by Robin Furth
While taheen look upon humans as an inferior race, the can-toi worship the human form as divine. They even believe that they are becoming human, and that after the fall of the DARK TOWER, they will replace mankind. It seems that they are having at least minor success in their endeavor to become like men, since their minds can be progged (or read) by psychics. (The thoughts of true taheen sound like white noise.) At a certain point in his or her development, each low man or low woman is given a human name by their clan-fam. These names often sound absurd to actual humans. For example, one can-toi has the name VAN GOGH BAEZ. Another is called JAMES CAGNEY.
The can-toi’s primary job is to take care of the psychic BREAKERS in the DEVAR-TOI, or Breaker prison, located in THUNDERCLAP. However, their duties also include hunting down escapees with their duplicitous lost-pet posters and their secret pavement messages coded as moon-and-star designs. Some can-toi, such as RICHARD P. SAYRE, vice president of the SOMBRA CORPORATION, even live in our world and pass for hume much of the time. Like the BIG COFFIN HUNTERS (or REGULATORS), who also ultimately serve the CRIMSON KING, many of the can-toi have blue coffins tattooed on their hands.
Although they occasionally get up to other nasty mischief in our world (as both PERE CALLAHAN and CALVIN TOWER can testify), when relaxing at home in ALGUL SIENTO or BLUE HEAVEN (the taheen and can-toi term for the Devar-Toi), the low men live in HEARTBREAK HOUSE. Despite their devotion to the Crimson King, the poisonous air of END-WORLD has as terrible an effect upon the low men as it does upon ordinary humes. End-World’s poisons give the can-toi skin sores and nosebleeds. Even the smallest wounds they suffer can become infected and deadly.
When our ka-tet attacks the Devar-Toi, their policy is to save the Breakers but to kill the taheen and can-toi guards. The world won’t miss these latter monsters much, especially since they have such a pathetic sense of humor. To a can-toi, hanging a picture of NIAGARA FALLS upside down is the height of comedy.
Like the CAN-TAH, the can-toi also appear in KING’s novel Desperation. In that book, the can-toi are the animal servants of the demon Tak (short for Can-Tak, or big god). Unlike our can-toi, the can-toi of Desperation have neither human bodies nor the ability to reason or speak.
V:289 (lost-pet posters), V:290–91, V:297 (indirect), V:299, V:302–3 (indirect; lost-pet posters), V:304, V:306, V:426–27 (indirect), V:429, V:430, V:435, V:443, V:449 (lost-pet posters), V:451 (lost-pet posters), V:452, V:455–57, V:549, V:591, VI:64, VI:95, VI:111, VI:244–45 (their job is the Breakers), VI:248, VI:278–79, VI:318, VI:320, VI:326, VI:337, VI:353, VI:364–84 (Dixie Pig), VI:407, VII:5, VII:10, VII:14, VII:25 (can-toi), VII:26 (can-toi), VII:51 (can-toi), VII:55–71 (five in birth room), VII:81, VII:83 (came through door after Jake), VII:85, VII:86–87, VII:88, VII:90, VII:93, VII:101, VII:104–9 (following Jake), VII:111 (posse), VII:133–35, VII:146, VII:209, VII:222, VII:223, VII:226, VII:230, VII:235–36, VII:237, VII:238, VII:241, VII:269, VII:272, VII:281, VII:286, VII:288, VII:292, VII:293, VII:297, VII:300, VII:326–27, VII:334, VII:337, VI:556–82 (Devar-Toi battle), VII:393, VII:407, VII:448, VII:476, VII:498
INDIVIDUAL CAN-TOI/LOW MEN:
ALEXANDER, BEN: Ben Alexander is one of the guards at the DEVAR-TOI. VII:372
