Escape Artists
Escape Pod => Episode Comments => Topic started by: Jim on March 08, 2007, 03:05:30 PM
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EP096: Job Qualifications (http://www.escapepod.org/2007/03/08/ep096-job-qualifications/)
By Kevin J. Anderson (http://www.wordfire.com/).
Read by Steve Anderson (http://www.sgacreative.com/).
“And do I agree with everything they say?”
“The statements are very much in line with your platform, sir.” Rana formed a paternal smile. “You are, however, welcome to read any of them you like — in fact, I encourage it. The experience would be valuable for you.”
Candidate Berthold gave a dismissive wave. “That won’t be necessary. I’m already tired of the incessant paperwork, and I haven’t even been elected yet.” He laboriously began to sign each one. “I’ll have plenty of time to learn after I get into office.”
Rated PG. Contains moderate violence, suffering, and politics
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I liked this one, kept me guessing for a while.
It ended up being a sort of psychic twist on 1979 movie Parts: The Clonus Horror (or its blatant 2005 Michael Bay ripoff, The Island).
I think it's interesting that the narrator refers to each clone by his number, which led me to believe that each clone was aware of being a clone, when, in fact, only the clones' unseen handlers and the original Candidate Berthold actually know them as such.
I wonder, though, how each clone would have been directed into a specific career, law, medicine, religion, bureaucracy, and so on, and I also wonder if in the author's future vision such cloning is done clandestinely, or if it's a legal, common practice.
And, does the self-aware consciousness of each clone perish in the transfer of knowledge and experience, or is the new Candidate Berthold a conglomeration of each clone's psyche? Do they live on in his brain, or are they gone?
I'll be thinking about this story for a while.
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As per Steve's comment about what leader/politician today we would want cloned. Well if we could actually get the Shrub and his cronies cloned and made to live the hell his policies has subjected the rest of us, especially our soldiers to....
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Candidate Berthold must be using new technology. He wasn't using a NEPTH-charge or a Psyjack. Does John Alpha know about this?
Oh, wait a minute. I have the wrong clone story. ;)
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I enjoyed this story a lot - the ending was rather predictable (the moment I heard about the diner clone and his happy life I realized that this can't end well for him), but that didn't really matter much. I wonder, though, how the story would have played if the clones weren't obviously identifiable as such by their names - if they had normal names and it became apparent that they were clones only at the end.
Probably that would have made a weaker story, but I'm curious what my reaction would have been.
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Short, sharp and fun, like a good joke :)
I liked this one very much, it took a while to settle in at first, with all of the differing points of view, though it was worth the pay-off at the end.
It's interesting that despite making a point about Modern Politics, the story doesn't have a Political bias as such, I should think that's a rare thing, isn't it?
As to the introduction, I feel that SF stories (and, indeed, stories in general) have always had a problem with balance. In the 40s and 50s, the emphasis was entirely upon ideas, with characters often being sketchily drawn (Asimov, etc) which can be seen as a problem of course, especially to non-SF fans.
Now, though, there seems to be the opposite problem, the emphasis is often *purely* on the characters, with the ideas being sketchily drawn. More specifically, the emphasis is on *emotion*, as if feeling strong emotion is the only way to assure good characterisation.
Case in point: the new Doctor Who series, every single episode features characters displaying stong emotion throughout, and the villain of the week is often just killed off Deus-ex Machina style in the closing minutes.
I don't think it's a case of the audience becoming 'more sofisticated' either, if anything, the literacy rate has been slowly declining over the years, stories now tend to be far simpler in terms of content and writing style than those 50 years ago.
The telling point of good fiction, I think, is the ability to find a balance between these two story aspects: fully emplore an interesting idea while still portraying the characters realistically (without descending into melo-drama, that is).
One other thing, I may well be wrong on this, and if so I hope someone can set me right, but isn't 'Van Vogt' pronounced 'van VOH't'? This is the way I've always heard it, though I've no idea how the man himself said it.
