An error in Mr. King's book?? ... Good grief!

[bev mcquain]

My wife is an avid Stephen King fan. She reads and re-reads every book by the author.
She has been obsessed by passages in the 'The Drawing of the Three, Dark Tower II, The Prisoner'.
My spouse is practically a cartographer. She is ever-aware of the direction that she/we are headed, so she can clearly visualise the travels of the hero of the story.

The chapter mentioned above, documents that Roland has been walking West for years, and arrives at the Western Sea.

"He watched the sun come up over the mountain."
Which way should he walk? "He had come from the east, he could not walk West. That left North and South. North was the answer his heart told. North."
With "The sea to his right, and the mountains to his left"
This, and several mentions later, prove to her that the Gunslinger is walking South.

Can someone clear this up, or contact the proofreader and beg him to correct the chapter so she can get on with the series.

Hile Gunslinger!

 

[steve12553]

Three posibilities: 1) Physical laws as we know it don't apply, 2) He's walking backwards, or 3)there is a mistake in the book.
Best to just consider this a mistake by the character (momentary disorientation) and move on. If this was a mystery or certain types of Science Fiction where the detail were more critical it might be more important but this has too many Fantasy elements in it. You can probably just let it go.

 

[Gordian Knot]

Actually I vote for the "walking backwards" theory. That is thinking outside the box!

 

[Christopher Lee]

Definitely the walking backwards story. What fun an adventure would be never knowing where you're headed!

 

[Ursa major]

What fun an adventure would be never knowing where you're headed!

And this would be quite poignant in the context of the Dark Tower series....

 

[HoopyFrood]

Could be that he thinks he wants to go North, but his feet take him South -- Ka decides.

Or...and I could be misremembering, but I think (it's been a long time since I read the books) I seem to recall that we find out that the world is unravelling in such a way that even the points of the compass are wandering from their usual positions.

Anyway, this thread was brought back at an oddly good time - just earlier I was thinking about the biggest mistake in these books.

SPOILERS

In the Dark Tower, Susannah is distraught next to the terribly wounded Eddie. She's then described as "leaping to her feet". Yeah, if you know the character, you know that that isn't quite possible

 

[Ursa major]

Yes, it should definitely have been "leaping towards her feet".

​

 

[Christopher Lee]

Indeed Ursa, quite poignant. . That's funny she was refered to as leaping to her feet. Too many mean jokes coming to mind.

 

[biodroid]

Mistakes happen in books. Think about it this way, SK has to keep in mind of all the things, characters, setting flow of story etc. just to entertain you and then makes one little mistake and people jump down his throat. That is a bit unfair. Apparently in the Harry Potter books the classrooms are in different parts of Hogwarts in each book.

 

[JMGA196]

Remember what the first book said "time does not flow in an orderly fashion. Sometimes, even the sun rises in the north and sets in the east"

 

[BigBadBob141]

Oh well, we all make mistakes, to err is human ect.
I think there was a well known SF author who wrote many years ago about exploring the Moon using a helicopter!

 

[Michael Colton]

Wait, I should stop building my interstellar helicopter? Why did no one tell me earlier?

 

[BigBadBob141]

How about the scientist who predicted atomic powered vacuum cleaners.
Talk about giving you a glowing feeling!

 

[Mister_Oy]

This has bugged me for years!

Still - when I mentally picture Roland walking along the beach I have the sea to his left!

 

[Danny McG]

Remember what the first book said "time does not flow in an orderly fashion. Sometimes, even the sun rises in the north and sets in the east"

I have this morning spent an hour skimming through the first book and can't find where it says that

 

[Paul_C]

I have this morning spent an hour skimming through the first book and can't find where it says that

Wikipedia says "Roland's world is said to have "moved on", and it appears to be coming apart at the seams. Mighty nations have been torn apart by war, entire cities and regions vanish without a trace and time does not flow in an orderly fashion. Sometimes, even the sun rises in the north and sets in the east." but there's no indication that it's a quote from the book.

Is your copy a revised version ?

 

[Danny McG]

Yeah, mine is one of the revised editions, maybe the quote was in the copy @JMGA196 has, presumably one of the earlier printings

 

[Paul_C]

A quick google suggests that there are one or two other errors in his books, though that doesn't meant that on this occasion it wasn't deliberate.

Stephen King Mistakes, bloopers and errors in his books

 

[BigBadBob141]

As I said before everyone makes mistakes, my science teacher once said that Mars had a captured rotation, which it hadn't, it's roughly 24 hours 37 and a half minutes which I knew then by reading SF. He was probably thinking of Mercury, which as it turns out now doesn't!
Stephen Fry said on QI that there had been three US presidents assassinated when I know there was four, Lincolin, Garfield, McKinley & Kennedy!
Nobody's perfect, shock horror, not even me, through I know that is very, very hard to believe!!!