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.

@Vaalbeast

6 ай бұрын

That is deeply more horrifying than the people who (eventually) came out the other side.

@Randalor

6 ай бұрын

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?

@meatybtz

6 ай бұрын

@@Randalor And thus IT came into being...

@mrbuck5059

6 ай бұрын

@@Randalor she is in there so long that she turns into a Boltzman brain. She could create her own universe.

@cfh0384

6 ай бұрын

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.

“Longer than you think” gave me chills after his dad’s description of eternity.

@pappas610

Ай бұрын

All the dad said was that eternity awaits them should they remain conscious.

@Tethloach1

16 күн бұрын

7:17 I liked that part

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.

@MySerpentine

6 ай бұрын

Yeah, I thought of that too. Or maybe it's so long that you forget how to think . . .

@sweetlew8725

6 ай бұрын

​@@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

@sentientcardboarddumpster7900

6 ай бұрын

Getting lost in the thought of getting lost in a thought

@Whyistruth

6 ай бұрын

This is a perfect description of the thought loop

@xXLunatikxXlul

6 ай бұрын

@@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.

@captainyossarian388

15 күн бұрын

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.

@velocity1238

14 күн бұрын

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.

@legitusername-zl7to

13 күн бұрын

the indomitable human spirit:

Resting this story years ago has always made me wish that King played around with sci-fi more than he traditionally has.

@gerdsfargen6687

6 ай бұрын

Hell yes! This was a true gem. Slow build up...but one banger of a finish.

@luketien928

5 ай бұрын

There was another one called “The Shortcut”, if memory serves… also sci-fi like.

@gughunterx437

3 ай бұрын

@@luketien928 I think it was Mrs. Todd's Shortcut. It's been a while since I read it but it was pretty Lovecraftian.

@alexandertiberius1098

20 күн бұрын

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.

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.

@janerecluse4344

6 ай бұрын

But what happened to the *mice?*

@nathantowns2043

6 ай бұрын

It's eternity in there

@EvenTheDogAgrees

6 ай бұрын

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.

@brianback3865

6 ай бұрын

This one and the long walk were my 2 favorite short stories by him.

@veramae4098

6 ай бұрын

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.

"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...)

@romanmanner

6 ай бұрын

Yes, juxtaposition is a mother 😊

@darthwyvvern

6 ай бұрын

You summed that up nicely friend

@isthattrue

6 ай бұрын

​@@thegodplace7887You hope he never stops writing. That's very dark humour. I just read the story and am still shaken by it.

@finickybits8055

6 ай бұрын

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.

@vertigo2894

6 ай бұрын

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?

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.

@daedalus1453

5 ай бұрын

just went and read it and wow, that was pretty damn good dude

@foop145

5 ай бұрын

@@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

@daedalus1453

5 ай бұрын

@@foop145 thank you! very excited to check those out :D

@foop145

5 ай бұрын

@@daedalus1453 cheers!

@milliondollarmistake

5 ай бұрын

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

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.

@ankansenapati3600

6 ай бұрын

How can it be eternity if they came back

@winwinmilieudefensie7757

6 ай бұрын

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😂

@someoneelse3456

6 ай бұрын

@@ankansenapati3600 That's a good question. It could just be "essentially" an eternity - until the heat death of the universe etc.

@mikicerise6250

6 ай бұрын

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. 😅

@N.M.E.

6 ай бұрын

@@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.

My best friend (now passed) said that to understand death you have to imagine what is was like before you were born.

@taotzu1339

Күн бұрын

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.

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.

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.

@jimtroeltsch5998

6 ай бұрын

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.

@TR4R

5 ай бұрын

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.

@trifectaofchris

5 ай бұрын

@@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.

@trifectaofchris

5 ай бұрын

@@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.

@TR4R

5 ай бұрын

@@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 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.

@NuclearDetractor

6 ай бұрын

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.

@patreekotime4578

6 ай бұрын

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.

@maeton-gaming

6 ай бұрын

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.

@JamesTAdams

6 ай бұрын

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.

@Wertsir

6 ай бұрын

@@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.

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.

@SMG2fanatic

4 ай бұрын

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.

@jdhenge

4 ай бұрын

I remember that episode also. It was called White Christmas. I can't bring myself to watch it a 2nd time

@Brandon-1996

4 ай бұрын

​@@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.

@TheHulaHoop12

4 ай бұрын

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

@ionisator1

3 ай бұрын

@@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.

