33. Jasper Fforde Discussion

[Philip Overby]

Number 33 is Jasper Fforde, best known for this Thursday Next books. Of note, his book The Eyre Affair received 76 rejections. Several of his books tend to deal with literary characters throughout history. While I've never read him, I think I may like his work because it sounds like it is of a lighter variety.

Anyone ever read Fforde?

 

[ThinkerX]

I've read a couple of the 'Thursday Next' books as well as 'Shades of Grey' (at least I seem to remember that's what the title was).

Ffordes worlds are downright strange. The 'Thursday Next' books are based in a sort of 'Alternate Wales' with a heavy socialist bent and an aggressive all powerful evil corp. Some of the laws of nature are downright weird, the governments spend a lot of time worrying about the 'stupidity surplus' - which means if people do not do enough stupid things, then...hmmm...'stupidity energy' piles up with really dire consequences. This on top of other things like visiting bureaucratic aliens, clones that last mere hours, and more.

Then there is 'book-world' a sort of ...dimension... where stories become 'real'. The various characters assume a sort of cardboard life of their own, doing scenes from the books they appear in. (This description is woefully inadequate). Despite restrictions and secrecy, characters and people move back and forth between these dimensions.

'Shades of Grey' is different, yet still very wonky. It is a far future dystopia populated by people that seem human, but are something else. All of them are selectively 'colorblind', apart from one or two specific colors, they see everything in shades of grey, barring special measures. Their night vision is nonexistent. The colors one can see determine their social status, and as the society is totalitarian, social status is everything. The society goes to huge efforts to obtain materials which let people see colors they otherwise would not be able to. The whole medical system is based on colors, what color to give to a person who can see what color. And that's just the basic for starters.

Next up, we got the 'rollbacks' or 'leap-backs', where entire swaths of advanced technology are deliberately destroyed or abandoned, generally happening every few decades. Judging from the bits and pieces left lying about, this world once had a tech level equal to or greater than that of 'star trek'. At the time of the books, the tech level is equal to that of about 1900; with a few exceptions, electronic devices do not exist, railways were converted into monorails, and the few remaining vehicles are simple 'Fords' of model T sophistication.

And there is so very much more.

Despite the wonkiness, there is a very hard edge to these worlds.

The corporation in the alternate Wales is violently sociopathic and untouchable. The 'stupidity surplus' is capable of crashing entire civilizations if not properly managed.

The inhabitants of 'Book World' live in fear of being 'remaindered', a sort of 'death'.

And the society of 'Shades of Grey' has some downright evil secrets at its core.

 

[buyjupiter]

If you like strange and odd fiction then the Thursday Next series is a good one to dig into. The references to classic literature aren't too obscure for anyone who remembers at least the basic cliff's note version of the great works of literature. (I haven't read all the classics, but I know what each thing refers to.)

I don't know that I picked up on it being a "heavy socialist bent", ThinkerX. That may be because I lean towards an overly idealistic view of how the world should work in any case (i.e. share what you can when you can and don't step on anybody just because you can).

I would definitely call these surreal. They have the book world, time travel, evil monolithic corporations trying to ruin the world, an offbeat sense of time and narrative time (see time travel), and a romance story thrown into the mix as well. If this series were a piece of clothing, it would have polka dots and plaid in clashing colors, stripes, velvet sleeves with lace sewed on top, a denim collar and look like crud. No one would ever wear it.

But Fforde makes it all work. It's zany, it's fun, and it's sometimes challenging to keep up with what all has happened when they're so much time between books.

The Big Over Easy was fun too, but a lot less intense than Tuesday Next. I haven't yet read Shades of Grey, because the library had a single copy and the waiting list was very long. (I wonder if that was caused by some confusion with the other book about "Shades" and "Gray"?)