Simon Painter
Shropshire, UK
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One other thing, I may well be wrong on this, and if so I hope someone can set me right, but isn't 'Van Vogt' pronounced 'van VOH't'? This is the way I've always heard it, though I've no idea how the man himself said it.
You may be right. I actually forgot I'd put his name in there until I was standing before the microphone, so I didn't do sufficient research.
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I felt this story was much too long for the payoff. Even with the detailed descriptions, this seemed to be a punchline story.
The multiple lengthy descriptions of the other clones lives just dragged. Too much "show". I can understand that we need to feel for the clones, to understand their humanity, the tragic loss, but it just too so long to get to any action. Perhaps this would work better with the lives being flashbacks experienced by the Candidate?
Speaking of logical holes (see Intro :)):
There was no explaination given as to why the Candidate didn't feel the death of each clone.
Or the fact that the clones likely looked just like the Candidate, whose face was all over international media according to the story, so how could people not treat them slightly different than "normal" people.
Overall, this is a quick delete story for me.
Well if we could actually get the Shrub and his cronies cloned and made to live the hell his policies has subjected the rest of us, especially our soldiers to....
That would be a very positive use for the tech, but at the same time it could be cripple people from making hard decisions. One the one hand, it would be useful for a leader to "feel" some of the consequences of their decisions (such as going to war), on the other, (thinking of WW2), would a leader hesitate too long out of fear of the pain that decision would give them.
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I thoroughly enjoyed the story, though I'm not as big a fan of the reader. Some of my favorite stories on Escape Pod have just a touch of horror in them; the concept of people being reduced to barely-sentient automatons in "Blink. Don't Blink.", and the mass murder of clones to rob them of their experiences here.
There was no explanation given as to why the Candidate didn't feel the death of each clone.
The clones were killed after the Candidate robbed them of their experiences.
Well if we could actually get the Shrub and his cronies cloned and made to live the hell his policies has subjected the rest of us, especially our soldiers to....
That would be a very positive use for the tech, but at the same time it could cripple people from making hard decisions. One the one hand, it would be useful for a leader to "feel" some of the consequences of their decisions (such as going to war), on the other, (thinking of WW2), would a leader hesitate too long out of fear of the pain that decision would give them?
The job of our leaders isn't just to make the "hard" decisions - in theory, it's to make the appropriate choice based upon the will of the constituents. No decision should be made without considering the pain this choice will inflict upon those they were elected to represent.
If you accept the argument that a leader lacks the appropriate compassion for those it was elected to represent, then how can that leader still be said to be its constituent's representative? Further, if a leader was to "hesitate too long" out of a personal fear, hasn't that leader already demonstrated that they are unfit for the job? Putting one's self before one's sworn duty isn't exactly known as a leadership virtue.
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There was no explanation given as to why the Candidate didn't feel the death of each clone.
The clones were killed after the Candidate robbed them of their experiences.
D'oh - did a quick re-listen and you're right. The fluttering eyes of the last clone, coupled with loud children, confused me a bit. Thanks - criticism retracted. However, on a second listen, I noted the comments on how a candidate had to be compassionate, and I also remembered that at least one of the clones was very compassionate - how could the Candidate act so heartlessly? And how do the voters think of the practice - it seems obvious that they are ok with it - it's not like it could be hidden. Do other people in different walks of life do the same?
What about conflicting memories? With so many different "personalities", they must have viewed/reacted world events in polar opposite ways. How does the candidate reconcile that - I would be more interested in the side effects and remove the 4th, 5th, 6th view into the life of one of the clones.
Moderator's note: The rest of this comment has been redacted. Expressing your own opinions is fine; questioning the validity of other people's is not.
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Candidate Berthold must be using new technology. He wasn't using a NEPTH-charge or a Psyjack. Does John Alpha know about this?
Oh, wait a minute. I have the wrong clone story. ;)
Crap, you beat me to it ;) I was thinking about 7th Son a lot while listening to this story.
