The Horror of Eternal Consciousness | The Jaunt
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- Опубліковано 20 вер 2024
- The Jaunt by Stephen King is a short story set sometime around the year 2300. By this time humankind has begun the colonization of our solar system, this was made possible by a world changing piece of technology invented in the 80s, the Jaunt. The word “Jaunt” was first used in Alfred Bester’s 1956 science fiction novel, The Stars My Destination. In this novel humans have access to personal teleporters, teleporting was referred to as Jaunting in this novel. Stephen King takes the idea of the Jaunt and twists it into something, not merely dark but horrifying beyond comprehension.
The idea of teleportation has been common in science fiction for many decades, and the fears associated with it are not unexplored. Cronenberg's famous, The Fly explores the horror of a teleportation experiment gone wrong in which the main character's DNA is accidentally mixed with an insect. Teleporters have featured prominently in Star Trek since its original release in 1965, and it’s still never been fully clear if the teleporters allow for a consciousness stream of consciousness or if they are simply killing the original person and rematerializing an exact copy with copied memories in a different place.
The Jaunt also considers what becomes of the consciousness during teleportation but in a different way. To understand you have to learn how the Jaunt was first invented in this story, by a man named Victor Carune.
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“Longer than you think” gave me chills after his dad’s description of eternity.
All the dad said was that eternity awaits them should they remain conscious.
7:17 I liked that part
Always my favorite King line!
Right? Especially when you recall that his dad theorized "billions of years".
Emesis blue
On extra detail left out, there was also a story where a guy threw his wife through the jaunt alive, but with no destination.. His lawyers pleaded not guilty, since she technically wasn’t dead. When everyone realised what that meant the guy got a worse sentence than for murder. I think that’s one of the worst fates in fiction, at least the kid and the prisoner eventually died, she’s just gonna be in the jaunt for an inconceivable amount of time, and it won’t ever end.
That is deeply more horrifying than the people who (eventually) came out the other side.
Looking back on the story, that small side detail is probably the most horrifying part of the story. If being in the void for a fraction of a second becomes an eternity of nothingness for the mind and drives the person to madness and death, what does being in there for minutes, let alone hours, days, weeks, or monthes do? Considering the physical effects of experiencing the void while conscience for a fraction of a second (white hair, yellowed eyes), IF she ever returned, would we even recognize her as human?
@@Randalor And thus IT came into being...
@@Randalor she is in there so long that she turns into a Boltzman brain. She could create her own universe.
I just stumbled upon this tale toady. I am an atheist, yet this has been my idea of a personal hell for many years. Terrifying. Far worse than not existing.
I remember discussing this in my high school Lit. class. Someone had the incredible thought that "longer than you think" could mean "longer than you *can* think." As in, there are only so many thoughts that you can possibly have, but the amount of time it takes to think those thoughts pales in comparison to the infinite time that you *must* think. You will think those same thoughts over and over again forever as you run out of what you can think of.
Yeah, I thought of that too. Or maybe it's so long that you forget how to think . . .
@@MySerpentineor more so lose the ability to think...imagine having every thought humanly possible but all at once like a tv with every channel showing but you cant focus on any one thing or sound
Getting lost in the thought of getting lost in a thought
This is a perfect description of the thought loop
@@sweetlew8725 *pain*
For me the horror is in the implications of "longer than you think". The dad had explained to his kids that one guy said it was eternity in there. The dad speculated that it could be an eternity of eternities in there. Think about that. An eternity of eternities. Then at the end the son says it's longer than you think. What could feel longer than an eternity of eternities? Whatever it is, it apparently doesn't destroy your mind. At least two people come through the jaunt and actually speak coherently, the son even recognizes his dad AND remembers their previous conversation. The shock of being back in physical form is where the problem comes in. This means you never are released from experiencing whatever it is you experience while jaunting. You will never be driven insane so that at least you have no idea of how much you are suffering. The kid retained his mind to the point that he could quantify that it was longer than his dad suspected. Now consider that in the story a woman was sent out on a jaunt that had no exit point. She's jaunting permanently...and it's longer than you think.
Reminds me of the young engineer that gets pulled into the core in Event Horizon. That infinite stare he had when he came back out.
Quantum superposition. What state of being occurred? Who knows. This leaves the implication that Jaunts cause a quantum superposition which really screws up the mind itself which heavily relies on theoretically a bunch of quantum mechanisms.
the indomitable human spirit:
@@captainyossarian388 which story is that? It sounds interesting
Eternity means endless time. The jaunts clearly had ends so they are by definition not eternal. In the case you describe with the woman then it's as long as I'd think when I hear eternal
Resting this story years ago has always made me wish that King played around with sci-fi more than he traditionally has.
Hell yes! This was a true gem. Slow build up...but one banger of a finish.
There was another one called “The Shortcut”, if memory serves… also sci-fi like.
@@luketien928 I think it was Mrs. Todd's Shortcut. It's been a while since I read it but it was pretty Lovecraftian.
Stephen King is a Sci-Fi Horror writer. IT, Tommyknockers, Carrie, Firestarter, 11/32/63, The Dead Zone, Under The Dome, Cell, The Running Man, and The Mist are all Sci-Fi and those are just the ones I can think of.
@alexandertiberius1098 Check out The Long Walk. I believe it's under Richard Bachman
Had this as an assigned reading in a science fiction class I took in high school. I remember thinking the teacher was a mad lad for assigning such an existential and horrifying story to be dissected by 14 year olds. So incredible grateful for that class and opening me up to the larger genre of cosmic horror.
Woah! You had a scifi class in highschool? That's pretty neat. I was able to take one in university, but in HS we just had an english class.
You had an interesting course back then. I'm from Costa Rica and we're exposed to violence in literature at high-school but nothing disturbing, there's a big difference between the two concepts that only a handful of authors can master.
@@jimtroeltsch5998 yes it was an elective available only to seniors and I remember being so eager to take it all throughout high school. The teacher was a brilliant oddball who spoke in such strange mannerisms that everyone in the class thought he was an alien.
@@TR4R Wow that’s super interesting how your school was a bit more restrictive on the reading material that was taught. I think even in the USA there are big differences between states when it comes to assigned reading. The most graphic book that I can recall reading in High School was Night by Elie Weisel; the historical weight of the story being a true recollection making it all the worse.
