Escape Artists

PodCastle => Episode Comments => Topic started by: Talia on June 26, 2013, 07:37:54 PM

Title: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: Talia on June 26, 2013, 07:37:54 PM
PodCastle 266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts (http://podcastle.org/2013/06/25/podcastle-266-giant-episode-house-of-aunts/)

by Zen Cho (http://zencho.org/).

Read by Nina Shaharuddin, part of the Bright Club, whom you can see at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (https://www.edfringe.com/whats-on/comedy/bright-club-scotland-s-fringe).

Originally appeared in Giganotosaurus (http://giganotosaurus.org) on December 1, 2011. Read the text there (http://giganotosaurus.org/2011/12/01/the-house-of-aunts/).

To the women of my family.

The house stood back from the road in an orchard. In the orchard, monitor lizards the length of a man’s arm stalked the branches of rambutan trees like tigers on the hunt. Behind the house was an abandoned rubber tree plantation, so proliferant with monkeys and leeches and spirits that it might as well have been a forest.

Inside the house lived the dead.

The first time she saw the boy across the classroom, Ah Lee knew she was in love because she tasted durian on her tongue. That was what happened–no poetry about it. She looked at a human boy one day and the creamy rank richness of durian filled her mouth. For a moment the ghost of its stench staggered on the edge of her teeth, and then it vanished.

She had not tasted fruit since before the baby came. Since before she was dead.

After school she went home and asked the aunts about it.

“Ah Ma,” she said, “can you taste anything besides people?”

It was evening–Ah Lee had had to stay late at school for marching drills–and the aunts were already cooking dinner. The scent of fried liver came from the wok wielded by Aunty Girl. It smelt exquisite, but where before the smell of fried garlic would have filled her mouth with saliva, now it was the liver that made Ah Lee’s post-death nose sit up and take interest. It would have smelt even better raw.

“Har?” said Ah Ma, who was busy chopping ginger.

“I mean,” said Ah Lee. “When you eat the ginger, can you taste it? Because I can’t. I can only taste people. Everything else got no taste. Like drinking water only.”

Disapproval rose from the aunts and floated just above their heads like a mist. The aunts avoided discussing their undeceased state. It was felt to be an indelicate subject. It was like talking about your bowel movements, or other people’s adultery.

“Why do you ask this kind of question?” said Ah Ma.

“Better focus on your homework,” said Tua Kim.

“I finished it already,” said Ah Lee. “But why do you put in all the spices when you cook, then? If it doesn’t make any difference?”

“It makes a difference,” said Aunty Girl.

“Why do you even cook the people?” said Ah Lee. “They’re nicest when they’re raw.”

“Ah girl,” said Ah Ma, “you don’t talk like that, please. We are not animals. Even if we are not alive, we are still human. As long as we are human we will eat like civilised people, not dogs in the forest. If you want to know why, that is why.”


Rated R for vampires, and their extended families.

(http://escapepod.org/wp-images/podcast-mini4.gif) Listen to this week’s PodCastle! (http://media.rawvoice.com/podcastle/media.libsyn.com/media/podcastle/PC266_TheHouseOfAunts.mp3)
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: LadiesAndGentleman on June 27, 2013, 12:58:46 AM
While the accents in the narration were hard to follow at first, I genuinely enjoyed this story.  Its balance of humor and drama was believable and I really enjoyed the way Ah Lee interacted with her aunts.  Even when they argued, they all seemed so close!
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: evrgrn_monster on June 27, 2013, 03:57:33 AM
If you had told me this morning that I would have enjoyed a high school romance story about a somewhat angsty teenage vampire, I would have gently returned you to the insane asylum you obviously escaped from, but here I am, it is night, and I loved this story. I felt so invested in this character and her relationship, not just with the boy, but with her aunts. It was just so sweet and gently told. There were so many little details that made this story work for me; the way the aunts cooked, the fixation with teeth, the semantics of addressing the undead. Overall, this giant episode sure didn't feel like an hour and a half to me. You guys really knocked it out of the ballpark.

I could see how the accents could be confusing, but as a half Asian, I was completely into the way the aunts talked. That little uplifting note at the end of each sentence is completely how my mom and her friends talk, and they are also so very matter of fact, which may have been another reason why I enjoyed this story so much. The only complaint I have is that the recording sounded a little tinny and I had to turn it all the way up on my speakers to be able to understand.

Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: Father Beast on June 27, 2013, 10:35:03 AM
I tried to listen to this 3 times, and failed each time. No matter my level of concentration, I kept missing chunks of words because I didn't understand them. I don't know if it's the accent, or the sound quality, or some combination, or something else, but it looks like I'm never going to hear this story.

Incidentally, I had the same problem with Starship Sofa #200.
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: LadiesAndGentleman on June 27, 2013, 11:46:43 AM
I tried to listen to this 3 times, and failed each time. No matter my level of concentration, I kept missing chunks of words because I didn't understand them.

Hm.  I'm pretty sure if I sat down and read a text version of this story, I'd see I had missed bits and details in it, but I've discovered that's true with a lot of stories I hear rather than read. Saying that, yes, I did have to start again when I first listened to it.

If you had told me this morning that I would have enjoyed a high school romance story about a somewhat angsty teenage vampire, I would've have gently returned you to the insane asylum you obviously escaped from, but here I am, it is night, and I loved this story.

Just goes to show that Young Adult paranormal romance has a lot more potential for appeal than critics give it credit for.
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: Moritz on June 27, 2013, 06:38:50 PM
Loved the setting and the plot, finally a teen-angst vampire story that I am not ashamed to have listened to/ read. I read it on a commute to and from a conference abroad where there were some Chinese speaking English, so I had no trouble getting into the accent - but the audio quality was not very good and that made it difficult to listen.

I got a bit confused about the protagonist's name at times because I heard it as "Ali"...
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: Frungi on June 28, 2013, 04:51:43 AM
I love hearing different accents, but I honestly cannot understand much of what this reader is saying. The accent is just too thick. I do plan on giving it another try, but just wanted to voice my frustration here.
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: ToooooMuchCoffeeMan on June 28, 2013, 09:32:51 AM
I'm really sad that I can't enjoy this story as much as I think it deserves. The sound quality is muddy. That, by itself, would be okay; and the heavy accents, by themselves, would be okay. But the two of them combined make it too difficult for me to follow.
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: Frungi on June 29, 2013, 12:05:17 AM
I'm sorry, really, but I had to skip this one. I tried. I just can't enjoy a story that I can't understand; there were whole chunks where, even after rewinding a couple of times, I couldn't even make out half the words. And I usually enjoy listening to exotic accents...
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: sandchigger on June 29, 2013, 02:56:26 PM
I'm afraid I'll have to agree with the majority here. Between the reader's accent and the poor sound quality (mostly the quality I think), I just couldn't understand what was being said well enough to follow along.
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: Cynandre on June 29, 2013, 10:04:26 PM
Because of my Family background, the accent quickly became understandable for me even though I did have to go back a few times. That is mostly because of the noise on the Bus and construction being done on most of the route.  

I enjoyed this story a lot more than I thought I would with or without the pontianak/vampire aspect. It was about Family, Love, Caution, and Trust which was all I needed. Thank you.
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: chemistryguy on July 01, 2013, 06:30:21 PM
I'm afraid I'll have to agree with the majority here. Between the reader's accent and the poor sound quality (mostly the quality I think), I just couldn't understand what was being said well enough to follow along.

Me too.  It might be clearer if I had a set of headphones on, but I listen to the vast majority of these podcasts in route to work.  After playing around with radio setting for 5 minutes I had to bail out :(
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: Max e^{i pi} on July 01, 2013, 07:21:06 PM
Yeah, I tried listening to this several times.
I think mostly it's the poor sound quality and the fact that the narrator reads so fast. As a general rule I like it when the accents spice up the story a little bit, add that extra bit of reality to it. And in this case the accent isn't too hard to follow, but coupled with the speed of the narration and the poor sound quality... I had to give it a miss.
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: MacArthurBug on July 03, 2013, 11:42:06 PM
I'm going to give this another go. I turned it on in the car (where I listen to most of my stories on long pretty drives) And the tin can quality combined with thick (cool, but thick) accent drove me away. I need headphones. It seems I'm not the only one which is comforting, since generally when I have a complaint I'm alone or mostly alone in it.
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: evrgrn_monster on July 04, 2013, 04:07:09 AM
I actually just put the story on my iPhone without the headphones in, then turned it all the way up. Easy to hear in my room and helped with the tinny quality.
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: Frungi on July 04, 2013, 06:02:22 AM
I actually just put the story on my iPhone without the headphones in, then turned it all the way up. Easy to hear in my room and helped with the tinny quality.