ALIA (NURSE): See TAHEEN: RAT-HEADED TAHEEN
ANDREW: When we meet him in the DIXIE PIG, just before SUSANNAH/MIA gives birth, this obese low man is wearing a tux with plaid lapels and a red velvet bow tie. (His jilly, TIRANA, looks equally hideous in her strapless, silver evening dress.) Andrew is shot by FATHER CALLAHAN. VI:365–71, VII:9–15
BAEZ, VAN GOGH: One of the strange human names adopted by a can-toi. VII:294
BEEMAN: A security guard at ALGUL SIENTO. VII:235–36, VII:239–40
CAGNEY, JAMES: James Cagney (named after a famous hume actor) is a red-haired can-toi who stands five feet five inches tall and who likes Western-style shirts and boots. (He prefers footwear that makes him seem much taller.) During the final DEVAR-TOI battle, his mask rips and (at one point) he is mistaken for a TAHEEN. VII:356–57, VII:371–74, VII:379–82 (called taheen)
CAMERON (THE RAPIST): This can-toi raped a BREAKER. His defense was that the CRIMSON KING commanded him to do it as part of his process of “becoming” human. (See BECOMING, listed in the END-WORLD section of APPENDIX I.) Luckily for the other female Breakers, the former Devar Master, HUMMA O’TEGO, thought Cameron’s defense was preposterous and put him to death. The Breakers were invited to watch. VII:326, VII:344, VII:385
CARLYLE, THOMAS: One of the unexpected human names adopted by a can-toi. VII:294
CONROY: A technician at the DEVAR-TOI. VII:241
DIXIE PIG GUARDS: VI:377
DOORMEN AT THE DIXIE PIG: VI:364
GANGLI, DR.: See TRISTUM, DR. GANGLI, listed below
HABER: Haber is one of the can-toi who accompany SUSANNAH DEAN from the DIXIE PIG to the FEDIC DOGAN, where she and MIA give birth to the CHAP. Haber has a bulldoggy face, gray, luxuriant curls, and a slanted hole in his forehead. Susannah shoots him in the chaotic battle following the birth of baby MORDRED. VI:370–84, VII:55–70
LONDON, JACK: Like so many of the can-toi, Jack London took a human name (in this case, the name of a famous hume writer). London is DR. GANGLI’s assistant in the third-floor infirmary of DAMLI HOUSE in ALGUL SIENTO. VII:367
RANDO HATTEN LOOK-ALIKE: VII:293–94
SAYRE, RICHARD P.: The nasty can-toi Richard Patrick Sayre is the executive vice president of SOMBRA CORPORATION, one of the many companies in our world (and our world’s twinners) serving the CRIMSON KING. On July 15, 1976, he signed a contract on behalf of Sombra with CALVIN TOWER, owner of the MANHATTAN RESTAURANT OF THE MIND. Tower was paid one hundred thousand dollars in exchange for his written consent to hold on to the magic LOT for one year, and then, at the end of that time, to give Sombra first right of purchase. However, as soon as the said year began to wind down (and as soon as he knew that Tower had blown the money), Sayre began to sic BALAZAR and his hoods on the chubby bookshop owner, figuring they could bully him into selling. (Thanks to EDDIE DEAN, this tactic doesn’t work.)
With the help of his VAMPIRES and LOW MEN, Sayre brought about the death of FATHER DONALD FRANK CALLAHAN in the early 1980s. He was also in charge of the sting operation which lured MIA and an unwilling SUSANNAH DEAN to the DIXIE PIG so that Mia could give birth to her CHAP. (Susannah takes revenge by shooting him.) When we see Sayre in the Dixie Pig, he appears to be about sixty years old with white hair, a double row of teeth, and outrageously loud clothes. His humanoid mask looks lean and predatory.
