A GeekMom Award for Jasper Fforde!

Is Jasper Fforde a geek? That’s still undecided (read his answer below). But he’s undoubtedly a mom ! Wait a minute, Jasper Fforde’s a man, how can he be a mum? Well, he deserves to be. If there was such things as GeekMom Awards, he’d get one for sure. For now, One of Our Thursdays […]
Close shot of Jasper Fforde

Is Jasper Fforde a geek? That's still undecided (read his answer below). But he's undoubtedly a mom !

Wait a minute, Jasper Fforde's a man, how can he be a mum?
Well, he deserves to be. If there was such things as GeekMom Awards, he'd get one for sure.

For now, One of Our Thursdays Is Missing, which means we're actually going to get a new Thursday, as the 6th issue of her adventures will be released on Marc, 8 (or February, 21 if you are British, lucky you!)




Jasper Fforde: Mothers, like teachers and librarians, are overlooked in fiction. It needn't be so, but I can understand why: the sometimes dreary travails of motherhood just don't make for very exciting reading. It needn't be thus, as it is the writer's job to be able to make drama out of anything.

One of the central tenets I tend to write by is 'always choose the less worn path'.



The same 'less trodden path' deal came into being when the children arrived, too. They are kind of unusual, but it doesn't stop Thursday being Thursday, nor Landen being Landen, and since I have many children of my own, it wasn't a subject I was going to shy away with - I was just going to add my own way of looking at it. One of the themes in TN5 was 'How can I engineer a plot device so that a teenager can save the world by doing nothing?' There are many, many teenagers out there who think they can and are doing precisely that, and equally, a lot of parents who long for the day when the hairy object in bedroom three can once again talk. I wove this in with the plot, and it worked very well. She can do what she does and be a mother, and the two get very well.

Did her motherhood change her character? Not really. She was always very passionate about stuff, and now she had an extra dimension to be passionate about. I think you'd have to be very, very stupid to threaten Thursday's children or husband - Goliath stay well away for that reason.

GeekMom: You seem to like science, incredible gadgets, use Star Wars parodic lines, feature a Lorem Ipsum's speaking baby… and I don't even talk about the amount of various references in your books.



The books are designed primarily for me. A writer should always write about what interests them. If they didn't, I think they would come out all forced and a bit faux. If people didn't share my mildly odd view of the world, then I'd still be a writer writing stuff, just unpublished.

GeekMom: As I'm also a literature teacher: when will I be able to come with groups of students into the BookWorld? Will they be allowed to follow Jurisfiction's affairs for a day? Which device could I use if I don't want a Goliath one?

Jasper Fforde: I think we enter the Bookworld whenever we read a book. I'm not sure Jurisfiction much care for having Outlanders visit, nor for letting Outlanders know they exist. Many 'SuperReaders' try to hack their way into Text Grand Central, but few succeed - the surroundings are painted in soporific paint, so any hackers that do try to get in, immediately nod off.
GeekMom: More seriously: do you think that our world is becoming like Thursday's RealWorld in First Among Sequels? With more reality-shows and less reading, and a shortening Now? Or are you more optimistic and think that we are saved from this danger and our Now is growing again? (subliminate question behind this one: can we Geek Moms save the world by trying to lengthen our children's Now?)

Jasper Fforde: Thankfully, reality shows seem to be on the wane, but don't forget that we are changing into our own parents, and tutting at things that our parents used to tut to us about, so whinges we may have about how rubbish things are today might simply be because that's what happens when you start getting older, and objectivity is not as clear cut as it should be.

Mind you, our kids aren't objective either. Perhaps there is a moment, eight minutes in length sometime around one's 27th birthday when you finally get it, and everything is truthful and clear cut. But then someone cuts the queue in front of you and you get all self-righteous, and the moment's gone. Yes, I think attention spans should be longer, and rather than trying to decrease our tragically short window humans seem to find themselves in - about four years, it seems - we should attempt to broaden it. Sadly, I don't think we're wired that way.


Should we try and instill a longer Now in our kids? Of course. But they probably won't like it. If there is a clash between popular culture and a parent's waggy finger, guess who's going to win. My view on this whole deal is to introduce your kids to good and worthy stuff when you still have any control, then wave the white flag during the dark teenage years. You'll be surprised how much stuff bubbles to the surface later on.




To be continued… with GeekMom's review of One of our Thursdays Is Missing. For now, you may pre-order your own copy !

You may also compete to win the two millionth copy of his book, a 'C' format UK 1st edition of Shades of Grey, signed by Jasper Fforde, by entering the TN6 Sleuthing competition. Questions will be posted up there on the 1st March 2011.
