Ellen Datlow
Steven Gould is the author of the classic 1992 novel Jumper , about a teenage boy who discovers that he can teleport or “jump.” Whereas the 2008 film adaptation discards most of the original story in order to focus instead on action and spectacle, the book uses jumping as a powerful metaphor for needing to escape from unbearable circumstances. Moreover, the story’s frank treatment of physical and sexual abuse have made it both one of the country’s most banned books and also a favorite among many readers who identify with its young protagonist, Davy.
“I’ve had kids with abusive home lives email me and say, ‘This book saved my life,’” Gould says in Episode 116 of the Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast. “Or, ‘This book let me get away, in a way that wasn’t physical, but it let me know there are other people who are having things happen that are comparable to mine, and that they got through them, and they survived, and they had a life afterward.’”
Another thing that sets Jumper apart is the rigor and consistency with which it explores the idea of teleportation. Why do Davy’s clothes come with him when he jumps? What happens if he jumps while chained to a wall? What happens to his orbital velocity when he jumps from one latitude to another? The rules laid down in Jumper form the basis for much of what happens in subsequent novels. The fourth Jumper book, Exo , explores the question of whether jumping can be used to travel into outer space. The answer is yes, which only leads to more questions, and presumably more books.
“I’m curious about where the energy comes from for jumping, for tearing holes open between various areas,” says Gould. “And if it comes from someplace, where is that, and what’s happening there?”
Listen to our complete interview with Gould in Episode 116 of Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy (above). Then stick around after the interview as guest geeks Alison Haislip, Matt London, and David Wexler join host David Barr Kirtley to discuss the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Steven Gould on Jumper being banned:
“The two most objectionable scenes, for a parent, are on page two and on page nine. So they’re able to just pick up this book that their child has brought home from the library and turn to something that they found awful. So on page two we have a scene of impending child abuse by a parent, and then on page nine we have a scene of impending sexual assault by a group of people on that same child, and so in both cases these are the impetus for jumping. But I don’t know, for some reason some parents look at something in a book, and see something awful happening, and think if their child reads that it’s going to happen to them, which to me just doesn’t make sense. In this case we’re reading about a kid who’s run away, and I think it’s a valuable thing for people to know that maybe if you run away as a young teen, you might be subject to predation, and so you might want to think about this.”
Steven Gould on working with James Cameron:
“I was hired to both be in the room while we worked on the plots for the next three Avatar films and then I am currently working on writing corresponding books for the four movies, which includes the first movie, which has never been made into a novel. … You know, there are 12 people who’ve walked on the moon, right? There are only three people who’ve been to the bottom of the Challenger Deep, and one of those was James Cameron, so it’s safe to say that there will be water, there will be oceans, as part of these movies. … We had a lot of conversations about space travel, among other things, and one of the things I noticed was that over and over again, you know, he was talking about the potential Mars stuff, and he never said ‘manned’ mission once. Whenever he was talking about a mission that involved humans on board he would call it a ‘piloted’ mission, and I found that impressive.”
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Panel
Matt London on the original Nintendo game:
“The weird thing about that game is that nothing in it except the characters of the turtles themselves have anything to do with the Ninja Turtles. You’re fighting flying robot bugs, and there are these giant steamrollers that are trying to kill you. It doesn’t make any sense at all. It was an incredibly challenging game. Some of the levels were just near-impossible. I’ve gone back and tried to play it, I still can’t beat that game. … Whoever was helping you on [the underwater bomb defusal] mission, whether it’s April or Splinter or someone, would give you hints, but the hints would always be like, ‘Yeah, you should disarm these bombs quickly,’ and it’s like, ‘Oh, thanks for your help. Appreciate it.’ … There is no reprieve in that game. It’s just punishment after punishment.”
David Wexler on toys and accessories:
“I loved the cartoons as well, clearly, but it was more than that. It was the bedsheets, the lunchboxes, it was just this mass thing. … What was cool about the Halloween costume was that it was just the armbands and the kneepads and then the nose/face mask thing, but it was kind of real. You didn’t have to wear the nose thing. You could kind of be just like a skateboarding ninja and put the kneepads over the rollerblade pads. It was kind of official. And then growing up in New York and skating around the manholes, it really felt like we were Ninja Turtles. You know, I would wear that stuff to school. … I’m embarrassed to say this, but I literally have about 40 of [the action figures] under my bed as we speak.”
David Barr Kirtley on Raphael:
“Did anyone else feel that Raphael really got the short end of the stick on that one? As a kid I always thought his weapon just seemed so much less effectual than all the other Turtles’ weapons. … I always wondered if that was why he was so angry, because he got the crummy weapon. Or if he just had to be so hyper-aggressive to compensate for his lack of range. … It was weird, when I watched the TMNT movie that came out in 2007, the computer-generated one, I walked out of that one and I was like, ‘Wow, I don’t remember Raphael being that much of a dick,’ and my friends were like, ‘No, he was.’ So I’d be curious to go back and watch the older stuff and see if Raphael was really that much of a dick.”
Alison Haislip on the new movie’s script issues:
“Remember there was that whole big controversy when Michael Bay came out and said, ‘They’re actually going to be aliens,’ and everyone’s like, ‘What do you mean they’re going to be aliens? They’re mutants. They’re not supposed to be aliens.’ So I think they shot most of the movie with the Turtles being aliens, and then had to re-adjust it so it’s like, ‘Oh no, they were mutants,’ and I think that’s why the whole backstory doesn’t quite make sense. … But the things that killed me were like, April O’Neil saves them from the lab fire and puts them in the sewer. Why would she put them in the sewer? They were her pets, kind of, and she loved those things. If I saved the four little turtles I would have just taken them home with me and kept them as pets.”
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