Our final insight into Sayre’s dirty work doesn’t come from the can-toi himself, but from the bric-a-brac in his office, located below the FEDIC DOGAN. Here Roland and Susannah find files on themselves and their two dead ka-tet mates, as well as two significant oil paintings, both painted by PATRICK DANVILLE. One is of the DARK TOWER, and the other is a symbolic depiction of the Crimson King’s triumph over ALL-WORLD-that-was. This second painting shows black-haired, blue-eyed MORDRED with one triumphant foot atop ARTHUR ELD’s dead horse, LLAMREI. V:95, V:451, V:455–57, V:460, V:464, VI:119–24, VI:125, VI:228, VI:231, VI:234, VI:239, VI:240, VI:251, VI:254, VI:364–84, VII:8, VII:13, VII:14, VII:55–70 (shot), VII:84, VII:104, VII:105, VII:106, VII:107, VII:108, VII:149, VII:240, VII:549–51 (office), VII:703, VII:783
STRAW: Straw is a low man with flabby hands and many rings. Along with SAYRE and a number of other WARRIORS OF THE SCARLET EYE, he attends the birth of MORDRED, son of both the CRIMSON KING and Roland Deschain. SUSANNAH DEAN shoots him. VII:58–68, VII:71
TIRANA: When we meet this obese low woman in the DIXIE PIG, she is wearing a strapless, silver evening dress. DETTA WALKER rips off her mask and exposes the rat beneath. VI:365–71, VII:13–15, VII:25
TRAMPAS: In the final book of the Dark Tower series, we find out that all things, even eczema, can ultimately serve the BEAM. In The Dark Tower, we find out that Trampas, one of the few can-toi who are actually succeeding in the process o
f becoming human, has a terribly itchy scalp. Every time he lifts his beanie-like thinking cap, his thoughts can be read by his BREAKER friend TED BRAUTIGAN. Although Trampas does not mean to leak the CRIMSON KING’s secrets, it is while scanning Trampas’s thoughts that Ted realizes just what he and his fellow psychics are doing in the DEVAR-TOI’s STUDY. It is also by listening to the radio-like broadcasts of Trampas’s thoughts that Ted learns what part he—a facilitator—is playing in the untimely collapse of the Beams.
Although Ted’s escape from the Devar is temporary, his distressing new knowledge strengthens his resolve to oppose the Lord of Discordia’s plans for the macroverse. Ted helps Roland and his friends destroy the Devar and its guards. Unfortunately, Ted also ends up killing Trampas—who ultimately obeys the orders of the enemy—with one of his deadly thought-spears. VII:292, VII:293–96, VII:298, VII:299–302, VII:306, VII:356, VII:370–71, VII:375–77, VII:407
TRELAWNEY: Security guard at ALGUL SIENTO (the DEVAR-TOI). VII:239–40, VII:325–26
TRISTUM, DR. GANGLI: The much-feared Dr. Gangli is the DEVAR’s sawbones. According to the BREAKERS, the dark, squat, heavily jowled Gangli looks like John Irving after a bad face-lift. However, none of them would dare say this to his face any more than they’d make fun of the roller skates he uses to sail through his rounds.
