Escape Artists

PodCastle => Episode Comments => Topic started by: Talia on January 04, 2013, 12:54:05 PM

Title: PC241: Everything You Were Looking For
Post by: Talia on January 04, 2013, 12:54:05 PM
PodCastle 241: Everything You Were Looking For (http://podcastle.org/2013/01/04/podcastle-241-everything-you-were-looking-for/)

by Samantha Henderson (http://samanthahenderson.com/)

Read by Wilson Fowlie (of the Maple Leaf Singers (http://www.mapleleafsingers.com/))

Originally Published in Bourbon Penn (http://www.bourbonpenn.com/index.php). Read it here (http://www.bourbonpenn.com/issue/05/everything-you-were-looking-for-by-samantha-henderson.php).

Never explore a cave alone like I just did. Here at the entrance, the roof domes high in the weak light, but at the back you’ll see it starts to narrow. I just went half a mile in.

I found a crack in the back, wide enough to squeeze through if I turn sideways and hold my breath. I stood at the maw and waited for a while, listening, waiting for my breathing to quiet. At last I turned the flashlight off.

And in the dark I heard it, faintly, far back there. The chanting. It fades in and out though the passages inside the mountain. Because they are on the move; they are always on the move.

I’ve found them. I’ve found her.


Rated PG, but it’s not for the faint of heart.

(http://escapepod.org/wp-images/podcast-mini4.gif) Listen to this week’s PodCastle! (http://media.rawvoice.com/podcastle/media.libsyn.com/media/podcastle/PC241_EverythingYouWereLookingFor.mp3)
Title: Re: PC241: Everything You Were Looking For
Post by: InfiniteMonkey on January 06, 2013, 12:38:08 AM
The best part of the story is the harrowing section where our narrator's wife falls into the cave. It's so well done, in fact, that it makes the listener forget the first part of the story, where we know he's been reunited with her. I liked the setup of that.

And it's always nice to hear Wilson Fowlie's voice.
Title: Re: PC241: Everything You Were Looking For
Post by: Max e^{i pi} on January 07, 2013, 06:47:14 PM
The best part of the story is the harrowing section where our narrator's wife falls into the cave. It's so well done, in fact, that it makes the listener forget the first part of the story, where we know he's been reunited with her.
Yes. I was so enthralled that I had to remind myself that we already know they didn't rescue her. But I was still on tenterhooks. "Maybe the rescue crew will get her. It looks like they might!"

Of course a very well done job, Mister Fowlie. The tones, the inflection, the fake accents.... excellent.

This story struck a cord with me. I'm newly married, and listening to this story, I felt the love that Paul and Mellisa had for each other. I really felt it. When I finished this I had to hurry home and give my wife a huge hug and just hold her for a few minutes.
That is why we have literature, to touch us in ways we never thought were possible from mere words.
Title: Re: PC241: Everything You Were Looking For
Post by: Unblinking on January 09, 2013, 02:42:57 PM
This story did very well conveying an emotional point of view.  I felt like I could understand the character's anxiety and fear and love.   I could do without the jumping forward/back/forward format as usual, but the story was good despite that.  The ending didn't do a lot for me but the journey was good enough that it didn't bother me.
Title: Re: PC241: Everything You Were Looking For
Post by: Devoted135 on January 10, 2013, 05:05:15 PM
I really enjoyed this story! Like others, I was so completely drawn in by the the rescue attempt that by the time they've finally lost the wife I had totally forgotten about the introduction section. The husband's plight was really well written and I must say that Wilson knocked the reading out of the park. I was also pretty terrified by how the wife seemed to stop caring about being rescued. Her fear and pain turned into fascination with the cave art, which turned into a seeming dissociation from the real world. I wanted to yell at her to NOT follow the chanting, not to walk away from the world! *channels Gollum* Don't follow the lights!

I'm actually not convinced that he's found her at the end. I mean, he says he hears the chanting, but I'm not ruling out the possibility that he's simply gone a bit nuts.
Title: Re: PC241: Everything You Were Looking For
Post by: Wilson Fowlie on January 10, 2013, 06:15:50 PM
I'm actually not convinced that he's found her at the end. I mean, he says he hears the chanting, but I'm not ruling out the possibility that he's simply gone a bit nuts.

I wasn't entirely certain of that either!
Title: Re: PC241: Everything You Were Looking For
Post by: Unblinking on January 11, 2013, 05:10:04 PM
I'm actually not convinced that he's found her at the end. I mean, he says he hears the chanting, but I'm not ruling out the possibility that he's simply gone a bit nuts.

I wasn't entirely certain of that either!



I think that was intentionally ambiguous--sensory deprivation can do weird things to a person!
Title: Re: PC241: Everything You Were Looking For
Post by: Chuk on January 11, 2013, 06:33:05 PM
I don't think he found her either.
Good reading, I liked the accents.
Title: Re: PC241: Everything You Were Looking For
Post by: Max e^{i pi} on January 12, 2013, 08:02:30 PM
Does nobody want to talk about the (possible) historical accuracy of the story?
Europe is really old. Like, really really old. People have lived there for tens of thousands of years. And over the eons they have come up with and discarded many systems of belief. One of the cooler ones was the pagan system where there was a male/sky/father deity and a female/earth/mother deity. They had really cool pagan rituals that you might be able to find online these days, due to rule 34.
Anyway, in one of those rituals the human analog for the male/sky/father deity would don elk antlers and run around naked with a herd of deer. The male of the deer pack would smell him and think him a threat and then they would try and kill each other. Blood was spilled on the earth, allowing the seed to come from the father to the mother and bring spring. Also, the dude with the antlers (if he didn't die) gets to bed the human analog of the female/earth/mother deity.
So that is the "he's got antlers on his" part of the cave painting.

The more you know.
Title: Re: PC241: Everything You Were Looking For
Post by: Corcoran on January 16, 2013, 01:58:42 PM
Great Reading, Great Story. Everything I was looking for today was a Story like this :-)

It made me remember "Grotto of the Dancing Deer" from Clifford D. Simak, which has the same location as Background, and is also worth reading...
Title: Re: PC241: Everything You Were Looking For
Post by: LaShawn on February 27, 2013, 06:32:04 PM
Also reminded me of "The Terror of Blue John Gap"...except the protagonist here was easier to relate to, as opposed to being a MUST-KILL-UNKNOWN-MONSTER moron.