Lud & Geography

[Ebdim9th]

As they cross one bridge, they can see another bridge much like it, that has already collapsed and fallen into the water. This may be New York, but if so, what are the Wastelands that are abutted directly against it? Also, this is described as maybe being several thousand years from our approximate when. Maybe it was San Fransisco, that's another possibility, with all the drastic geographic changes that are sometimes implied. Now if S.K. himself says Meijis is Mexico, well that settles that. Also, what happened to tapping oneself on the chest three times with knuckles to greet a man instead of to the neck to greet a woman? It seems this distinction has at least temporarily, by book four, been left by the wayside...

[Ebdim9th]

I know this is a double post, but Mod(s) you can change it into an edit or merge the two if you want...

I think I've figured out where Lud is. There are plains where that small town of the elders is on the way to Lud, but there is also the River Send. Add two more possible rivers and maybe a third bridge, with more plains and some mountains on the other side which might qualify as the wastelands after some unimaginable war where the land, like the top of an elevator, dropped drastically down as a result, if I'm reading S. King's description right. The result would be, like that Craven liveries or some such in Ritzy the next town over that DePape rides into looking for the Gunslingers' backtrail in the story of Meijis, a 'shout out' to George Romero and the city of Pittsburgh.

My offering then for 'Allworld' alternates is Lud = Pittsburgh.

The Pubes were afraid that Blaine, in anger, would reanimate thier dead and make them rise and come after them. Maybe this had happened before.

Also, another nice little touch, SK called 'em Luddites. They definitely lived in a post-technological world, there's no doubt about that.

[BlackThorn]

... This gives us a solid anchor by which we can somewhat interpret Roland's world.

This is an oxymoron. In Roland's world, the anchors have released their anchorage. If you were going to base anything on anything, I'd start with the beams, myself.

[Damaja]

I agree with Crop... Its all still fresh in my mind aswell, and Roland definatley looks at the New York skyline and the bridge in the distance and says hes looking at a younger version of Lud.. so there is no doubt in my mind that Lud is in fact New York.

[Ebdim9th]

As far as drastic geographic changes in Roland's world go, I do remember him telling Eddie that a trip which should have taken him weeks, I think he said, wound up taking him years, implying that the distance of the ground itself had expanded many thousands of miles... so if Lud is yet and still an alter-New York, that may explain some of the major changes in the land and waters around it.