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Funny, so was I, but unfortunately not in a good way - they both had that long "opening" with detailed stories about the clones. It annoyed me enough in 7th Son to stop listening.
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Moderator's note: The rest of this comment has been redacted. Expressing your own opinions is fine; questioning the validity of other people's is not.
OK, I'll try again from a different angle:
Well if we could actually get the Shrub and his cronies cloned and made to live the hell his policies has subjected the rest of us, especially our soldiers to....
That would be a very positive use for the tech, but at the same time it could cripple people from making hard decisions. One the one hand, it would be useful for a leader to "feel" some of the consequences of their decisions (such as going to war), on the other, (thinking of WW2), would a leader hesitate too long out of fear of the pain that decision would give them?
The job of our leaders isn't just to make the "hard" decisions - in theory, it's to make the appropriate choice based upon the will of the constituents. No decision should be made without considering the pain this choice will inflict upon those they were elected to represent.
If you accept the argument that a leader lacks the appropriate compassion for those it was elected to represent, then how can that leader still be said to be its constituent's representative? Further, if a leader was to "hesitate too long" out of a personal fear, hasn't that leader already demonstrated that they are unfit for the job? Putting one's self before one's sworn duty isn't exactly known as a leadership virtue.
I consider this an ideal world assumption. History and current events are rife with people in power taking advantage of that - especially in ways that help them (or friends/relatives) get richer or avoid doing their duty - and still getting re-elected.
I get the impression that this story came out of the idea of "walking a mile in my shoes" - and this was more along what I was getting at - sometimes it is easy to make a ruling when it doesn't affect you "Sorry kids, only an hour of TV a day (but Dad watches as much as he wants)" or "This tax hike is necessary to balance the country's books - says the millionaire Prime Minister" or "Gov't provided healthcare is too expensive - says the President, knowing that he will never have to wait in line to see a doctor - ever"
But there are times when, in the long run, it really is for the best. However, I'm not sure there are many leaders with enough character to suffer through them if they could avoid it - in the story, the priviledged Candidate never had to worry for anything - if a leader knew that some of the pain they regrettably, necessarily had to inflict on the general population (for example, going to war) was visted upon them, are you strong enough in your convictions, jdarksun, to believe they would still do it? I'm too cynical to believe that of most leaders (though not all).
"Putting one's[sic] self before one's[sic] sworn duty isn't exactly known as a leadership virtue." Very, very true, but I know a few politicians that have done just that, it's known to the public, and, nevertheless, they have been elected. What makes you think they wouldn't do it again?
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Overall I liked this story. It's not going to be a keeper, but I was invested and interested during its duration, and I wasn't wandering off mentally or cringing at possible outcomes.
There are some niggling bits, however, in the worldbuilding...stuff that didn't quite gel for me. It seemed like the story was supposed to be a future projection of current day politics, in a socio-political milieu that is otherwise very much like our own...except that we don't routinely throw people in jail for no reason. Was it ok to throw the guy in jail because he was a clone? Or are we supposed to assume that this just happens to folk in this time period? If we can routinely throw people in jail for no reason, why are we having elections, then? Usually the throwing of people into jail at whim is a pretty good indicator of an authoritarian government, and those don't usually have elections, right? Or is this a one of a kind, secret jail that only proto-candidate clones experience? And why is having the jailed experience so vital to the candidate? After all, if we're going to be whipping these guys and pushing them around in forced labor camps, we're probably not going to allow them to vote. Plenty of states don't allow felons to vote, so why are we concerned about that segment of the population, and what it's like to be them?
I don't know...I had trouble getting from today to the projected future, I couldn't see the route.
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Very good story, but, while with a very impressive voice, I think Steve Anderson's ultra dramatic reading was a bit much for the piece. Save for the part with the labor camp, there his voice of torment was fitting.