@@trifectaofchris I guess the two most violent books that I read back in the day were "La Vorágine" from José Eustasio Rivera and "El Reino de Este Mundo" from Alejo Carpentier. Both are classics from the remote and violent past of Latin America, so you can have an idea, political oppression, murders, rape, torture (not that much), slavery and so on, business as usual.
This was one of my favorite King stories growing up. The sheer existential horror of it rocked me as a child, and it still gives me chills looking back.
But what happened to the *mice?*
It's eternity in there
He was my favourite writer, growing up. And while his novels were the main draw for me, he was also a damn good writer of short stories. The Jaunt, The Mist, The Raft, The Boogeyman. I'm sure I'm missing some, but these immediately come to mind as some of his stories that had quite an impact on teenage me.
This one and the long walk were my 2 favorite short stories by him.
I've always found King boring.
And I've always known "wishing to live forever" was a really bad idea.
The only story about living forever I liked was an astrophysicist making a deal with the devil to find the answers to many questions. The demon in charge thinks its done when they make their first jump to a blue star. The astrophysicist is gleeful "No, no, there's so many other questions to answer!"
The demon's "heart" sinks, just how long was this going to take?
Veering to another idea: There are a couple of sentences at the start of Genesis that state God is lonely and wishes there were others like him ... to be friends! So he creates the universe and etc. They'll never be "God" but they will be alive. And friends.
I will alreays remember that short scene from a Black Mirror episode. It was about the end, where there was a simulation of a person in a device but it was conscious. The person who held the device could do basically whatever they wanted to the consciousness. The whole episode revolved about getting information out of it since it consciousness was a copy of a criminal or something, but after they were done the handler made the consciousness experience tens of thousands of years in the same vitual unchaning room with the flick of a wrist. For me this was pure horror and makes death seem like a even fair and necesssary thing.
I remember that episode. The thing that was crazy was during the conversation between the two employees about whether or not to leave it on over Christmas, some 200 or 500 thousand years had already passed. The conscious copy in there already experienced an eternity and was already completely insane in that brief moment. They ended up leaving it on anyway.
I swear, the people in Black Mirror are sometimes unrealistically cruel. Or, at least I hope real people wouldn’t be so cruel, even if the consciousness isn’t an actual person and came from a murderer.
I don’t believe in Hell for this very reason. Infinite punishment for something done in a finite life is cruel and unusual. I believe everyone in such a place would be deserving of mercy, even if I have to say it through gritted teeth.
I remember that episode also. It was called White Christmas. I can't bring myself to watch it a 2nd time
@@SMG2fanatic
Infinite punishment for a finite life.
Me trying to wrap my head around that kind of existential dread as a kid with the pastor or guest speaker saying "even children go to hell", in combination with my dad saying "if anyone deserves to go there, it's Hitler", forced me to think about it and realise that if God were to send Hitler there, he'd have to be infinitely more evil than Hitler.
I've been free of that shit for a decade, and the left-over resentment has been manageble, fortunately. I still relate better to the values of Christians than the average non-Christian.
Exactly what I thought as well, the guy who created it punished a disobedient girl inside it, he left her to do nothing for 6 months, after that she was begging to do something, now imagine that guy inside there having to experience millions of years, your mind can’t even comprehend it
@@SMG2fanatic I fundamentally believe that no one deserves Hell.
1. Burning? For even a day? Unbelievably terrifying to think about that. I already wouldn't wish that upon anyone, I guess.
2. Eternity? For a finite crime? No way. Eternity is absolutely ridiculous. Even after a googolplexian years, you're no closer to the end. ESPECIALLY assuming you never lose consciousness, this punishment would be too cruel regardless of how much physical pain you suffered. NOBODY deserves Hell. Not even Hitler, nor any other terrible person deserves it. I would rather be skinned alive than send a single person to Hell.
Never mind eighty-ish years, our minds begin to fray if we are conscious for more than a few days without the relief of sleep. I think that's the true horror of the Jaunt; an eternity of day-night cycles with at least the rhythm and release of sleep would be bad enough but imagine an eternity of CONTINUOUS consciousness.
How can it be eternity if they came back
You start hallucinating hearing and seeing things voices scenarios whole ass people you wont feel alone for long .. and with constant sleepless consciousness before you know it it feels like normal life .. maybe this universe is that😂
@@ankansenapati3600 That's a good question. It could just be "essentially" an eternity - until the heat death of the universe etc.
Yeah they just spend as long as it takes for another universe to randomly arise in which they just happen to pop out the other end. Yikes, and you thought a trans-Atlantic flight made you stir crazy. 😅
@@ankansenapati3600 There are different kinds of infinity. "Countable" infinity, like 1, 2, 3 ... ထ, but also "uncountable infinity" e.g. all numbers between 0 and 1 (0.0000...ထ...01, 0.0000...ထ...02 and so on) Here, there are infinitely many steps within a finite sum. or phrased differently: The finite space is infinitely divisible into infinitely small steps. one can not even begin to make any meaningful progress toward reaching 1, or 0.1, or 0.000000000000001, within any finite amount of time.
Perhaps the passing of time within the Jaunt is comparable to counting this "uncountable infinity". At least that's how i imagine it.
Reminds me of "The Long Dream" by Junji Ito. It's a short manga about a guy who has increasingly long dreams. At first, they're no more than a day or two, but eventually they stretch to years and decades and beyond. I won't spoil any more than that, but it's a really great read for anyone looking to explore this concept a little more.
just went and read it and wow, that was pretty damn good dude
@@daedalus1453 Yeah, Junji Ito is an absolute god at horror. Definitely check out his other stuff if you liked it. I recommend The Enigma of Amigara Fault, and Uzumaki is pretty good too if you're looking for something that's longer. There's also an anime, but it's pretty shit, so I don't recommend that lol
@@foop145 thank you! very excited to check those out :D
@@daedalus1453 cheers!
I don't think Junji Ito delves into sc-fi too often but the one story I read was pretty good. It's called "Hellstar Remina" and although it gets a little goofy in some places overall it's really interesting. The concept of something millions of lightyears away somehow noticing that it's being watched by a telescope is just cool lol
The Jaunt is probably my favorite Stephen King story. The idea is truly horrifying if you can wrap your head around the idea around losing yourself slowly over time as it stretches on.
