one change anything significant? Given King's inability to handle things like the Keystone world consistently, I tend not to think the door represented anything for Susannah to consider other than the morbid tourist trade of the people who built the doors. Of course, I could be wrong. It happens. :)

[turtlex]

Not often, no..

Morbid Tourist Parade .... That is so an album name, mister!

.. Here's my thought... who knows which world it is. I think that's the nudge in the pie. ( I just made that up ) What if, given a chance, she could change the world, her original world, that she was from - imagine the impact of that on all the people she knew, etc. But, all that would be at a huge cost.

However, likely I'm wrong... It happens a lot.

[jayson]

.. Here's my thought... who knows which world it is. I think that's the nudge in the pie. ( I just made that up ) What if, given a chance, she could change the world, her original world, that she was from - imagine the impact of that on all the people she knew, etc. But, all that would be at a huge cost.

It's definitely an interesting possibility and opens up all kinds of questions of possibilities. Who knows what impact it would have had on the civil rights movement if JFK had lived past 1963? And of course, as you suggest, if she had forsaken Roland's quest to take action in her own, the consequences could have been dire for all worlds. No point trying to "fix" one world if doing so might make them all collapse.

[alinda]

I agree with what Jayson has revealed..It seems like he's trying to say the people who built the doors were using the ability to travel to different times as a gruesome tourist attraction.
As to the rest, who can say for sure. I think it is a moot point anyway as we know the out come of Susannah's choice, she followed her heart, and in essence followed her own tower.

[Darkthoughts]

I also thought it was more a morbid spectacle, than an opportunity to change the past.
King references the Kennedy assasination alot in DT and other works.

[jayson]

King references the Kennedy assasination alot in DT and other works.

Yep, it was definitely a defining moment in time for many people King's age.

[turtlex]

King references the Kennedy assasination alot in DT and other works.

Yep, it was definitely a defining moment in time for many people King's age.

Besides just his age, really it's part of the culture of New England, more so than in other places, I've noticed.

[Woofer]

I saw it as a portal to view the event a la The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

[flaggwalkstheline]

they also had a portal to 9/11/01 as well
I thought of it as a spectacle 2 rather than a chance to change things...

I've been watching lost alot lately and I thought that the way desmond predicted but in the end couldnt stop charlies death was an excellant example of ka (abrams Im assuming is a tower junkie given his connection to the eventual DT film)
I think preventing JFKs' death once would have been like that, Ka meant him to die one way or another

[Letti]

Somehow I had the feeling that door wouldn't have opened for Susannah. Maybe not for anyone anymore.

[Chap]

My first and only though about that door and the similar ones was that they were there for entertainment/"tourism", that's it. :)

[pathoftheturtle]

I agree, although I'm not sure that the attraction was just the spectacle. Even in the future, folks are likely curious about the details there, what with all the conspiracy theories about it.


King references the Kennedy assasination alot in DT and other works.

Yep, it was definitely a defining moment in time for many people King's age.I think it's more than that; I figure the reference is thematic. It's a clue to the heart of meaning of the series. (O Discordia!) In Danse Macabre, and in Hearts In Atlantis, more insights appear, and SK describes his outlook on America and its effect on his outlook on writing. I do think that his age is key to TDT: another indication is how he uses time travel. (Ever realize that Eddie would have been born around the same year that Jake was?)