Huh… wouldn’t that make it more tinny?
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: Devoted135 on July 04, 2013, 06:29:00 PM
Tried to listen on my computer speakers and totally failed. Put it on my ipod and managed to get all the way through. I agree that the accent or the sound quality would have been manageable, but having both made it a pretty steep barrier.

On to the story. Well, what can I say? I guess that when a story is as long as this, I hope that it will be awesome enough to justify its length. Unfortunately, I found myself not caring about any of the characters or about what happened to them. I'm not usually against "slice of life" stories, but they aren't usually this long! Also, the flashback at the end was annoying. Anyway, it just simply wasn't for me, but as always ymmv.
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: evrgrn_monster on July 04, 2013, 08:04:47 PM
I actually just put the story on my iPhone without the headphones in, then turned it all the way up. Easy to hear in my room and helped with the tinny quality.

Huh… wouldn’t that make it more tinny?

Dunno why it worked. Just went with it with so I could get my story fix.  :D
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: Djinndustries on July 08, 2013, 01:46:07 AM
This was one of the best readings I've heard in a while as the editor (casting agent?) picked the perfect reader for the story. Her accent was perfect for the content and her cadence was spot on for Malaysian/Singaporean English. I don't think any other reader has read for both tone and pacing with such aplomb. Hats off to Nina!

On the other hand, the quality of the recording did make it really hard to get into the story at first and I did have to switch to headphones. That said, I'm not sure if US-based listeners would find the rapidfire Malaysian English to be particularly intelligible even if the recording were more clear. I've come to find that our brains turn off the moment someone uses 't' instead of 'th' or throws any non-English sounds into conversation (such as intensifiers, lah, loh, wor, etc, let alone foreign words like walau).

Great choice, casting agent!
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: Max e^{i pi} on July 08, 2013, 06:19:04 AM
I've come to find that our brains turn off the moment someone uses 't' instead of 'th' or throws any non-English sounds into conversation (such as intensifiers, lah, loh, wor, etc, let alone foreign words like walau).

That is not true for everybody, and I don't think it's true even for most people. These days people are much more exposed to other people from different parts of the world with different ways of talking. With very little effort they can be understood. That is why the folks here at Escape Artists can allow themselves to use narrators from all over the world, otherwise it just wouldn't work. Sometimes it still doesn't work, but usually because of technical problems.
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: Unblinking on July 08, 2013, 03:17:02 PM
I didn't notice any problems with the sound quality, but I definitely did find the accent hard to understand.  Mostly just the parts where the aunts were conversing because the reader seemed to crank up the accent for them as compared to the narration or the protagonist--I understood bits and pieces of what the aunts were saying but just in dribs and drabs.  It's not that the accent was bad, or even necessarily that it was too thick, but I just personally had trouble with it.

As far as the story goes I thought there were a lot of interesting little details in it.  Particularly the aunts insistence on properly preparing the meat even though they couldn't taste anything but the meat itself, as a way to separate themselves from animals.  And the fact that the girl is so scared of making herself vulnerable (as we all are) that she would rather tell her love interest that she is a ghoul rather than telling him about her crush.

Like I said, the aunt parts were hard enough for me to understand, that they mostly just washed over me.  The parts with the boy were interesting enough, but I'm not sure they justified a 90 minute story to my mind.

So, not bad, but I expect I would like it more if I could hear all of it clearly, or if it were more concise.
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: affreca on July 10, 2013, 02:22:18 AM
I found the accent and sound quality difficult while listening to this story in my normal way - on a long car trip.  However, I've enjoyed a couple of other stories by Zen Cho and was trying to deal with a headache, so I listened to it with headphones doing nothing else.  Being able to give it my full attention, it got easier for me to follow the story.  By the end, I loved how the reader brought it to life with the variety of accents.  I still have the headache, but I'm very happy I put in the effort because I really liked it. 
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: bounceswoosh on July 12, 2013, 04:50:34 AM
I loved this story. I had to work to understand the accents; like several other listeners, I switched from listening in the car to listening on my headphones with my eyes closed in a quiet room.  In the car, it was just too hard to understand. I still missed bits and pieces, but it was like reading a story in a second language - sometimes you get a better feel for the story by staying in the flow than by trying to look up every word.  The accent and word choices felt genuine to me from my limited exposure to people speaking in that style, and it brought the story to life for me.  I especially enjoyed the switch between the Malay(?) English used by the POV character and the American English used by the boy.  The joke about "nailing me" at the end was maybe juvenile, but I got a giggle out of it.