My best friend (now passed) said that to understand death you have to imagine what is was like before you were born.
If the soul is eternal, then it is a good thing that we were not conscious or awake before the time we were born. Otherwise, we'd all be crazy lunatics when born.
There is no such thing as a soul.
@@taotzu1339 We are crazy lunatics when born? Limbs flailing over the place screaming away, no sensible conversation.
@@orwellianson Soul tends to mean your individual consciousness so that exists.
There's no before or after but there could be a 'sideways' if parallel universes exist.
"Jaunt" is such a perfect word for this story. Its normal connotation is a quick, enjoyable trip but King turns it into an eternity of horror, twisting a word that isn't supposed to be associated with horror into something terrifying. He's a master at finding horror where it isn't supposed to be (lawnmowers, vending machines, clowns, the family dog, etc...)
Yes, juxtaposition is a mother 😊
You summed that up nicely friend
@@thegodplace7887You hope he never stops writing. That's very dark humour. I just read the story and am still shaken by it.
Confused why Quinn said it was first used in that novel though, when it's from the 1700s at minimum...
First used in scifi as a...thing? I mean, I guess.
If they are in there mentally for an eternity, then they would never get out. What do they mean by eternity in this sense? A century?
One of the best horror stories ever. No ghosts or monsters required- just the frailty of the human mind pitted against the impossible vastness of time.
This concept reminded me a little of what would happen to the mind of Leto II, The God Emperor of Dune, each piece of his mind separated into several locations and in an eternal dream. This concept is fantastic, very fantastic. The idea of you being everywhere and nowhere.
I've been doing ketamine therapy and the first time i "fell into a k-hole" was horrific. Time and space are infinite; you lose memory of who you are or were. Everything is just your conscious mind blending color, shape, sound, smell, into one singular sensation that fills your entire universe. The realization that I was a single conscious entity that existed eternally and would go on existing eternally was horrifying but finally coming to terms with it and accepting it was the opposite of horrific. It was the most liberating feeling i've ever had. The words, "it's eternity in there" really hit me.
Same thoughts about Leto's shattered consciousness. But it's even worse than that... he has no mind! the sandtrout don't appear to have brains as we understand them... so no thought process... only existence... only the unthinking observation and awareness of existence forever and ever and ever... stretched thinner and thinner with every division.
you all need to study neoplatonics ;) You would love what you find there. Im beginning to suspect King knew about certain neoplatonic philosophy and has worked it in.
His fate is a bit less horrifying I think. He’s not aware, per se, of his state as a disembodied mind. He’s dreaming, as it says.
@@NuclearDetractorI haven’t done Ketamine, but the one time i tried salvia i experienced a hallucination of demon made of shadows rising up through a hole in the floor, and peeling off my skin like you would peel an apple, then tossing me into the hole. After entering the hole, i went to hell, and i spent thousands of years there suffering in that place, and then i snapped back to reality mere seconds after i had left, my body intact, and made a note to never smoke salvia again.
The part of the experience that really bothered me is that, it really didn’t feel like a dream or hallucination. It felt _real._ It felt _more_ real than this, _any_ of this, even now. When i think back on those millennia they still seem to stretch out, eclipsing the rest of my life. To the point where sometimes it feels like this life is the dream, and the shadow demon is just toying with me to lull me into a false sense of security so he can start the torture all over again. A brief reprieve from eternity.
So anyway I try not to think about it because that shit is crazy, and that way lies only madness. The moral of the story is never fucking try salvia, even if its legal where you are. Shit sucks so hard.
The Jaunt is ultimately one of my favorite stories of all time. It is so simple and so deeply disturbing, when I first read it at 12 in the tent on my camping trip I was enamored and reread it immediately. It kept me up that night, and every so often keeps me up again.
Truly a great marvel of creative writing.
I love the simplicity of this story. They aren't traveling through some clive barker hell demention that drives them mad but just... Nothing...
The scariest part of this is no one really knows what it's like in there. It's been speculated that you're suspended in endless white for an unspecified amount of time...but nobody really knows for sure that that is exactly what it is.
In the end after his son says "IT'S LONGER THAN YOU THINK!" King writes that he "said other things" and than his father started screaming. It chills my blood to think of what those "other things" were.
twice stephen king has left me DYING to know conversations only referenced. this one and the conversation between the two finalists in the long walk that one of the kids saw when they were younger.... god what i wouldn't do to know what the winner was whispering
I hear they plan to make a movie out of this maybe we will her these other things
My head cannon is that the boy maintained his sanity and gouged his eyes out because he wasn't used to using his body and was just trying to rub his eyes.
Then he promptly did go insane simply because of feeling the pain of gouging his eyes out. Because feeling pain for the first time in longer than you think must be pretty damn bad.
I love reading horror, but rarely does anything I'm reading translate into that visceral ripple of fear that comes from an unconscious response to something terrifying.
I remember reading this story for the first time and thinking it was super interesting but more sci-fi than horror.... until the last few lines when the kid comes out of the jaunt screaming "Longer than you think!" over and over again. It really caught me off guard, and I felt a wave of goosebumps all over. Such a good piece of writing. Giving me goosebumps rn just thinking about it.
That’s what got me. Jesus, what’s longer than eternity?
And he also gouges out his own eyes if I remember correctly.
@@N0sf3r4tuR1s3n He does! It's such a gut wrenching scene
That visceral ripple of fear is exactly what I got when I first encountered "I have no mouth and I must scream"
I rescue people's minds out of the Jaunt. I work with Nigilum and Q.
I remember reading Asimov's The Last Question, and it's had such an impact on me. Still one of my favourite pieces of sci-fi literature.
Yesss, the last lines of it give me goosebumps every time, such great writing
I love that story...I like to think that is what may happen or did happen or will happen.
Truly one of the best short stories out there.
Strange that Asimovs story is hopeful, even though it foretells endless cycles of repeated existence whereas King’s is horrifying. What’s the real difference between them though?
@@dalriadait's the same difference in Liminal Spaces.
