Escape Artists
PodCastle => Episode Comments => Topic started by: Talia on July 26, 2011, 11:08:37 AM
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PodCastle 167: Portage (http://podcastle.org/2011/07/26/podcastle-167-portage)
by An Owomoyela (http://an.owomoyela.net)
Read by Elizabeth Green Musselman (http://darkmatterknits.wordpress.com)
Originally published in Apex Magazine.
When it came time to carry her father’s soul down from the mountain, she had nothing to carry it in. The bowl her mother had carved from heirloom ivory, fit together like a puzzle mosaic and watertight without needing glue, had been shattered just that morning in an argument with the father’s retainer. No other bowl had been carved with the requisite love for him. But her father’s soul couldn’t be left up at the temple on Mount Ossus, so she went with the pilgrims to claim him before the sun did.
She stood in rank with them as the soul-preparers poured distillations from the cleaned skulls of the dead. When they came to her, a girl whose name was soonafter forgotten, she set her jaw and cupped her hands out like a beggar. “Give me my father,” she said.
They did. She took him down the mountainside cupped in her hands, tightening her fingers until they ached against every drop, until the piercing blue sky gave her terrors because it, too, was the color of soul water and it had spilled across the horizon, out of her hands.
Rated R. Contains Adult Themes.
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...I don't get it.
???
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...I don't get it.
???
Girl is supposed to carry her father's soul to safety in some kind of ritual thing. Girl's soul-bowl is broken by father's gay lover. Girl drinks father's soul instead in order to carry it. Girl is possessed by her father (which involves growing a penis for some reason), who boots her out and sends her on to the afterlife because he is apparently a douchenozzle. Father breaks up with his gay lover, has a fight with his wife, and heads off into the sunset to start a new asshole life in some other city where his buttheadedness will probably win him just as much acclaim as it did in this one.
The end.
*shrugs*
I didn't really empathize well with any of the characters, and frankly Dad was total jerk. It took three sittings to get all the way through this one. I wasn't a huge fan.
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Wait, her father's gay lover? I completely missed that. Man, I guess I really couldn't get into this story...
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On the whole I thought that this story had really great start, but I didn't agree with the author's choices after the priests discover that the MC contained her father's soul. It was just depressing to watch her father heartlessly take over his own daughter's body, when all she was doing was being a dutiful daughter. However, I did think it was really interesting to see a "man" struggle within the confines of a young female's role in this society and loved the tug of war that created in the MC.
father's gay lover.
*double take* wait, what???
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That was what it sounded like to me. If the retainer wasn't Dad's side squeeze, then half of Mom's lines make like no sense at all.
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hmmm .... didn't hear a gay lover. DID hear that Mom expected the retainer to treat her better. Thought the daughter drank the Bowl of Soul because it would have been broken by forces beyond her control in the environment.
This one really didn't do much for me. I like some of the subtlety of interlaced character at the end, but the completely un-subtle treatment of the daughter ... bored me.
I want to be very clear on this... I realize that women - and especially girls - are brutalized, killed, mistreated, and just ignored everyday all over the world. It's awful, and I don't like it.
But I also don't like being preached at, even when it's something I agree with.
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I too do not like being preached at. Even more so when I can't figure out exactly what the Important Message(tm) is supposed to be. That performing your filial duty is a no-win situation? That the only way a young woman can be respected is to literally become a man? That the afterlife is just as random and unfair as life? That organized religion is inherently evil? That men are inherently evil? That it sucks to be a girl? That you should always have a backup container for your soul?
...I think I need to go lie down. And make sure my soul jar is in a safe place.
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...I think I need to go lie down. And make sure my soul jar(s) is in a safe place.
fixed. This whole problem would have been solved if there had been more than one....
yeah, this story didn't really do anything for me. I loved the start where the girl drank her father's soul in order to preserve it, but then it turned a hard left down batshit ally and I lost interest.
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I listened to this yesterday in one sitting. It was um... interesting? Overall, the Important Message(TM) was lost on me, and the whole thing seemed like a self-congratulatory exercise in Literary Fantasy. It even fails to make gender-bending very compelling. The soul retrieval was an interesting concept, but the story had poor execution.
