Pseudopod 111: Radiodemonology

[Heradel]

Pseudopod 111: Radiodemonology

By John Medaille

Read by Alasdair Stuart

Okay.

I first discovered the existence of the human soul while examining the x-ray of a broken clavicle of an ugly boy named Peter Demetrios. Peter, who was the kind of kid I think of as a fly-torturing, spaghettio-bellied, dirty-fingernailed, nose-picking little crap of a little boy, had landed on a trampoline wrong and sustained a multiply displaced comminuted fracture of the collar bone.

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Listen to this week's Pseudopod.

[DKT]

I'm confused...what was the guy's profession again? 

I liked the style of this for the most part, liked the writing, thought the asshole radiodemonologist was amusing.  Alasdair's reading was good and Ben's outro cracked me up quite a bit ("If you still believe us when we say that)"  I liked the story enough that when the radiologist started seeing the soul, I overlooked why he thought it was a soul instead of a parasite or something else. 

But where I had a hard time was when he decided he might be a demon because he lacked a soul.  I mean, I can understand a lot of reactions to not seeing your soul, but a demon?  When I think of demons, I think of monsters (in human form or not in human form) who don't have careers, don't have families, and were never born, not in the way people were.  Certainly, if it were me, I would think something was wrong with me.  But I don't think my first reaction would be "Does this mean I'm a demon?" I know the narrator is supposed to be unreliable, but still.  That twist just didn't click at all for me.

[Listener]

I really liked this one. Alasdair has a great way of pacing when he reads stories or outros.

The story was interesting. I wasn't expecting him to operate on himself, but it made logical sense for him to do so, in Horror-Story-Land.

I don't really have a lot of comments. I just lked the story.

[Alasdair5000]

I'm confused...what was the guy's profession again? 

I liked the style of this for the most part, liked the writing, thought the asshole radiodemonologist was amusing.  Alasdair's reading was good and Ben's outro cracked me up quite a bit ("If you still believe us when we say that)"  I liked the story enough that when the radiologist started seeing the soul, I overlooked why he thought it was a soul instead of a parasite or something else. 

But where I had a hard time was when he decided he might be a demon because he lacked a soul.  I mean, I can understand a lot of reactions to not seeing your soul, but a demon?  When I think of demons, I think of monsters (in human form or not in human form) who don't have careers, don't have families, and were never born, not in the way people were.  Certainly, if it were me, I would think something was wrong with me.  But I don't think my first reaction would be "Does this mean I'm a demon?" I know the narrator is supposed to be unreliable, but still.  That twist just didn't click at all for me.

   It's an interesting point.  However, for me, the conclusion is in line with the character's thinking.  He, very quietly, goes completely mad not at the point he sees the demon but the point he sees the soul.  He spends the rest of the story trying and failing to reconcile what he's seen with what he's been taught and the end result is this broken, just about coherent line of reasoning.  I also thought that his House-like disdain for the rest of humanity fed into it ('Because CLEARLY the worst possible outcome for me is this.' that kind of thing).

   I really enjoyed this, reading it and reading it, if you catch my drift:)  Glad people dug it.

[DKT]

The character did make me think of House a bit, which was fun. 

[Alasdair5000]

You're not the only one:)  A couple of the offhand comments are very House-esque ('Driving from square, bloated states to larger, worse ones' and 'I am going to need a LOT of gauze' spring to mind:)

[thomasowenm]

At least it was short.  I just could not find anything to like in the protagonist.  He was a dick in the beginning, middle, and when he finally took things in his own hands still a dick.  Even though the author thought he was portraying him as "snarky" I could only see him as bitter.  Stuck with a  job taking pictures of injuries, edvidently not being able to become a real doctor.  (I'm not disparaging the radiology profession, just trying to see it through the protagonists eyes.)  I wonder if the hospital charged people for the extra X-rays he took that were unnecessary. 

On a seperate note:  I know all PP are considered r or x rated but the outro was vulgar without adding anything to what we heard.

[RKG]

A good story.  The ending was suitably creepy - it has me squirming.

A couple comments:

For me the author overplayed the "I know. I know you know. I know you know I already know you know I know" thing.  Once was enough for me (and effective -  I'm a sucker for subtle meta-information like that).  

Additional observation/question: I think having people outside the operating room watching softened the tension at the end (on purpose maybe?).  It let me out of the box and drew me to the outside perspective:  "Hey, the radiologist went wacko and killed himself."  

[JoeFitz]

Nice one. I think it might have ended with the self x-ray, but that would have been more of a TV thing. The surgery commentary was very well read!

[Thaurismunths]

Wow. Alasdair. You sounded like a right prick when you read that! I never would have considered you the kind of person who would ever be so offensive. Way to go!

