****If you have DT book 5 or 6 spoilers, please put them in spoiler boxes. Pure speculation doesn’t need “the box treatment,” though. ****
I just finished Black House, which I found fairly disappointing. However, I was intregued by the DT references that were in it.
I haven’t read the DT books for a couple or three years, so if I’m wrong here please let me know, ok? At one point in BH Parkus is talking to Jack and Sophie about gunslingers and corrects Sophie when she says that there is only one (Roland) left. " ‘He made at least three others.’ Parkus tells her. ’ I don’t know how that can be possible, but I believe it to be true.’ " We didn’t already know this for sure, did we? That his ka-tet were offically gunslingers, not just his companions, I mean.
If he could make them (Eddie, Susannah and Jake) true gunslingers, what are the implications for Jack Sawyer? At the end of BH he’s trapped in Territories, never to return to the real world. When Parkus and Sophie talk about it, he says " The business of the Tower is moving towards its climax. I believe that Jack Sawyer may have a part to play in that, although I can’t say for sure." IMO, this is foreshadowing that Jack will eventually be meeting up with Roland and co in one of the remaining DT books. Does anyone else find this plausable? Did you notice any other bits of foreshadowing or revelations in Black House?
I’ve pretty much given up on reading King anymore, except where it relates to the Dark Tower. It’s been a bit since I read BH, but the Territories seemed to be more like Roland’s world (with, IIRC, some explicit mentions of “Mid-world”, “End-world” and the wastelands) than they were in the Talisman. Plus, there’s the fact that the train Jack used in the first book to go through the wastelands (which I think they also included in BH) makes a pretty good parallel to Blaine, don’t you think?
<entering WAG mode>
Also, there has been some idle speculation among my friends that in the Talisman, Jack actually entered the tower itself. There were mentions of multiple levels of worlds (not just ours and the Territories), connected by the Talisman and/or the hotel. One theory that I especially like was that the dark hotel was the tower’s representation in our world, and Jack’s removal of the Talisman to save his mother was what started the decay of the Tower.
It wouldn’t surprise me at all that at some point in DT 5, 6, or 7 Jack joins Roland’s motley crew to atone for that act.
Finally, a good site to check for the various DT links to all King’s books: www.thedarktower.net