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This one was enjoyable -- my mind didn't drift off; at least not too much. That seems to be one of the primary indicators as to whether I perceive the story as "good" or not: if my mind ends up drifting back into the traffic on I-20 that I'm trying to avoid getting run over by, then the story isn't as good as if I stay with the story, despite the afternoon traffic as I'm heading to work.
I have to agree with some of the other posters here -- Anderson's reading was a bit over the top, and somewhat detracted from the piece itself. He's a good voice artist, but his voice was not right for the piece.
M
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Was it ok to throw the guy in jail because he was a clone?
My impression was that the jailed and abused clone was meant to provide the candidate with empathy with those who are institutionally wronged.
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I really liked this one. It kept me guessing and even if it was a bit heavy-handed, it spoke to the impossible expectations we have for our candidates.
Oh, and I agree with this:It's interesting that despite making a point about Modern Politics, the story doesn't have a Political bias as such, I should think that's a rare thing, isn't it?
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Was it ok to throw the guy in jail because he was a clone?
My impression was that the jailed and abused clone was meant to provide the candidate with empathy with those who are institutionally wronged.
Right, I get that...what I don't get (quite) is the system under which this jailing happens. Does it happen to everyone/anyone? Just clones? The story specifically states that the innocence/guilt of the clone has not bearing on their punishment. And his treatment went way beyond the institutionally wronged, IMO. It was so extreme that it I had to wonder what kind of government allowed and supported this. The question is raised by the story, but not answered. Are we in some future Uzbekistan? Because this doesn't seem like a credible future America, at least not one with elections. Since the whole story turns on the importance of the elections, I found this unclarified bit particularly niggling.
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I fully expected the final line to be, "So, you're ready for the debate, Candidate Berthold? Good. The first topic shall be: Clones' rights."
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I did not like this story. The first time I listened to it, I fell asleep halfway through. The second time I listened, my mind kept drifting off.
It also didn't feel like a complete story. It's a neat idea, but there wasn't a great deal of conflict. Sure, the one clone was in a prison camp, but that was just one incident. And all the clones died at the end. But we didn't get to see the consequences of collecting the clones' experiences. And, since all the candidates are apparently cloning themselves to get experience, who cares if this guy is doing it too? If a main character is worth reading/listening about, then there must be something different about him/her.
I'd call this more of a concept sketch than a full story. It just didn't have the elements that I expect of a story.
One more thing: "United Cultures of Earth." I just thought that was rediculous. I mean, come on. United Cultures of Earth. Whenever he said that I couldn't help giggling, it's just such a hokey name for a world government.
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...what I don't get (quite) is the system under which this jailing happens.
It could have been a secret
government prison system.
We here in the USA have what we consider a
democratically elected government, and that
government abuses the hell out of people,
even its own soldiers (http://www.salon.com/news/2007/03/11/fort_benning/).
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...what I don't get (quite) is the system under which this jailing happens.
It could have been a secret
government prison system.
Yes! It could have been. And it would have taken, what, eight or so words - one sentence - to clear that up? I would have bought that, if it had been offered as an explanation. What I don't buy is that in this universe random forced labor jailings complete with stereotypically evil jailers are so commonplace as to need no explanation...and that leads me to disbelieve the entire premise of there being elections.
We here in the USA have what we consider a
democratically elected government, and that
government abuses the hell out of people,
even its own soldiers (http://www.salon.com/news/2007/03/11/fort_benning/).
ehhhh, I'm not buying. Prisoners are abused, sure (not on the level of this story, usually, except maybe for those who are wrongfully executed)...and soldiers don't have as many rights as regular civilians, but I still don't know how this guy got to this jail. Was he disappeared off the streets? Did he come straight from the vat to the jail? Was there a trial? Was he a regular person to start out with? If it's not some secret government setup, then I have to conclude that this is the status quo, the way guys who work in diners is the status quo, and the way poor people dying of disease is the status quo. Only with random jailings, I can no longer also believe there are free and fair elections, like I can with diner guys and poor people dying.
