Forums » Smalltalk » The Gunslinger

Like the title says. Roland Deschain, of Gilead in the Mid World is the shit. Or Roland the Gunslinger. I'm sixteen. I read the first book for the first time Friday night. I'm on page 215 of the third right now.

Anyway, I have a couple of questions relating to the Gunslinger's world, and since I don't want any spoilers, I'm refusing to use Google. If anyone is willing to help me out with these, I'd much appreciate it.

1: What does he mean by "thread" when referring to animals? In the first book, his mule before it dies, is a "true-threaded" animal.

2: Why has his world "moved on"?

3: The third talks about "Beams." Why are they so important, other than the reasons stated in novel?

If any of the answers lead to spoilers for even the seventh book, I don't want to know. Sorry. But Roland's journey has become my own, in some ways. My mother is fighting breast cancer, and the continued survival of her and my family as a whole has become my Dark Tower. I want to know how his journey ends, and then work to finish my own.

Threaded Stock, or an animal being well threaded, those would be refrences to bloodlines and quality. A clue is when he is in Tull, and its claimed the meat he is eating is from threaded stock, and Roland dosent believe it, and thinks the animal it came from probably had an extra leg, or three eyes or something. (I don't recall the phrasing exactly.) The rest is really just stuff you have to learn through the course of the story.

Long days and pleasant nights

Ah! I love the Dark Tower series, I kinda grew up with it! Haven't gone through it in ages, though, so I can't really remember much.. So at the risk of sounding dumb, I'll take a stab at your first question and say that "true-threaded" probably means something like...having a tough spirit. "Thread" probably means something like the spiritual connection of living things.

Edit: and, heh, answer before mine sounds way better.

Ah. Thanks! That explains the whole three eyes, three legs gaff. Caught me off guard, it did.

Well, Roland certainly has a tough spirit.

Thanks, you two. I guess I'll figure out the last two questions by reading the books, since they seem to involve spoilers.