Day 943
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It's back to Chapter 5 of The Waste Lands where I hope to get some more quality time with the Tick-Tock Man. So far, we've only heard his voice from behind a thick locked metal door. But now that door is opened and Jake and Gasher walk through. And I'm betting it's not the famous Croc from Peter Pan.
And, of course, the rest of the ka-tet is out there in Lud somewhere ka-tetting away. Let's return to the action!
And, just as they reached the shaft which led to the lower levels of this Dycian Maze, Roland had heard the sound of some new machine
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I immediately went to google "Dycian Maze" but quickly found that this was an invented term by King, one that certainly made sense in Roland's world, but not to us here in this one.
EDDIE AND SUSANNAH LOOKED up at the vastness of Blaine’s Cradle as the skies opened and the rain began to fall in torrents.
“It’s a hell of a building, but they forgot the handicap ramps!” Eddie yelled, raising his voice to be heard over the rain and thunder.
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I like the name "Blaine's Cradle".
Now a sign hanging on thick chrome-silver chains swam out of the shadows:
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Blaine is a pain...
Patricia is a... what? What rhymes with that? "Militia"?
High up on the wall, a series of sculpted heads seemed to push out of the marble, peering down at them from the shadows—stern men with the harsh faces of executioners who are happy in their work.
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I gave Imagen AI a shot at this passage verbatim. Very please with the result! That one on the bottom kinda looks like Sai King himself!
Ahead, a vast grilled barrier like a castle barbican swam out of the gloom . . . and beyond it, they caught their first glimpse of Blaine the Mono.
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A castle what?
https://medievalbritain.com/type/medieval-life/architecture/parts-of-a-medieval-castle-the-barbican/
She shook her head. “I think we better try to be ready for when they get here . . . because I’ve got an idea that they’re going to come on the run. Push me over to that box mounted on the bars. It looks like an intercom. See it?”
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I just had a vision of Susannah pushing a button, activating Blaine, and launching it off without any of them on board.
The end.
The box looked like a combination intercom and burglar alarm. There was a speaker set into the top half, with what looked like a TALK/LISTEN button next to it. Below this were numbers arranged in a shape which made a diamond:
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Interesting pattern!
...but there was a world of difference between the electronics gear available in her when, 1963, and his own, which was 1987. We’ve never talked much about the differences, either, he thought. I wonder what she’d think if I told her Ronald Reagan was President of the United States when Roland snatched me? Probably that I was crazy.
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I hadn't thought of that before. Entire chapters of dialog of Eddie explaining what's happened over 20 years past Susannah's time.
A rather random painting from the book placed right in the middle of Eddie's first words with Blaine the Mono.
It's rather disruptive when the artwork has nothing to do with the text!
“I’m Little Blaine,” the child’s voice whispered. “The one he doesn’t see. The one he forgot. The one he thinks he left behind in the rooms of ruin and the halls of the dead.”
...
“Big Blaine is the ghost in the machine—the ghost in all the machines.”
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I wonder if we all have something of an inner "Little Blaine" that we don't know about.
but he did know how Jack in that old story must have felt when he realized that he had tried the beanstalk once too often, and awakened the giant.
“HOW DARE YOU DISTURB MY SLEEP? TELL ME NOW, OR DIE WHERE YOU STAND.”
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Huh - I heard the exact same thing from my wife this morning.
“OKAY, PILGRIM. I BELIEVE YOU.”
Eddie and Susannah shared another glance, this one of confusion and relief. But when Blaine spoke again, the voice was again cold and emotionless.
“ASK ME A QUESTION, EDDIE DEAN OF NEW YORK. AND IT BETTER BE A GOOD ONE.” There was a pause, and then Blaine added: “BECAUSE IF IT’S NOT, YOU AND YOUR WOMAN ARE GOING TO DIE, NO MATTER WHERE YOU CAME FROM.”
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I stop at this cliffhanger. I am now 83% of the way through The Waste Lands.
Stephen King Journey
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