Escape Artists
Escape Pod => Episode Comments => Topic started by: Russell Nash on May 30, 2008, 06:34:07 PM
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EP160: Kallakak’s Cousins (http://escapepod.org/2008/05/29/ep160-kalakkaks-cousins/)
By Cat Rambo (http://www.kittywumpus.net/).
Read by Stephen Eley.
First appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction (http://www.asimovs.com/), March 2008.
“Sometimes we don’t realize that what we want isn’t good for us,” the man said, speaking for the first time. He stared intently at Kallakak.
“Dominance rituals do not work well on me,” Kallakak said, roughening his voice to rudeness. “I will see you in five days in the court.” He decided not to burn his bridges too far. “I will tally up the cost of my goods by then and will have a definite figure.” Let them think him acquiescent while he tried to find another way to save his shop. He stepped into the lift, but they did not follow him, simply watched as the doors slid closed and he was carried away.
Making his way back to his quarters, he saw three figures standing before it. He paused, wondering if the Jellidoos had decided to lean on him further. The trio turned in unison to face him, and he recognized them with a sinking heart. The cousins.
Rated G. Contains shady commerce and dim relations.
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Steve's comment after the story really summed it all up for me. This is a classic sitcom, set in a space station, but that was just a thin veneer of SF paint over a well-worn plot.
Not that I'm complaining, mind you. It was light fare, and enjoyable. I'll probably forget all about it in a couple of weeks, but it made my walk to the office in the morning enjoyable.
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Without the SF this is just some put-upon guy at a mall trying to keep his dollar store. It was amusing in places, but took itself too seriously and that detracted from it. Kalakkak was too straight of a character, and there wasn't enough compensatory humor. This felt like it was trying to be a comedy, but it didn't quite get there.
Also, the world-building was inadequate. We know about the station, the stair, a couple of other places, but I just kept substituting the "Golden Rule" habitat from "The Cat Who Walks Through Walls" as the rest of it. I realize Kalakkak only knows the little part of the world that he uses on a daily basis, but it didn't really do it for me.
Why were the humans called Jellidoos? Or were those not humans? It was unclear (at least to me).
Kalakkak's people likewise were very interesting, but I seem to have missed what they look like beyond ear frills and two pairs of arms and that they are all born as (apparently sexless until maturity) twins. A good start, but I needed more.
This felt like a piece of a larger work. I was left unsatisfied.
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This was a really fun story, and it was really nice to listen to on the way too work. I've started to rethink my routine of listening to EP on Friday mornings recently due to the heavey nature of a lot of the recent stories, but this was perfect literary popcorn, it was light, airy, and while it is unlikely to leave any real lasting impression on me, it was fun.
I thought the world was vaguely defined, but it was plenty for me to see it in my mind. I don't know that I am seeing what the author wanted me to see, but I see something that makes the story work for me. The only think I don't see clearly is Kalakkak's race (Belladoos, was it?), but in a story as light as this, that doesn't bother me in the slightest.
While I would not wish to see EP become all light fluff, stories like this a little more often would not be bad thing.
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I give this story a solid "Meh." There was no reason to make it a science fiction story, there was nothing going on that couldn't have been going on in, say, any given shopping mall on Earth.
In fact, change the races to ethnic groups (one can't lie, the other is congenitally phasmaphobic - don't laugh, things don't have to make sense in a sitcom) and you're good to go for thursday night at eight.
So:
Meh.
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I recently read this in Asimov's and thought it was okay but not great.
But when Steve read it I found I liked it a whole lot better and enjoyed it more.
I like Steve's reading a lot.
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Meh. Next.
I did love the quote "dominance rituals do not work well on me". I wish I would've though of that in high school.
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I enjoyed this story. Definitely on the light side, as others have said, but enjoyable. I was also wondering as I listened if there was going to be a macabre twist at the end. The missing wife, the antibiotic remedies - was it stress, or had he ingested her?? Glad it didn't go that way, but also glad it kept me wondering.
Kalakkak's people likewise were very interesting, but I seem to have missed what they look like beyond ear frills and two pairs of arms and that they are all born as (apparently sexless until maturity) twins. A good start, but I needed more.
