Escape Artists
Escape Pod => Episode Comments => Topic started by: Russell Nash on March 16, 2009, 09:48:25 PM
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EP Flash: It Was Death By a Bullet, But I Was Killed By a Woman (http://escapepod.org/2009/03/16/escape-pod-flash-it-was-death-by-a-bullet-but-i-was-killed-by-a-woman/)
By Michael Bekemeyer.
Read by Alasdair Stuart (of Pseudopod (http://www.pseudopod.org/)).
I have a special skill. I am a part of a small group of people on this planet that can do special things with their minds. You have your mind readers, your empaths — and you have people like me who can control things through telekinesis. I have always been able to move things, just by thinking about it. It always came in helpful when playing golf.
Rated R. Contains sex and violence.
(http://escapepod.org/wp-images/podcast-mini4.gif)
Listen to this EP Flash! (http://media.rawvoice.com/escapepod/media.libsyn.com/media/escapepod/EPFlash_ItWasDeathByABullet.mp3)
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Loved it! Great imagery and well read by Alasdair. Sex and violence! Yeah!
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I adored the ending, and it was read with great pacing.
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Yeah. Nothing like sex with telepaths. ;D
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fun and fast! I also am loving the sex and violence angle
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Brilliant :D Loved this. Al's reading was spot on too.
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Very amusing little ditty. I had empathy with the protagonist, as I think most people probably do if they recall those first months of a new relationship and walking into work the next morning half-dead and disheveled from lack of sleep.
Fortunately, in my case, the consequences were no more dire than creating typo's resulting in syntax errors.
I thought the use of the cut-off at the ending was very effective, perhaps not quite as strong as the ending of "Time-Shift" on Drabblecast, but very well done just the same.
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really liked it for all the reasons previously noted, but why couldn't the protagonist simply duck? If he had enough spare time thought to tell this story to a bystander, surely he could have just scooted out of the way of the bullet. (not that i wish for a different ending, but it is something that puzzled me.)
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really liked it for all the reasons previously noted, but why couldn't the protagonist simply duck? If he had enough spare time thought to tell this story to a bystander, surely he could have just scooted out of the way of the bullet. (not that i wish for a different ending, but it is something that puzzled me.)
I took the story as being told in the flash of an eye, those "things that flash before your eyes right before you die" kinda things.
Liked the story, well read and the ending was
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... but why couldn't the protagonist simply duck? If he had enough spare time thought to tell this story to a bystander, surely he could have just scooted out of the way of the bullet.
Freezing time only enabled him to observe and think at a much faster rate, but it didn't increase the rate at which his body could move, which is still slower than the speeding bullet that was already pressing on his skull.
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Quite possibly the best piece of flash that EA has released. It was well read, well paced and didn't rely on a twist ending.
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Very nice.
Though this is the kind of story that shows that those feminist-slanted lit classes I took back in my undergrad days have had a bigger effect on me than they probably should have, because my first response to the story was: "So, the guy fails at his job because of his own shortcomings and he blames a woman. Typical". (And yes, I am a man myself, just, apparently, an indoctrinated one).
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... but why couldn't the protagonist simply duck? If he had enough spare time thought to tell this story to a bystander, surely he could have just scooted out of the way of the bullet.
Freezing time only enabled him to observe and think at a much faster rate, but it didn't increase the rate at which his body could move, which is still slower than the speeding bullet that was already pressing on his skull.
Was he freezing time? I thought he was telekinetically holding the bullet back, and that it took all his concentration just to keep it from continuing on its trajectory.
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... but why couldn't the protagonist simply duck? If he had enough spare time thought to tell this story to a bystander, surely he could have just scooted out of the way of the bullet.
Freezing time only enabled him to observe and think at a much faster rate, but it didn't increase the rate at which his body could move, which is still slower than the speeding bullet that was already pressing on his skull.
Was he freezing time? I thought he was telekinetically holding the bullet back, and that it took all his concentration just to keep it from continuing on its trajectory.
I think he had to be, because—as telekinesis still has to follow the laws of physics—, the bullet's velocity wouldn't be able to snap back like that.
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Either he was freezing time or he was living in a split-second. All he had to do was muster enough concentration to stop the bullet. He was experiencing the moment in super slow motion, IMO.
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Either he was freezing time or he was living in a split-second. All he had to do was muster enough concentration to stop the bullet. He was experiencing the moment in super slow motion, IMO.
I thought he said something about "freezing time", but at 03:17 he actually says "That would be the bullet that is currently suspended in time but pressed firmly against my forehead." Earlier though, he says his talent is telekinesis. Time-stretching must be an undocumented feature of telekinesis.
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Either he was freezing time or he was living in a split-second. All he had to do was muster enough concentration to stop the bullet. He was experiencing the moment in super slow motion, IMO.
I thought he said something about "freezing time", but at 03:17 he actually says "That would be the bullet that is currently suspended in time but pressed firmly against my forehead." Earlier though, he says his talent is telekinesis. Time-stretching must be an undocumented feature of telekinesis.
Ever fallen out of a tree or knocked over something valuable and watch it slowly happen? That is how I took the story to have taken place.
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Either he was freezing time or he was living in a split-second. All he had to do was muster enough concentration to stop the bullet. He was experiencing the moment in super slow motion, IMO.
I thought he said something about "freezing time", but at 03:17 he actually says "That would be the bullet that is currently suspended in time but pressed firmly against my forehead." Earlier though, he says his talent is telekinesis. Time-stretching must be an undocumented feature of telekinesis.
Ever fallen out of a tree or knocked over something valuable and watch it slowly happen? That is how I took the story to have taken place.
He said something about as soon as his concentration slips, it's all over. I took that to mean he was freezing time, but couldn't move out of the way.
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Woot!!! That was fun piece, and as others have noted, the reading was perfect. Go, EP Flash!!!
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The reading was great but, like others, I'm confused as to what exactly the dilemma was and what power the narrator was using. It needed a bit more clarity there but was a fun enough piece.
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I feel lucky remembering a night with my exwife only cost me a finder and a stop sign.
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This story made me giggle. :)
great reading! i was expecting some kind of woman's revenge kinda plot, but i guess that wouldve been too predictable, i like this better :P
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The author knows how men think. Same thing would have happened to me.
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I LOVE the title, which drew me in before I even heard the story. I liked the story as well, but the ending changed my view of his power at the last minute. Until then, I'd thought his power was straight-up telekinesis, but that didn't really make sense with the ending--if the bullet is stopped, then it is stopped, as opposed to a time slowdown/freeze of some sort.