Author Topic: EP156: Distant Replay  (Read 39377 times)

Russell Nash

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Reply #75 on: July 11, 2008, 10:39:30 AM
I'm a guy, 55 years old, and pretty much look it. About a year and a half ago, I was driving to work as usual on a back road that cuts off a few hundred meters from my route, and is generally less populated and more scenic (farm, cow pasture, hayfields, etc.) than the main road. I see this girl jogging. I recognise her as the fairly attractive teenage daughter, Melanie, of my wife's good friend Donna. We had met her at odd times when we visited Donna. Melanie was on the high school soccer team, and I figured the running was part of her training. I give a brief wave as I pass her. Then it seemed that every morning I would pass her at about the same place, like clockwork. She'd give this shy little wave as I passed, and I'd wave back. Last spring, she didn't show up for a few months, and I knew that Melanie had graduated and would be going to university about 200 km away. I figured she went early, for a summer job or something. Then one day in the early fall, I saw her running again - same time, same general area. We waved.

A few days later I was talking to Donna on the phone and asked her if Melanie had been home for the weekend. Donna said "no, why?" I explained about us waving to each other while I was driving to work on that back road. It turns out that the young woman I had been waving to was somebody else entirely. A total stranger, except for our waving ritual. I've never seen her in other places, such as the local grocery store, or at least I've never recognized her anywhere else.

Now I'm left with this conundrum. I have this vague need to explain myself or or apologize or something to this stranger, since the ritual began as a result of a misunderstanding on my part. Do I...
A. Stop waving back and ignore her from now on. (seems rude)
B. Keep waving as usual. (seems ... I dunno what)
C. Stop the car when I see her (on the deserted back road), roll down the window as she passes and start talking to her, to explain myself. (prepare to be pepper-sprayed?)

I've been primed to be aware that "option C." could make me seem creepy, especially if she decided to just keep running without hearing what I said. I wouldn't be able to try it again without scaring her. She might feel a need to change her route.
Maybe I could prepare a note and toss it out just before we pass each other, hoping that she'd pick it up and read after I drove by, but that just seems too weird, even to me.

The only thing I can figure might work is to find some other woman who also runs (hey, I know one who trains for marathons!) and who might know who the mystery runner is (it's a small town). I explain the situation to her, and she tells the mystery woman what's going on, and we merely continue with option B.

It all makes me feel like I'm in an episode of Seinfield.

Planish,

That would be a funny as hell story written from both sides.  You'd need to talk to a few different women to get the runner's reaction/thinking right. 



Darwinist

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Reply #76 on: July 11, 2008, 01:34:59 PM

A. Stop waving back and ignore her from now on. (seems rude)
B. Keep waving as usual. (seems ... I dunno what)
C. Stop the car when I see her (on the deserted back road), roll down the window as she passes and start talking to her, to explain myself. (prepare to be pepper-sprayed?)

It all makes me feel like I'm in an episode of Seinfield.

I would go with "B" by process of elimination.  I guess I would err on the side of friendliness and keep waving rather than cutting her off or stopping the car and making a bigger deal out of it.  If you ever run in to her at the grocery store or gas station you can explain that she looks like someone else you know.  And I don't think it is all that weird, I run several times a week in the mornings and there are some other people out that I always meet but don't know and we always exchange a "Hi" or "Good Morning".  Good luck! 

For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.    -  Carl Sagan


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Reply #77 on: July 11, 2008, 09:56:35 PM
waving at strangers -> not bad

stopping to explain why you're waving -> potentially creepy



Planish

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Reply #78 on: July 12, 2008, 08:27:41 AM
That would be a funny as hell story written from both sides.  You'd need to talk to a few different women to get the runner's reaction/thinking right. 

Something like an O. Henry/Saki pastiche?

It could be difficult. I'd have to present her side in such a way that doesn't tip off the reader that she is not Melanie. Without the surprise element of me finally realising that she was someone else, I think it would be somewhat lame.

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("planish" rhymes with "vanish")


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Reply #79 on: August 20, 2010, 04:57:38 PM
This was one of those Hugo noms where I just didn't understand how it got nominated in the first place.  I think Resnick has been nominated pretty much every year for a good long time now, and when I like a story by him I REALLY like it.  But some years it seems like his story is nominated because a Resnick story is always nominated, not because they're any better than hundreds of other stories that year.

It was an okay love story.  Resnick's good at pulling out emotions, but this time the puppetmaster was just way too visible for me.  I could tell exactly where I was SUPPOSED to feel each reaction.  And because it was a Hugo nom, my expectations were higher.

It didn't make sense to me that the old and young versions dressed the same and liked the same movies.  All the hints were that they were essentially the same people in every meaningful way, but the context of the young man loving the old movies is very different from an old man loving old movies.  that didn't make any sense to me.

I usually love this readers voice, but in this story he could've dialed it down a few notches.  He's good at conveying emotions, but the emotions were laid on so thick this time that every word dripped with angst.  If there's no contrast between one part of the story and another then it conveys no change of emotion, and the constant thick emotion becomes distracting.  For me, it was so strong and so sustained that it went right past believable and into satirical exaggeration.  If he'd used that voice only at a select passage or two when he's feeling particularly strongly, then it could've been a real benefit to the reading. 



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Reply #80 on: August 24, 2010, 04:47:27 PM
This was one of those Hugo noms where I just didn't understand how it got nominated in the first place.  I think Resnick has been nominated pretty much every year for a good long time now, and when I like a story by him I REALLY like it.  But some years it seems like his story is nominated because a Resnick story is always nominated, not because they're any better than hundreds of other stories that year.

Susan Lucci syndrome.

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