I pictured Kalakkak's people as having three sets of arms and hands. Although "lower hands" are not referred to, "mid hands" implied at least one set above and below. Then again, the lower set could be the legs/feet.
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It was enjoyable, but I wanted more information on the universe it took place in. These... "Jellidoos"... were they an alien race, or a human culture, or what?
I also kind of saw the resolution coming as soon as these "Jelidoo" guys were described as superstitious, but I didn't mind that.
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As previous people have mentioned, this definitely sounded like a sitcom. I kept expecting a either a canned laugh track or Kallakak's eccentric next door neighbor with weird hair, surfing in through the open door, to interrupt the reading.
The resolution was...predictable. After the initial hook early on explaining that the Jellidoos were superstitious, I kept wondering exactly when there would be more development on that angle, but it was instead used as a mallet to provide a cap on the end.
That said, it was enjoyable, though I doubt it'll win any great awards for content.
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For the thousandth time (and thanks for the QotW, Steve!), the "if it weren't for ____ this wouldn't be SF" complaint totally baffles me. Are SF stories not allowed to borrow storytelling techniques or tropes or storylines or archetypes from any other literary form? If so, our genre is dead in the water, and we'd better jump ship before it sinks.
Yup, a contrarian as always, I liked this story. I thought it was fun, and unlike a lot of the others on this discussion, I thought the SF elements were one of the most interesting and integral parts of the story, and didn't feel tacked-on or incedental at all.
I think some of the most interesting SF worldbuilding is that which doesn't draw attention to itself. If a writer in a very different setting were to write about my everyday life, it would be very strange for him to have me, as the viewpoint character, notice every detail of every freeway onramp and door hinge, or for that matter the number of fingers on my left hand. Those are things that I take for granted, so of course I wouldn't dwell on them. As long as this kind of worldbuilding is smooth and easy enough to follow, I think it's much more interesting than the "describe every nut and bolt" school. The little hints you get in a story like this show a tiny, everyday cross-section of an amazingly complex and interesting world.
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I agree with what everying is saying about the sitcomness of it . But overall the stroy didn't grab me too much.
Listenable, maybe I wasn't in the mood.
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I very much enjoyed the light insubstantiveness of it. Made for a fun listen. The triplets were amusing, and I liked the concept of a race for whom being born in pairs was such a strong part of their cultural identity.
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I think some of the most interesting SF worldbuilding is that which doesn't draw attention to itself. If a writer in a very different setting were to write about my everyday life, it would be very strange for him to have me, as the viewpoint character, notice every detail of every freeway onramp and door hinge, or for that matter the number of fingers on my left hand. Those are things that I take for granted, so of course I wouldn't dwell on them. As long as this kind of worldbuilding is smooth and easy enough to follow, I think it's much more interesting than the "describe every nut and bolt" school. The little hints you get in a story like this show a tiny, everyday cross-section of an amazingly complex and interesting world.
I agree. I've also heard this called "limited third-person perspective" and used to describe the way C.J. Cherryh writes from her characters' POV.
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Am I the only one who associated the title with the Kallikak family (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kallikak_Family)?
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Am I the only one who associated the title with the Kallikak family (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kallikak_Family)?
Nope. That name rang a bell for me too.
Less fortunately, it reminded me of a nuisance song from the '60s, "Zabadak"
viz: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNQV0mboKg8
Lyrics: http://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/z/zabadak.shtml
Now I have to purge myself of that earworm somehow.
Back to the story.
I should not have liked it, but I did. The comparison to an episode of Newhart is hard to avoid, but so what.
I've also heard this called "limited third-person perspective"...
Oh. That sounds like a good thing to know. Funny how once you learn the name of something, you become aware of it from then on.
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I did love the quote "dominance rituals do not work well on me". I wish I would've thought of that in high school.
That quote has real T-shirt potential, doesn't it? :D
As for the story -- it was OK. Not EP's best, but by definition, you can't have the best every week. It was light, it was fun, but it was a recycled plot.
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I've also heard this called "limited third-person perspective"...