I'll admit that I plan to read the story with my eyeballs to see if I missed anything important - ah, I see already that the loss of the baby was mentioned in the first few paragraphs; dunno if I misheard that or simply glossed over it when I didn't yet have context - but I honestly think the reading would have been distracting and fake if it had been done with an American accent.  Many regions around the world speak their own dialect of English - sure, there's American, British, Australian, NZ, but I've also spent a lot of time talking to people who speak Indian English, for example, and it's definitely its own language.

It might be best to think of this as a story told in Asian English, and the similarities between Asian English and (in my case) American English are great enough that I can understand it and enjoy it, even though it's not my native dialect.

I apologize for my lack of specificity and/or accuracy (using terms like Malay and Asian to describe the language of the story).
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: InfiniteMonkey on July 14, 2013, 06:32:11 AM
I too had problems with the accents (an Indian-English accent trying to do a Chinese-English accent, even though most the dialog is supposed to be in Hokkenese) and the sound quality was... poor. I also kept getting derailed by mispronouncing of what are to me everyday English words (like reminisce)  that I had to mentally stop and parse. That and the length* kept from this for a while, but today I had time to plug in the headphones, so I could understand it.

And the story? Well, frankly, it just struck me as "The Joy Luck Club" meets "Let the Right One In" -- ok, our heroine's plight is a little more complicated than that story's vampire, but still.

* and no favors were done by those long section breaks. I know people have complained about not having section breaks in other long stories, but this is too far in the other direction, esp. for a story that already clocks in at over 90 minutes. 
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: yicheng on July 15, 2013, 01:45:58 AM
Count me as another one who had problems with the audio quality and the accent.  It sounded like she was talking over a bad skype connection and would lose a syllable every sentence or so.  As a result I have no idea what was going on in the story.
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: Djinndustries on July 15, 2013, 01:56:06 AM
I too had problems with the accents (an Indian-English accent trying to do a Chinese-English accent, even though most the dialog is supposed to be in Hokkenese)

I'm impressed that you can tell the difference in Malaysian Indian versus Malaysian Chinese accents. Especially since I think the reader is Malay, which is neither of those. Blindfolded, I couldn't tell you if a speaker is Chinese or Malay unless they use a lot more Bahasa words, but even then if they're Malaysian, it's difficult. More, Hokkien is a Chinese dialect, not an English one, and there are plenty of other Chinese dialects spoken in Malaysia (Cantonese probably being the other big one, though). I'm not sure I could tell if the speaker was Cantonese, Hokkien, Teochew, Hakka or whatever other dialect by their spoken English.

I've come to find that our brains turn off the moment someone uses 't' instead of 'th' or throws any non-English sounds into conversation (such as intensifiers, lah, loh, wor, etc, let alone foreign words like walau).

That is not true for everybody, and I don't think it's true even for most people. These days people are much more exposed to other people from different parts of the world with different ways of talking.

I think the replies would indicate that from our sampling here in the forum there may be a little bit of truth in my suggestion. But I still think you (they, whoever) picked a great reader.
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: InfiniteMonkey on July 15, 2013, 03:45:36 AM
Hokkien is a Chinese dialect, not an English one

But that's my point. Given that it's supposed to be Chinese, there's no reason to read it in a Chinese accent. Because it's not English.
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: Djinndustries on July 15, 2013, 04:47:45 AM
Hokkien is a Chinese dialect, not an English one

But that's my point. Given that it's supposed to be Chinese, there's no reason to read it in a Chinese accent. Because it's not English.

