THE DRAWING OF THE THREE: The Prisoner 4.iv-5.xxv

““It’s up to men to build things, paisan. It’s up to God to blow them down.” - Enrico Balazar

The breakneck pace of book two continues as Roland and Eddie turn the tables on Jack Andolini before going back through the door to wage war against Balazar and his gentlemen. In this episode Joe and Dan dig into the character of Il Roche and explore how things could have ended up for Henry Dean if his brother and the gunslinger had managed to save him. They break down the shootout in the Leaning Tower and discuss what might have happened to the two surviving members of Balazar’s ka-tet. 

NEXT WEEK’S READING

THE DRAWING OF THE THREE : The Lady of Shadows 3.vii-4.xviii + Re-shuffle + The Pusher 1.i-1.ii

CONTACT

Email: CosmicTurltePod@gmail.com

Twitter: @CosmicTurtle19

Threads & Instagram: @CosmicTurtlePod

Original Blog: ChurchOfTheCosmicTurtle.com

CREDITS

Hosted by Joe Rechtman & Dan Hanson

Music by Phil Hamilton

Edited by Joe Rechtman

Thankee-Sai to Stephen King for the Dark Tower series

THE DRAWING OF THE THREE: The Prisoner 1.i-4.iii

“There was deep steel in Eddie Dean, junkie or no junkie.”

One of Joe and Dan’s favorite characters enters the story as they follow Roland up the beach of the western sea. In this episode they enjoy a hypothetical chat about whether Eddie would have gotten through customs if Roland had never interfered with his life. They also discuss how these pages function as a survival guide for situations in which little is certain, and speculate about Jane Dorning’s potential as a gunslinger before getting into their unserious segments at the end of the show.

NEXT WEEK’S READING

THE DRAWING OF THE THREE : The Prisoner 4.iv-5.xxv

CONTACT

Email: CosmicTurltePod@gmail.com

Twitter: @CosmicTurtleBlog

Threads & Instagram: @CosmicTurtlePod

Original Blog: ChurchOfTheCosmicTurtle.com

CREDITS

Hosted by Joe Rechtman & Dan Hanson

Music by Phil Hamilton

Edited by Joe Rechtman

“Go then. There are other worlds than these.” - Jake Chambers

As we wrap up The Gunslinger and move into The Drawing of the Three, this week’s episode covers a handful of iconic scenes from the series. Together, Joe and Dan dig into questions about Gilead’s education policies, Gabrielle Deschain’s love affair with Marten Broadcloak and the possible motivations behind it. They discuss the validity of Roland’s guilt over what happened to Jake under the mountains, and palaver about the palaver in the Golgatha on the other side.

NEXT WEEK’S READING: The Drawing of the Three The Prisoner 1.i-4.iii

Email: CosmicTurltePod@gmail.com

Twitter: @CosmicTurtleBlog

Threads & Instagram: @CosmicTurtlePod

Original Blog: ChurchOfTheCosmicTurtle.com

CREDITS

Hosted by Joe Rechtman & Dan Hanson

Music by Phil Hamilton

Edited by Joe Rechtman

“Only a corpse can speak true prophecy.”

It’s a good thing Roland Deschain never ended up in L.A. because he would get wayyy too into astrology. In this episode, Joe and Dan dig into Roland’s obsession with prophecies and ponder whether or not the gunslinger has true agency in this story. They compare Roland and Jake’s respective father figures, dig into the nuances of the conflict between Gilead and John Farson’s faction, and introduce a new recurring segment: The Dark Tower Cookbook.

NEXT WEEK’S READING: The Gunslinger 4.iii-End of Book & The Drawing of the Three Prologue

Email: CosmicTurltePod@gmail.com

Twitter: @CosmicTurtleBlog

Threads & Instagram: @CosmicTurtlePod

Original Blog: ChurchOfTheCosmicTurtle.com

CREDITS:

Hosts: Joe Rechtman & Dan Hanson

Music: Phil Hamilton

Editor: Alain Smithee

“The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed…”

To kick off this spoiler-heavy podcast—a discussion show devoted to Stephen King’s Dark Tower books—we decided to start our palaver at the end, sharing our thoughts on the conclusion of this epic sci-fi/fantasy series. We question the reader’s role in the fate of Roland and his Ka-Tet, we grapple with the differences between the original and revised editions of The Gunslinger, and lament old long, tall and ugly’s inability to appreciate good art. Finally we have some fun with a few unserious weekly segments. If you’re a fellow fanatic of Sai King’s magnum opus, go ahead and click that ‘follow’ button because you’ve finally discovered the unfound podcast you didn’t know you were looking for.

NEXT WEEK’S READING

THE GUNSLINGER: Chapters 2.iii-4.ii

SHOW NOTES

5m - Recap of this week’s reading

10m - Exploring the ending: optimistic vs. pessimistic interpretations

15m -  Community poll: are fans hopeful or cynical about the ending?

21m - The role of storytelling in the Dark Tower books

28m - The original vs. the revised edition

31m - Exploring Different Interpretations of the Text

36m - “Do I make you horny baby?”

40m - Addiction and compulsion in the Dark Tower

48m - Roland Deschain's relationship with art

57m - Weekly segments

1h15m - Our favorite non-Dark Tower multiverse stories

1h18m - Episode wrap-up

LINKS & RESOURCES

This list of differences between the original published text of The Gunslinger and the 2003 revised edition.

Check out Joe's original blog here.

CREDITS

Hosts: Joe Rechtman & Dan Hanson

Music: Phil Hamilton

Editor: Alain Smithee

This episode was sponsored by Papa Doc’s Beans™