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I think I'm in the majority here. This one started out gripping, but I was lost after the squatting incident. I just didn't like, as most have stated already, the Father who would sacrifice his daughter that way. I couldn't connect to any character, to be honest. I wanted to feel something for the daughter, but all I have is detached pity.
One thing that was a positive, for me at least, was that I was reminded of a good book I read a few years ago called Misfortune by Wesley Stace. It's about a foundling baby boy who is adopted and raised as a very wealthy Lord's daughter in 19th Century England. I appreciated the reminder and will be re-reading it soon now ;D
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I liked this story very much at the beggining, but then I kept waiting for something that never happened, and that was for the daughter to finally assert herself. The descriptions of how marginalized she was really gripped me, but then nothing happened. Seeing the daughter just slowly drift away to be replaced by her father felt really anti climactic.
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I'm not sure the father had a choice after his daughter drank his soul. It felt to me like a sort of natural outgrowth of the situation. (Obviously, I use the word "natural" advisedly). What floored me was how the soul-bowl could have been broken in the first place. If it's such an important -- indeed vital -- part of the after death ritual, how was is it in a position to be broken? I seem to recall the retainer knocked it out of someone's hands but maybe it was deliberate.
I didn't hear "gay lover" either. I just took it to be a male-dominant society and so the retainer's only allegiance was to the father. And he'd want to hold onto that position of power whether the father was alive or not.
As for a "message" or a "point" -- well I didn't hear one, but I have a notoriously literal outlook on literature. I remember being absolutely gobsmacked in these very forums when it was suggested that Frankenstein could be read as a gay euphemism (or whatever the right term is). In retrospect I could see it that way but it would never have occurred to me. Anyway, I thought this one was a piece of fantasy imagining -- given this, and that, and then the other thing, what would happen? Nothing wrong with that.
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I liked the idea that both the mother and the retainer were trying to get rid of the father: He smashed the soul bowl, and the mother sent the daughter without a replacement. Obviously nobody knew what would happen if one drank a soul, so they were expecting the daughter to lose it. But that conspiracy aspect didn't seem to be explored very well, and the story just dissolved into a rather straight-forward and lame revenge story, with the retainer being exiled in one direction, the father in another, the mother losing everybody, and the daughter consumed and no longer existing. So it's a lose-lose-lose-lose situation.
One other distracting thing to me - it's never explained what happens to the souls that are in the bowls. What happens to those people? Listening to the intro about Egyptian rites (VERY interesting, btw, thanks!) had me sticking an ear out waiting for what was SUPPOSED to happen in a normal take-bowl-get-soul-go-home-before-dark run. Not knowing what the usual outcome was made the transformation that much less incredible to me - after all, I already had to buy into the idea that a person's soul could be put into a bowl after they die, and that their face is seen in there. How was I supposed to know that it wasn't known what would happen when a soul was drank? ???
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How do these people eat soup or cook food? There was really NO alternative container to the girl's bare hands? I get that it's a story device but I think it would have been more believable if she'd dropped it on the mountain or something...
A rather Freudian story... girl takes father inside her and grows a (much-envied?) penis... Hmm.
Oh and I definitely heard "gay lover". The mother says she moved in despite the retainer; they lived together like brother and sister... Father insists that at least he did his duty by giving her a child ... I don't think listeners are reading too much into that.
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Took me a few tries to listen to this one all the way through. In the end it just wasn't my bowl of tea.
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How do these people eat soup or cook food? There was really NO alternative container to the girl's bare hands?
Think of it like losing a wedding ring. Sure, you could just tie yarn in a circle or use your keychain ring, but that would kind of ruin the ritual. (Imagine here that weddings actually ARE magical binding ceremonies, since here there is an actual soul that everyone can verify is present in the magic bowls they use.)
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One other distracting thing to me - it's never explained what happens to the souls that are in the bowls. What happens to those people? Listening to the intro about Egyptian rites (VERY interesting, btw, thanks!) had me sticking an ear out waiting for what was SUPPOSED to happen in a normal take-bowl-get-soul-go-home-before-dark run. Not knowing what the usual outcome was made the transformation that much less incredible to me - after all, I already had to buy into the idea that a person's soul could be put into a bowl after they die, and that their face is seen in there. How was I supposed to know that it wasn't known what would happen when a soul was drank? ???
There was a bit about taking the soul to the sea. I assumed the priests then poured it into the ocean with appropriate ritual.
