Walking backwards?

**JohnDalglish** · January 11th, 2011

Originally Posted by blunthead

The phenomenon is explained in time as you read, if you read further. I do not distrust sK to somehow not have been aware of what he was doing, and so need to be in the habit of falling back on excuses. sK is not paranoid, has never hidden behind anybody, has always been genuinely prolific. Anyone who can conceive of the possibility that sK has ever been "perfunctorily lazy" seems uniquely detached.

Hi,

Or at the very least semi-detached?

Hear hear, Blunthead!

Long days and pleasant nights

**bobledrew** · January 11th, 2011

Blunthead, can you point me to the explanation? Even if SK got it wrong here, I don't call it either perfunctory laziness or ingenuity, but a mistake. They happen every day where I come from. But I'd appreciate a reference to where it's explained.

**blunthead** · January 11th, 2011

Originally Posted by bobledrew

Blunthead, can you point me to the explanation? Even if SK got it wrong here, I don't call it either perfunctory laziness or ingenuity, but a mistake. They happen every day where I come from. But I'd appreciate a reference to where it's explained.

I do not recall the precise locations in the text, but the gist of the references is the Ka-tet travels between worlds which differ in certain, and sometimes fundamental, respects. As they proceed on their journey these differences manifest dramatically; specifically, time and direction become more and more skewed, requiring they become exclusively reliant on The Beam, which remains true.

**jeffg** · February 23rd, 2011

This direction thing is something that completely throws me every time I come across it. Like most (all?) readers, I have a picture in my mind of the location and action as it unfolds, then this mixup of east/west left/right brings me up short and breaks me out of the narrative. Effectively, I just ignore the error and carry on. But the spell has been broken.

**CorbinKale** · February 23rd, 2011

I noted it, but didn't spend more than a minute trying to reconcile the conflicting directions.

I am pretty adept at map reading and orienteering, but I still say East, when I mean West. There is something in my mind that equates East with left and West with right. I know which way I am going, but I have trouble verbalizing those two directions. Being so afflicted, I quickly forgive when others get their directions reversed and inverted.

**NPhorrorfan** · June 1st, 2011

That was killing me when I was reading it. Found myself going back pages just to make sure. I guess things are switched a little . . . ?? who knows ??

**jellydonut25** · July 18th, 2011

This book is my least favorite in the DT series and this is one of the reasons why...it's a confusing, challenging book and while reading it i can never help but think it seems a little long-winded to boot...

**Sophius** · July 18th, 2011

My theory is that Stephen King wrote this in originally as a mistake, but when he noticed it in his revision, he decided to keep it in and make reality begin to waver due to the instability of the beams.

**Ragan** · August 3rd, 2011

At the time, Roland was being dragged by Eddie, and it doesn't say whether his head was facing north or south. If he was facing south while being dragged, turning his head to the left would be looking to the east.