Well, I think the Hokkien factor that has more to do with the culture elements more than the accent. Most Malaysians I've met (and Singaporeans for that matter), whether Chinese, Indian or Malay, speak this way. Hence "Singlish". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singlish. It's written exactly as they speak, so I think the accent is relevant here. Anywho.
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: Gordian9 on July 15, 2013, 06:24:17 AM
I'm afraid I only gave this story one try and was unable to
Get past the poor audio quality
It became impossible to understand or follow fairly early on
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: Moritz on July 16, 2013, 04:57:45 PM
Hokkien is a Chinese dialect, not an English one

But that's my point. Given that it's supposed to be Chinese, there's no reason to read it in a Chinese accent. Because it's not English.

I agree, it's like when I once watched a Russian movie (I think it was Daywatch) dubbed in English and they were talking English with a Russian accent. Man what? When I speak my native language, it's not with an accent either!
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: Bartok on July 16, 2013, 09:00:19 PM
I'm another one who could decipher the accent or the audio quality, but not both together. I would just go back and play the muddiest sections over and over again, but with this being a Giant episode already... I don't think I'm dedicated enough.

Is there any chance that there's a master copy of this somewhere that could be cleaned up, and a new version of the file made available for download?
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: PatManDX on July 25, 2013, 12:32:01 PM
I came out of lurking to say I was really enjoyed this story, especially for its setting, not so say the story was any less apparent cause of it. I spend my rides back from school listening to Podcastle, and though I don't usually take the time to listen to the Giant episodes (for SHAAAAME PatMan!), but this one was one heck of an exception. As half-asian who lives in South East Asia, this is very very close to home. It was made even more effective by the fact that my dad was driving through Old Town, making the tropical Kampung (KAM-PooNG) setting all the more easy to place in my head.

I'm really glad it was hosted on here and I loved the reader and her accent (even though I couldn't get past the accent myself at times, might need listen to it again now that I don't have to worry about the drone of the car engine).

Thank you so much for airing this one. I'll have to convince my parents to donate. :)
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: DKT on July 25, 2013, 02:04:35 PM
PatManX, your description of listening to it has totally made my day. Thanks :)

For those of you wondering if there will be a re-record, the answer is no, probably not. This was a huge episode. I'm not sure how long it took Nina to record and edit, but she did it more than once for us. (If I had recorded/edited it twice, it probably would've taken me at least six hours - probably more.)

We try and stretch ourselves and find readers who will make the stories here sound authentic. We could've asked someone like Ann Leckie or Mur to read it (I guess?) but we're all pretty happy with what Nina turned in. I hope she reads for us again, and if she does, we'll try and up the sound quality.

If you'd like to read the story, do check it out at GigaNotoSaurus (http://giganotosaurus.org/2011/12/01/the-house-of-aunts/).
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: Arri on July 28, 2013, 05:12:22 PM
Wow what a fun voice! I can't wait to hear this recorded with a better mic and a LOT less compression.
I love accents but sadly I too had trouble making out the words. I know it's a lot to ask but a re record of this story sure would be nice.
Looking forward to hearing more from Nina!

Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: Devoted135 on July 28, 2013, 05:24:11 PM
Looking forward to hearing more from Nina!

I'll second this :)
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: Whiskerwing on July 30, 2013, 07:46:22 PM
At risk of jumping on a bandwagon, I'm going to agree that the sound quality squished this one for me. I was enjoying both the exotic twist of the reader's accent and the curious garlic-eating vampire family, but I wasn't able to finish the story.
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: InfiniteMonkey on July 31, 2013, 12:17:21 AM

For those of you wondering if there will be a re-record, the answer is no, probably not. This was a huge episode. I'm not sure how long it took Nina to record and edit, but she did it more than once for us. (If I had recorded/edited it twice, it probably would've taken me at least six hours - probably more.)

We try and stretch ourselves and find readers who will make the stories here sound authentic.

Dave, brother, I feel bad for you. It's obvious that you and the team put a lot of work into this one, and I appreciate that. I'm glad you sought out an authentic voice. But the combo of hard-to-hear audio and an unfamiliar accent just was more than I could process. I usually have no problem with accents -- this may be a first for me.

Again, thanks for all the hard work.
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: Whiskerwing on July 31, 2013, 12:55:03 AM
For the record? I co-hosted a podcast for a while and I'm guessing that 6 hours estimate above? Was probably a bit light. It takes a very, very long time to record in the first place, let alone do all the splicing and trimming to make it all flow smoothly. Add to that file sizes, compression ratios, and it could have been as simple as a single obscure checkbox or voice filter that damaged an entire day's work.