I love the simplicity of this story. They aren't traveling through some clive barker hell demention that drives them mad but just... Nothing...

Thank you for being one of the only people to ever use the "beyond comprehension" phrase properly, and not as an exaggeration.

@BigPurpleCarrot

6 ай бұрын

Weird comment but okay haha

@legoaddiction8607

6 ай бұрын

@@BigPurpleCarrotthey’re just exaggerating

@nBasedAce

6 ай бұрын

Pedantry will get you nowhere.

@savvyb54

6 ай бұрын

One of the only people ever. We checked...

@mrbuck5059

6 ай бұрын

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.

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.

@JamesTAdams

6 ай бұрын

That’s what got me. Jesus, what’s longer than eternity?

@N0sf3r4tuR1s3n

6 ай бұрын

And he also gouges out his own eyes if I remember correctly.

@willytingles

6 ай бұрын

@@N0sf3r4tuR1s3n He does! It's such a gut wrenching scene

@YoungSlim51

6 ай бұрын

That visceral ripple of fear is exactly what I got when I first encountered "I have no mouth and I must scream"

@mrbuck5059

6 ай бұрын

I rescue people's minds out of the Jaunt. I work with Nigilum and Q.

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.

@Quasimodo-mq8tw

6 ай бұрын

Which in the same episode they tell him, is not what is suppossed to be happen. You should not be aware in the Transporter...

@JB52520

6 ай бұрын

Yet Scotty stayed stuck in a pattern buffer for 75 years before being rescued.

@ShawnMCowles

6 ай бұрын

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

@mrbuck5059

6 ай бұрын

​@@ShawnMCowlesthen Tuvix on ST Voyager. Tuvuk and Neelix merged.

@jacquestuber628

6 ай бұрын

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

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.

@Dondillilochevrolet

6 ай бұрын

What’s the name

@hireslehibousacre756

6 ай бұрын

It seams dope as hell, what is its name?

@NuclearDetractor

6 ай бұрын

Sort of sounds like an episode of Doctor Who where people start killing themselves after learning a secret of their reality.

@theonewhoistornapart2506

5 ай бұрын

Can we please have the name of this graphic novel?

@chungwahcancion7870

Ай бұрын

Upright Citizens Brigade called it The Bucket of Truth

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.

@hannat6406

6 ай бұрын

Yesss, the last lines of it give me goosebumps every time, such great writing

@kittybuckley3

6 ай бұрын

I love that story...I like to think that is what may happen or did happen or will happen.

@Ristaak

6 ай бұрын

Truly one of the best short stories out there.

@dalriada

5 ай бұрын

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?

@NOOB-ps8km

5 ай бұрын

​@@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".

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.

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

@mrbuck5059

6 ай бұрын

Yep. Better start hiring anesthesiologists.

@stevenscott2136

6 ай бұрын

Clearly a society without lawyers. They probably also have that Star Wars architecture with the giant pits in the middle of busy public places.

@janerecluse4344

6 ай бұрын

I wonder if other kids' parents love them enough to scare them!

@gregorymuir1985

5 ай бұрын

Made the same comment. There would be confirmation all passengers are under or no jaunt.

This is the story I always talk about when people ask me about Stephen King. The idea of being trapped in a void… terrifying.

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 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.

@theonewhoistornapart2506

5 ай бұрын

I was thinking the same thing. It seems almost connected.

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'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 just learned about The Jaunt literally two hours ago on you tube. This is crazy.

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.

@jacquestuber628

6 ай бұрын

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

@originalprecursor

6 ай бұрын

@@jacquestuber628 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.

@jacquestuber628

6 ай бұрын

@@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

@originalprecursor

6 ай бұрын

@@jacquestuber628 I would agree, but that wasn't really my point. Although, I'm unsure what 'standing' means in this context.

@seanscott1308

4 ай бұрын

⁠@@jacquestuber628This 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

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.

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.

I read this short story when I was a kid and it freaked me out for months!

"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

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!

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?

@isthattrue

6 ай бұрын

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.

@k1dn1ce76

6 ай бұрын

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?!

@waverlyking6045

6 ай бұрын

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).

@Dan-ji4db

6 ай бұрын

@@waverlyking6045 interesting, is that mentioned in the story? Been a while since i read it

@waverlyking6045

6 ай бұрын

@@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 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?

This is by far my favorite Stephen King short story! Have you done anything on The Long Walk?

