Riddle me this

[Srbo]

I don`t understand how this is possible:

In the end of the Waste Lands, the lives of Roland and his gang depend on riddles and if Blaine would not know the answer to at least one of them in order to not kill suicide.
But, on page 523 (2003 edition, pb, hodder & stoughton), when Roland went underground to save Jake from Ticky, in his first encounter with Blaine ( when he first heard it ), Blaine says:

'Tell me one of your riddles, gunslinger.'

Roland thought for a moment, and what came to mind was Cuthberts favorite riddle. " Allright, Blaine " he said. I will. What`s better than all the gods and worse than Old Man Splitfoot? Dead people eat it always; live people who it is to die slow."
There was a long pause, Jake and Oy waiting in anticipation and after a while Blaine says:
" Ask me another " and Roland wouldn`t.

So, Blaine did not know the answer right then and there to one of the riddles already.


Is this one major oversight by Sai King ( hard to believe ) or does the explanation for this come in W&G or didn`t I understand that or what ?
I mean, this doesn`t make sense. Their lives depend on an unsolved riddle and there already is one...

Hope you understand what I`m asking, guys.

Thanks for the help.

[Bryan James]

"Nothing" is the answer to the riddle.

Blaine had become a sentient being. Even though Blaine was planning to commit "electronicide," it still couldn't comprehend dreaming about either electric sheep or a blank eternity.

Blaine knew, but it didn't want to answer. Blaine was scared of true nothing.

Humans have a similar defense mechanism.

~BJS

[Srbo]

Well, okay, thanks Bryan, but...how do you know that Blaine knew the answer , it is not explained anywhere in Waste Lands !?

Is that explained then in W&G ?

It`s confusing...I don`t know for sure that Blaine knew the answer...and if he did, Roland should have just asked him the same riddle while they were travelling with Blaine to Topeka, right there at the end of the book. And if Blaine didn`t know, or wouldn`t answer, they would be saved right there already.

I`m not saying you are wrong, but those parts just don`t make any sense, not to me, anyway.

[sam peebles]

Or maybe Blaine was giving his answer to the riddle by "saying nothing"?

[Srbo]

Or maybe Blaine was giving his answer to the riddle by "saying nothing"?

That very well may be the case.
But to all the other riddles he gave an answer - happily. No matter how stupid the riddle was.

I just can`t believe that this was an oversight on Sai King`s part...

[hesterloli]

I don`t understand how this is possible:

Blaine says:

'Tell me one of your riddles, gunslinger.'

Roland thought for a moment, and what came to mind was Cuthberts favorite riddle. " Allright, Blaine " he said. I will. What`s better than all the gods and worse than Old Man Splitfoot? Dead people eat it always; live people who it is to die slow."

So, Blaine did not know the answer right then and there to one of the riddles already.


Hi Sarbo. In my edition of The Waste Lands Blaine responds to Roland's riddle, "THE ANSWER IS NOTHING, IS IT NOT?" And Roland answers, "That's right." So Blaine answered the riddle correctly. Am I missing something here? Blaine answers all the riddles posed by any of the four correctly as far as I remember.

[All Hail The Crimson King]

Blaine answers all the riddles posed by any of the four correctly as far as I remember.

There is only one riddle that we the reader never read answered but it is presumed to have been answered. King had a contest for the right answer to that riddle. It's not the one mentioned by the maker of this thread though, that was, like you pointed out answered by Blaine.

[futuramaguy07]

In my Signet mass market paperback, the riddle the maker of the thread asked was most definitely answered by Blaine, a few paragraphs away from the question itself. I am curious about what this riddle is that was not answered is though.

[OhhDiscordia]

Possibly if you have the revised, revisioned version King would've changed this, to where blaine simply answers "nothing", by saying nothing. I mean it makes sense. I don't have my copy but, I honestly remebmer blaine saying, "the answer is nothing, is it not?" Maybe something wrong with your book. That doesn't seem right to me

[FirstEdition]

How odd, but in my edition, the question is answered, if I remember correctly.

[nostrom]

Roland thought for a moment, and what came to mind was Cuthbert's favorite riddle. "All right, Blaine,"
he said, "I will. What's better than all the gods and worse than Old Man Splitfoot? Dead people eat it
always; live people who eat it die slow."
There was a long pause. Jake put his face in Oy's fur to try to get away from the stink of the roasted
Gray.
"Be careful, gunslinger." The voice was as small as a cool puff of breeze on summer's hottest day. The
voice of the machine had come from all the speakers, but this one came only from the speaker directly
overhead. "Be careful, Jake of New York. Remember that these are The Drawers. Go slow and be very
careful."
Jake looked at the gunslinger with widening eyes. Roland gave his head a small, faint shake and raised
one finger. He looked as if he was scratching the side of his nose, but that finger also lay across his lips,
and Jake had an idea Roland was actually telling him to keep his mouth shut.
"A CLEVER RIDDLE," Blaine said at last. There seemed to be real admiration in its voice. "THE
ANSWER IS NOTHING, IS IT NOT?"


That's pulled straight off of the pdf version of the book, and it matches both the paperback I have and the one that a friend of mine has as well. So incase you really had to know, there's what you missed, if anything.

[GNTLGNT]

Srbo,
Maybe your Hodder edition lost something in the "translation if you will...coz my copy mirrors most others who have responded, so you've not gotten water in your circuits my friend-just a fornit who fell asleep at the keyboard while putting together your copy...:smile2: