The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.
almost 20 years since i first read that opening line, and it still sucks me in every time.
okay, so...chapter one. we meet the gunslinger for the very first time ever. he's been treking for quite some time. he's already left 4 waterskins behind...this is the first we hear of the manni, khef, the horn and the beam. can i just say...who the hell picks a piece of bacon out of someone else's firepit and eats it? i mean, yeah...it's bacon...but still.
some old guy has given him a silver compass to give to the Man Jesus. i wonder what ever happened to that compass?
a raven-headed taheen...searching for algul siento...did one of "the holes in the world" drop him off in the wrong place, or what?
flashback
so, the gunslinger meets a farmer named brown. he's got a bird named zoltan who sings a song about farts. good stuff. did anyone else think it was creepy when zoltan was rapping on the walls outside, tak-tak-tak? anyway...roland thinks of sheemie...aw, bless. brown thinks this is the afterlife. roland's mule dies, the bird eats it's eyes. (gross) roland decides to tell this desert dweller who has invited him in a little bedtime story.
so, as far as i can tell, the story of tull is a flashback within a flashback, right?
anyway, roland is strolling into town, his mule at his side...hey, jude is one of the first things that he hears. cool. the "sparklights" along the highway are dead, and no one passing in the coaches or wagons wants to look at him. is it the guns? all i know is that the enmity he meets in tull seems quite different than the reactions that people have towards him later in the series. he passes quite a few people, most of whom ignore him. the only thing i'm going to point out here is that he passes some women in slacks and high collared blouses. slacks. hmmm. okay, so he boards the mule...incest. nice.
sheb's. hey, we know that name, don't we? oh, wait...that comes later. nevermind. pigs dance the commala. awesome. so, he orders some mutie-burgers, washes em down with a beer. no one has any fucking change in this town? sucks for him. some weird guy with bad breath comes up to him asking for change. damn, he's bold. so, anyway...he takes the bar-matron to bed, and she tells him a bedtime story. flashback within a flashback within a flashback. also nice. seems the weirdo panhandler was dead not too long ago. he was all laid out in the bar (they were going to eat off of those tables again?) when in comes the man in black. he starts talking to allie of worlds next door and offers to show them a trick. apparently, he's some type of acrobat, as well, cos he's jumping over the table and the weirdo's dead body over and over again. meanwhile, allie's taking care of herself under the bar. in public?! for shame. okay, so...weirdo nort comes back to life...he smells. allie runs and hides, and when she comes back, everyone else is gone 'cept ol' weird weed chewing guy. he's got a letter for her.
blahblahblah19blahblah19blah.
blahblah,
walter o'dim
(19)
end flashback within a flashback within a flashback.
hmmm. seems that if she wants to know the secrets of the afterlife, she's just got to say the word 19. i like roland's advice on how to avoid it. there is no such number. as if.
okay, so sheb comes running up the stairs with a knife in a jealous rage. roland breaks his wrists, and reminds him of their time together in mejis when shebbie-poo helped burn our hero's young love at the stake. scared as hell, he runs off...i wonder who bandaged him up?
let's see...next roland pays a visit to the preacher lady. seems she's been hanging around tull for sometime between 2 and 12 years. oh, and she came from the desert, so she knows what he's got coming for him. she's one of those scary types who should probably be handling snakes. she tells him that she's carrying the crimson king's child. well, walter's too. hmmm. boy, am i glad all this shit gets explained later on. um, did it seem like she might have been enjoying having a gun up her lady parts a little too much? grosser still. and it never mentions him cleaning up afterward, even though we know him to be quite fastidious about such things. grossest yet.
ah, here comes the massacre. allie broke down and said the magic word to the weirdo, and now she wants to die. much obliged, ma'am. a total of 58 dead at the end of the "feverish parade." the only one who manages to get a decent wound in edgewise is a kid...who loses his head a moment later.
um...think i'll go make myself some burgers and have a beer (or three). nothing like killing folk to work up a terrible hunger and thirst. next morning, all the bodies are gone. damn, that desert wind is strong.
end flashback within a flashback.
brown still lets him stay the night. that's awfully cool of him. he just wants to live, and every time, i'm surprised again that he gets to. roland heads off the next morning...brown says he'll eat the mule. how nice of him.
end flashback. roland wakes up, thinking of susan and cort. hey, i wonder who this cort guy is? maybe we'll find out next chapter.
discuss.