@Loreweavver

6 ай бұрын

The Bachman books were by far better than his books with his real name.

@raymondcoventry1221

6 ай бұрын

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.

@mysticdevils

Ай бұрын

AHHHHHHHHHH MY FAVE BOOK OF HIS

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 a fantastic summary of the short story. And on the back of that, you present the concepts that are at play here and deliver it smoothly, menacingly. Great work!

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.

@mysticdevils

Ай бұрын

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

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 ...

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!

This is one of my favorite king short stories. First read it at 14 and it's stuck with me ever since

Perfect timing! I just finished your three body problem series and the bleakness of my feed gave me existential dread

I've always loved this story. It's probably my favorite of King's short stories.

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

@kamikeserpentail3778

6 ай бұрын

Immortality need not be horrible. Some day I'll be immortal.

@jamesvonborcke

6 ай бұрын

@@kamikeserpentail3778 Live forever or die trying!

@JoaoPedro-gc8mw

6 ай бұрын

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.

@dravex9697

6 ай бұрын

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.

Great synopsis! Really looking forward to checking these short stories out!

I wish all my audiobooks were narrated by this man!!! Love your voice!

@gerdsfargen6687

6 ай бұрын

With you on this!

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

@CoffeeConsumerZoomer

6 ай бұрын

Just watched that for the first time a couple days ago. It was awesome 👍

@nickmorzinski5558

6 ай бұрын

I love emesis blue, it's an amazing movie.

@PhantomGato-v-

5 ай бұрын

Emesis Blue is really good

My favorite short story from King! Thank you Quinn!

I love this short story so much and it always feels like no one either read it or remembered it.

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.

@AnkhAnanku

6 ай бұрын

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…

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.

Thanks for bring this short story to my attention! Your channel has led me to some of the best sci-fi or horror reads.

I remember reading this story it still pops up in my mind every once in a while! Great story!

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.

@isthattrue

6 ай бұрын

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.

The Jaunt is one of my favorite King stories because it really made me think. "It's eternity in there!"

Great job. I love all of King’s short story collections.

I'll start by saying you're the first KZread channel I ever subscribed to and that your narrative style and philosophical gravity is second to none - great to see you're getting into podcasts etc! Not sure if you have the time to read all comments but on the off chance - All Tomorrows (Nemo Ramjet) and I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream (Harlan Ellison) would be on-point for your content. Peace and fantastic work mate!

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 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.

@gerdsfargen6687

5 ай бұрын

Right?? There were truly some slam bang scary shityourpants stories in it. The mix of subjects was insanely good!

@MySerpentine

4 ай бұрын

I definitely like "Beachworld," though. 'It's a beach in search of an ocean, mate.'

Thank you! Thank you for covering this story. A coworker introduced me to it a few years ago. To this day it haunts my thoughts to this day. Your analysis (as always) is great. So are your graphics.

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.

I've always remembered the end of The Jaunt since reading it 30 years ago.

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.

Loved your review. It will get me to read the story again, with a bit more idea of the whole jaunt experience. Your voice is very easy to listen to as well. Thanks for the review!

Man I love your channel. My favorite is The Jaunt. your voice is great and nearly as important as content. Great work, man!

Glad this story is getting attention. Classic cosmic horror!

Sleeping before entering the Jaunt kinda reminds of The Langoliers where the travelers had to be asleep before entering the portal.

@Scimarad

6 ай бұрын

I hadn't made that connection:)

This is one of my favourite sci fi stories and The Skeleton Crew is a fantastic collection.

I actually commented on one of your older videos saying that you should read this story. This story really made me feel a certain way that no other story has ever done.

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

@isthattrue

6 ай бұрын

I cannot find the book that contains the story. Can you help me?

@michaelwinters2574

6 ай бұрын

Sure. There are two. The Mammoth Book of Apocalyptic SF and The Mammoth Book of the End of the World

@michaelwinters2574

6 ай бұрын

@@isthattrue Should be able to get them from a library digitally if you can.

@isthattrue

6 ай бұрын

@@michaelwinters2574 Thank you!

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!

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.

Read many King's short stories. This is the only one that stuck in my head for decades. The horror is another level.

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.

Oh awesome, this has been one of my favourite short stories for decades -- the Jaunt-space has terrified me since I was a kid

@JackieSkellington

5 ай бұрын

Love Marvin

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.

Godamn!!! I found you when you were doing the Dune series a few years ago and look how big youve gotten and how amazing this channel looks!!! Youve done so well!!!