You can walk around forever in those places and never find anyone, you are free. You can run around everywhere always and never never escape, you are trapped.
Similar to the phrase "You may not sleep now there are monsters nearby".
on the Trek transporters lore:
there is one Barklay focussed TNG episode where we see his POV being uninterupted while beaming, the old surroundings fading into the new. this suggests people stay conscious in the matterstream. at least during de-re-materialization the beamed matter is allowed to interact with itself, even if still in different locations.
Which in the same episode they tell him, is not what is suppossed to be happen. You should not be aware in the Transporter...
Yet Scotty stayed stuck in a pattern buffer for 75 years before being rescued.
There are at least three other instances of people being merged / separated by the transporter as well.
Thomas Riker is the most interesting, I think, as it shows the transporter can create a perfect duplicate. Arguably there is no "original" Riker. There's Will, and Tom, both with equal claim at the instant of re-materialization
@@ShawnMCowlesthen Tuvix on ST Voyager. Tuvuk and Neelix merged.
But here's the problem though, it might be uninterrupted but there's no way to tell if it's not just the perspective of yourself going into a new body and somehow or another it's so instantaneous you don't realize that you've transferred into a new body
"When they figured out how to bring us back, some of us would tell stories about what we saw on the other side. We saw old friends, family, mostly strangers. I spoke to my grandfather. He's been dead for thirty years."
"What'd he tell ya?"
"It's eternity in there..." - Dell Conagher
That’s my favorite scene in Emesis Blue.
“When Blud figured out how to bring a sigma back, some of us would tell stories of what we saw in Ohio. We saw big chungus, banban, mostly dead memes. I spoke to harambe. He’s been dead for 6 years.”
“What did Blud say?”
“It’s skibidi in there”
Thank you for being one of the only people to ever use the "beyond comprehension" phrase properly, and not as an exaggeration.
Weird comment but okay haha
@@BigPurpleCarrotthey’re just exaggerating
Pedantry will get you nowhere.
One of the only people ever. We checked...
I'm just going to stick with Zefran Cochranes Warp Drive or the borg quantum slipstream tech modified to Federation tech. No warhammer warp, no jaunting, and no bloody Brundle Fly teleportation. Forget it. Zefran Cochrane is the man.
One of my favorite short stories,and every time i think about it i am also reminded of the sentence one of my science teachers spoke to us "you think that the stars shine at night but not all of them actually do,the universe is a vast place and you may be seeing now the light of a star that died a million years ago."
I am reminded of an Argentinean graphic novel which was discontinued after a couple of issues (which is a pitty because it was good). In it, we find out that because humanity has managed to completely uncover all secrets of the Human Gemone, strange, seemingly random events are happening worldwide. Some are affecting things like causing acid to rain in a city, or fire becoming bubbles on one location. However, other events affect humans directly, and they are disturbing to say the least. In particular, one of the events is that a random bank security guard in Scotland suddenly takes out his gun, yells out "I now know the secret origin of the Universe!" and self terminates with his gun by shooting his own head immediately after he yells that.
What’s the name
It seams dope as hell, what is its name?
Sort of sounds like an episode of Doctor Who where people start killing themselves after learning a secret of their reality.
Can we please have the name of this graphic novel?
Upright Citizens Brigade called it The Bucket of Truth
I literally rewatched Cronenberg's The Fly three days ago and thought of this deeply unsettling short story. The description of the son is truly something horrifying. It also reminds me of the 1997 horrorfilm Event Horizon. I find these type of cosmic horror stories in which characters go through portals or enter other (hellish) dimensions extremely scary. Great video!
It reminds me of that storm the plane flew through in "The Langoliers." Everyone who was asleep crossed over, but everyone awake disappeared, leaving clothes, watches, fillings, etc.
I was thinking the same thing. It seems almost connected.
I read this story as a young teenager and never forgot it. It was such psychological horror. What would your mind become if it were conscious but trapped for 10,000 years?
That would be already about 125 life times. Unfathomably long. But remember the line "Here was a creature older than time". If we take this literally, we should assume at least 13.8 billion years (age of the universe). It literally is unimaginable.
I always wondered what the thoughts would 'sound' like and be construed of once enough time had passed and the psyche had begun to unravel? I can see it splitting into at least 2 parts at first and having conversations with itself but eventually this would erode and decay and the very sense of self would begin to deconstruct. What would the thoughts 'sound like then?!
Keep in mind that the physical time spent for a jaunt (so short that it is almost nothing) has an inverse relationship with the psychological time (so long that it might as well be eternal).
@@waverlyking6045 interesting, is that mentioned in the story? Been a while since i read it
@@Dan-ji4db It’s been a while since I have read it also. I can’t remember if it’s stated but it’s certainly implied.
This is the story I always talk about when people ask me about Stephen King. The idea of being trapped in a void… terrifying.
Good analysis and commentary, as always. Also made me think of Tolkien's Middle Earth setting, in which death is called "the gift of Men" from the creator god Illuvitar; the idea that humans weren't intended to live eternally in the mortal world, but die and go on to another existence better-suited for them.
Lem explored this theme in a few short stories. Basically he said that humans want to live forever but not eternal life. There's a big difference.
Yeah but there's really no such thing as a eternal life, everything gets wiped out with heat death, there has to be some sort of energy to sustain consciousness
@@jacquestube The thing is 'heat death' has not been confirmed. The way people are talking about it, makes it seem like we have perfect knowledge of the end. Its just a theory, and not a particularly thorough one. I mean, we haven't even left our solar system yet, and people are talking like we are a interstellar race. When in reality we know almost nothing.
@@originalprecursor you know what it has a hell of a lot more standing than the idea that there's some sort of disembodied Consciousness that can sustain itself
@@jacquestube I would agree, but that wasn't really my point. Although, I'm unsure what 'standing' means in this context.
@@jacquestubeThis is a strange comment. Just because our laws of physics prevent such an eternity, it's still a deeply interesting concept. Hypotheticals don't need to be real to be useful
As much as I love this story I always found it funny how easy it was for someone to avoid going to sleep before the jaunt
Yep. Better start hiring anesthesiologists.
Clearly a society without lawyers. They probably also have that Star Wars architecture with the giant pits in the middle of busy public places.
