Escape Artists
PseudoPod => Episode Comments => Topic started by: Bdoomed on December 02, 2016, 04:35:52 AM
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Pseudopod 519: Perfect Reflection (http://pseudopod.org/2016/12/01/pseudopod-519-perfect-reflection/)
by Elizabeth Siedt (http://honestlydoingherbest.tumblr.com/).
“Perfect Reflection” is a PSEUDOPOD original.
ELIZABETH SIEDT (http://honestlydoingherbest.tumblr.com/) is a writer, playwright, and improviser in Chicago, and performs at iO Chicago (http://ioimprov.com/chicago/) with her team, Stag (https://www.facebook.com/StagHaroldTeam/). Her plays have been performed all around the city of Chicago, and she’s currently the managing director of a new theater company for women, The Jades (http://www.thejades.org/our-company.html/). Additionally, you can hear her sillier musings at the podcast she co-hosts, So You Don’t Have To (http://soyoudonthaveto.podbean.com/). She blogs at Honestly Doing Her Best (http://honestlydoingherbest.tumblr.com/).
Your narrator – Dani Daly (https://danireads.com/) – is assistant editor, community manager, slush reader and narrator for Cast Of Wonders (http://escape-artists.wikia.com/wiki/Cast_of_Wonders). She lives on Long Island, in NY USA with her husband and obligatory cats. When she isn’t working her boring day job, Dani is most likely either reading (for Cast of Wonders or otherwise) or playing roller derby with Strong Island Derby Revolution. Occasionally, she blogs at “Who Doesn’t Love Stories? (https://danireads.com/)”.
Info on Anders Manga’s album (they do our theme music!) can be found here (http://www.napalmrecordsamerica.com/store/bloodyhammers).
“You hate mirrors.
You use them, sure, begrudgingly checking your hair and doing your makeup and smiling into them after you’ve finished brushing your teeth. But you’ve never liked them, how they throw back at you a world you take for granted is your own. Antique mirrors in particular unsettle you, like silent mercurial ancestors, hanging on your wall and looking right into your eyes. The worst are the oval ones, with the thin, gold frames. They look like enormous keyholes to a darker world. ”
(http://pseudopod.org/wp-content/plugins/podpress/images/audio_mp3_button.png)
Listen to this week's Pseudopod. (http://media.libsyn.com/media/pseudopod/Pseudo519_PerfectReflection.mp3)
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I love this story, and I LOVED the narration. Dani did a FANTASTIC job on this!
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I love this story, and I LOVED the narration. Dani did a FANTASTIC job on this!
Thank you Dagny! I love this creepy story so reading it was an absolute pleasure ;D
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I'm not saying I covered the mirror in my bedroom after listening to this story, but I'm not saying I didn't.
Overall, I liked this story. I'm not sure second person was the right voice to use, but that's a personal quibble. I can see losing a great deal of creepiness in first or third person, and am going to assume the author knew what she was doing.
But yeah, this is going to stay with me for a while *glaces nervously at covered mirror*.
Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk
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Overall, I liked this story. I'm not sure second person was the right voice to use, but that's a personal quibble. I can see losing a great deal of creepiness in first or third person, and am going to assume the author knew what she was doing.
With the bend at the end, second person was absolutely the correct voice.
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Overall, I liked this story. I'm not sure second person was the right voice to use, but that's a personal quibble. I can see losing a great deal of creepiness in first or third person, and am going to assume the author knew what she was doing.
With the bend at the end, second person was absolutely the correct voice.
This is HIGH praise. I have not yet met another editor who hates second person quite as much as Fenrix does.
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As is usually the case, I found 2nd person a distraction. I can see where Fenrix is coming from on it being appropriate for the reversal. But... since I am not a woman, and I am not afraid of mirrors, the story telling me these things makes a dissonance throughout.
But, despite the 2nd person, I quite liked it. Mirrors moving out of synch with you is a subtle and scary element, not the first time I've seen it (i.e. Season 1 of Heroes, though I think it was metaphorical there)--especially seeing your closed eyes in the mirror the moment after blinking. It all added up to a sense of the creeping inevitable. We as the audience know that there is something to fear in the mirrors, because we're listening to a horror podcast and the episode is focusing on mirrors, but when you know you must be afraid of nothing because the alternative is that there is something horrible coming for you and you can't quite face that in the light of day, then it has all the time in the world to make its move.
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No one else has mentioned this, so I'm guessing the answer will be "no," but . . . did anyone else get a lot of editing artifacts in this? Parts of sentences missing, words jumped over, etc? Made it basically impossible to listen to, for me.
[ETA] Example: "life proceeds nor.f. you for a while" (normally for you?)
"Everything so s.mal in this moment" (so normal?)
Interestingly, when I listen at half speed, it sounds normal. Well, "normal" for half speed.
[ETA2] Well, SOME of it sounds "normal" at half speed. I think I'll try listening to the one online.
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I'm not saying I covered the mirror in my bedroom after listening to this story, but I'm not saying I didn't.
...[snip]...
Predatory mirrors. Yep. Yep. Yep. My forebrain scoffs at it. My fear centers look askance at our foyer's vanity mirror :o . Nope. nope. nope.
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No one else has mentioned this, so I'm guessing the answer will be "no," but . . . did anyone else get a lot of editing artifacts in this? Parts of sentences missing, words jumped over, etc? Made it basically impossible to listen to, for me.
[ETA] Example: "life proceeds nor.f. you for a while" (normally for you?)
"Everything so s.mal in this moment" (so normal?)
Interestingly, when I listen at half speed, it sounds normal. Well, "normal" for half speed.
[ETA2] Well, SOME of it sounds "normal" at half speed. I think I'll try listening to the one online.
I didn't have this experience at all--everything came through perfectly.
Out of curiosity, what do you listen on? I use the podcast feed that comes standard on my iPhone.
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I didn't have this experience at all--everything came through perfectly.
Out of curiosity, what do you listen on? I use the podcast feed that comes standard on my iPhone.
I figured that was the case. Must have been some sort of glitch on my end.
I download podcast episodes using iTunes on my MacBook and sync that with my iPhone and listen using the podcast app. It's Apples all the way down! :)