Dr. Gangli (who took a TAHEEN name even though he is can-toi) rules his third-floor surgery in DAMLI HOUSE with an iron fist. Because of the frequent infections that plague END-WORLD’s denizens, Dr. Gangli prescribes many antibiotics. His prescriptions are losing their effectiveness, but Gangli isn’t around to see them stop working completely. When the gas-pods behind the Damli House kitchens blow up during the Devar’s final battle, Gangli (roller skates still spinning) is blown skyward along with all of his paperwork. For Gangli, the end of life in the macroverse comes earlier than expected. VII:223, VII:239, VII:356, VII:367–68, VII:374
GANGLI’S ORDERLIES:
LONDON, JACK: Listed above
NAMELESS ORDERLIES: VII:367
CANTORA, IRENE
See TASSENBAUM, IRENE
CAPRICHOSO (CAPI)
See HAMBRY CHARACTERS: TRAVELLERS’ REST: SHEEMIE; see also BREAKERS: RUIZ, STANLEY
CARLINER, MARK
See KING, STEPHEN
CARLYLE, THOMAS
See CAN-TOI
CARTOON CHARACTERS (OUR WORLD)
See APPENDIX VI
CARVER, MARIAN ODETTA
See TET CORPORATION
CARVER, MOSES
See TET CORPORATION: FOUNDING FATHERS
CASH, BENITO
See CALLA BRYN STURGIS CHARACTERS: OTHER CHARACTERS
CASSIDY, BUTCH
See GUNSLINGERS (OUR WORLD)
CASSIOPEIA
See MID-WORLD FOLKLORE
CASTNER
See TULL CHARACTERS: SYLVIA PITTSTON’S REVIVAL
CASTILLO, JUAN
See CALLAHAN, FATHER DONALD FRANK: CALLAHAN’S HIDDEN HIGHWAYS ASSOCIATES
CAT GUARDIAN
See GUARDIANS OF THE BEAM
CAVERRA, DIANE
See CALLA BRYN STURGIS CHARACTERS: FARMERS (SMALLHOLD): CAVERRA, REUBEN
CAVERRA, REUBEN
See CALLA BRYN STURGIS CHARACTERS: FARMERS (SMALLHOLD)
CAVERRA, RUTH
See CALLA BRYN STURGIS CHARACTERS: ROONTS
CHADBOURNE
See CALLAHAN, FATHER DONALD FRANK: CALLAHAN’S HIDDEN HIGHWAYS ASSOCIATES
CHAMBERS, ELMER
Elmer Chambers is the father of our dear friend JAKE CHAMBERS. He is a TV network big shot who works at 70 Rockefeller Plaza. His job is to destroy other networks and he is very good at it. In fact, he is a self-proclaimed master of “The Kill.”
Elmer is five-foot-ten, and is both a chain-smoker and a coke fiend. He smokes three packs of unfiltered Camels a day and has been known to snort cocaine until his nose bleeds. His black crew cut bolts straight up from his head. Jake thinks he looks like a man who has just suffered some tremendous, galvanizing shock. Elmer is living proof of Jake’s theory that adults don’t really know any better than kids do. They just pretend to. In Wind Through the Keyhole, we learn that Elmer Chambers knows great swear words.
I:81, I:82, I:180, III:89–91, III:92, III:93, III:94, III:99, III:100, III:102, III:103, III:108, III:121–22, III:126, III:129–35, III:136, III:137–38, III:156–58, III:168, III:194, III:256, III:315, III:355, III:376, III:380, IV:21, IV:31, IV:32 (indirect), IV:80 (parents), IV:85 (parents), IV:93, IV:655, V:40 (Jake’s parents), V:46, V:104, V:155 (father), V:187, V:204 (dad), V:215, V:382, V:471, V:559 (dad), V:561 (father), V:565–66, V:567, V:577, V:590, V:617, V:637, V:656 (father), V:705, VI:11, VI:32, VI:41, VI:320, VI:324, VII:7, VII:15, VII:84, VII:94, VII:95, VII:98, VII:110, VII:138 (parents), VII:144, VII:191, VII:299, VII:310, VII:398, VII:399, VII:473, VII:535, W:21 (knows lots of great swears), W:30 (son of Elmer)
ELMER CHAMBERS’S ASSOCIATES:
GIRL WITH BODACIOUS TA-TAS: “Bodacious ta-tas” is Elmer Chambers’s term for a pair of really nice breasts. Hence, “a girl with bodacious ta-tas” is a young woman who is well stacked. The girl in the film The Lost Continent fits this description. VII:97, VII:99, VII:103–4
**CHAMBERS, JAKE (’BAMA, TOM DENBY, KID SEVENTY-SEVEN, JOHN “JAKE” CHAMBERS, JAKE TOREN, HYPERBOREAN WANDERER)
At eleven years old, John “Jake” Chambers is the youngest member of Roland’s present ka-tet. Jake is small for his age and (in his previous life) was often mistaken for a girl. However, his time in MID-WORLD has toughened him up.
