Explanation of the Cosmic Turtle, cuz people asked

[Sheynat]

In the Religion and Politics thread, I mentioned a Kingian cosmic turtle. People requested an explanation, and I like explaining stuff about my favorite stories, so here it is. This is an invention of Stephen King (thus Kingian.) Like any really good invented cosmology, though, it has real-life followers who saw it and decided it was true. (In the British censuses, one can list one's religion as Jedi Knight, for example.) In the King cosmology, an infinity of an infinity of universes all revolve around the Dark Tower. Yes, I did write infinity twice. That's intentional; the number of universes revolving around the tower cannot be contained because it is beyond infinite. Our own universe is contained in a single subatomic particle in some incomprehensible blade of grass. Anyway, the story of the Tower may be read in the Dark Tower series. But in our little part of the Tower, the Universe was created by the Turtle. The Turtle is literally a turtle, as in the slow reptile that possesses a shell. The Turtle is kindly and benevolent, but may not aid a hero. He is mentioned in the Dark Tower series in the form of a nursery rhyme ("See the TURTLE of enormous girth! On his shell he holds the Earth!"), and figures majorly in the King novel IT, where he is It's nemesis and the greatest manifestation of good in our plane. Anyway, that's the explanation of the Kingian cosmic turtle, asked for by several people. That's the most I've read, anyway, and what I understand of it. If there are any other King fans, they may be able to offer further insight. Only King knows the entire cosmology, and from what I've heard and know of writing fiction, maybe even he doesn't know.

[Odracir]

Wait a second, in England you can list your religion as Jedi Knight? And people actually believe that we're controlled by a giant turtle? Don't they know it's fiction? Isn't the fact that the book is in the Fiction section of the bookstore a giveaway that nothing in it is real?

[Sheynat]

Yep. There are people who believe they are Jedi Knights. Point out that they can't exactly go "This is not the Danish you're looking for", and they'll say something about how they're still learning. They believe it because they saw it, and it has to be true, because it makes so much sense. Guys like you and me, we know that there is no Force, nor a giant turtle. People believe it because some extremely unstable yet charismatic dude saw or read it and pronounced it the Truth.

[Bad Infinitum]

Watch, there probably is a Force and a Giant Turtle, and the Turtle's a Jedi, and we're just going to look real stupid.

[Odracir]

That's it! I'm moving to England, opening a Jedi Academy, and becoming rich.

[Izdambodia]

It's interesting cause in Canada there are about 20,000 people who identify themselves as Jedi or part of the Jedi culture. It's really interesting, but to be honest, kind of nerdy and weird.

[Sheynat]

Kinda nerdy? Calling that kinda nerdy is like calling the Pacific Ocean kinda damp.

[TheSensitiveNewAge]

The Kingian Turtle reminds me of H.P. Lovecraft, the inventor of Cluthulu (sp?). Then the discussion of England's Jedi Knights got me thinking, does anyone take the Mythos seriously?

[Sheynat]

Yeah, King was heavily influenced by Lovecraft. And I would lay money that somebody takes the Mythos seriously, too. I used to work at a library, and every so often, I'd deal with somebody wanting to check out the Necronomicon.

[joschafia]

Yeah, Dark Tower series is awesome. Though a lot of people refer to it as "The Gunslinger Series"
I was just having a conversation about this last night at my D&D game, we talked about how 90% of King's book are connected to the Dark Tower. Follow the beam!
One part that shows me the connection is in Insomnia how the main character's friend starts babbling madly about "The Crimson King". At first I didn't understand how this all worked, but after reading some of the Dark Tower series, it started making sense. Last book in the series I read was Wizard and Glass.

[Sheynat]

Almost every single King book is connected, however distantly or passingly, to the Tower. The entire universe revolves around it, mind you, at least in the King cosmology. Pretty much only Carrie, Salem's Lot and the Shining aren't connected somehow, and they were written before he really finished the Gunslinger. The Stand and almost every book after it are all tied into the Tower series.

[nilahaus]

The Turtle is actually a reference to some animist mythologies, that hold the universe/world and all others are held on the back of a "creator turtle" that travels through the cosmos. I think King used his turtle as a riff on that - which Lovecraft also borrowed from.

[Sheynat]

Yeah, that's actually what I figured when I read it, too.