Escape Artists
Escape Pod => Episode Comments => Topic started by: SFEley on January 11, 2007, 06:37:33 PM
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EP088: Blood of Virgins (http://www.escapepod.org/2007/01/11/ep088-blood-of-virgins)
By David Barr Kirtley (http://www.davidbarrkirtley.com).
Read by Stephen Eley.
Other dragons cavorted on the airy currents. Those dragons were cherry red or lime green or creamy brown. Their riders steered them up the beach, or inland toward the mall, or back to campus.
A slender girl on a pink dragon passed us going the opposite way, her blond hair billowing. Matt waved to her. He said over his shoulder, “I met that girl last night. Hold on, I want to say hi.” He yanked the reins and we banked sharply. My stomach lurched. We swept around in an arc and came up alongside the girl. Her dragon had the guileless beady eyes and scrunched up cheeks of a lap dog. Matt said, “Hi. Dora, right?”
“Deirdre,” she corrected. “And you’re … Matt?” He grinned, and she said, “I like your dragon.”
Rated R. Contains sexual themes, third-world exploitation, and awkward freshmen.
(http://escapepod.org/wp-images/podcast-mini4.gif)
Listen to this week’s Escape Pod! (http://escapepod.org/media/EP088_BloodOfVirgins.mp3)
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Wow, just wow... Now I'm also scared of dragons. :)
Though I am wondering... why didn't the dragon attack him, when he was at home (the one that his parents got him)?
If dragons guzzle virgin blood by the gallon, I think they would not have bothered whether their prey was running or staring back at them. They are stronger after all. :)
Other than that, a nice story.
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Just a comment on the outro.
If all we're left with is men saving men and women saving women, I can guarantee you there will be complaints about pushing a "gay agenda" or some other conservative catch phrase.
Just give us good stories. When it's a good story, I don't care if it's the family hamster saving the day. Actually if someone could write a good story with the family hamster saving the day, I would love to hear it.
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I want to live in a world like that. <.<
I <3 dragons~
But I liked the story for more than just the dragons in it. Very refreshing to have a fantasy novel in Escape Pod, and one as well-written as this one really makes it a lot better.
And yes, we do fear mythical beasts - and to me, at least, women will forever be mythical and mysterious.
I have to agree with Russell though, a family hamster saving the day would be great.
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I have to agree with Russell though, a family hamster saving the day would be great.
http://www.hamtaro.com/ (http://www.hamtaro.com/)
(Hey, it's not my fault. You asked.) >8->
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Actually, I know of Hamtaro (and hate it with a passion), I just didn't want to mention it.
Anyways, I had that coming..
Actually I usually like most anime and manga, but Hamtaro.. *grumble*..
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I have to agree with Russell though, a family hamster saving the day would be great.
http://www.hamtaro.com/ (http://www.hamtaro.com/)
(Hey, it's not my fault. You asked.) >8->
I said good story.
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really liked the story. It sometimes is the simple themes that make for the best stories when they are retold against a different background.
The beginning was perhaps a bit to heavy on the analogy, but since I have sold my car(which was guzzling up far too many gallons of virgin blood anyways) a year ago, I don't mind ;-)
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Good one! Bloodthirsty dragons and college insecurities. It was some trick getting those two together so smoothly.
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First off, token vote for more science fiction, less fantasy.
I didn't buy that society would not only tolerate, but celebrate creatures that prey on humans. Yes, lots of people die in car accidents, but people are not rational when it comes to assessing risk. There is something visceral about being devoured, and we do not have a good history with creatures than devour us. Sharks, tigers, bears, smallpox... If these dragons were around, hunters would be popping them off with sidewinder missiles.
I thought the reference to the poor little Malaysian (it was Malaysian, wasn't it?) girl getting drained to feed dragons was extraneous and crossed over into political propaganda.
The media tends not to cover up dangerous consumer goods and animal attacks; they tend to sensationalize them. The dragons, like sharks, tigers, and bears (not smallpox) would probably instill more fear than was warranted.