It wouldn't have taken much to explain it in a manner that was satisfactory to me. However, it was not explained, and that in itself seems to say "this isn't worth explaining, it's only natural in this made up world". That non-explanation is problematic for me.
Not that I didn't enjoy the story, of course, I just want the politics to make sense.
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I understood it like this: Many clones were made and released in different methods to live "normal" lives in the public square. Perhaps some were raised by wealthy parents, others in orphanages, others with single parents, etc. The clones' guardians aren't even be aware that the children they are raising are clones. The clones live their lives in different ways, partially affected by the different types of upbringings. One became a dedicated government employee, one was a waiter in a diner, one was wrongly accused and sent to a labor camp.
I didn't get the idea that the clones were forced into preplanned lives, but rather were given the chance to live in any way they choose...until they become necessary for the campaign.
It didn't bother me that this would require decades of planning and monitoring. Political parties here in the US will begin working with young aspiring politicians years before they run for any office. It's not that much of a stretch to put into place a decades-long development plan for a potential candidate for the Grand Chancellor of the World.
Interesting story. There is definitely room for a sequel. I could see a clone finding out what he is and making a run for it.
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I didn't get the idea that the clones were forced into preplanned lives, but rather were given the chance to live in any way they choose...until they become necessary for the campaign.
I got the opposite impression. The one who was subjected to hard labor said he didn't know anything before he was imprisoned, and the one who worked had just too perfect a life and disposition. I know the narrator said they got "real world experience" but I think they were groomed/programmed, and then set up in the ideal situation for whatever kind of life they were supposed to have. And at the end, after the candidate had consumed their memories and said he might want more, his advisor said "we can always make more clones, sir" which lead me to believe these were the photo-copy type clones, not genetic clones.
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I didn't get the idea that the clones were forced into preplanned lives, but rather were given the chance to live in any way they choose...until they become necessary for the campaign.
I got the opposite impression. The one who was subjected to hard labor said he didn't know anything before he was imprisoned, and the one who worked had just too perfect a life and disposition.
I think the text supports Thaurismunths' position. The clones seemed to have just switched on reactions to their environments: either the sense that they've always been there or complete disorientation on showing up somewhere they didn't expect. And further, if, as has been suggested further upthread, the whole point of having this guy in a forced labor camp is for the candidate to understand how the little guy can be wronged, he's not getting that through this clone....because it states explicitly that said clone has no memory of why he was wronged. If there had been some kangaroo trial that put this clone in his circumstances, then it would seem those proceedings would be useful information to the candidate...but that information isn't there because the clone has no memory of it.
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...but rather were given the chance to live in any way they choose...
Not too pick on you, Holden, but as I mentioned earlier, the man is known internationally. Unless the clones are surgically altered to not resemble the Candidate at all then there are a lot of people in the world that look just like him. How could they not be treated differently?
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And at the end, after the candidate had consumed their memories and said he might want more, his advisor said "we can always make more clones, sir" which lead me to believe these were the photo-copy type clones, not genetic clones.
Good point. Making more genetic clones would require decades. You are probably correct in your interpretation of the story. I like the genetic clones idea better, though. So that's the way I'm going to remember it. I'm funny like that.
The looking alike thing occurred to me while I was listening but didn't bother me at all. Fun story, but not one of Escape Pod's best.
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It also didn't feel like a complete story. It's a neat idea, but there wasn't a great deal of conflict. Sure, the one clone was in a prison camp, but that was just one incident. And all the clones died at the end. But we didn't get to see the consequences of collecting the clones' experiences. And, since all the candidates are apparently cloning themselves to get experience, who cares if this guy is doing it too? If a main character is worth reading/listening about, then there must be something different about him/her.
I'd call this more of a concept sketch than a full story. It just didn't have the elements that I expect of a story.
I agree. The story shows the clones' experiences, reveals they're integrated into the candidate, and that's that.
I expected a snazzier conclusion: say the missionary experience transforms him so that he drops his cynicism and maybe even drops from the race. But all he gets is well-manicured experiences to match his cuticles and wardrobe. Yawn.