I definitely enjoyed the story. A lot.
I was aghast and appalled (read: delighted) when the radiologist was being such an outright asshole to the patients. Every time he started saying something horrible I thought it was internal monologue; nope. And, as I mentioned above, having Alasdair read it made it even more outrageous.

Best line of the whole story was the last one. "Oh, there it is... and there it goes."

I had similar feelings about the 'I know, I know' lines at first, but I thought it quite fitting considering the narrator was on drugs at the moment and his suddenly swaying perspective accurately reflected his altered state of mind.

[eytanz]

So, essentially, this is about a man who goes crazy and commits suicide in a very interesting way. Or else, it's about a man who sees souls, and goes to great length to look for his own.

I wonder why he decided the thing he sees is a soul. If the mass-murderer has a big one, and the community-minded priest has a small one, maybe it's a bad thing to have? Maybe it's not the soul, but the repository of sins?

Oh well. It was an ok story, but the best thing about it was the reading by Alasdair.

[Thaurismunths]

I wonder why he decided the thing he sees is a soul.

That was a big pill to swallow, but once down the rest of the story went easily.
I would have liked half a sentence as to why he knew it was a soul.

[JoeFitz]

For me the author overplayed the "I know. I know you know. I know you know I already know you know I know" thing.  Once was enough for me (and effective -  I'm a sucker for subtle meta-information like that).  

Yes, I know.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round_the_Horne

[Zathras]

I really liked this whole episode.  I think Ben's intro/outro hit just the right note.  I could almost picture Ben as the main character. 

I didn't have a problem with him immediately identifying what he found as a soul.  Go read about some serial killers, they believe some pretty weird stuff.

I loved the end, "there it is and there it goes".  That was fantastic!

[gelee]

Brilliant.  Funny and creepy at the same time.  That's damn hard to do.  Great reading from Alistair, and it's nice to hear Ben playing "host" again.  Bravo to all.  Best PP episode I've heard in quite a while.

My only gripe would be, at the very beginning, I had a hard time getting a handle on the age of the squalling child.  By it's behavior, it seemd 6 to 9, but the line about going out for football seemed to indicate 13-17.

[MacArthurBug]

weird, gorss, and quite interesting. I REALLY shouldn't have listned to it RIGHT before going in for my X-ray...

[Thaurismunths]

weird, gorss, and quite interesting. I REALLY shouldn't have listned to it RIGHT before going in for my X-ray...

Did you see you soul... wait. never mind. Forgot who I was asking.

[bolddeceiver]

Best last line on PP so far.

[petronivs]

Beautiful, simply beautiful.  I laughed, I cried, I fought the urge to vomit.  The pacing was excellent, and the characterizations were quite elegant.  I don't think the story would've been quite the same with a different reader; he did an excellent job.

The only thing I would have suggested for improvement would be to take more time for character development, with possibly some theorizing behind soul size, and also explanation of why the protagonist believed that, in some, the souls were entirely absent instead of just being too small to see.

[Zathras]

The only thing I would have suggested for improvement would be to take more time for character development, with possibly some theorizing behind soul size, and also explanation of why the protagonist believed that, in some, the souls were entirely absent instead of just being too small to see.

They weren't there because he knew they weren't there.  This guy was off his fraggin' rocker.

[fuzzygnome]

I also liked the story but had a big problem with the fact that he says he doesn't believe in God, yet he immediately assumes these are souls he is seeing and also that people without them must be demons.  Just didn't buy it- not from an athiest. 
But the prose was entertaining, and Alasdair's reading saved the story.

[CammoBlammo]

I always love a suicide story told in past-tense first-person.

The radiologist didn't quite fit my experience---in the hospitals I've been to, radiologists also do ultrasounds. That job can require some incredible tact, since the patient's in the room when the tests are initially interpreted. Similarly, I wouldn't have thought radiologists would always be in a position to make diagnoses based on an x-ray. Sure, they might be able to do some incredibly difficult interpretation of the photos, but wouldn't diagnoses and prognoses be made by other specialists?

Then again, this guy clearly thought more of his abilities and less of his patients than we like to think doctors do. Dr House excluded, of course.

[MacArthurBug]

weird, gorss, and quite interesting. I REALLY shouldn't have listned to it RIGHT before going in for my X-ray...

Did you see you soul... wait. never mind. Forgot who I was asking.

Dunno havn't gotten the scan back yet- but yeah prolly not.

[Listener]

For me the author overplayed the "I know. I know you know. I know you know I already know you know I know" thing.  Once was enough for me (and effective -  I'm a sucker for subtle meta-information like that).  

I think that could've been annoying, but Alasdair's reading made it work.

[taueret]

this is my favourite Pseudopod so far, bar none.  Great reading too.