Dark Tower Series (Stephen King) - Which Way Is North?
In the entire first book, Stephen King describes the gunslinger's journey to the West. In the Second book, (Drawing of the Three) The gunslinger has reached the West coast, and has turned North - to travel up the beach. It drove me nuts every time Stephen King referred to the water being on his Right! If he traveled West, then North - the water would be on the left... obviously a product of an East-Coaster.
The Dark Tower series is mainly about a separate reality or alternate universe that is somehow connected to ours. Perhaps in the 'alternate universe', the directions are different than ours. Perhaps north and south are switched but east and west remain the same. Thus if he was traveling west and turned north to go up the beach, the water would be on his right. It has been a while since I have read those books, but I remember thinking the same thing. Then my wife read them and asked me about this and I told her the only thing that made since to me.
Possibly... good suggestion. but I still think it's just a mistake. I used to live on the East coast for a long time, and when I did - you always knew that the water was on your right if you traveled North. It's different for the West Coast, of course. Common mistake made by East Coasters!
If you've ever looked at a starmap that depicts what's overhead, the east and west are reversed (as if you were holding the sky over your head). Maybe the alternate universe depicts a reflection kind of like this. Maybe it just depicts a reflection w/o the starmap theory at all. Well anyway...ummm...yeah.
In the first books it speaks of the fact that the world has moved on and that time and direction are affected. I can't remember the exact place it says this, but I remember thinking that it answered my question of why the directions were reversed. I had the same question initially. Wish I could be more exact with the location, I will see if I can find it again and will post it.
Read the 3rd book of the series a little more carefully. In it, Roland says that in his world, even the directions were changing, and Eddie Dean thinks to himself about how much a world must change, when even north and south are veering off to the sides.
This used to bother me a lot as well, till I figured out from much reading and rereading of the series... the Great Western Sea is on the Eastern side of the Continent/ Midworld.
In one of the books, maybe Wizard and Glass, I could be wrong, it says Roland headed east out of Gilead to pursue the Man in Black.
This is explained even further as the series goes on. As the crimson king and his army are trying to destroy the tower, it is knocking the world, or perhaps existence itself out of whack since at first the constellations are all extremely different from our own, but as roland and his ka-tet work to save the tower from falling, it is revealed that the world is stabilizing, and the constellations are even back.
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