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uninformed 2 cents:
I don't think it's a question of which gender rescues which. I just watched several episodes of 24 (can't stop with just one) and everyone was rescuing everyone. Same thing with Battlestar Galactica. The Terminator movies, Alien and Aliens have very strong women, and are popular with guys. I think the trick is that with these shows and movies the victims are not usually incompetent. If you have several idiots in a story and they all need protecting by smarter, stronger people, and all the idiots are one gender, then you have a problem. But I think the problem is filling your story with idiots, not with what gender they are. But I didn't hear the story in question, so I could be being an idiot, myself.
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The funny thing about idiocy is, you're not if you admit you might be :)
In regards to this tale, I think I saw the parallel the author was trying to make, between this and the oil industry, which has major problems. I have mixed feelings about the end result. On one hand, the depiction of college apathy (I was a Student Events planner once, I can relate) hits right home, as does the self-discovery involved in our hero's "college experience". Furthermore, the author wisely depicts the problem as a situation of shared blame, without utterly blaming the dragons themselves. And his descriptive language is top-shelf stuff: real clean, real lean, real mean.
Stephen's reading just gets better and better.
Now here's the part where I cringe, because I've submitted to Escape Pod before, and intend to in the future. But Stephen, you're a very level-headed guy, so I think you won't mind some honesty:
This tale radiates a little too much anti-establishment dogma. The author needs a pulpit, not a word processor. Once again, another story winds up on Escape Pod that sees enlightened but hopelessly out-gunned anti-capitalists at war with Evil Industry. I'm starting to worry about Escape Pod; if a political bent is beginning to emerge. I'm no conservative, but I'd like Escape Pod to continue to be something your average moderate, and hopefully conservatives, can listen to. The last thing I want to do is encourage censorship, but between this and "Smooth Talking", I'm officially casting my vote for less preaching. If the stories are going to continue to be political, then we need more from the other side of issues' viewpoints.
And I'm seconding Wakela's position. More sci-fi, less fantasy (granted, they're ambiguous terms these days, but I think this one is squarely fantasy). If I get another tree-hugging eco-sermon in the next few weeks, I swear I am going to saw down an Elm. ;D
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I'm no conservative, but I'd like Escape Pod to continue to be something your average moderate, and hopefully conservatives, can listen to. The last thing I want to do is encourage censorship, but between this and "Smooth Talking", I'm officially casting my vote for less preaching. If the stories are going to continue to be political, then we need more from the other side of issues' viewpoints.
That's fair. And I can see where you're coming from. But I have to tell you that some of this is out of my hands. There just aren't as many well-written conservative stories being submitted to us. Turtledove's "Joe Steele" was the last unambiguously right-leaning one that we received. I don't know if SF writers just aren't writing conservative stories these days, or if the ones who are haven't heard of Escape Pod, but I'm not seeing 'em.
Thus, if I were to make political balance a priority, my only choice would be to reject well-written stories with liberal slants that are otherwise perfect for us. I'm not big on that idea. So all I can do is stick to a "We buy fun stories that'll work well in audio" position, and try to be politically blind. I believe most of the stories on EP are apolitical, or at least you'd have to stretch to find a political agenda in them.
Meanwhile, if there are stories you feel would be a good political counterpoint to the ones you've heard so far, please tell the authors to send them to us! Seriously. I don't have a prejudice here. If I think I can make a good podcast out of a story, I'll buy it.
(Hey... I think I've just written most of an upcoming Escape Pod intro. Thanks, JC!) >8->
And I'm seconding Wakela's position. More sci-fi, less fantasy (granted, they're ambiguous terms these days, but I think this one is squarely fantasy). If I get another tree-hugging eco-sermon in the next few weeks, I swear I am going to saw down an Elm. ;D
Heh. Just as long as you plant two more to replace it. >8->
As for more SF, less fantasy... I believe there will be an announcement on that. The time frame of the announcement is "Soonish." I cannot say yet how soon. (Or how -ish.)