I can't even imagine what sort of devilish deals or midnight chants 'round black magic servers the Escape Artists folks must engage in so that they can deliver such exceptional quality time and time again. A single blip here and there just reminds me that you're human.

... well, probably. Did that shadow seem awfully tentacle-y to anyone else? And am I the only one smelling burnt feathers?
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: DKT on July 31, 2013, 05:20:00 AM

For those of you wondering if there will be a re-record, the answer is no, probably not. This was a huge episode. I'm not sure how long it took Nina to record and edit, but she did it more than once for us. (If I had recorded/edited it twice, it probably would've taken me at least six hours - probably more.)

We try and stretch ourselves and find readers who will make the stories here sound authentic.

Dave, brother, I feel bad for you. It's obvious that you and the team put a lot of work into this one, and I appreciate that. I'm glad you sought out an authentic voice. But the combo of hard-to-hear audio and an unfamiliar accent just was more than I could process. I usually have no problem with accents -- this may be a first for me.

Again, thanks for all the hard work.

Aw, thanks for that :) It's appreciated, but I wasn't fishing for that!

And please don't feel bad. I do totally understand that this one bounced off some people for a couple different reasons, and I'm fine with that. And I do appreciate the feedback :) I'm happy with the recording we got - but I understand that not everyone is, and that's cool.
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: eytanz on July 31, 2013, 08:22:18 AM
This story is awesome, and I loved practically everything about it. I thought the narrator did a great job, and her native accent and the character voices added a really appealing layer to the story. The recording quality - well, I could talk about it, but honestly, I'm feeling a bit bad for the author that the thread for such a great story is being dominated by audio gripes, so I'll leave mine implied rather than said. I am very grateful that I could access the text version of this story online, though.

Anyway, onwards to the story - as I already said, I adore this one. It's long, but its uniformly compelling. I wasn't familiar with the mythology in question before listening to it, but I felt that rather than being a barrier, that made it more interesting as I learnt as I was listening. Mostly, however, this story really knows how to weave likable and real-feeling characters in a setting that never took itself too seriously, and keeping both the emotional reality and the winks at the audience in perfect balance.

I was a bit confused by the ending, in that I was not sure how the aunts also became pontianaks - I originally thought that they were already undead when Ah Lee died, but when I re-read it it seemed that they changed to support her, which makes the internal logic nerd in me a bit confused - certainly, they weren't all pregnant at the time - but I also recognize that that detail is not really important.
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: PatManDX on July 31, 2013, 12:39:33 PM
PatManX, your description of listening to it has totally made my day. Thanks :)

For those of you wondering if there will be a re-record, the answer is no, probably not. This was a huge episode. I'm not sure how long it took Nina to record and edit, but she did it more than once for us. (If I had recorded/edited it twice, it probably would've taken me at least six hours - probably more.)

We try and stretch ourselves and find readers who will make the stories here sound authentic. We could've asked someone like Ann Leckie or Mur to read it (I guess?) but we're all pretty happy with what Nina turned in. I hope she reads for us again, and if she does, we'll try and up the sound quality.

If you'd like to read the story, do check it out at GigaNotoSaurus (http://giganotosaurus.org/2011/12/01/the-house-of-aunts/).

Oh I'm gla--

Quote
PatManX, your description of listening to it has totally made my day. Thanks :)

What on Earth?
Quote
PatManX, your descri

No...

Quote
PatManX

Quote
PatManDX

Why Dave. Why?
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: DKT on July 31, 2013, 02:45:52 PM
Because I'm a cruel, miserable regent, and the only Ds on this forum that I acknowledge are my own.

That good enough for you, PatManX?


Oh, fine.

PatMandX.
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: Scattercat on July 31, 2013, 04:59:36 PM
What have you got against tailless cats, Pat? 
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: PatManDX on August 02, 2013, 12:13:51 AM
What have you got against tailless cats, Pat? 

They are sad shadows of true feline ferocity, hardly cats at all. Honestly, what poor four-pawed soul would go around without their de facto fifth limb?
(I have no idea what's going on, but I'm not going to start acting like I don't.)
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: Scattercat on August 04, 2013, 05:12:19 AM
(Patmanx = Pat manx = manx is a breed of tailless cat = Your level of unhappiness suggests a personal vendetta against the nub-butted.)
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: PatManDX on August 09, 2013, 11:16:30 AM
(Patmanx = Pat manx = manx is a breed of tailless cat = Your level of unhappiness suggests a personal vendetta against the nub-butted.)