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Really good story but it could have been shorter maybe a longish flash piece not sure though. Might have to give it another listen just to decide on that.
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I think it should have been longer or shorter. Either just the essence in a flash story, or have him meet some other machine people, or met regular people as a machine person. I didn't feel all that conflicted when he made his decision to remain in the nano corps.
An interesting story would be what happens after he signed on for life, and then discovered an underground of machine people trying to escape.
Also, personally, I couldn't picture a hovercraft or helecopter or spaceship with a little domed Buzz Lightyear head poking out the top and maintain the dark mood of the story.
Cool idea, though.
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I'm going to be completely un-analytical and say "I liked it, it entertained me".
The radio person in me enjoyed the dramatic reading.
The writer in me enjoyed the prose.
*shrug* Like perfect pop songs, there can be perfect "ditties" of short SF.
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I think it should have been longer or shorter. Either just the essence in a flash story, or have him meet some other machine people, or met regular people as a machine person. I didn't feel all that conflicted when he made his decision to remain in the nano corps.
An interesting story would be what happens after he signed on for life, and then discovered an underground of machine people trying to escape.
Also, personally, I couldn't picture a hovercraft or helecopter or spaceship with a little domed Buzz Lightyear head poking out the top and maintain the dark mood of the story.
Cool idea, though.
Um.... I think your thinking of "Blink, Don't Blink." ;)
But yes, all good points.
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I liked it, but I though the ending was a kind of disposable - all it did was neatly wrap everything up, instead of leaving me thinking or shocked.
Clones are interesting though. I loved the concept.
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I thought the story was good, the reading was good.
What did the story say? Politicians are evil, and will kill to get what they want.
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When I got to the end of this piece, I thought, "Is that all? That's the end?"
Are my standards too high?
Is it unreasonable to want a story with a beginning, middle, and end?
This falls, unfortunately, in the same category as far too many Escape Pod stories fall, that is, stories that lose sight of the fact that they're STORIES in order to get their heavy-handed message across.
A story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. All except the last few sentences of this story are 'beginning', that is, setting up the situation which launches the middle of the story. In point of fact, this piece is all about the situation.
Sometimes I complain that in this kind of story the characters don't undergo any change. Well, clearly that's not happening here... the main character DOES change... in the final paragraph. The results of that change, however, are imperceptibly brief.
What I think would be more interesting would be to take out about a thousand words of the rather overdone clone's life descriptions, and add a thousand words of plot. What happens when the politician is elected, and then finds that his newfound ethics (from clones 4, 7, 11, and 21) find the method that he used to get into office (murdering dozens of people) abhorrent? How does he live with himself?
THAT question is interesting. THAT is the story I would like to hear.
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I fully expected the final line to be, "So, you're ready for the debate, Candidate Berthold? Good. The first topic shall be: Clones' rights."
YES! YES! THAT would have made this a good story!
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I think it should have been longer or shorter. Either just the essence in a flash story, or have him meet some other machine people, or met regular people as a machine person. I didn't feel all that conflicted when he made his decision to remain in the nano corps.
An interesting story would be what happens after he signed on for life, and then discovered an underground of machine people trying to escape.
Also, personally, I couldn't picture a hovercraft or helecopter or spaceship with a little domed Buzz Lightyear head poking out the top and maintain the dark mood of the story.
Cool idea, though.
Um.... I think your thinking of "Blink, Don't Blink." Wink
But yes, all good points.
Yes. You see I'm actually running for president, and one of my clones is supposed to experience making an ass of himself on public message boards. What I meant to say was that I thought it was a nice story for kids, but it seems the real story would be what happens after the dragon and the boy become friends.
Man, I'm going to use that excuse for everything from now on.
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This was one of my favorite stories for this year. But I kept waiting for a "Killroy 2.0 is here. Killroy 2.0 is everywhere." must just be too much JC.