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How do these people eat soup or cook food? There was really NO alternative container to the girl's bare hands?
Think of it like losing a wedding ring. Sure, you could just tie yarn in a circle or use your keychain ring, but that would kind of ruin the ritual.
I know what you mean, but the thing is that the ritual still went ahead with nothing to hold the soul, which seems to me also to ruin it! Like, you lost your wedding ring so we won't use a substitute, we'll just all imagine the ring's there, but if anyone forgets about the imaginary ring, you're not married anymore- much better than a nasty piece of yarn... (Actually, maybe this isn't such a bad idea ;D ;D )
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Ok, not a winner. next....
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How do these people eat soup or cook food? There was really NO alternative container to the girl's bare hands?
I guess you need a special substance which is impermeable to soul-water. Clearly the human body is impermeable to soul-stuff, because otherwise it would just drip out of us. A normal cooking pot? Possibly not.
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One other distracting thing to me - it's never explained what happens to the souls that are in the bowls. What happens to those people? Listening to the intro about Egyptian rites (VERY interesting, btw, thanks!) had me sticking an ear out waiting for what was SUPPOSED to happen in a normal take-bowl-get-soul-go-home-before-dark run. Not knowing what the usual outcome was made the transformation that much less incredible to me - after all, I already had to buy into the idea that a person's soul could be put into a bowl after they die, and that their face is seen in there. How was I supposed to know that it wasn't known what would happen when a soul was drank? ???
There was a bit about taking the soul to the sea. I assumed the priests then poured it into the ocean with appropriate ritual.
Ahhh... thanks for the clarification - I obviously did miss that piece.
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I know what you mean, but the thing is that the ritual still went ahead with nothing to hold the soul, which seems to me also to ruin it! Like, you lost your wedding ring so we won't use a substitute, we'll just all imagine the ring's there, but if anyone forgets about the imaginary ring, you're not married anymore- much better than a nasty piece of yarn... (Actually, maybe this isn't such a bad idea ;D ;D )
I assumed this meant that human flesh - or possibly the human flesh of a near relative - is impermeable to souls, while other non-enchanted materials can do nothing to stop them flowing away.
Makes sense to me. After all, you don't see your own soul dribbling out of your soles, do you?
ETA Oops, I seem to have repeated myself. Sorry.
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I enjoyed the story a great deal. An's world building was very rich, painting a broad picture in as few strokes as possible. The brutalizing of the mother and daughter don't bother me at all, as it appears to be, at least in part, accepted aside from the extreme measure the retainer takes against the two women of the family.
To me, this story is woven of many threads, creating an intricate pattern. There is the issue of gender identity and roles, the issue of change, the unexpected, and fear, and then the unique take on (at least to me) a transgender individual and how such changes can shatter old bonds and create new. I have a number of transgender friends (MtF and FtM) and each have described similar experiences (okay, not with a magical basis): confusion; anger; bonds broken; misunderstandings; shattered dreams and trust. This story isn't meant to have a happy ending, which I feel is very valid, but what it does have is a very lifelike ending, one in which circumstances happen, decisions are made, and the people must live with the consequences.
I didn't see the father as being an ass at all. He did not ask to be reborn and in many ways this is as confusing to him as it is to anyone else. The mother's reaction is tragic and heartbreaking and speaks to me as a writer and as a parent. Her reaction is very typical of parents who cannot accept their children after identifying issues of gender identity, and I feel this is very well represented. Her character is also solid within the context of the story. She wants her daughter back, wants to be a mother and have that special bond with her child. The daughter made the best decision she could given the circumstances, and to watch her identity and life unravel touched me on many levels. The priests may not have been the most likeable characters, but they were consistent within the worldview and worked well in the story.
Kudos to An for a great tale.
Sandra
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While there have been some thoughtful critiques of the story, I agree with Sandra. I enjoyed the story both as an allegory about FTM transition and as a good representation of family dynamics in a particular kind of patriarchal culture. In some ways it was hard for me to read the story since the daughter's cringing is 180 degrees from how I would react in such a situation, but as a historian, I definitely appreciate the truth of the voice here.
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I enjoyed this story and reading the thoughtful comments. This story was daughter’s decision, the resulting events, and the Father not having a say in the matter. When tragedy strikes a loved one, many say “I would trade placed if I could”. Well, would you?