I wonder if other kids' parents love them enough to scare them!
Made the same comment. There would be confirmation all passengers are under or no jaunt.
To me, that’s the scariest thing about it.
This is one of my favourite King stories of them all. It's such a terrifyingly vast concept in such a comparably small story, and of course wonderfully written.
You genuinely made me feel fear and squirm in my seat when you described this story. Amazing video. I actually felt the existential dread. It’s weird how the concept of this story just somehow makes sense. Being in this sort of “gap” between reality where time literally doesn’t exist yet our consciousness is left to interpret that gap in reality. It’s “forever” in there because it never ends, yet somehow we could be yanked out of it. It’s like asking what the end of infinity is, yet paradoxically that is what happens in this story. Fucking genius writing, and of course we’re saying this about Stephen King
I just learned about The Jaunt literally two hours ago on you tube. This is crazy.
This was always my favourite Stephen King story.
I read it when I was Ricky's age and never forgot about it ever since.
At that time, I was on a long road trip with my parents and I've never complained about travelling by car again.
I read this short story when I was a kid and it freaked me out for months!
This has always been one of my favorite King yarns. I recently listened to two similar stories on The Dark Somnium channel that explore a similar idea, not quite being isolated in nothingness but almost. They are based on the premise of a drug that accelerates human thinking (but not human movement) but, in the case of an unexpected reaction with Ambien, the effect is multiplied to unimaginable time scales (one character perceives something like eight million years curled up on a subway platform after the reaction kicks in). Those stories propose that the human mind, devoid of stimulus but somehow kept alive, would slowly begin forgetting EVERYTHING, including language, and with enough time, simply erase all synapses and become blank jelly. Stephen King's description of people emerging insane and ready to die, but still capable of communication, makes me wonder how long he really imagined the Jaunt to be. Certainly it cannot truly be eternity, or else the person would never emerge. So how long might it take an isolated mind to reach that state? A century? A millennium? Ten millennia?
Wouldn't the decay of the synapses be a physical event? And if the 'real' time passing during a standard jaunt is so short there can be no detrimental physical effect on the brain does that mean the blank jelly effect simply wouldn't have time to occur? ie. the 'victim' would be alert and conscious and fully aware for aeons? That's how I view it but I'm happy to be corrected . . . thanks for the Dark Sonmium tip though, will give it a look.
This is by far my favorite Stephen King short story! Have you done anything on The Long Walk?
The Bachman books were by far better than his books with his real name.
Still mad we didn't get Darabont's adaptation of The Long Walk on the big screen. That story has stuck with me since I was a boy.
AHHHHHHHHHH MY FAVE BOOK OF HIS
Thanks for covering this story. I read it many years ago and it just stuck with me. Hard to forget that ending! What's worse, is that a small piece of me wonders what it would be like ...
Kind of reminds me of long-term exposure to the One Ring;
“I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread.”
They're of course two very different situations, but both make me think about how horrible immortality is
Immortality need not be horrible.
Some day I'll be immortal.
@@kamikeserpentail3778 Live forever or die trying!
I think immortality is only bad in two situations. When it is brute-forced in a being that was not made to endure it (you see a lot of myths about the dangers of wanting to be immortal, but none makes it seem that immortality is bad on the gods themselves), which can be solve by a more careful approach to achieving it. And when the world around you is not immortality as well. I mean, the elves had this problem. Humans, I think, would not suffer from the same problem if the rest of Humanity was also immortal.
It's easy to conflate the narrative use of immortality in fictional stories, with theoretical methods of achieving it in real life. Nevertheless, consider that no form of human immortality has been proven to exist so far in history. Every writer that's ever painted it as hell has never experienced it themselves; it's pure speculation on their part. Should immortality arise, it will likely have some key differences:
A. It will not make you indestructible. A completely immutable person is not even speculatively feasible with our current understanding of science. Even if it was, I imagine it would be opt-in. The two front-runners in modern discussion of immortality are a means of rejuvenating the body (age reversal) and uploading the mind to a digital format. Regardless of which would end up taking priority, their focus is on preserving the body and expanding our potential lifespans indefinitely. That presumably wouldn't prevent one from taking their own life, or dying in an accident.
B. It will not be exclusive. If a method of immortality were developed for humans, there's no reason to think it would not work on more than a select few people. Many people are concerned about billionaires hoarding the technology for themselves - a concern I share - but the problem there wouldn't be the immortality itself, but capitalism. This misconception extends to a lot of stories, where the immortality on display is miserable specifically because of the circumstances surrounding it.
Immortality could be an incredible gift to living things, allowing them to live as long as they please. It doesn't have to be miserable, lonely, or even permanent. Unfortunately, the unfounded-yet-embedded narratives and misconceptions surrounding it are formidable obstacles to progress.
@@dravex9697 I'm not a good writer, but here's my take on a one-paragraph horror story which is founded.
"You merely wanted to die, to opt-out of immortality... And then they called you insane. In this society of immortals, the very act of 'opting-out' is a mental illness itself. They forced the biological maintenance onto you, seeing your protests as little more than a child whining about getting a shot. They put you in an asylum. You will remain here, for hundreds, thousands of years... And death will only claim you when they no longer have the energy to maintain you. You will wait in Hell until the stars go out."
In any case, I don't think opting-out will be an option. A society of people who live for millennia cannot accommodate people who live less than a century. Mortals and immortals simply cannot coexist.
The scene that Fogiia went through is parodied in an animation called Emesis blue. Though instead of jaunting the person who says the words comes back from the afterlife instead. He comes back in a respawn machine and his eyes are lost. Then he is sent back in and the next respawn... well... it doesn't go well
Just watched that for the first time a couple days ago. It was awesome 👍
I love emesis blue, it's an amazing movie.
Emesis Blue is really good
Stephen King is a true master of the short story. To be able to write something so short and yet so impactful is preternatural. I remember reading this decades ago as a teenager and it is still one of the best and most disturbing stories I've ever read.
I don’t know. In this one he wasted a lot of time talking about petro-dollars and the stock market in terms and detail someone 300 years in the future wouldn’t care to relate to their pre-teen children. It could have used another pass in editing is all im saying…
Thank you for covering this. Always thought this story and concept were underrated and it’s been rolling in the back of my mind for 30 years or so. Longer than you’d think!