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wakela, i dont think this story was tryin to make sense, it wasnt supposed to be realistic in humanity's acceptance of man eating beasts of burden. It is meant to be a satire on contemporary transportation. Cars are one of the most dangerous things to be in. In fact, its SAFER to fly than to drive. This story is merely playing upon our use of a machine that kills many people each day and guzzle down our earth's resources as fast as they do. Im interpreting one message here as "we're slowly killing ourselves, be it with our own blood or the earth's"
personally i love fantasy, and i also love sci fi. I think that a story should be selected by its quality rather than its genre. Maybe, to please more, steve should maybe just look at the sci fi before movin onto the fantasy (literally not figuratively)
JCGillespie, if you havent noticed so far, the best books to date in history have mostly been books that "preach". Im talkin 1984, Fahrenheit 451, The Prince, The Republic, The Good Earth, you get my point. Good stories have something to say, something to make us think. While it is nice every so often to read a story purely for its entertainment, most stories are great because of the message they portray. And, if you look elsewhere on this forum, you will find a thread written by a conservative who claims that he enjoys Escape Pod, no matter what the message of the story is.
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I understand that. Heck, my personal all-time favorite science fiction book is "Starship Troopers", which as we all know is as politically-charged as it gets. Thing is, I wouldn't want to hear Vonnegut or Heinlein every week. I realize some might not have issue with that.
It just feels like it's been a little thick lately, that's all.
It helps when there's a guy as mellow as you running things, Stephen :) I appreciate you taking the time to address my concerns. I'm aware of the realities of modern fiction -- it's a predominantly liberal environment, which is something that has made this moderate Libertarian worry if he'll rub people the wrong way. I've been pleasantly surprised to find most folks very fair and open-minded, even if we hardly ever agree.
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I was thinking about JG's comments here - I always respect his views - and realised that I hadn't noticed this ecological bent.
I actually think you've been on a pretty high winning streak lately - I loved the Silverberg, Authorwerx and the Corey Doctorow short (and thought Ulla was a pretty entertaining distraction), but I realise i've been stopping a lot of stories after 5 minutes lately... After ten minutes I gave up on Straight Talking, after 7 minutes I gave up on Blood Of Virgins, and I will get around to read the Mur story at some point I promise.
I'm not sure what this means... I was utterly, utterly unimpressed by BoV, but maybe it got better in the second half. I was also totally unimpressed by Straight Talking (And Green Thumb was badly written enough that I have doubts it got any better). My instinct is to stick my arm up with JG and say more SF as I usually do, but after reading your poll recently I realised there is a hell of a lot of people who live for fantasy on here... And however much I have a kneejerk reaction against it that isn't going to change the numbers. I'm another libertarian, and would prefer a little less preach... But the fact is, I'm likely just to stop listening if you do preach - and if next week's material is good enough I really don't care.
So.. As far as it goes... Escape Pod is currently on magnificent form. Don't change a thing.
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I enjoyed this story. One thing that confused me was how Chris' parents get to work; shouldn't there have been two other dragons at Chris' house already? Maybe everyone telecommutes in this reality? I really like that it held the idea that dragons are and had always been the only option for travel. Also, what a great way to get girls "Please baby, the dragons will get me if we don't do it!" I know immature toilet humor, but I could resist... :D
As for the political overtones I didn't pick up on them too much. I just like to sit down and listen to the stories for fun, unless it really tries to shove a metaphor down my throat, i.e. EP069: “Her”. Also, in this case I would probably agree with most of the metaphors mentioned; cars probably are more dangerous than dragons, and big oil is an evil entity draining the planet of its "virgin blood". One thing that sticks in my head from a political/ecological standpoint is the similarity of the account of the small Malaysian girl having her blood drained and the very real problem of bears in Asia having bile inhumanely drained from their gall bladders for use in traditional Chinese medicine. I wonder if this was intentional or not?
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JCGillespie, if you havent noticed so far, the best books to date in history have mostly been books that "preach". Im talkin 1984, Fahrenheit 451, The Prince, The Republic, The Good Earth, you get my point.
When I read the above, I nearly fainted. I group these books with other well known but in my opinion bad books. For instance "War and Peace", "Cider with Rosie" and "Kes". I found these books and those you mentioned as dull and uninspiring.
Please dont mistake me, I'm not having a go at "Bdoomed", my opinion is not worth any more than his/hers, I just want to state my view point and ask a question.
Bdoomed, why do you rate the books you mentioned as best books? What aspects of them gave you that opinion?
Oh, and I loved this episode. I thought of it as Sci Fi because it hinted that the Dragons had been made. That rates it as Sci Fi because the dragons took the feel a long way from the modern world. More Please.
