Escape Artists
PodCastle => Episode Comments => Topic started by: Heradel on September 30, 2009, 04:11:55 PM
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PodCastle 072: The Exit Sign
(http://podcastle.org/2009/09/30/podcastle-072-the-exit-sign/)
by Ursula Pflug.
(http://ursulapflug.ca/)Read by (of Christiana Ellis (http://www.christianaellis.com/)).
You and I were different. Making love on sprawling landings we learned that one way of life wasn’t better than another, and that we all shared the same ultimate misery, doomed to be born and die in this building. Who’d made this place? Had we built it ourselves generations ago when we still had legs to run from something fierce and predatory that circled our tower, waiting for travellers: the jumpers, the fliers, those with the twisted bed sheet ropes?
Rated R. for sex and dismemberment in enclosed places.
Edited to fix Christiana's URL -- Rachel.
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This was probably my least favorite PodCastle story, although I am a fan of surrealism in general.
It's kind of an impressive feat to craft such a strange setting, than turn it into something so hit-you-over-the-head dull. Let me see if I get this straight: The upper class invents everything good, but also everything bad, destroys the planet, and has lost touch with their spirituality. The lower class is hearty and honest, but also violent, dirty perverts, whose lack of mobility (isn't it clever, symbolizing a lack of figurative mobility with a lack of literal mobility?) is their own fault. But maybe their children will escape from the situation they're in with enough communication / love / friendship / interbreeding.
If you base your stories on stereotypes, they should at least be interesting stereotypes or have interesting implications plot-wise.
I liked the exposition at first, but then it started to feel like details were just being crammed in ("oh by the way I forgot to mention") without any regard to the flow of what little plot there was. And a lot of the plot felt like I was being told "this interesting thing happened" without the telling being actually interesting.
Ugh.
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Very occasionally, a story comes out where the use of second person overcomes the annoyance and pretentiousness of that device to contribute something really worthwhile to the narrative. This was not such a story.
Indeed, annoyance and pretentiousness were the two main impressions I got from this otherwise extremely uninspired (and uninspiring) piece. It's basically a bland, cliche'd, and uninteresting story that thinks it has something to say, and this lack of self-awareness is its weakest point.
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Yeah. I guess I'm NOT one of those people who likes surreal romances.
Next?
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Yeah. I guess I'm NOT one of those people who likes surreal romances.
I love surreal romances. I hated this story. Don't judge the genre by this one example of it...
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I love surreal romances. I hated this story. Don't judge the genre by this one example of it...
I think it's more the "surreal" part than the "romance" part that turned me off. :)
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M.K. Hobson's introductions never fail to make me grin.
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M.K. Hobson's introductions never fail to make me grin.
You know, I should have pointed this out, especially given the negativity I've heaped so far on this thread - the introduction was really, really great.
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I also did not enjoy this story, for pretty much the same reasons given above. Plus, I was annoyed by a lack of internal logic- eg, at one point we are told about people jumping from the upper storey or escaping with knotted bedsheets; the next we are told there are no windows. Or, there are windows downstairs- so why do you need an Exit sign? And how do windows go rusty? Why haven't the grenades just destroyed the whole building? How come the protagonist's stairwell doesn't get bombed, if that's where the grenades get thrown?Also, at first, we are told nobody can travel between stories, but actually all you need to do is crawl down some stairs. Another annoyance I have with this type of story is the constant use of generalisms and a lack of concrete examples, as in the descriptions of the abusive relationships on the lower storey. I just couldn't visualise what was actually being discussed; even surrealism needs some kind of reality and solidity to it (IMHO). This kind of symbolic tale can be told well - just look at Gormenghast- but this was symbolism without substance. Finally, the narrator was good, but the way the story was written made it difficult for her to put much life into the reading, so every sentence ended on a melancholic dying fall. Sorry, but the whole story was depressing and rather irritating.
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There are a bunch of stories that take place with the conceit that the entire world is a building with no outside. I call them house stories. I admit to an unreasonable love for the genre. My favorite example is Tad Williams -- one of the worlds in his Otherworld series takes place in an enormous house with shifting architecture where tribes of men have grown and fallen.
I think this story is one of that genre, which is why I personally didn't have visualization trouble -- I had a framework to put the prose into. But maybe other people were seeing something different?