Oh. That sounds like a good thing to know. Funny how once you learn the name of something, you become aware of it from then on.
It's called Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon (http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=417), after a 1970's German terrorist organisation.
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I love my deep, thematic stories as much as the next person, but I also really just like mind candy once in a while. This was a great piece to just listen to, without taxing the brain (which, to be fair, has been really taxed the last few weeks--all in WONDERFUL ways, but tiring nonetheless).
I enjoyed the different races. I didn't really picture the jellydoos as humans, but more...well, jelly-like. I pictured the main race as rather reptilian, with a gender-bending take that reminded me of "Left Hand of Darkness," by LeGuin. No, it won't win any content awards, and yes, it was somewhat sit-com predictable. That doesn't, IMHO, make it bad. Just lighter.
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I enjoyed it. Letting my mind picture the alien environment was a lot of the fun - that it was sparsely described helped that - I got to fill in my own details, and did so. The plot wasn't much, and was annoyingly predictable, yes. But I didn't mind that much. I really enjoyed the little alien touches of physiology and psychology, though everyone was humanlike enough to be easily understood...
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I'm a little surprised at the majority response being positive on this one. I definitely don't mind a little light fare at all, but I prefer for it to be interesting or funny as opposed a very tiny smattering of both and be predominantly boring. I don't want to get into the "is it SF or not" debate, because it's as pointless as arguing whether Mondrian's grid-based abstractions are art or not. It is for some and it isn't for others.
Sometimes, I suppose, a boring story can be made interesting by changing the setting, but it didn't work for this one, imho.
@bolddeceiver, just my 2¢ on how a contemporary sitcom could tell this story:
- choose any devoutly religious person of almost any faith
- perhaps it's prejudice rather than superstition, or perhaps a language barrier that provides misunderstanding
- maybe it's a mall rather than a space station, and management rather than government
You can't use the argument that it's unrealistic, because neither of these stories are. My point being that creativity alone doesn't always work.
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I did love the quote "dominance rituals do not work well on me". I wish I would've though of that in high school.
I don't necessarily think it would've worked, regrettably.
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I think some of the most interesting SF worldbuilding is that which doesn't draw attention to itself. If a writer in a very different setting were to write about my everyday life, it would be very strange for him to have me, as the viewpoint character, notice every detail of every freeway onramp and door hinge, or for that matter the number of fingers on my left hand. Those are things that I take for granted, so of course I wouldn't dwell on them. As long as this kind of worldbuilding is smooth and easy enough to follow, I think it's much more interesting than the "describe every nut and bolt" school. The little hints you get in a story like this show a tiny, everyday cross-section of an amazingly complex and interesting world.
I agree. I've also heard this called "limited third-person perspective" and used to describe the way C.J. Cherryh writes from her characters' POV.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_person_limited
I write like this, but not so demonstrably.
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I was not impressed by the story. In fact, I almost stopped listening. I have a really hard time getting into an alien species in such a short amount of time. I kept feeling like I was missing something.
I am glad that I didn't stop listening because it was all made worth while when Steve made mention Of Larry Darryl and Darryl. Thanks Steve for not making me feel too old. It helps to know I am not alone...
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_person_limited
I write like this, but not so demonstrably.
Here's what bolddeceiver's post brought to my mind:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C.J._Cherryh
Cherryh uses a writing technique she has variously labeled "very tight limited third person", "intense third person", and "intense internal" voice.[3] In this approach, the only things the writer narrates are those that the viewpoint character specifically notices or thinks about.[3] If a starship captain arrives at a space station, for example, the narration may not mention important features of the station with which the captain is already familiar, even though these things might be of interest to the reader, because the captain does not notice them or think about them due to their familiarity. This technique can offer a similar experience to that of reading the viewpoint character's mind — sometimes at great length — and thus it can resemble stream of consciousness narrative.
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I think I was faked out by Steve on this one. I was expecting something more lighthearted that would make me laugh out loud, more along the lines of "Conversations With And About My Electric Toothbrush" or something. This story was enjoyable, but it never cracked me up. Although the "Dominance rituals do not work on me" line was excellent, and if there was a t-shirt, I would probably buy it, or at least put it on my Amazon wishlist.
