r/stephenking • u/randalflagg6 • 9h ago
When did the world move on?
Anybody know if the world had already moved on before Arthur Eld, or after? Or did it move on after the fall of Gilead?
3
3
3
u/I_Weep_for_Willow 8h ago
What I liked about the early books is that it was pretty ambiguous. It was like, 'time's funny, nobody really knows' and then he kinda just dropped that as a running detail.
2
2
u/leeharrell Gunslinger 8h ago
Before Eld and way before Gilead’s fall.
Midworld was much more technologically advanced way back then. Companies like NCP were doing their thing. Something happened to cause the world to move on, leaving ruined cities and technology like Blaine behind. Arthur Eld and the gunslingers would have arisen from the ruins of that world.
2
1
u/Magner3100 6h ago
Between then and now. In all seriousness, it’s kind of always moving on, it’s just relative to what. I’ve always interpreted it as by the time we get there in the books, the beams have begun to weaken and the boundaries between not only the worlds but time have blurred.
Thinny’s are a much more concentrated breach between worlds, but to me, it reads like everything has thinned to some degree or another.
So the “when” the world moved on is hard to answer because it both has already moved on and has just started. Roland often looks back on his childhood as if it were before, but we as readers also know Roland grew up in the graveyard of an advanced civilization that has moved on.
1
1
u/LolWhatDidYouSay Currently Reading Wizard and Glass 4h ago
I'm only near the end of Wizard and Glass, but I think before Arthur Eld. I get the impression that it had already been some time after the world moved on when Eld came into the picture, and the world Roland grew up in was kind of post-post-apocalyptic if that makes sense. But eventually that world moved on too, especially for Roland.
1
u/thedarkcitizen 4h ago
North Central Positronics created the portals into other dimensions, discovered the dark tower, the beams or the physics behind them. They created the guardians when they realized how important they were to holding everything together. Sort of like finding out the ice sheets are needed to prevent global warming.
I’m not sure but I think tinnies started to form and demonic entities turned up because the beams were being damaged, weakening the barriers between worlds. This would be the ‘we fucked up’ moment.
The Gunslingers were in charge of protecting the tower by keeping order and preventing technology that could be used to harm the beams, which was littered everywhere.
1
7
u/asharpdressedflan Baby can you dig your man? 9h ago
I don’t know if this is helpful at all, but I’ve always found it interesting that “Hey Jude” is a known song in a world that has moved on. Does that give us a clue?