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For me, it was not so much the house idea that I had problems visualising, it was how life actually worked. I found this story had too much "tell" and not enough "show". There was a lot of generalisations about how relationships worked, what the people were like, but very few actual examples of stuff happening. In the moments when something real happened, it was pretty evocative - eg the narrator's description of her mother preparing for the dinner party and the green glasses catching the light - I found that powerful and got a really strong sense of emotion and place- but I found that those moments just didn't come often enough.
Too much of the story was like the passage describing relationships on the lower storey, which talks about how the women think they have found something different, but then glance themselves in the mirror and realise they are the abuser, etc- I find this manner of writing passive and uninvolving, and feel that it gives the impression of high-mindedness without having the depth to back up that affectation. I would rather hear a recollection of a real incident, or see something genuine being played out. In a similar way, apparently everyone has no legs, but it doesn't actually seem to affect them in any real way. Apart from having problems with stairs, everything goes on the same - from having dinner parties to playing the piano. Now I'm not saying that those with no legs can't live a fulfilling life, but I do think that a whole society where nobody has legs might encounter a little more difficulty than not being able to get downstairs easily. When I visualise these people, they have legs, because there is nothing to make me believe they don't, apart from the narrator's original assertion. I do understand it's a fantastic story, and I'm not demanding utter realism from a surrealistic piece but there is an intrinsic lack of truth and depth.
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I did not care for this. I wish I could express what it was but others have and that may have to do for now.
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Both this story and its narration annoyed me to the point I felt compelled to register on the forum and spill my gall.
To my ears it felt as if there weren't a story being told, but that one was being lectured with the indulgent, wallowing drivel of a mewling, immature and overly self-righteous soul. While I prayed that this was just a phase in the story, the grating tone continued throughout its entirety, without variance and without a note of hope for something better. The examples of the various forms of abuse the building residents inflicted upon themselves and others became gratuitous - the author simply pushing one emotional button after another to try and get a sympathetic reaction from the reader/listener.
I want to give Christiana Ellis the benefit of the doubt and listen to other readings by her before I let my opinion become set. With this story, though, I don't find myself hoping for much better.
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There's an interesting story to be told in this universe. I hope to hear it some day.
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I was pretty underwhelmed. It reminded me of "Secret Life," by Jeff VanderMeer (PodCastle #46, for reference.) Except... "Secret Life" was fascinating in its internal logic and interwoven stories, full of hints and nuance and things left unsaid, whereas this story just sort of thudded things down in front of you like a cafeteria lady presenting your Meatloaf Surprise. I think the general consensus thus far of "Too much telling, not enough showing" holds very true for me. I love surreal stuff and I love symbolism, but if you explain your symbolism to me in the darned story, it takes all of the fun out of it. I don't really need you to tell me that the Exit Sign actually is your child, who is made of two worlds coming together, you see, just like this relationship you've been telling me about (but not showing) for fifteen minutes. I got that, thanks. Pretty clear.
Have you ever had to explain the punchline of a joke? Not very funny after that, is it? There's probably a reason for that.
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I hate to join the tide, but this one was really just... well, I hesitate to just say "dreadful" and leave it at that.
The characters and people in the setting felt as though they were constructed to set a scene, not as any kind of response to their situations. Dull city :(
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Great intro, great outro, and I enjoyed the reading. The story had some memorable moments and flashes of brilliance, but I have to say I agree with most of what has been said about the story already.
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I was pretty underwhelmed. It reminded me of "Secret Life," by Jeff VanderMeer (PodCastle #46, for reference.)
Yes, "Secret Life" ... I'd forgotten the title and was going to say that this story put me in mind of the one that was a bunch of vignettes set in an office building.
I didn't like that story either.
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Couldn't decided if I liked this or not. The world inside a house/building idea was interesting. The MC was interesting. Overall- though the chain of conciousness telling was a little to loosey goosey for me
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Should I go against the tide and say I loved it? Nah. M K Hobson did a great job with the intro and Christiana Ellis as usual did a great job telling this story. I couldn't tell why I hated this story so much, maybe it was that there were too many bad stereotypes. Maybe it was that there was no clear direction or plot. Whatever it was I can't place a finger on it and say ah-ha that is what is wrong with it. Now the "House" stories never bother me, I sort of liked Secret Life but this one just fell flat.
Two thumbs, with sparkling green glass pins under the finger nails, down
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One of the very few Podcastle episodes I couldn't finish. Checking the feedback here, seems I made a good call on turning it off.
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Yeah, I'm afraid I listened to about 5 minutes before skipping it, something I rarely do. My apologies, but it was mainly the reading turned me off -- it seemed like it was a bit of a chore to the reader, which doesn't help.
