King did some research on that one. He recounts that he approached his neighbor, a doctor, and asked, “So how much of one’s own body could a person eat before they died?”
I guess this was before Google.
It was a great story, but I enjoy most of King’s short stories and novels. This one was particularly notable.
Just actually read this for the first time. I was unimpressed. For one thing, it seemed really obvious from the very start where the story was going. “Oh, this technology has potentially horrible effects if misused? I wonder what will happen in this story!”. And then the revelation that the “safety” procedures are easily circumvented by a child…but somehow this had never happened before in decades of widespread use of this technology…I can only suspend my disbelief so far.
In general, it seems like I’m in the minority here in that I prefer King’s longer works to his short stories. I think he does better when he has space to develop the characters and complicate the plot enough that you can’t easily see what’s coming next.
Episode 1: “We’re going to Mars!”
[kid decides to stay awake.]
Episode 2-9: “Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!”
Episode 10: “It’s longer than you think, Dad! Longer than you think!”
I could never swallow (no pun intended) the central premise in “Survivor Type.” Sawing off your own leg so you can eat it to avoid starvation just doesn’t make sense. That’s what starvation already does - it’s your body eating itself so it can keep functioning when there’s no food available. Cutting it off then eating your foot isn’t going to increase the amount of calories in your body. The caloric value of your foot was already in your body. There’s no way this doesn’t work out to a net loss.
I guess you could argue that he thought it would make sense because he was also whacked out of his mind on that heroin he jumped ship with, and I get that the point of the story is the body horror concept of self-cannibalization, and the existential terror of being so desperate that a person makes that sort of decision, and that the rest of the story is just an excuse to explore those themes, but the whole thing just didn’t work for me.
Survivor Type starts with him amputating his foot because it was severely broken or infected. I’m fuzzy on that specific detail.
Then, out of desperation, he eats it. Then he goes kinda insane and eats other body parts.
Ah, I’d forgotten that detail. That helps some.
It could be an anthology type series, with each episode being a different story set in the same world as The Jaunt. Done well, it could be good.
I do not expect it to be done well.
Infected, I think. He says he cut off all the iffy bits.
Nice.
I think he said he washed it really well.
Why do I remember this? Why am I being forced to talk about this?
Blecccch
Ah yes you are right, and also blecch
I don’t think it would be possible to do more than a few episodes because the story line is so constrained that it doesn’t lend itself to a lot of variations. King himself, in a conversation among the characters early in the story, suggested a couple of scary possibilities, but that’s about it. The only way you could build a series with a lot of stories in it would be if teleportation was purely secondary to the story, merely a device to advance the plot, which sounds kind of boring.
ETA nm, misread!
The Jaunt could have been worse. Imagine that the sleeping gas didn’t prevent the experience of an infinite white void at all–that part got beamed straight into your consciousness no matter what. Instead, it just prevented you from remembering it afterward.
Conspiracy theorists are always spreading rumours about how the Jaunt has a weird effect on your consciousness and that’s why they gas you, and telling tales about some kid who went through awake and ripped his eyes out, people replaced by doppelgänger, entire space stations vanishing without a trace, and such rubbish. What nonsense! Why, you’ve been jaunting for years; a couple of times there was even some problem with the gas flow or something and you came through just fine! The smiling technician was not even fazed and assured you there was absolutely nothing to worry about, just a rare but hardly dangerous glitch. The Jaunt… since we are on the subject, you have been traveling quite a lot lately and possibly working too hard — you have been having these odd dreams lately…
I’m sold. Start writing that pilot script!
I know this is an old comment, but Black Mirror actually did discuss this topic, albeit in a more techy way than King’s short story. If you haven’t seen it already, it’s called White Christmas and it was in season 2. Absolutely chilling, definitely the Black Mirror episode that has stuck with me the longest.
It’s longer than you think.
Replying to a vintage 2020 reply to my own post:
Ermm, who the hell forgets their third grade teacher? Seriously?! I’ve forgotten some of my college professors and some of my junior high teachers, but early elementary was one teacher for everything for the whole year, and the whole school experience was still kind of new.