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well, aside from The Good Earth (which i didnt particularily like) those books are considered classics. Personally i liked em very much, they just interest me (especially 1984) but they are considered classics, which is why i used them as examples, not because they were personal favorites.
Please dont mistake me, I'm not having a go at "Bdoomed", my opinion is not worth any more than his/hers, I just want to state my view point and ask a question.
his :P
im just sayin that it is a trend in the history of literature that the classics, or what have become classics, are traditionally ones that preach, ones that have something to say. Now of course there is Harry Potter and the like, but im generalizing here.
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I just finished BoV today which catches me up on all the EPs.
It seams to me, after reading all the posts, that I'm either way older than most of the posting crowd or some have forgotten after school specials.
I did catch the metaphors of cars and oil as well as selling my kidney because I'm poor and live in a back water country.
But the real problem was... It wasn't fun. It was long slow and... not fun, just like EP55 down memory lane, It wasn't fun.
We didn't really learn any thing about the dragons or the world in which they inhabit. Just the ongoing moral agony, not fun.
I have enjoyed most of the EPs and look forward to next weeks (I now have to wait for them).
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It seams to me, after reading all the posts, that I'm either way older than most of the posting crowd or some have forgotten after school specials.
what do you mean by that? although you are most likely older than me, what do ya mean by that?
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First off, thanks to everyone here for the interesting discussion.
wakela, i dont think this story was tryin to make sense, it wasnt supposed to be realistic in humanity's acceptance of man eating beasts of burden. It is meant to be a satire on contemporary transportation.
That's a good point, and you are right of course. But for me there were enough unbelievable points that the satire doesn't really work for me. Instead of questioning whether the convenience of cars is worth the cost in lives, I am thankful to live in a world where cars become safer and safer each year, do not require us to torture Malaysian girls, and the media enthusiastically reports engineering flaws.
Good stories have something to say, something to make us think.
I agree completely, but this one did not make me think. It trod a well-worn groove of anti-corporate environmentalism. Anti-corporate environmentalism is a fine thing to believe in and write about, but it's become tired.
It's also a more nuanced situation than the story lets on. Anyone would be against cars if they ate people and served only the vanity of college students. But my car takes me to work, lets me travel freely, and takes my kid to the doctor. You have to work pretty hard to convince me that I shouldn't drive my kid to the doctor.
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It's also a more nuanced situation than the story lets on. Anyone would be against cars if they ate people and served only the vanity of college students. But my car takes me to work, lets me travel freely, and takes my kid to the doctor. You have to work pretty hard to convince me that I shouldn't drive my kid to the doctor.
but therin lies the satire! i dont know if you have read it, but Thomas Moore's A Modest Proposal proposes an outrageous solution to a problem, not to have people follow through on the proposal, but to make the situation known! People are poor and the place is overpopulated... hmm lets eat babies! here are my reasons, my grounds, my rebuttal, now think! (i wont explain this, if you havent read it, read it! heh)
the story is makin an exaggeration to show the problem, that is the style the author chose in order to say what he wanted to say, and still tell the story he wanted to tell. by totally blowing the situation out of proportion, you make it known. and dont say "he coulda said the same thing a different way" because this situation has been said multiple times, its not like there is anything new here, but this is an artistic approach to the situation. If anyone here has read A Modest Proposal this would probably be makin much more sense than to a person who has not. and by read i mean read and understood...
there are also parallels here
the dragons drink the virgin blood of humans
cars, as posted earlier, consume the virgin blood of the earth
and dragons, assumed here, are the equivilant of cars for them, they take em to work, travel freely, and take their kids to the doctors.
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A Modest Proposal was Swift, not Moore.
Cheers
Seriously tho, as "satire" goes there is good satire like The Futurological Congress, The Sirens Of Titan or HitchHikers Guide to the Galaxy... And there is less good satire. Being satirical doesn't make things good.
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This was a cool story. It really took me back to my teenage days...
It also reminded me of "Clash of the Titans" where Athena demands that Andromeda is sacrifices "untouched by man" (or some such nonsense). That bit always makes me shout "Quick! Someone shag her!"
Anyway, as far as being a fantasy story goes, I'm not so sure. They talk about dragons having manufacturers so that makes it scifi in my book. Anyway - it was fun and that's all that should matter.