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The only reason I got all the way through this was because I had dish gloves on and didn't want the hassle of removing them. What a dreadful story. "Upper class people are like this and lower class people are like this! Amirite?" Whoa. I felt bludgeoned by the message.
I love house stories - Secret Life, the part in Tad Williams' Otherland series. I love surrealism, romance. Just not this one.
Great intro and outro though!
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I thought I posted my thoughts on this one already, but I guess I didn't. I'm all for weird, surreal stories, but this was just too hard to follow. Probably would be better reading this one than listening to it. On the plus side, I got mentioned in the feedback section for "Daughter of Batu", so woo-hoo! It paid off to listen to the whole thing.
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I was unimpressed by this story. The world as a building metaphor was already visited by a previous story "Secret Life". The plot was predictable about 10 minutes into it. The characters seemed one-dimensional and never really seem to develop for me. The artificially constructed caste system of dirty perverts and clean polite-society seems contrived and hackneyed. I also strongly object to the antiquated and victorian metaphor of equating sex to filth/corruption, perversion, sado-masichism, etc. The author also seemed like she kept on preaching some sort of "let's all get along" or "we're all imperfect and yet perfect together" message. Not that I don't mind the sentiment, but after the fifth or sixth time of having that same message being hammered down your throat, it gets a bit old. Maybe I'm expecting too much, and maybe this is supposed to be a YA story, but I don't really subscribe to the idea that you have to dumb-down stories for younger readers.
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Most of my complaints have already been said, including:
-annoying second person
-too much telling
-relying on overused stereotypes
-The style of the story seemed to indicate it thought itself pretty important, which clashed with my apathy.
-It states that they can't cross between floors, and then they do.
In addition to that, I had extreme trouble believing that a world as this could ever exist anywhere.
-Where does their food come from?
-Where does their sewage go?
-Why don't the grenades burn the house down? Where do they get grenades anyway?
They've been living here for at least 3 generations, probably much longer. Living there that long without the slightest mention of the answer to these questions demotes it from story to allegory. Not that there's anything wrong with allegory, and while allegories are interesting in philosophical discussion kind of way, the setting is so clearly artificial that the people must also be artificial. Because of that, I don't care in the slightest what happens to them.
On top of that, some of the actions they took uniformly as a society struck me as terribly unrealistic. The basement folk all cut off their legs because they were afraid the angels would reject them? I can perhaps believe one or a few people doing that, though they'd have to be very mentally unstable folks. But a whole society systematically doing this for generations? I can't believe that. Not even a single person says "Hmmm, maybe before maiming myself, I could walk upstairs and say hi." On top of that, how does maiming make it any better? "I'm afraid the angels will reject me, so I'm going to MAKE SURE they reject me because I'll never make it up there. That'll teach them!"
I've said before (and I"ll say again) that I like a story that carries a message, but this is a message that carries a story.
I did listen all the way to the end, simply because some of the philosophical ideas were cool.
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There are a bunch of stories that take place with the conceit that the entire world is a building with no outside. I call them house stories. I admit to an unreasonable love for the genre. My favorite example is Tad Williams -- one of the worlds in his Otherworld series takes place in an enormous house with shifting architecture where tribes of men have grown and fallen.
I think this story is one of that genre, which is why I personally didn't have visualization trouble -- I had a framework to put the prose into. But maybe other people were seeing something different?
I also really loved the house world in Otherland, and that setting did cross my mind when I heard this story but that setting was quite different.
-Because it's a computer simulation, food and sewage do not need to be incorporated into the program.
-Because most of the citizens of that world were computer programs, irrationality on their part does not bother me. If the citizens of that world all chopped their logs off, I would see it as the outcome of a logic error in the AI's programming, not unbelievable characters.
-Because of the simulation backdrop, the setting doesn't have to make any logical sense. That's one of the greatest things about
that series--Tad chose a setting that allowed him to take metaphors and symbols and make them real in a way that allows real characters to exist in ridiculous settings.
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And, regarding the "World as a House" concept: in this case, the entire world is clearly not contained within the house or they wouldn't know of Larry Flint and Dostoyevsky and whoever else they mentioned. Those people didn't grow up in the house, and if they did their lives would've been different and would not have produced the same works. By anchoring this world to the real world, it makes it clear to me that basic concerns should apply (such as food and sewage) and so the fact that they don't apply just makes this world weaker.
Getting off the soap box now. :)