Author Topic: EP173: Robots Don’t Cry  (Read 39644 times)

Bdoomed

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Reply #50 on: September 08, 2008, 01:58:30 PM
wow veganvampire i love your avatar!

sorry for interrupting.

I'd like to hear my options, so I could weigh them, what do you say?
Five pounds?  Six pounds? Seven pounds?


koda

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Reply #51 on: September 08, 2008, 02:30:22 PM
I don't know if it is all Mike Resnick stories, but I usually hear the name and think, "why does that sound familiar?" and then there is a crappy, pointless story.

And that makes me sad. =(

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Lionman

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Reply #52 on: September 08, 2008, 04:02:26 PM
I wasn't a big fan of this story.  It seemed dry and the ending a bit disconnected.  I don't think the feeling and desire of the robot came across like I would have expected it to.  Maybe I just expected more out of it.

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Talia

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Reply #53 on: September 08, 2008, 04:22:24 PM
You must be listening to a different escape pod, I've yet to hear a Mike Resnick story that was crappy and pointless.



Swamp

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Reply #54 on: September 08, 2008, 06:15:39 PM
Hey, has anyone seen this (sorry, if someone has already posted it): Rogun the robot-babysitter by Korean gadget company CornTech.

That's nothing compared to the hours of fun I had with my 2-XL, and it just used 8-track tapes.  Anyone else have one?

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eytanz

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Reply #55 on: September 08, 2008, 06:29:06 PM
This story didn't work for me. I felt the narrative voice to be contrived and superficial. The story of Miss Emily itself felt like it was a direct-to-cable tearjerker - hitting all the standard buttons, with little originality or insight. But the fact that the story was trite wasn't the issue for me. I can accept triteness if it's well-written, which this was. The problem was that we were removed from the Miss Emily story by the narrative framework. And while I myself may get an emotional response to a cliche'd story, hearing about how someone else was deeply moved by it - especially as the premise of "cold, callow man's heart melts" is also a cliche - holds no appeal to me whatsoever.



slowmovingthing

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Reply #56 on: September 09, 2008, 12:05:27 PM
I have been looking forward to reading/hearing this story since I saw a review of an animated film of the story on scifi.com (the review was fairly negative, but doled out great respect for the story).

I ended up running errands while I listened to this piece.

At about the 27 minute mark I got out of the car where my mp3 player was plugged into the radio.

With the ability to stop and reflect about the story partway through, I walked about my errand and thought to myself that although Steve gave the tear jerker warning I did not see how the information about the person and robot we should care about, provided in 3rd hand information, from a narrator who is in no way a compassionate person, could cause me to tear up within the few minutes I had left to listen.

Of course by the end, the tears were flowing.

Good Job, Mike.



stePH

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Reply #57 on: September 09, 2008, 01:01:32 PM
... the hours of fun I had with my 2-XL, and it just used 8-track tapes.  Anyone else have one?
Yes, and my wife remembers the little guy too.

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sayeth

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Reply #58 on: September 10, 2008, 02:03:36 AM
A question for Mr. Resnick: Is "Miss Emily" a nod to the character of the same name in William Faulkner's story "A Rose for Emily"? It seems like they have a few things in common. I had recently been reminded of the Faulker story from its appearance in an episode of Miette's Bedtime Stories podcast.

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mike-resnick

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Reply #59 on: September 10, 2008, 03:34:43 AM
>>A question for Mr. Resnick: Is "Miss Emily" a nod to the character of the same name in William Faulkner's story "A Rose for Emily"? It seems like they have a few things in common. I had recently been reminded of the Faulker story from its appearance in an episode of Miette's Bedtime Stories podcast.<<

No, I hadn't thought about Faulkner's story until you just mentioned it. Actually, "Miss Emily"
is what I call Tobias Buckell's charming wife.

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rick_2047

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Reply #60 on: September 10, 2008, 09:10:08 AM
You know what it was actually nice to watch me crying in the mirror. For the first time in my life i admired those little liquid drops coming out of my eyes. I know I sound like a little sissy when I talk like that but hell maan be honest I think all of us cried listening to it.



Loz

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Reply #61 on: September 10, 2008, 09:52:36 AM
Didn't work for me at all, I felt I was given no reason to care that bad things happened to someone who died a long time ago and as for the Bicentennial Man plot with the robot, gosh, we have another grumpy prospector who likes to pretend he's only after money and looking after number one in order to protect the noble human being he is inside?

Although the quality of Mr Resnick's writing was as great as ever, the plot was melodramatic and clichéd.



rowshack

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Reply #62 on: September 12, 2008, 05:05:51 PM
It reminded me of everyone I have lost and made me go threw and mourn them all over agein. It was refreshing to remember the day I lost them which led to remembering our time together and being able to see what they added to my life. I just have to remember to not listen to any Resnick while operating a forklift agein.



stePH

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Reply #63 on: September 14, 2008, 02:27:22 PM
... but hell maan be honest I think all of us cried listening to it.

Nope.  Not all of us.

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mudguts

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Reply #64 on: September 15, 2008, 12:54:42 AM
Maybe I'm made of tin but I didn't cry.  It reminded me a bit of the "Wizard of Oz" tinman.
Very well written and read.   A bit of action would've been nice though. 

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Reply #65 on: September 23, 2008, 12:55:09 PM
I wouldn't have been able to tell you what I really thought of this story when I finished listening to it, but I did move it right over to my "Keep" playlist.  I only keep about 10% of the stories, so I guess I liked it.



Unblinking

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Reply #66 on: June 25, 2010, 04:48:28 PM
Resnick stories tend to skirt a line between being tearjerkers and being transparently emotionally manipulative.  This one fell into the latter category for me.  I'm not sure if it was the heavy reliance on cliches, but instead of feeling emotion I could mark the points in the story "This is supposed to make me feel sad" but without actually feeling sad.  I like me a good Resnick story, but this case I could see the man behind the curtain.

It is hard to break new ground with a "robot learns to love" story and I just don't think this one pulled it off.  It doesn't help that we have so many other Resnick stories with such a similar theme here on EP to compare it to.  Beachcomber pulled it off much more effectively, and did it more concisely, to boot.  Of course, I have also sold a "robot learns to love" story, so perhaps others would see mine the same way.