Author Topic: EP461: Selkie Stories are for Losers  (Read 16823 times)

Tori

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Reply #25 on: September 23, 2014, 11:36:17 AM
Okay. I just wanted to talk about how much I adored this story. The voice of the narrator was strong and interesting. The story was heartbreaking and moving, and gets at the core of adolescent motivation and comprehension. What she sees is a mother who has abandoned her. The narrator is moving to the center of the country, abandoning the temptation of the sea, trying desperately to hold on to love and the one she loves. Yet, seals speak to her in a foreign language and she has some insight into her mother's longing for a different world, which is shown by the way she describes her mother swimming laps at the pool. For me, this story was like a maze, which includes multiple possibilities and spaces in a small area and which continually reveals itself as something new and wonderful and dark with each turn. I couldn't help but be reminded of Borges and Anne Frank. I know that sounds somewhat bizarre and even over-the-top, but so be it. That's where my brain went.



albionmoonlight

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Reply #26 on: September 23, 2014, 02:56:11 PM
I will admit to not knowing what a Selkie was until this story.

Overall, I liked it.  I can see how the author's very conscious meta use of the Selkie metaphor could come off as too heavy-handed.  But it did not for me.  I thought that it was a bold choice, and it worked.  Though the story was certainly not plot-driven, I did not get the sense that it lacked action.  The narrator's mother, Mona's mother, the relationship between Mona and the narrator.  They all had enough "action" to them that, even though they were told as reflection, I felt engaged.

As for the Hugos this year, in my opinion, The Water That Falls on You From Nowhere was my clear favorite by a couple of touchdowns.  But this story was my clear second choice.



Springaldjack

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Reply #27 on: September 23, 2014, 07:05:04 PM
I really really love this story. It makes me so happy.

However every time it bothers me that seals (and thus presumably Selkies) breathe air, not water.



Unblinking

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Reply #28 on: September 23, 2014, 07:09:22 PM
However every time it bothers me that seals (and thus presumably Selkies) breathe air, not water.

Good point.  Why did that not occur to me?

I think it's never meant to be taken entirely literally anyway, more along the general concept of taking a creature out of its element--making a snow leopard live in the tropics or a hippo live on a mountain.       



Springaldjack

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Reply #29 on: September 23, 2014, 07:19:37 PM
However every time it bothers me that seals (and thus presumably Selkies) breathe air, not water.

Good point.  Why did that not occur to me?

I think it's never meant to be taken entirely literally anyway, more along the general concept of taking a creature out of its element--making a snow leopard live in the tropics or a hippo live on a mountain.       

Oh for sure. But that is basically the one element of the story that pulls me out, because I love everything else about it so much.



bounceswoosh

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Reply #30 on: September 24, 2014, 02:40:05 AM
Just posting to say, yes, I did like this story. I like character studies.



Fenrix

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Reply #31 on: September 24, 2014, 10:49:30 PM
“I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.”

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


TrishEM

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Reply #32 on: September 28, 2014, 11:03:28 AM
The two Hugo nominees that were most obviously SFF stories (The Water That Falls On You From Nowhere and The Ink Readers of Doi Saket) did nothing for me (and I'd argue that TWTFOYFN could be almost the same story without the fantasy/absurdist element), whereas the two that some people claim aren't really SFF at all (Selkie Stories are for Losers and If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love) seem far superior to me.

Over on the IYWADML thread, I asserted vehemently that it was speculative fiction. The same goes for SSAFL.
It's true that the poem says IF this speculative thing were so, rather than IT IS, and it's true that Selkie Stories' protagonist never actually saw her mom change into a seal and swim away, so technically she could just be constructing an illusory worldview that lets her transform the inexplicability of loss and heartache into the inexplicability of magic. However, isn't the element of uncertainty integral to speculative fiction? Maybe even the uncertainty of our definitions, and where we draw the lines? So, even if a protagonist KNOWS that she's just building castles in the air, I'm enchanted to be invited to lend a figurative hand with my suspension of disbelief, especially when the writing is beautiful and/or the character is well drawn.

What's the opposite of speculative -- mundane? As far as I'm concerned, these two stories are not the least bit mundane, in either sense of the word -- neither too worldly and un-speculative for inclusion here, nor too dull or lacking in interest and excitement. The conflicts may be internal, and the speculative elements may be primarily in the protagonists' heads, but in my opinion, that makes them no less worthy of our attention and discussion.



DKT

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Reply #33 on: October 02, 2014, 04:03:50 PM
Quote from: Varda
My dream is that someday, people will be arguing on a thread here about how little I deserved a Hugo nom. I think I'd just gloat from afar as I updated my bio everywhere to say "Hugo Award winner".  ;)

I'm not gonna lie, that is very nearly the most fun ever.

 :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D


eytanz

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Reply #34 on: October 02, 2014, 04:24:19 PM
Moderator's note:

The discussion of EP's editorial policies regardling genre and Hugo nominees has been moved to its own thread. Please keep discussion in episode threads to be about the content of the stories; if you want to discuss how EP chooses its stories, that belongs in the "About EP" forum.



UnfulredJohnson

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Reply #35 on: October 12, 2014, 10:41:14 PM
This story was all about voice. And it had it in spades. Really like this one.



hardware

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Reply #36 on: October 23, 2014, 09:05:16 AM
Yes, I liked this one a lot as well, as a character piece and a meditation on loss, freedom and heritage it was excellent and written in a beautiful way. If I would have voted, it would be for this one.