A beautifully written story that charges up slowly by bringing a very elaborate context and hits you hard at the very last moment. I remember when I read it first. Thank you for reviewing it in a full video!
Ever since i discovered Stephen Kings' works in the 80's i have been a fan, he weaves tales that shift on both sides of horror from the extreme to the quiet and its the quiet horror stories that really shine because of the nuanced ways they play out.
Perfect timing! I just finished your three body problem series and the bleakness of my feed gave me existential dread
I wish all my audiobooks were narrated by this man!!! Love your voice!
With you on this!
The Jaunt is one of my favorite King stories because it really made me think. "It's eternity in there!"
I love this short story so much and it always feels like no one either read it or remembered it.
I read this story in like, middle school. Boy was it unsettling. It stuck with me, along with several other short stories in the collection I read (Skeleton Crew, 1985). There were some other sci-fi stories I remember, including "Beachworld", but "The Jaunt" was so much more horrifying.
Right?? There were truly some slam bang scary shityourpants stories in it. The mix of subjects was insanely good!
I definitely like "Beachworld," though. 'It's a beach in search of an ocean, mate.'
Read this about 40 years ago, The Jaunt really stuck with me. I was about 12, and often tried learning through circumventing rules, this story really woke me up to why rules might exist.
I'd like to recommend a somewhat obscure story, also about teleportation (of a sort) - Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys. It follows astronauts who've discovered a strange structure on the Moon, and attempt to explore it by using a form of teleportation where their original selves remain intact, and are temporarily synced up with their teleported selves, though only until they're killed by any misstep in the structure, and have to teleport another self to the moon to keep exploring. It's a very interesting story, with a take on teleportation that I haven't seen before.
Oh man I just stumbled on this video. The Jaunt has always been one of my favourite short stories. It absolutely terrified me. How is it this has never been adapted for TV. Would make a great Black Mirror episode.
Aaaaah! Not every day your favorite creator posts a video about your favorite cosmic horror story!!
I love the existential terror of this classic. It’s a quick read with a gut-punching payoff, and a great one to recommend to people you might want to open some thoughtful discussions with.
I always wondered… where does it stop being “eternity in there”?
I assumed King was implying a living being’s awake consciousness will simultaneously perceive its experience of time inside the jaunt as *both* an infinite eternity *and* an instantaneous transition.
What always scared me was the relatively common teleportation trope that it’s just a clone being generated in a new location and the original person dies.
Because if conscious beings functionally “die” inside the jaunt and are then resurrected or cloned at the target location, the implication would be eternal “awake awareness” absent stimulus is the default state for consciousness when the body dies.
It is general consensus that the brain creates consciousness (i. e. no duality of body and soul). So the clone at the target location will have a brain that creates a new consciousness. The person, however, will feel like the original person as all of the original persons memories right up to the teleportation were copied.
Years ago, when i was a kid, I contemplated the reality of eternity, and ever since, sometimes when I'm lying awake at night, I cant fight it off, and the stress of it threatens to make me physically ill. the pit in my stomach. We are just creatures, we are not built to comprehend or withstand that.
I've always remembered the end of The Jaunt since reading it 30 years ago.
I like that he put the entire script in the description. Makes it easier to follow. Nice touch
Eventually, Kars stopped thinking.
Luckily for him he would finally die after 100 billion years, the universe's end. That's at least not forever.
@@anoon- Probably even longer than 100 billion.
Read many King's short stories. This is the only one that stuck in my head for decades. The horror is another level.
This makes me think of "Ring" by Stephen Baxter and the fate of one character. It's a nightmare that gives me chills still to think about it and messed with me when I first read it.
Forever in my top 3 must watch channels! Always engaging and well presented
Sleeping before entering the Jaunt kinda reminds of The Langoliers where the travelers had to be asleep before entering the portal.
I hadn't made that connection:)
I read this story when I was a teenager. It made me a Stephen King fan and was one of his tales that stayed with me my whole life. I often wonder if that's where we go when we die...
There... Now you can mull that over too.
Incredible video as always Quinn! The Jaunt definitely gives me Lovecraft vibes.... the ones that go through awake just don't have the required Insight, they needed eyes on the inside. Can't perceive the Eldritch Truth without lining the brain with eyes after all.
I remember reading this story it still pops up in my mind every once in a while! Great story!
10:40 this concept is also known as the boltzmann's brain - and it's one of the most terrifying thought experiments in the universe. By far. The scariest part about it is, it's conceivably possible, and even likely to be our reality in some models.
This is my favorite short story by Stephen King. I regularly get chills when I tell people about this story, and the way you present is so well done. I would love to hear you do an overview of Junji Itos "The Long Dream".
This is what I believe Hell to be. Not just eternal damnation in hell fire but burning for all eternity in loneliness. The first time I read about someone experiencing sensory deprivation I thought Hell is this but worse. That's why I can never even casually or jokingly tell someone to "Go to Hell". I don't think anyone deserves that kind of fate. It's why I find it difficult to even believe such a thing exists because even the worse of human beings shouldn't have to exist in eternal pain and loneliness.
Fortunately it does not.
I prefer more fun versions of hell.
I experienced eternity during a weed “trip”. I went for a walk on the mountain and had the impression that I would never die. The concept was frightening, to live forever, to continuously experience sensations and have to deal with life’s problems and with an eventual boredom that could never be overcome. NEVER.
When I came down from my high, I deeply cherished my mortality. That one day it would all end and the struggle to survive and make sense of the world and get through each day would eventually end. Knowing that you will die one day helps to appreciate and enjoy the life you have, and even get through bad periods, pain and depression. If there were no end then every day would (eventually) become hell, an unimaginable torture!
I've been there, in that element of eternity - albeit for a brief time. A quick jaunt, one might say.
I had a near death experience or what I believe to possibly have been one. I overdosed and found myself in a state of consciousness where the only sensory input was sound of my own screaming into the void along with the absence of everything else. Pitch black, no touch or feeling of the seat my body lay in at that time. No smell. Nothing except the knowledge of what had been and the absolute feeling of dread and "nothingness" that had become my reality.