Anyway, that's not the fault of the story, or the author. I thought it was an amusing story, mostly. But one thing I didn't like was the reveal at the very end -- when we find out Kallakak's wife isn't dead but she had simply left. It really threw me, and not in a way I particularly enjoyed.
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Given that I'm definately not the only person who is just sick and %&/&)% tired of the is it SF or not argument. I have split that off here (http://forum.escapeartists.info/index.php?topic=1657.0).
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I liked this story, it was fun and sweet and had a lot of cool SF elements. After a big bunch of letdown episodes this was just what i needed
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Anyway, that's not the fault of the story, or the author. I thought it was an amusing story, mostly. But one thing I didn't like was the reveal at the very end -- when we find out Kallakak's wife isn't dead but she had simply left. It really threw me, and not in a way I particularly enjoyed.
I have to agree that gone not dead thing kind of threw me as well. I thought there were several hints about this through the story, but I was never quite sure. Now for the sappy part, that kind of colored the whole story for me. It was alright and light hearted as Steve said, but then they tossed that out there and I thought, wow a devoice in a culture when that is still actually a taboo thing, how very sad. Taboo might be the wrong word here, but... My two cents.
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I'm a little surprised at the majority response being positive on this one. I definitely don't mind a little light fare at all, but I prefer for it to be interesting or funny as opposed a very tiny smattering of both and be predominantly boring.
i don't usually post a 'me too' but i don't have the interest for much more than that. so, me too.
an odd story like this is ok, one every one hundred and sixty seems about right. tv is already available if i want a sitcom.
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Blithe, trite, unfettered, entertaining. :)
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Why were the humans called Jellidoos? Or were those not humans? It was unclear (at least to me).
Kalakkak's people likewise were very interesting, but I seem to have missed what they look like beyond ear frills and two pairs of arms and that they are all born as (apparently sexless until maturity) twins. A good start, but I needed more.
This felt like a piece of a larger work. I was left unsatisfied.
I believe they were referred to as "humanoid". Humanesque?
I agree with your last statement, however. It occurred to me as I was listening, and I think it has something to do with the fact that over the course of the story the characters become easier to understand and empathize with. Often in short stories the author will have character development that is truncated, so that we get the idea that there is something that we can relate to in them, but it's not given to us outright. This sort of "look, they're people too" thing happens a lot more in novels, when the author wants or needs you to empathize with the main characters right off the bat, so that you'll keep turning the pages.
It was refreshing, and soothing. I especially loved the description of tea at Bo's. I had to brew a pot for myself before I could resume listening. What can I say? Easily influenced.
And I found the idea of the manipulative robot who everyone assumes is straight to be quite hilarious.
As for the romantic aspect of it, maybe the real reason why the main character didn't contradict the cousins is that either way, he lost his wife. That's probably just the hopeless idealist in me, but I like to think there's something to it.
Last comment: Steve Eley's voice has grown on me. It has the sort of sarcastic straight-forward quality of a good friend, the type who will tell you the truth whether you want to hear it or not.
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It was refreshing, and soothing. I especially loved the description of tea at Bo's. I had to brew a pot for myself before I could resume listening. What can I say? Easily influenced.
And I found the idea of the manipulative robot who everyone assumes is straight to be quite hilarious.
I missed that until you mentioned it, but it sounds a bit like P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves.
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I think the story is definitely in a Star Trek: Deep Space Nine vein, due to it being set on a space station with shops, like on the promenade in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and especially having different species interacting with each other. I think there was at least one dispute over ownership of a shop in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, but I can't remember which episode it was in. I hadn't read or heard any of Cat Rambo's stuff before, so it would be interesting to find out if any of it is in a similar vein.
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I think the story is definitely in a Star Trek: Deep Space Nine vein, due to it being set on a space station with shops, like on the promenade in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and especially having different species interacting with each other. I think there was at least one dispute over ownership of a shop in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, but I can't remember which episode it was in. I hadn't read or heard any of Cat Rambo's stuff before, so it would be interesting to find out if any of it is in a similar vein.
