Author Topic: EP640: Paradise Regained  (Read 3838 times)

divs

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on: August 14, 2018, 07:49:47 PM
Escape Pod 640: Paradise Regained

AUTHOR : Edward M. Lerner
NARRATOR : Roderick Aust
HOST: Tina Connolly

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My head hurts. I expect it: this is winter. I want it to be spring.

Paradise does not ask what I want.

The winter is young, and I think the dogs are not yet so hungry as to attack me. Still, I hold tight to my spear. Dogs or no dogs, the spear helps me walk through the knee-deep snow.

Only trees show above the snow, and I do not know what is under. In winter, asleep, the plants cannot scream when I step on them.

Because they are asleep, Father told me. Long ago. Before Mother died. Before I left home. I did not understand what he meant. I do not now.

I think Father is gone, too. “Watch the flag,” Father told me, long ago, pointing at the tall pole that stood near Ship. “I will change the flag every day. Unless … I can’t. Then you must come. You must.”


Listen to this week’s Escape Pod!



Moritz

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Reply #1 on: August 16, 2018, 10:07:05 AM
This was a great piece of science fiction. The stuff about loosing words and how we as listeners got some context via the ship's computer was nicely integrated.

Minor nitpick as an armchair anthropologist: While a hunter-gatherer society certainly does not have the disposable woman/manpower to built universities and write literature, that does not mean that their language is simpler than ours. In fact, isolated/ "small" languages are often more complex than the big ones, like English. What could of course lead to a decline of the language is isolation, like the protagonist. Of course, meanings of words or knowledge about stuff from a more advanced past might also fade. But language in itself would still remain vibrant and complex as long as there is any group of people.



Ichneumon

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Reply #2 on: August 16, 2018, 06:57:26 PM
I bet the Firsters had lived through the destruction of their home ecosystem and were highly motivated to prevent that from happening the second time. Still, what a choice: lose your connection to the land and possibly cause its future destruction, or force humanity to live solitary and unstable lives possibly leading to extinction. Too bad they couldn't have just tweaked the effects of the retrovirus to decrease territoriality and other negative effects.



mrobin604

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Reply #3 on: September 05, 2018, 09:46:51 PM
Very enjoyable reinterpretation of the story of Adam and Eve being cast out of the garden of eden. I assume that's what this is inspired by, the similarities are too close. I like that knowledge and not innocence is the natural state, as a twist on the original.



CryptoMe

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Reply #4 on: September 26, 2018, 01:42:13 PM
Minor nitpick as an armchair anthropologist: While a hunter-gatherer society certainly does not have the disposable woman/manpower to built universities and write literature, that does not mean that their language is simpler than ours. In fact, isolated/ "small" languages are often more complex than the big ones, like English. What could of course lead to a decline of the language is isolation, like the protagonist. Of course, meanings of words or knowledge about stuff from a more advanced past might also fade. But language in itself would still remain vibrant and complex as long as there is any group of people.

I think the problem here was that there weren't any groups of people. *Everyone* was isolated from each other, at least as adults, because of the pheromone thing. So, it should not be surprising that language would decline.

I really enjoyed the story. It was full of interesting world building and philosophical dilemmas that were slowly revealed to the reader and the main character, both. Very well done.



Katzentatzen

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Reply #5 on: September 27, 2018, 02:42:33 AM
I am a HUGE fan of generation ships, and culture degrading over the years until science becomes magic, so this was fascinating for me!

"To understand a cat you must realize that he has his own gifts, his own viewpoint, even his own morality."
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TrishEM

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Reply #6 on: September 27, 2018, 05:46:16 AM
I really enjoyed this one. I've seen degrading colony stories before, but this time, they did it to themselves! Very interesting.



Fenrix

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Reply #7 on: April 04, 2019, 01:35:48 AM

Very enjoyable reinterpretation of the story of Adam and Eve being cast out of the garden of eden. I assume that's what this is inspired by, the similarities are too close. I like that knowledge and not innocence is the natural state, as a twist on the original.


Excellent point! I like this interpretation of the story.

All cat stories start with this statement: “My mother, who was the first cat, told me this...”