"...'"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed." The rest might have been puff and blow, but man, that was clean.' ...
'What I liked,' King said, 'was how the story seemed to be going backward. From a purely technical standpoint, it was very interesting. I start with you in the desert, then slip back a notch to you meeting Brown and Zoltan. Zoltan was named after a folk-singer and guitarist I knew at the University of Maine, by the way. Anyway, from the dweller's hut, the story slips back another notch to you coming into the town of Tull ... named after a rock group --'
'Jethro Tull,' Eddie said, 'Goddam of course! ...'
...
'Anyway, from Roland coming into Tull, the story slips back another notch to tell how Nort, the weed-eater, died and was resurrected by Walter. You see what buzzed me about it, don't you? The early part of it was all told in reverse gear. It was bass-ackwards.'
Roland had no interest in the technical aspects that seemed to so fascinate King: this was his life they were talking about, after all, his
life, and to him it had all been moving forward. At least until he'd reached the Western Sea, and the doors through which he'd drawn his traveling companions."
-- Song of Susannah