Eventually after screaming for help and yelling if anyone was there to no avail, I say in this darkness for what felt like 10-15 minutes before a very clear and distinct voice that was not my own said, into what would have been my left ear, "you're going to have to fight the devil.". My response, in hindsight, was absurd and even comical. "How long do I have? Can I get back in shape first?". Obviously I was taking this quite literally lol.
Nothing else was said and after a short time I began to feel the pressure of the seat under my legs and behind me, still in absolute darkness. Until my vision returned and I awoke in the same seat I was in before, only a giant red STOP sign now filled my field of view out the front windshield. How I came to be in this impossible position I'll never kno. There was no way for the car to come to stop in that place as I was already past the stop sign and at a complete stop by the time this unfolded. It felt like a sign telling me to stop what I was doing and start the long road to recovery, or "fighting that devil". I've been sober since roughly 6 months after this occurred.
Even the events that unfolded up to and just prior to this were odd and eerie. Between the non-stop "coincidences" and all kinds of warnings, up to the moment of "death". When I came to a stop my vision did this thing where it was like a VCR was stuck on hold and turning my head didn't change the view. It became frozen and quite noisy image where a "GAME OVER" signage came spinning into view like an old movie newspaper. I heard what felt like dozens of voices singing in an almost choir like mocking tone "you're dead, you're dead, you're dead". And then it just went pitch black and everything I described before unfolded.
The whole experience changed me, in some ways for the better but in alot of ways not so. I see patterns in alot of things now that can be a bit unnerving. I doubt my sanity frequently, because it sounds nuts as do the the other things I don't feel like getting into. Everyone I've told this to pretty much shrugs it off and acts like I'm crazy, so I tend to avoid mentioning it at all. I keep to myself and just try to lead the best life I can in the best way I know how. I fear that place is the end though, or what comes after. It's made me believe in a higher power though, whereas I was pretty agnostic before.
I had this terrible AWFUL fever dream once.
I was alone in a blank white space, and all I could do was scream, but I couldn't hear myself scream.
I was like 9 or 10 and this was one of the scariest things I had experienced.
Still is to this day, sometimes I feel like that's what might happen to me after I die.
I grew up "religious" but have quickly fallen out of it by the time I was 12 or so. I am a "hopeful" Atheist, I want to believe, I like the idea, I'm very open to it, but deep down It's hard to say if I really believe.
The idea of a single infinite consciousness splitting itself because it is lonely is a very interesting one. The webcomic Kill Six Billion Demons explores that a bit in it's multiverse’s creation myth.
so does buddhism
It's an idea I arrived to myself as well, thinking about the concepts of God and consciousness
@user-dt7px5xp6z Nothing no big men or women are real.
@@PsycordeSame!
I don't necessarily believe the following corollary, but I also considered, what if the experience of life as we know it is the creation of such an eternal mind to occupy/distract itself from the maddening knowledge of eternal consciousness? 🤔
Just throwing my comment into the mix......In the "Jaunt" video Quinn talks about a cosmic being which "...because it was alone, being the only thing, it split itself so it would no longer be alone...". That reminded me of the error in some theological thought (in my opinion as a Christian) about the assertion that God created sentient humanity so that God would not be alone. I can see how these ideas of isolation on the grandest scale can be a foundational mindset which leads to a sense of cosmic horror. Understanding the Christian Trinity, however, effectively counters that mindset. I understand that in God being three persons in eternal unity before and throughout creation, God has always been complete in relationship. God never had a need for humanity, but instead created humanity out of love, not need. No other religion has this complete and satisfied, eternal related-ness as the foundation of its total system. In turn, the relationship-focused nature of Christianity ( I know this intimately in my 40+ year relationship with Jesus Christ, the Father, and the Holy Spirit) delivers "...peace...which surpasses all understanding..." Philipians 4:5-7. I am so thankful for that because I also understand, having read ALOT of science fiction, horror (including Lovecraft and PKD), and post-modern philosophy when I was a teenager, that a universe of meaninglessness and no real relationship leads to hopelessness and fear. It is awesome to be delivered from that kind of emptiness and dread.
Thank you for your analysis of The Jaunt by Stephen King. Quinn, I love watching your videos on my big screen smart television by the way. They entertain everyone in the room that is watching them!
Two things that give humans a sense of the passage of time is the carcadian rhythm, which affects us physically, mentally, and behaviorally in a 24-hour cycle, and the vibration frequency of our individual atoms. When someone is teleported, he/she is literally liberated from the complex and elaborate constraints of these biological and atomic processes for the duration that the person is transported from point A to point B in space. When those biological and atomic processes are removed, maybe it feels like eternity, since there is nothing to help a human discern the passage of time in that brief moment. Teleportation, which causes consciousness to become disembodied for a brief moment, might just feel like an eternity (since there is no material clock acting on the consciousness to distinguish the passage of time). That is another possibility for what the awake teleporters might be experiencing during these jaunts.
Quinn, I would love for you to do an analysis of the story The Cipher, by Kathe Koja. I think viewers would get a kick out of that one.
Great short from King. It horrified me as only a few have ever done.
A much more breezier story about everlasting consciousness is “World Without End” by F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre. Pretty good
I cannot find the book that contains the story. Can you help me?
Sure. There are two.
The Mammoth Book of Apocalyptic SF and The Mammoth Book of the End of the World
@@isthattrue Should be able to get them from a library digitally if you can.
@@michaelwinters2574 Thank you!
I read Skeleton Crew when I was 11 or 12 (I think I read it several times actually) and loved it. I vaguely remember the story of the cursed toy monkey and nothing of the others. Except the Jaunt. That story I have I can remember precisely, especially the sad and disturbing ending. It really made an impact.
Glad this story is getting attention. Classic cosmic horror!
You cannot imagine being trapped in your mind. Not hearing, seeing, feeling, touching, speaking, or dreaming, but conscious for all of it, for billions and billions of years. Genius writing.
Minor point: Jaunting in _The Stars My Destination_ is a psychic ability, not a something done through a machine. I recommend the novel, it's got an amazing amount going on in it.
We were given a book of King short stories in highschool and were told to read a couple of them. I read The Jaunt and enjoyed it. It's the exact type of horror I love and any time King is mentioned I recomend this short story.