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It trod a well-worn groove of anti-corporate environmentalism.
But my car takes me to work, lets me travel freely, and takes my kid to the doctor. You have to work pretty hard to convince me that I shouldn't drive my kid to the doctor.
There is nothing in this story that says there are no cars or other transportation. It does in fact mention not only bike paths, but streets. If everyone got around by dragon, they wouldn't need the streets. Also if Chris' parents had the money to buy him the dragon equivalent of a Mustang GT, they would have had enough for they're own if they wanted.
I don't think the author is slamming corporations for making cars as much as he's making a statement about peoples' choices of cars.
example:
My bother has a mini-van with 240HP! That's stupid! His Mustang "only" had 225. This van uses much more gas than it needs to just to have power available that it can't use.
Let me explain that last part. This van is front wheel drive and has passenger car tires. When the the van is put under hard excelleration, the front end of the van lifts (normal to all cars) and the tires have less weight to hold then against the road would start to slip if the traction control system didn't limit the engine power. At highway speed the van hardly needs 50 or 60HP. This thing has probably never needed more than 140HP and never will, but he uses the extra gas to have that power on hand.
Over-powered cars and trucks. Vehicles far bigger than anyone needs. The buying of a car just because of what the neighbors will think. This is what I feel the Author was commenting on. He's not saying anything against the family with the Camry for the whole family and the Corrolla for the commuter.
Oh yeah. I take the subway to work, the train on vacation, and my kids to the doctor's in a stroller. All of which are faster, safer, cheaper, and more enviromental. The car(yes I do have one) gets less than 4000 miles a year. Last point, I pay over six dollars a gallon and I don't care because I only fill up once every four to six weeks. The huge gas tax is used to buy open land and put it under protection from developement.
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A Modest Proposal was Swift, not Moore.
Cheers
Seriously tho, as "satire" goes there is good satire like The Futurological Congress, The Sirens Of Titan or HitchHikers Guide to the Galaxy... And there is less good satire. Being satirical doesn't make things good.
HAHA i KNEW it didnt sound right! gosh i feel stupid now! thanks for the correction, Jonnathan Swift.. im sorry!
(oh and for what its worth, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is the best book(s) ive ever read)
$6 a gallon! wow thats a lot!
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Where's my post!!!! I spent like an hour on that thing! Full of quotes, links, intellectual references, clever turns of phrase, and puns. Oh, the puns. sigh
Summary:
OK, the moral of the story may be less "cars and companies are bad" and more "are our luxury items worth the costs." Still, this does not make it particularly interesting to me. It's a message I hear over and over again in the media.
its not like there is anything new here
Then should it be on an SF/F podcast?
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It seams to me, after reading all the posts, that I'm either way older than most of the posting crowd or some have forgotten after school specials.
what do you mean by that? although you are most likely older than me, what do ya mean by that?
The story was written like an after school special. for those who do not know what one is, an after school special was a TV show on "after school" and it was usually an over dramatized morel dilemma. i.e. Do I spend the money I worked hard for, on the radio I want to buy or do I donate some/all of it to the feed the hungry. Or something along those lines. We were often forced to watch one of these as a group by our kind and loving but misguided mothers.
Since no one else was saying much along this line ( about the story's moral over dramatization ) I thought I would post a comment about that and see if anyone else saw the same connection between the too. I was not trying to bag on anyones age.
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I also thought the story was rather poor, to be honest. To me, this wasn't even a fantasy story - it was just a environmentalist case study or something. You can replace "dragon" with "car" and "blood" with "gas" and the story stays pretty much the same, except now it's not a "fantasy" work, just fiction. I like a bit more depth to the sci-fi/fantasy aspect of stories that are labeled as such.
edit: how in the world did I manage to type 'although' instead of 'also'
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It seams to me, after reading all the posts, that I'm either way older than most of the posting crowd or some have forgotten after school specials.
what do you mean by that? although you are most likely older than me, what do ya mean by that?
The story was written like an after school special. for those who do not know what one is, an after school special was a TV show on "after school" and it was usually an over dramatized morel dilemma. i.e. Do I spend the money I worked hard for, on the radio I want to buy or do I donate some/all of it to the feed the hungry. Or something along those lines. We were often forced to watch one of these as a group by our kind and loving but misguided mothers.
