Blaine the Mono
Encyclopedia
Blaine the Mono is a fictional character appearing in the books The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands (of which he is the main villain) and The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass of Stephen King
's Dark Tower series
.
Roland Deschain
and his ka-tet hear rumors of a monorail train as they approach the vast and crumbling city of Lud
. This seems to be connected to the children's book found by Jake
, Charlie the Choo-Choo. As they draw nearer the city they see a monorail track and, crashed into the River Send, a smashed blue monorail train. Jake, however, is convinced that this is not Blaine. After Jake is kidnapped and Roland sets off to find him, Eddie and Susannah
move through the not-quite abandoned city to find the Cradle, the Mid-World
equivalent of a train station
. They reach the Cradle and discover that Blaine is still there, waiting in his berth.
Although Blaine seems to be a sentient
train, he is really much more, a "ghost in the machine
", the artificial intelligence that resides in Lud's mammoth underground computer systems. Over time, as the world has moved on and the computer system slowly breaks down, Blaine becomes more and more deranged.
The crashed blue mono seen from the Send bridge is revealed to have been named Patricia, apparently possessed of a separate sub-personality within the Lud computer. The Patricia personality lapsed into a depression, and could not stop crying. Blaine "liberated" her by removing certain blocks in her programming, and once freed, she committed suicide
, derailing herself in the river. It is a sign of Blaine's cruel personality that he finds this amusing.
Blaine also has a smaller counter-mind called Little Blaine, who represents the weaker partner in Blaine's dissociative
processor mind. Little Blaine speaks in the voice that once was used to make cabin announcements onboard Blaine in better times. He is, unfortunately, of no help.
Blaine promises a method of escape to the outside via his route. He requires the ka-tet to answer several riddle
s in order for them to board him (although an 'it', he thinks of himself as a male) and then pulls a surprise: He plans on following Patricia's example and destroying himself, and in the process crashing the mono with the tet trapped inside. He proceeds to demand Roland tell him riddles to keep him amused on the trip. Roland refuses, infuriating Blaine who threatens to derail in the terrible Waste Land outside of Lud. Roland faces Blaine down, and convinces Blaine to let them try to save themselves. He proposes to riddle Blaine and if they can stump him, he must let them go. If they can't present a riddle Blaine is unable to answer, he will kill them. Blaine agrees, and the riddling contest begins.
It becomes clear that Blaine has a huge library of riddles from many different levels of the tower at his disposal, and programs to decipher the riddle's wordplays or hidden clues, so the game seems doomed. Roland is unable to pose a riddle that Blaine can't answer, and neither can Jake or Susannah.
Finally, Eddie figures that the riddles he can't solve are the unsolvable and exceedingly stupid jokes humans sometimes make, one such riddle is:
Why did the dead baby cross the road?
Because he was stapled to the chicken.
This forces Blaine to try and "lower" his intelligence to levels necessary to answer, which ends up driving him completely insane and causes his computer to crash. When he finally comes to a stop (he actually crashes), it is in a version of Topeka, Kansas
that correlates with King's The Stand
.
The train itself runs on Slo-Trans
technology, a highly advanced engine system that can travel faster than the speed of sound and is, supposedly, immune to all defects or bugs. However, in the millennia since the Great Old Ones vanished, even Slo-Trans technology has begun to break down. The engines on board the mono run on the energy of the Beams themselves; the track that the mono travels on is suspended a thousand feet in the air by the force of the Beam, with no pylons or columns to hold it up.
In addition, Blaine makes use of several other technologies to impress the Ka-tet. What seems to be holographic projection technology is displayed, making it appear as if the walls, floor and ceiling are completely transparent, giving the effect of flying ~800 miles per hour just above the ground (as Blaine can edit out the visual of the track as well). Some method of manipulation is displayed by the presence of an ice sculpture depicting a gunslinger resembling Roland and a horse.
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
's Dark Tower series
The Dark Tower (series)
The Dark Tower is a series of books written by American author Stephen King, which incorporates themes from multiple genres, including fantasy, science fantasy, horror and western. It describes a "Gunslinger" and his quest toward a tower, the nature of which is both physical and metaphorical. King...
.
Roland Deschain
Roland Deschain
Roland Deschain of Gilead is a fictional character, the protagonist and antihero of Stephen King's The Dark Tower series. He is the son of Steven and Gabrielle Deschain and is descended from a long line of "gunslingers", peacekeepers and diplomats of Roland's society...
and his ka-tet hear rumors of a monorail train as they approach the vast and crumbling city of Lud
Lud (city)
Lud is a fictional city in Stephen King's Dark Tower series and is briefly mentioned in Rose Madder. In The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands, the book's protagonists, led by the gunslinger Roland, travel from Lud to an alternate reality version of Topeka, Kansas via a supersonic monorail called...
. This seems to be connected to the children's book found by Jake
Jake Chambers
John "Jake" Chambers is a fictional character in Stephen King's The Dark Tower series of novels. He first appeared in the short story "The Way Station" in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in April 1980, which was later compiled as one of the chapters of the first Dark Tower book, The...