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The politician reminds me of a cross between (as previously noted) John Alpha, and Sylar ;)
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The politician reminds me of a cross between (as previously noted) John Alpha, and Sylar ;)
:o that is exactly what i was thinking!
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Something about this one just seemed like a parable without much in the way of a new insight. It's like Anderson had an idea, but forgot to think about its consequences. I mean, okay, so the guy eats his clones. He gains knowledge. Maybe it's brutal, but at least he learns? But I know we're supposed to think that this is horrible, so...So what? Media politics leads to immoral situations? Did we need this story to tell us that? What did this really add to that insight?
And I get that all the clones were leading some kind of sincere, even if boring, life. But that only paid off in the total contrast to the "emotionless" candidate.
I dunno. It seemed like the kind of story that gets a high school kid an A+ and a note that "you're going to go far," but it doesn't really do much in the end.
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As soon as I heard the opening paragraphs of this story, I couldn't help but think of the hillarious video of John Edwards fixing his hair in advance of an appearance. So I created a little mash-up. Here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qVkJGy8Ewk
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As soon as I heard the opening paragraphs of this story, I couldn't help but think of the hillarious video of John Edwards fixing his hair in advance of an appearance. So I created a little mash-up. Here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qVkJGy8Ewk
I think this is in violation of Escape Pod's license, as you've edited the broadcast.
That's not to say it wasn't funny as hell, or well made, just possibly not legal.
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PUBLISHER'S RESPONSE
...Argh. Okay. This is the first time this has happened to us.
First of all, scissorfighter, I respect the time you put into making that video and your intentions in making it. I know you did it to give respect to the story and to Escape Pod, and I appreciate that. I don't have anything against you personally, nor against this content. (Which, speaking for myself, I found neither particularly funny nor particularly offensive. I know John Edwards personally, I had dinner with him before PodcasterCon last year and we shared opinions on politics and new media. I think he's a good guy. But that doesn't make me want to shut down anything critical of him.)
However, by the letter of our license, Thaurismunths is right. The Creative Commons license we use (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/) is a no-derivatives license, meaning we do not grant permission for other people to adapt our product or use it in other works. You're free to redistribute our complete audio files all you want, but you cannot use them for other purposes. In this specific case, it's also my (non-lawyer's) opinion that the amount of audio used exceeds permissible fair use under copyright law.
Our reason for this restriction isn't because I'm uptight or hate mashups or anything. If it were entirely my content, I'd say "Cool, do whatever you want." Our reason for it is to protect our authors' rights. When I contract for the audio rights to a story, I'm contracting for a very specific use -- we'll narrate their story in a single Escape Pod episode, and that's it. All other rights are theirs. I don't have the permission myself to give other people permission to use the story in any other way. And some adaptations might be ones that the authors objected to; if, for instance, Kevin J. Anderson was upset by having his text used in this video and our license allowed it, part of his anger would (quite properly) fall on me and Escape Pod. We'd have a much harder time getting stories under those terms.
Therefore, my immediate response to this video wasn't to say "Cool, go for it," nor to flip out and insist that it be taken off YouTube immediately. Instead I e-mailed Kevin J. Anderson to find out what he thought. He wasn't thrilled by it (in fact he was glad his name wasn't attached because he doesn't want to be perceived as endorsing Edwards-bashing) but he didn't consider it worth censoring, either. His specific words were: "If I worried about stuff like this, I would never have a second left to do any real work."
So that's that. I'm not going to take down scissorfighter's forum post, nor raise any objection to the YouTube video. The author whose rights I am obliged to uphold doesn't object, so there's no stake in it for me to worry about it. At the same time, though, I cannot approve of it legally or ethically, and I will do nothing to promote this or encourage others to create similar derivative works.
Future cases, if any, will be handled similarly. I don't hold any ill will toward anyone who wants to create EP-inspired fan works, but my primary responsibility must be to the authors and their rights. So I have to insist: if you want to do anything like this in the future, get the authors' permission first. If you can get their okay, you're virtually guaranteed to have mine. Otherwise, you just make life complicated for me.
