Escape Artists
PodCastle => Episode Comments => Topic started by: Talia on May 21, 2012, 01:36:40 PM
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PodCastle Miniature 69: Wolves (http://podcastle.org/2012/05/20/podcastle-miniature-69-wolves/)
By José Luis Zárate (http://zarate.blogspot.com/)
Translated by Bernardo Fernandez
Read by Roberto Suarez (of Trailerclash (http://trailerclash.wordpress.com/))
Originally published (in English) in Three Messages and a Warning (http://smallbeerpress.com/books/2012/01/24/three-messages-and-a-warning/), edited by Eduardo Jimenez Mayo and Chris N. Brown
The wolves came at twilight, melted into the shadows. At first we thought they were mist coming down from the mountains—it was impossible to think that there were millions of white bodies, thousands of creatures sliding down the snow. Their voices convinced us it was them, their long, sad howls, the occasional growling and fights among them. We’ve never seen such a herd. It’s impossible to gather one on these lands. The wolves we know around here are solitary ferocious animals, always stealthy. We’ve never seen them trot into a village. They don’t run away from men out of fear, their temperament demands that they always hide—all carnivores are furtive. Once in a while they steal a sheep, a deer, some child left in the woods that surrounds us.
Rated R: Contains some Violence and Adult Themes
(http://escapepod.org/wp-images/podcast-mini4.gif) Listen to this week’s PodCastle! (http://media.rawvoice.com/podcastle/media.libsyn.com/media/podcastle/PCFlash069_Wolves.mp3)
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That I saw the resolution coming from a mile off in no way diminished my enjoyment of the luscious prose. Thank you.
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This was very pretty, great atmosphere :)
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This was good story content for a flash length story. I didn't feel particularly emotionally connected, nor was I on the edge of my seat with excitement, but the imagery was memorable, the ideas interesting, and the resolution fit the rest of the story, and then it was over before it had time to be too long.
I think I was supposed to feel some fear when the wolves came over the mountain, fear of being attacked by wolves that is. That would be my immediate fear, sure, but after the initial rush I'd be more afraid of starving to death as the wolves picked the landscape clean of anything edible by humans.
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This was good story content for a flash length story.
I completely agree with you.
I find Wolves, as a theme, very overdone which can sometimes lead to things being a little cheesy- definitely not the case here. Jose has created such an elegant piece of prose. Moreover, I think there is much to be discussed here regarding the wolves encroaching on us (why did they come down in the first place? how could this relate to the imbalances we have caused in nature today?) and us joining their advance (going back to the primitive, questions of our own pack mentality etc). It is great to have these pieces that you can not only sit around and discuss at length, but that also make for a hell of a tale.
The translation of this was beautiful- I wish I soak up the original.
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This was a very beautiful thing about wolves, I felt both the wonder of seeing this river of wolves and then terror of increasing bloodthirst and then wonder again at what the future was. Though, no matter what the translators thoughts, wolves are a pack not a herd.
Same as in Lila the Werewolf, pups, wolves have pups not cubs, its a minor point and in the Lila it might have been on purpose for ignorance, but in this story it was simply a translation where English might have a better word for the translation based on context.
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I thought the "herd" thing was a deliberate malapropism, trying to illustrate how the masses of wolves weren't arranged in the way we would think is natural for wolves. It would be interesting to see if the original had an odd word choice there as well.
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I thought the "herd" thing was a deliberate malapropism, trying to illustrate how the masses of wolves weren't arranged in the way we would think is natural for wolves. It would be interesting to see if the original had an odd word choice there as well.
I got that impression too. "Pack", to me, implies a very small but tightly cohesive social unit, I picture it numbering a dozen or less. "Herd" on the other hand, makes me think of a potentially vast group which may not be tightly cohesive in the minds of the animals (from a farmer's point of view, the herd is all his but I'm not sure the cows really care whether they stick together). "Flock" would give a similarly larger idea, but to me would also imply an aimlessness to the group's direction that wasn't true in this story. I think "herd" was the perfect word.