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.

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.

@tonoornottono

6 ай бұрын

so does buddhism

@Psycorde

6 ай бұрын

It's an idea I arrived to myself as well, thinking about the concepts of God and consciousness

@user-dt7px5xp6z

6 ай бұрын

What do you think the Big Man did?

@hainleysimpson1507

5 ай бұрын

@@user-dt7px5xp6z Nothing no big men or women are real.

@kitcrucigera6516

5 ай бұрын

​@@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? 🤔

The Jaunt is one of my favorite Stephen King stories. Excellent choice to cover!

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.

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.

love your breakdowns and insights. You're always exposing us to amazing sci-fi, thank you!

Quinn. Everything is perfect. The music, the art, the lighting, your voice and especially the content.

So excited to see you covering this! I was way too young when I first read it. WAY too young 😂

@thing_under_the_stairs

6 ай бұрын

Didn't we all start reading Stephen King when we were way too young? I remember having a few nightmares around age 13 thanks to Mr. King, and now I look at my 13 yr old niece and can't imagine handing her IT and saying, "Enjoy! Sweet dreams!"

As someone raised as a Christian to believe in eternal life, I have always found the concept of eternity to be terrifying. Obviously nobody wants to spend a minute in hell let alone eternity. But I often wonder if I would want to spend eternity in heaven or anywhere. Just the thought of unending existence is maddening. So what about reincarnation? Hell no! I was lucky enough to be born in the most affluent country in the world and I think my chances of escaping a tortured existence in the next life would be slim. I guess I would rather cease to exist.

@a5tr4l

12 күн бұрын

Dante’s Paradiso actually covers this by stating that no negative emotions exist in heaven and that being there makes one perfectly content

@chrishuber3262

11 күн бұрын

@@a5tr4l Thanks. I guess we can't compare our mind here to our minds there.

Strangely enough this is the second video I've seen about this story this week. But obviously yours is the superior intellect. 🙂

Absolutely love your videos Quinn, keep it up!

Would love to see a comparison of the Jaunt to the short story/manga The Long Dream by Junji Ito as it plays with the same theme of eternal conciousness but has a bit of a different ending. Its in the short story collection Shiver which I saw in the bookshelf in the background of some video, so I am pretty sure you have read it Quinn ;)

A human mind and ego would go insane in such a situation. But consciousness itself would not, since consciousness itself is beyond time. Eternity is a concept within mind, within time - consciousness or Beingness is beyond time and mind, ultimately. Thus eternity, in that sense, for pure consciousness, cannot exist and cannot be conceived of. Only within mind and within time can something "like" eternity exist - but that is not eternity, just a very long span of time. Here I am looking at reality of course, from a perspective of idealism, where consciousness is the ontological primitive or bedrock of reality - this is what most spiritual and mystical traditions point to. Still, very interesting video and horrifying story by King.

@poeseee

29 күн бұрын

What we percieve as time is an illusion formed by our physical brain which has physical properties that follow the physical laws in our time and space. We like to think conciousness as a property thats principal to humans but it really isn't. It's a concept that transcendens our physical reality. Like you said human mind and ego would go insane in such a situation but it just tells more about how limited our understanding of reality is rather than how supposedly horrible this fate would be when in truth it's a complete neutral state in the face of cosmic reality.

@ieatcarsyum8248

15 күн бұрын

I have a looming fear of eternity and this made me think of it in a way I didn’t before so thank you

My favorite short story by the King. Great job Quinn!

I read this in middle school and it was such an interesting story, I got so excited to see that you made a video about it!

I'm pushing your channel on my social media Because you deserve a mil subs at least

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.

This reminded me of how much I like The Stars My Destination. Thanks for another good video.

My favorite short story from King! 🖤

I sorta wonder if it wasn't accessing at least some layer of Todash Space and since it wasn't entering another reality it didn't have "time" to expose them to the creatures that spring into being in that space, but let them consciously experience the compressed time that happens inside the space to cause monsters to spawn and evolve when ever a portal is opened. I mean, we kinda know that project arrowhead either found a thinny or were experimenting with some of the protal tech and figured out how to look into Todash Space rather than another universe and the power failure broke the seal between realities and let Todash space to spill out and release the creatures upon their universe. So maybe if it's just their mind going to a lesser field, they're experiencing a small fraction of Todash Space with out actually going there long enough to be eaten?