Fair enough? Any questions or problems, please direct them to me personally.
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Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Mr. Anderson's (haha Matrix) name is attached to the video... in the description:
Here's a little remix of the classic John Edwards crazy hair video, along with a short section of the SF story "Job Qualifications" by Kevin Anderson, as read on the awesome Escape Pod podcast. Accompanied by Apocalyptica's cover of "The Unforgiven" by Metallica.
Maybe if ya change the description to saying that Anderson does not endorse any Edwards bashing?
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PUBLISHER'S RESPONSE
Fair enough? Any questions or problems, please direct them to me personally.
Fair enough, definitely. I was afraid of causing a stir, but hoped that the segment of audio would be close enough to "fair use" to not raise any concerns. Really just trying to give everyone a laugh, and show my appreciation for Escape Pod. You have to admit though, that story line fits the video perfectly!
So in order to show that appreciation to EP and it's authors, I feel like I must take the video down from YouTube, so I will. Not that anyone's looking anyway! But Creative Commons is a great thing, and I want to encourage media producers to use it. So therefore, I also have to abide by the terms found in the CC-licensed productions I take advantage of.
I think media remixing is a tremendous tool in today's society, and would like to encourage others to employ it when and where ever possible. Personally, I wouldn't necessarily say that strict adherence to the letter of the law is all that important either - sometimes copyright and licensing terms should take a back seat to the message. But most of the time, and particularly in a case like this where you're trying to complement a producer and author, operating in a framework of mutual respect and good natured spirit is the more productive way to go. So now, perhaps a day late, I've come to the conclusion that NOT publishing this video is the more appropriate choice.
To anyone who didn't get a chance to see it, just watch any of the multitude of Edwards hair videos and then listen to Job Qualifications yourself!
Thanks to Steve for his fair and balanced response, and for producing EP in the first place.
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So in order to show that appreciation to EP and it's authors, I feel like I must take the video down from YouTube, so I will. Not that anyone's looking anyway! But Creative Commons is a great thing, and I want to encourage media producers to use it. So therefore, I also have to abide by the terms found in the CC-licensed productions I take advantage of.
You're a class act, scissorfighter. I wasn't asking you to do this, but if you want to, I understand what you're saying.
And by the way -- because it really is the authors I'm concerned about, not myself or EP -- if anyone wants to use the intros or outros for any purpose, you're welcome to do so. Just let me know what you do with them.
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Politically centered stories are likely to be a miss with me, so this one had uphill battle going for it from it's very premise I get my fill of the political on election years when I can't turn the TV on for 6 minutes without seeing 5 minutes of mudslinging political ads. This has left me with little interest in seeking out the political in my entertainment. But that wasn't really the reason I disliked this one. There was no story arc. It was a loooooong story setup, several times longer than it needed to be, and then it ended. It left way too more vital questions unanswered, such as Anarkey's questions about the prison system in the democratic state, and the question of why nobody notices all the candidate lookalikes wandering around. The really interesting directions that it could've taken were not taken, such as having a debate about clone's rights, and the complexities of merging multiple life experiences into one brain--would he end up schizophrenic?
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This story didn't really seem to need to have clones in it at all. I actually thought it was following the lives of a particular person in slightly different alternate universes until the first one is called in to have his brains sucked out. Once that happened, and I realised these were supposed to be clones, it all fell apart.
Others have mentioned the hard-to-believe aspect that they all seemed to be unaware of their identical likeness to the candidate, and that they had apparently been manipulated into widely different career paths, and somehow all had completely different values, dreams, and intellectual capacities despite presumably identical genetics.
So, why clones? Seems like it would have been easier, and no less ethical (which is to say not ethical at all), to simply select ideal specimens from the general populace who embody whatever attribute the candidate wants to assimilate, and suck their brains out. Like Sylar, as mentioned above.
I echo previous posters' confusion over what the "message" of the story was actually supposed to be.