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Having just listened to this story, I find myself rather on the fence about it. Or, more accurately, I have a mixed reaction.
I was confused about the relationship between the retainer and the father. On the one hand, like Scattercat, I took the mother's words at the end, and the father's decision to follow in the retainer's footsteps, to mean that the two were lovers. I could reconcile that with his hatered of the women in the family, as he may well have resented them as competitors. But I could not have reconciled it with the breaking of the bowl - even if it was accidental, why did he send the daughter to do a task that (in his mind) inevitably would result in damnation for the father? He could have given her another bowl, even if that was less respectful. And it was clear he already had command of the household, regardless of the outcome of the ritual. The breaking of the bowl and the girl's ascent without it meant condemning her to death.
The only option I can see is that everyone in this thread is correct - he was the gay lover, but the father's love to him was one sided, and he was always a gold-digger. Once the father was gone, he seized the opportunity.
So then, I ended up seeing him as unmitigatingly evil. The rest of them - the mother, the father, the daughter, even the priests - seem to be far more understandable. They live in a screwed up society but are acting by its rules without deliberate malice. The daughter is a victim, but in this society, it seems women are trapped - they will be punished for obeying the rules, by being essentially slaves, and they will be punished for definace. The father, too, did not seem to me to be inherently evil - I don't think he had any choice about taking over his daughter's body, especially once the priests essentially sent her soul to the sea instead of his. He didn't seem to appreciate his daughter's sacrifice, but then he didn't seem to be able to do much about it, either.
So, basically, it seems this story is about how flawed characters in an opressive society. But I think it left too many threads too obscure to really make it relatable. I had to struggle to reconstruct the view of the story I detailed above, and it's clearly not what everyone came up with. And struggling to understand the story was a distraction from actually being able to empathize with the struggles depicted in it.
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I agree with eytanz. The retainer definitely had issues. I think the father was indeed gay, but he didn't have that type of relationship with the retainer, or rather, he may have used the retainer for, ahem, certain urges, but there wasn't any love there. Strangely, I found myself empathizing with the father. He probably did care for the wife, though not in a wifely way, and he still winds up losing her. And though he grows incensed by the way the retainer treats his family, he winds up going after him because he doesn't know what else to do (and that would be an interesting story in itself--how would the retainer react when the father comes looking for him? Would he try to woo him back now that the father is younger, or would he try to take some sort of sick revenge?)
I found this story pretty tragic all around. Definitely no happiness here.
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I liked the concept of the story -- soul-water, drinking the soul turns you into the person, the stuff at the end between Oris-in-his-daughter's-body and Oris's widow.
But I disliked a lot of the story as well. I mean, YES, we get it, women are second-class citizens in this universe, and YES, we get it, the retainer beats the crap out of her, and YES, we get it, that's a horrible thing and no person should have to go through it. But by showing the literal beatings and dwelling so heavily on them, it went from teaching the reader a lesson to just hurting the reader for no reason.
The "yolk" scene was too allegorical.
I didn't see any of the transgender subtext that others have commented upon. I mean, she drank the water, she became her father as a young man. Fine with me.
I did not catch Scattercat's "gay lover" angle. I saw it more like the retainer was a character like Jafar in Disney's Aladdin.
Overall, I didn't really like the story, but the worldbuilding was interesting.
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Interesting worldbuilding, but not a likeable character in the bunch. I was halfway through when I reached my destination and never bothered finishing the story. Gotta miss some times.
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Very interesting ideas here, with the soulwater, the rituals thereof, and the taking over of one person by another, but I didn't really dig the story itself.
I didn't see the second man as the father's gay lover. There seemed to be something strange there, but I thought he was the mother's lover, and that the killing of the father was to remove his competition.
I didn't think the father had any choice about whether he took her body or not. It just seemed to be a consequence of the action. You drink water, you'll have to pee. You drink soulwater, the soul will take over your body.
But the story didn't really make me care about any of the characters. It seemed like it was trying to give me some kind of lesson, but I never quite fathomed that lesson, and so I just go to sit through her misery and eventual dissolution. Depressing, certainly, but there wasn't really anything to root for. It was pretty clear fairly early on that she was screwed, and I never really felt like she had a chance to escape it, so what can I root for then? I guess a painless end? I dunno, nothing that I can think of.