I.

Wow. Even I wouldn't of read that far into a typo (even if I wanted to). I'm effectively envious.

Dang.

Heh. Nub-butted. Aren't all butts nubby if they pack enough mass?

(Insert video link to a hundred hour loop of Baby Got Back).
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: naum nurgle on September 12, 2013, 12:31:15 PM
just comming out of the lurk to say as a non american, non first worlder I really enjoyed the diverse accent in this

yes it took a bit to get used to but if you are used to diverse multi cultural day to day life such skills exist; I pity those of you in a mono culture

the sound quality was not great but the long                                                                                   pauses between chapters were like a spicy curry coming out the exit shaft

But I really wanted to come onto the site to find out what kind of vampire the story featured and no one seems to be talking about that...

Quote
The pontianak (Dutch-Indonesian spelling: boentianak) is a vampiric ghost in Malay and Indonesian mythology. It is also known as a matianak or kuntilanak, sometimes shortened to kunti. The pontianak are said to be the spirits of woman who died while pregnant. This is often confused with a related creature, the lang suir, which is the ghost of a woman who died while giving birth. The word pontianak is reportedly a corruption of the Malay perempuan mati beranak, or “woman who died in childbirth”.[1] Another theory is that the word is a combination of puan (woman) + mati (die) + anak (child). The term matianak means "death of a child". The city of Pontianak in Indonesia is named after this creature, which was claimed to have haunted the first sultan who once settled there.

Pontianak are usually depicted as pale-skinned women with long hair and dressed in white, but they are said to be able to take on a beautiful appearance since they prey on men. In his 1977 short story collection The Consul’s File Paul Theroux posits that the phantom is an invention of Malay wives who wanted to discourage their husbands from random sexual encounters with women that they met on the road at night.[2]

In folklore, a pontianak usually announces its presence through baby cries. If the cry is soft, it means that the pontianak is close, and if it is loud, then it must be far. Some believe that if you hear a dog howling, that means that the pontianak is far away. But if a dog is whining, that means the pontianak is nearby. Its presence can sometimes be detected by a nice floral fragrance identifiable as that of the plumeria, followed by an awful stench afterward.

A pontianak kills its victims by digging into their stomachs with its sharp fingernails and devouring their organs. In some cases where the pontianak desires revenge against a male individual, it rips out the sex organs with its hands. It is said that if you have your eyes open when a pontianak is near, it will suck them out of your head. Pontianak locate prey by sniffing out clothes left outside to dry. For this reason, some Malays refuse to leave any article of clothing outside of their residences overnight.

The pontianak is associated with banana trees (pokok pisang), and its spirit is said to reside in them during the day.

To fend off a pontianak, a nail must be plunged into the hole on the nape of her neck. This is said to make her a beautiful woman and a good wife until the nail is removed. In the case of the kuntilanak, the nail is plunged into the apex of her head.

The Indonesian kuntilanak is similar to the pontianak, but more commonly takes the form of a bird and sucks the blood of virgins and young women. The bird, which makes a "ke-ke-ke" sound as it flies, may be sent through black magic to make a woman sick, the characteristic symptom being vaginal bleeding. In the female form, when a man approaches her she suddenly turns and reveals that her back is hollow, but this apparition is more specifically referred to as sundel bolong.
Title: Re: PC266, Giant Episode: The House of Aunts
Post by: LaShawn on September 13, 2013, 04:44:02 PM
Agree that the sound quality was hard and not easy to listen to at first. I'm glad I stuck it out though. LOVED the story! This made me homesick for my own aunts and grandma and mom. I liked how the author weaved the pontianak elements seamlessly into the story. (And thanks Naum for the definition of pontianak. I can see how the guy in the story used it for his own means to try to save Ah Lee.)

The relationship between Ah Lee and the guy was so sweet, especially when they were trying to admit their feelings to each other. Glad to see the two of them were able to get together, even with those pesky aunts watching. And I also love how the aunts are pesky, yet become fierce when defending Ah Lee. The part when they kept talking about Ah Lee crying and the news spreading through the whole house had me in stitches.

(Edited to correct Ah Lee's spelling)