I read this short at 12 or 13 and it fucked with me for days! I still can’t hear “longer than you think” without picturing the raving boy.
HaHA! When you did your sci-fi horror compilation the other day I was disappointed that The Jaunt wasn’t on the list. Glad to see it make its own video instead.
Emesis Blue moment
I’ve seen the other side. It’s longer than you think.
Lol
This is one of my favourite sci fi stories and The Skeleton Crew is a fantastic collection.
I like the warhammer 40k thumbmail art which shows a phyckers becoming a warp mutation. The warp has a simmilar feel to the jaunt and it does almost the same and an even worse damge. That was some great video! It made me intrested on theese book series, thanks!
I was given K2 once and had an experience that felt like this. Like an eternal consciousness, in a continuous void of darkness or just myself. I saw my entire life and everyone I ever knew, I felt like I could feel every cell in my body and the ones that had died, every thought that was ever thought, every fathomable molecule was an eternity. I felt like I was the universe in a chaotic and endless and hopeless way. I was there so long that I believed that I created everything and everyone so that I could forget about my eternal torture.
What's K2?
@@JonJohJameson Synthetic Marijuana
@@oni_fire1417 ohhh, huh.
Incense
@@oni_fire1417 Oh sorry that wasn't like a questioning huh and more of a, "huh, I didn't know that."
Awesome story
According to Catholic Legend, St. Thomas Aquinas, who wrote but never finished the monumental Summa Theologica (largely considered 1 of the greatest books ever written), about 3 months before his death had a mystic vision while in deep prayer. After he never wrote, taught, & barely spoke again, saying that everything he had ever written was "like straw" in comparison.
I think the brain and consciousness only travel for that fraction of a second, but it's completely outside of linear time. So it is experienced as an eternity. Thank you for reminding me about this story. I read it in my teens, and although I recalled the basics of the plot, I couldn't have told you the title or author. Nice to have those details back in my brain.
Oh awesome, this has been one of my favourite short stories for decades -- the Jaunt-space has terrified me since I was a kid
Love Marvin
This short story by King really twisted my brain the first time I read it years ago. Horror at it's finest.
The Dark forest was the only horror story I literally felt existential dread.
Cixin Liu's The Dark Forest?
@@NatePilgrim Yeah
If you scroll through this concept again, the fear will diminish.
All the same, the Dark Forest is an extreme elevated to asbolute.
Such a policy can be applied in individual regions - but for it to work throughout the universe, very strong reasons are needed.
@@IndiaTides obliged, mate
I read this in a collection of short novels by Stephen King, this story was one of the most terrifying for me when I was a kid, along with a story of a girl that didn't know she had died, long before Sixth Sense or other movies of that type. Stephen King always had interesting ideas! Another short novel in the collection was of a man that always tried to find the shortest route to his destination, he was obsessed with it, until he completed the trip in increasingly impossible short times, it seemed he was crossing dimensions coming back with strange creatures stuck to the car. I think the collection was called "Skeleton Crew" (in Swedish "Den Förskräckliga Apan") which was also a interesting short novel in the collection.
The boy next door from the goosebumps series has a girl who didn’t know she had died lol
I read that story many years ago when I was still a Christian, when I still believed in a God that had existed for eternity before He created anything. _The Jaunt_ made me wonder if our universe, if the big bang was the result of YHWH being driven insane by eternity. When He couldn't continue His existence as He always had, the spark of our universe was ignited. The big bang altered YHWH profoundly, turning Him into a creator God, who now shaped the universe to make us possible.
I then prayed repentantly for forgiveness after that, being that Jehovah God can read minds.
Him being insane definitely would explain all the bad things going around in the world supposedly created and overseen by an all good God, in that case He could genuinely think that everything He has made is good
Here is my comment.... you might find it interesting... In the "Jaunt" video Quin talks about a cosmic being which "...because it was alone, being the only thing, it split itself so it would no longer be alone...". That reminded me of the error in some theological thought (in my opinion as a Christian) about the assertion that God created sentient humanity so that God would not be alone. I can see how these ideas of isolation on the grandest scale can be a foundational mindset which leads to a sense of cosmic horror. Understanding the Christian Trinity, however, effectively counters that mindset. I understand that in God being three persons in eternal unity before and throughout creation, God has always been complete in relationship. God never had a need for humanity, but instead created humanity out of love, not need. No other religion has this complete and satisfied, eternal related-ness as the foundation of its total system. In turn, the relationship-focused nature of Christianity ( I know this intimately in my 40+ year relationship with Jesus Christ, the Father, and the Holy Spirit) delivers "...peace...which surpasses all understanding..." Philipians 4:5-7. I am so thankful for that because I also understand, having read ALOT of science fiction, horror (including Lovecraft and PKD), and post-modern philosophy when I was a teenager, that a universe of meaninglessness and no real relationship leads to hopelessness and fear. It is awesome to be delivered from that kind of emptiness and dread.
Skeleton Crew and Night Shift were my introductions to King's short stories, thank you for this stellar re-introduction!
1:50 in star trek it is clearly shown in one episode that the person disappears and a clone with memories is made. it baffled my mind that they would be so comfortable about it.
This is one of the most terrifying concepts! I discovered this story when I was 13 at summer camp freaked me out and I still ponder it as an unspeakable hell 30 years later! Thank you Quinn! 😂❤
You should check out Long Dream by Junji Ito. It's an 18 page Japanese comic that plays around with the idea of eternal consciousness, though it's through dreams instead. It's more cosmic horror than sci-fi horror, but it's still great.
I love the different layers of horror in this story. All the backstory that the dad recounts is such a creepy slow burn. The way that humanity fully embraced jaunting despite the known risk of eternal psychological damnation. Then, at the end, the dad must confront the fact that his son's fate was largely his fault for spurring on the boy's curiosity with his story.
This is a weird Segway, but one time I was doing this mushroom assisted therapy with my mate who studies psychology, and I was meditating and the egodeath I experienced showed me how you couldn’t maintain consciousness over an eternity without going insane. Nice to see someone wrote a book about it too 😂
Segue
One of my favorite fiction short stories. I've always been curious of what would happen if they knocked out the jaunted users immediately they appeared on the other side or put them in an induced coma for a few days before slowly waking them up.