Before being brought to Mid-World, blond, blue-eyed Jake was in the sixth grade at PIPER, his expensive private middle school. A loner, he had few friends and felt estranged from his parents, who were always too busy for him. His only close companion was GRETA SHAW, the family housekeeper. Jake spent most of his time under the care of professional people, even though he despised all professional people. At that point in his life, Jake was dangerously close to despising himself.
Unlike the other members of Roland’s ka-tet whom Roland “draws” into his world over the course of the second book of the Dark Tower series, Jake enters Roland’s world in The Gunslinger. (Unfortunately he doesn’t last very long.) Roland and Jake’s initial meeting takes place in the WAY STATION, an abandoned coach house in the MOHAINE DESERT, while Roland is pursuing the MAN IN BLACK. When Roland first discovers Jake, the boy can’t remember who he is or where he came from. However, under hypnosis Jake reveals that he entered Mid-World by dying in his own where and when, namely in NEW YORK CITY on May 9, 1977, at 8:25 AM. Jake had been hit by a 1976 blue Cadillac (a Sedan de Ville) while standing on the corner of FIFTH AVENUE and Forty-third Street. Although Roland initially believes that Jake was pushed by the Man in Black, he later discovers that he was killed by JACK MORT, a psychopath whom we meet again in The Drawing of the Three.
Just as Jake is the first of Roland’s American ka-tet to be drawn into Mid-World, he is also the first to discover Roland’s potential for treachery. While Jake and Roland pursue the Man in Black, Roland lets Jake fall into a deep river chasm below the CYCLOPEAN MOUNTAINS so that he can get closer to their quarry. As Jake falls he utters the famous line, “There are other worlds than these.” It turns out that Jake is right. There are many other worlds, and alternative Jakes exist in almost all of them. In fact, near the end of The Drawing of the Three Roland returns to one of these worlds in order to protect his young friend from Mort’s dire schemes. Although Roland’s motives are admirable, the consequences are dire. He creates a split in the time/space continuum, and both he and Jake end up traumatized by two conflicting sets of memories—one where Jake died and entered Mid-World, and one where he didn’t.
The next time we meet Jake is in The Waste Lands. At the beginning of this book, both Jake and Roland are suffering from a kind of psychosis brought on by these double memories. The psychosis is cured when Roland, with the help of his new tet-mates EDDIE and SUSANNAH DEAN, draws Jak
e into Mid-World once more. Jake’s second Mid-World birth takes place on June 1, 1977, the day after he finds both the MANHATTAN RESTAURANT OF THE MIND (where he buys Charlie the Choo-Choo and Riddle-De-Dum!) and the Vacant LOT, where he discovers the ROSE.
Although Jake’s second entry into Mid-World is not as traumatic as his first, it is still difficult. To access Roland’s world, Jake must travel to the haunted DUTCH HILL MANSION located in BROOKLYN and unlock one of the many DOORWAYS BETWEEN WORLDS which is located within it. This door is linked to one drawn by Eddie in the dirt of a SPEAKING RING located on the GREAT ROAD leading to LUD. Although each of these linked doorways is protected by a doorkeeper (on Jake’s side it is the DUTCH HILL MANSION DEMON or PLASTER-MAN, and on Roland’s it’s the sinister SPEAKING RING DEMON), our young friend passes over and is reunited with his adopted father, Roland.
Although Jake Chambers is eleven years old when we leave him at the end of Wizard and Glass, by the time he reaches CALLA BRYN STURGIS in Wolves of the Calla, he is twelve. Exposure to the ROSE has made Jake strong in “the touch.” In fact, his psychic abilities are so formidable that when the MANNI help Roland, Jake, Eddie, and CALLAHAN to reactivate the UNFOUND DOOR at the beginning of Song of Susannah, HENCHICK (the Manni’s dinh) places Jake directly in front of the door so that he can find its psychic “hook,” or opening mechanism. In another where and when, Jake would probably have made a spectacular BREAKER.