I read a killer story of hers in the latest Weird Tales. It was excellent, and tonewise could not have been any different from this story.
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I kept waiting for something significant to happen and was totally turned off by the sitcom ending. I was pleased with the world-building and the scant description of all species - I really thought the story had legs, if you'll pardon the pun. I would be interested in other stories set in this universe.
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Light-hearted, fun, enjoyable. If it were food it would be a snack.
Larry, Darryl and Darryl, I've heard of them... from my parents...
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It's called Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon (http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=417), after a 1970's German terrorist organisation.
Hey cool! I just heard about that the other day.
;)
Many miles away
Something crawls from the slime
At the bottom of a dark Scottish lake
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I felt like it would have worked better as a TV show. It felt like it was filled with sight gags, and some of the drags in the action could be corrected by fantastic scenery.
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I felt like it would have worked better as a TV show. It felt like it was filled with sight gags, and some of the drags in the action could be corrected by fantastic scenery.
*announcer voice*
"Coming this fall to the CW; Kallakak's Cousins! kallakak thought he had everything he could want, his own shop and a beautiful wife to share it with, but when his wife leaves him to go find herself, her three wacky cousins move in and hilarity ensues. Catch it this fall!"
This story would make a great pilot. ;D
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"Coming this fall to the CW; Kallakak's Cousins! kallakak thought he had everything he could want, his own shop and a beautiful wife to share it with, but when his wife leaves him to go find herself, her three wacky cousins move in and hilarity ensues. Catch it this fall!"
This story would make a great pilot. ;D
:D That totally sounds like a pitch.
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I felt like it would have worked better as a TV show. It felt like it was filled with sight gags, and some of the drags in the action could be corrected by fantastic scenery.
I agree- this did seem like an episode out of a sitcom. I enjoyed this story very much and great read.
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Sorry but I thought this was terrible. Dull, pointless and such an obvious ending it was painful. I would have turned it off half way through except I had a vague amount of curiousity over whether he got to keep his shop or not.
Dire.
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I found this one thoroughly and enjoyably old-fashioned - from back in the days before SF became "genre literature".
It read like the kind of thing that used to crop up in those crumbling old 1970s paperback sf anthologies I used to
borrow from the local library when I was a kid.
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Was anyone else picturing ST: Deep Space 9 and Kallakak & his cousins as a furry & webbed version of a Ferengi?
Maybe I should've had a 2nd cup of coffee before plugging it in during my commute...
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Was anyone else picturing ST: Deep Space 9 and Kallakak & his cousins as a furry & webbed version of a Ferengi?
Maybe I should've had a 2nd cup of coffee before plugging it in during my commute...
Several differnet space stations went through my head. All of the ones that were portrayed as being a bit run down were mashed together in my head. A little DS9, a little B5, even a little Crescent.
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This was one of the episodes we saved up for our cross-country road trip, and we enjoyed it. Yes, it was fluffy, but it was an enjoyable fluffy.
Although, after the story, we speculated a bit over the physiological characteristics of the alien species, because we're nerds like that.
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Cute. I liked it. Not the best Escape Pod of all time, but certainly entertaining - like an episode of "Welcome Back Kotter" -- the students get him into various embarrassing situations and then accidentally get him out of trouble in the end.
Pretty stock stuff, but it's stock because it works.
Was anyone else picturing ST: Deep Space 9 and Kallakak & his cousins as a furry & webbed version of a Ferengi?
Maybe I should've had a 2nd cup of coffee before plugging it in during my commute...
More of a B5 in my mind, but yeah.
Actually, I thought that kind of helped with the story.
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I didn't finish this one. It sounds like those who liked it thought it was light and funny, but I must've missed something because it didn't make me laugh and I didn't find it at all light--it was about an oppressive government with constantly shifting laws so that no one can ever be aware whether they're breaking the law or not to the point that business owners can have their shop stolen right from under them without the slightest warning. That's depressing. The idea of the constantly shifting laws was interesting by itself, but the story wasn't compelling enough to make me want to hear the rest.