Can I just make an observation and say that Stephen King does not know how the Cardinal Directions work? He keeps saying that they're moving North, and then say that the sun is in the West, to their right, which is incorrect. West would be to the left. Are the directions backwards in Roland's world?

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9 years ago
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Daniel If you pay some attention you'll notice that things such as time, space, direction, etc are inconsistent or just plain incorrect in Roland's universe. The world has "moved on" as they say.

"Sometimes, even the sun rises in the north and sets in the east."
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dar...

It could be an oversight, but most likely meant to raise that exact question: Are east and west swapped in Roland's universe, or is this simply a symptom of a world that has 'moved on'?

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Jim There are lots of things he doesn't understand, including Schizophrenia.

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Trey Piepmeier I think this must be an oversight and not just a sign that the world has moved on. It's so consistently wrong. Even the map in the Concordance book shows them moving actual north with the ocean on the left, which is not how things are described in the book. I've been meaning to write about this for a while. Lily, yours is the only mention of this I've seen online. Kudos. :)

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Grant Hayward I noticed that too, but I also noticed that all three people who's mind he entered were in New York (Eastern Coast), and they were walking up the western sea's coastline. I'm pretty sure that's a deliberate thing, like a mirror image of the world, or something. Just the way he points out the directions in his writing shows that he's deliberately(but not so deliberately) pointing it out.

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André Pereira I can't be certain if it is a lack of knowledge from King about the cardinal directions. You are reading a fantasy series, and Roland's world isn't exactly a copy of ours own (maybe isn't just a matter of time passed and also space, multi-universes, etc...)

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Charity Yeah he was trying hard to show the world as different, but honestly it was just disorienting in an unnecessary way. I get that it was intentional, but at times it seems almost self-indulgent writing on King's part, which pains me to say because I truly think he's the most excellent and notable author of our time. But he tried something new. It didn't go over that great, but it's still nice to see successful authors experiment with the craft instead of just honing the money-making formula they stumbled upon.

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