Since no one else was saying much along this line ( about the story's moral over dramatization ) I thought I would post a comment about that and see if anyone else saw the same connection between the too. I was not trying to bag on anyones age.
Sort off, but not really off topic... Does anyone remember the Afterschool Special "The Wave" where a teacher is asked by his high school sophomores how everyday Germans could become Nazis. The teacher decides to show them by starting and leading an afterschool club called "The Wave" and his charisma makes it a nationside phenomena? At the end at a big schoolwide gathering he unveils the real leader of "The Wave" to his audience of cheering teenage brownshirts.
Hitler.
I know I saw this one (among the date rape, drunk driving, and don't-take-quaaludes-before-the-prom ones). I didn't dream it, honest.
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It seams to me, after reading all the posts, that I'm either way older than most of the posting crowd or some have forgotten after school specials.
what do you mean by that? although you are most likely older than me, what do ya mean by that?
The story was written like an after school special. for those who do not know what one is, an after school special was a TV show on "after school" and it was usually an over dramatized morel dilemma. i.e. Do I spend the money I worked hard for, on the radio I want to buy or do I donate some/all of it to the feed the hungry. Or something along those lines. We were often forced to watch one of these as a group by our kind and loving but misguided mothers.
Since no one else was saying much along this line ( about the story's moral over dramatization ) I thought I would post a comment about that and see if anyone else saw the same connection between the too. I was not trying to bag on anyones age.
Sort off, but not really off topic... Does anyone remember the Afterschool Special "The Wave" where a teacher is asked by his high school sophomores how everyday Germans could become Nazis. The teacher decides to show them by starting and leading an afterschool club called "The Wave" and his charisma makes it a nationside phenomena? At the end at a big schoolwide gathering he unveils the real leader of "The Wave" to his audience of cheering teenage brownshirts.
Hitler.
I know I saw this one (among the date rape, drunk driving, and don't-take-quaaludes-before-the-prom ones). I didn't dream it, honest.
I heard that one on This American Life. Some teacher really did that about 15 or 20 years ago.
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Not wishing to debate on fantasy’s place on Escape Pod or the political viewpoints expressed in story. Just wanted to say that I enjoyed the story great deal. Disappointed by lack of rampaging and city destruction, but will survive.
And yes, 200 foot lizards don’t need no rescue.
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ugh ive been away too long, so much readin on this convorsation to do...
but
i DID see the wave in... 8th grade! tis a true story too! kinda scary no?
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It's taken me a while to listen to this one- I've been behind on my podcast listening. And I loved it (It's making me think I've neglected the Realistic Fantasy genre somewhat). I didn't feel the satirical elements overwhelmed the story. Unlike the dryads story, this was about the main character and his own personal life, with the idea of dragons as cars providing background. I didn't see it as a polemic at all.
I liked how the story turned out to be about the main character's own insecurities about sex, maturity, popularity, peer pressure etc. Fantasy monsters as metaphors for our own insecurities? Very Buffy. :D
If the story had been written to slam car culture, I think it would have been very different. It was about coming of age, not politics!
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Administrivia: All of the posts on transit and hybrid cars have been moved to a new thread (http://forum.escapeartists.info/index.php?topic=105.0). That's no criticism on anybody, I just figured it was drifting too far from the story discussion and would flourish better as its own topic. Carry on!
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What I'd like to see is some SF writer make up an entirely different political view of an alien species and see how well they mix up with humans and our (to them) weird ways.
But that's probably not likely to be submitted to Escape Pod, I'm thinking - though I'm sure that there are at least a few titles worth mentioning in novels and longer books.
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What I'd like to see is some SF writer make up an entirely different political view of an alien species and see how well they mix up with humans and our (to them) weird ways.
Grab a keyboard and start writing, Ryuujin! I'm sure it would be awesome. BTW, have you read the Uplift books by David Brin?
BTW2: I study Japanese, but I'm having a hard time with your little tagline. Whats it mean?
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If the story had been written to slam car culture, I think it would have been very different. It was about coming of age, not politics!