, Charlie the Choo-Choo. As they draw nearer the city they see a monorail track and, crashed into the River Send, a smashed blue monorail train. Jake, however, is convinced that this is not Blaine. After Jake is kidnapped and Roland sets off to find him, Eddie and Susannah
Susannah Dean
Susannah Odetta Holmes Dean is a fictional character from Stephen King's The Dark Tower series...
move through the not-quite abandoned city to find the Cradle, the Mid-World
All-World
All-World is a fictional location in Stephen King's The Dark Tower series of novels. All-World is the world known to contain the "Keystone Tower" in the Dark Tower series. It is the only world that contains the Dark Tower in its physical form; all others contain a representative of the Tower, such...
equivalent of a train station
Train station
A train station, also called a railroad station or railway station and often shortened to just station,"Station" is commonly understood to mean "train station" unless otherwise qualified. This is evident from dictionary entries e.g...
. They reach the Cradle and discover that Blaine is still there, waiting in his berth.
Although Blaine seems to be a sentient
Sentience
Sentience is the ability to feel, perceive or be conscious, or to have subjective experiences. Eighteenth century philosophers used the concept to distinguish the ability to think from the ability to feel . In modern western philosophy, sentience is the ability to have sensations or experiences...
train, he is really much more, a "ghost in the machine
Ghost in the machine
The "ghost in the machine" is the British philosopher Gilbert Ryle's description of René Descartes' mind-body dualism. The phrase was introduced in Ryle's book The Concept of Mind to highlight the perceived absurdity of dualist systems like Descartes' where mental activity carries on in parallel...
", the artificial intelligence that resides in Lud's mammoth underground computer systems. Over time, as the world has moved on and the computer system slowly breaks down, Blaine becomes more and more deranged.
The crashed blue mono seen from the Send bridge is revealed to have been named Patricia, apparently possessed of a separate sub-personality within the Lud computer. The Patricia personality lapsed into a depression, and could not stop crying. Blaine "liberated" her by removing certain blocks in her programming, and once freed, she committed suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
, derailing herself in the river. It is a sign of Blaine's cruel personality that he finds this amusing.
Blaine also has a smaller counter-mind called Little Blaine, who represents the weaker partner in Blaine's dissociative
Dissociative identity disorder
Dissociative identity disorder is a psychiatric diagnosis and describes a condition in which a person displays multiple distinct identities , each with its own pattern of perceiving and interacting with the environment....
processor mind. Little Blaine speaks in the voice that once was used to make cabin announcements onboard Blaine in better times. He is, unfortunately, of no help.
Blaine promises a method of escape to the outside via his route. He requires the ka-tet to answer several riddle
Riddle
A riddle is a statement or question or phrase having a double or veiled meaning, put forth as a puzzle to be solved. Riddles are of two types: enigmas, which are problems generally expressed in metaphorical or allegorical language that require ingenuity and careful thinking for their solution, and...
s in order for them to board him (although an 'it', he thinks of himself as a male) and then pulls a surprise: He plans on following Patricia's example and destroying himself, and in the process crashing the mono with the tet trapped inside. He proceeds to demand Roland tell him riddles to keep him amused on the trip. Roland refuses, infuriating Blaine who threatens to derail in the terrible Waste Land outside of Lud. Roland faces Blaine down, and convinces Blaine to let them try to save themselves. He proposes to riddle Blaine and if they can stump him, he must let them go. If they can't present a riddle Blaine is unable to answer, he will kill them. Blaine agrees, and the riddling contest begins.
It becomes clear that Blaine has a huge library of riddles from many different levels of the tower at his disposal, and programs to decipher the riddle's wordplays or hidden clues, so the game seems doomed. Roland is unable to pose a riddle that Blaine can't answer, and neither can Jake or Susannah.
Finally, Eddie figures that the riddles he can't solve are the unsolvable and exceedingly stupid jokes humans sometimes make, one such riddle is:
Why did the dead baby cross the road?
Because he was stapled to the chicken.
This forces Blaine to try and "lower" his intelligence to levels necessary to answer, which ends up driving him completely insane and causes his computer to crash. When he finally comes to a stop (he actually crashes), it is in a version of Topeka, Kansas
Topeka, Kansas
Topeka |Kansa]]: Tó Pee Kuh) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Shawnee County. It is situated along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, located in northeast Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was...
that correlates with King's The Stand
The Stand
The Stand is a post-apocalyptic horror/fantasy novel by American author Stephen King. It demonstrates the scenario in his earlier short story, Night Surf...
.
Technology
Blaine is a very highly advanced bit of technology, and is at least several thousand years old. He was built by the Great Old Ones, the advanced society that strove to replace the magic of the world with technology. The Great Old Ones then destroyed themselves in some cataclysmic battle, and the technology that survived has begun to deteriorate over time. Blaine is no different.The train itself runs on Slo-Trans
Slo-Trans
Slo-Trans is a fictional engine in Stephen King's The Dark Tower series. In the novels, the engine is part of a class of technology built by the Old Ones, a technologically sophisticated people whose culture no longer exists.-The Engine:...
technology, a highly advanced engine system that can travel faster than the speed of sound and is, supposedly, immune to all defects or bugs. However, in the millennia since the Great Old Ones vanished, even Slo-Trans technology has begun to break down. The engines on board the mono run on the energy of the Beams themselves; the track that the mono travels on is suspended a thousand feet in the air by the force of the Beam, with no pylons or columns to hold it up.
In addition, Blaine makes use of several other technologies to impress the Ka-tet. What seems to be holographic projection technology is displayed, making it appear as if the walls, floor and ceiling are completely transparent, giving the effect of flying ~800 miles per hour just above the ground (as Blaine can edit out the visual of the track as well). Some method of manipulation is displayed by the presence of an ice sculpture depicting a gunslinger resembling Roland and a horse.