I think it was about both, which was its problem for me. The car/ecology thing was really interesting (to me, anyway) and the maturation/sexual issues were also really interesting, but I felt like each issue wasn't explored as much as I would have liked because there were both.
Though, to be honest, I have to agree with the posters who have been put off by the number of eco-nut stories lately. And I am an eco-nut. I think it's just that there have been too many, too close together. That, and I really didn't like Smooth Talking for some reason I can't quite pin down. Probably the "anthropomorphism=worthy of saving" angle.
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I listened to this thinking it was SciFi, not Fantasy. It sounded like those manufactured dragons were just one luxury mode of transportation (as others have observed). That the dragons drank virgin blood had me thinking: Whoa! What do the genetic engineers make of that one? Weren't they able to isolate the genes responsible? Did replacing those genes eliminate some essential dragonishness? Or was it just too expensive to bother fixing it.
So while I was engaged with the characters, thinking "Yeah, just say you love her! It worked for me!" I was also thinking "How did the dragon manufacturers get this product to market? They must have a helluva lobby in Washington!" ... or maybe they're Chinese imports.
Needless to say, I really liked this Science Fiction story.
Don
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That the dragons drank virgin blood had me thinking: Whoa! What do the genetic engineers make of that one? Weren't they able to isolate the genes responsible?
I made roughly the same point in the comments section. It really took me out of the story because I kept thinking that this was ridiculous - it was just a contrivance of the author's hamfisted into the story
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Is it just me or is everyone over thinking this story? Genetically engineered or not, clearly, that wasn't the focus of the plot at any time.
For me, the point was very well presented and use of dragons added to vividness of the World created in this story. Story came across wonderfully and I am sure there were plenty other people who remembered their youth, with whatever behavior and silliness was there, for each.
I felt there was a call to review our morals and face our fears, and through all that, I was entertained also!
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Is it just me or is everyone over thinking this story? Genetically engineered or not, clearly, that wasn't the focus of the plot at any time.
I felt there was a call to review our morals and face our fears, and through all that, I was entertained also!
Yes, I think that was the purpose/focus of the story, as well, but I don't see the critiques as overthinking, for me it is how the author hard a point (morals, etc) and said - I know I'll throw in some dragons so I can call it fantasy.
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The preachiness doesn't bother me in the least - I just find most of the stories that happen to slant "left-ish" to be boring. I mean...the talking trees thing? It just didn't get to me. Actually, I didn't like "Joe Steele" when I first heard it either. It took me another listen, and the ending packed quite the punch.
To me, this was more about the struggles of young adulthood than it was about how awful/evil the auto-I mean dragon industry is. They were kind of secondary to the plot. It was more about his own issues, and his idiotic attempts to get into some girl's pants as a cure for them, than it was about how Ford's new dragon gets 6 miles to the gallon.
Speaking of - did anyone consider the fact that blood is unlikely to be sufficient to sustain a full-sized, cargo-bearing dragon? I mean, honestly - I know this is fiction, but let's not get out of hand here!
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This here is the end of an era. My mad reign of threadomancy at Escape Artists is coming to an end, as I've commented on all the stories. I'll be expecting my no-prize in the mail. ;)
I can almost feel the collective sigh of relief from the forumites. "Finally!" they say, "I can expect the most recent stories to be close to the top instead of buried under years-old stories!"
For better or for worse, I expect I'll meander over to the Drabblecast and give their story threads the same treatment (assuming that threadomancy is tolerated over there as it is here).
OK, on to the actual story:
*sigh* I wish I could've liked the last risen thread, but I just didn't care for this one. Too much a heavy handed message story, and the "green" message that I've seen so many bajillion times before it just gets more dull each time I hear it, even though I don't think it's incorrect. The fantasy elements just seemed entirely tacked-on in order to give the message some window dressing to make it seem fresh.
There is nothing in this story that says there are no cars or other transportation. It does in fact mention not only bike paths, but streets. If everyone got around by dragon, they wouldn't need the streets.
To me that wasn't so much an indication that there were cars in this world, only an indication that the author didn't think through the setting very thoroughly and hadn't thought about not needing roads in an airborne transport society. If the author intended for regular cars to exist, one should have made an appearance, if only parked in a driveway somewhere.