Author Topic: PC029: Dead Languages  (Read 54384 times)

deflective

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Reply #75 on: October 31, 2008, 11:03:24 PM
i always read it as ste.PH

as in the french female saint of acidity. probably cranberry juice.
« Last Edit: October 31, 2008, 11:08:07 PM by deflective »



stePH

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Reply #76 on: October 31, 2008, 11:14:07 PM
You are Rachel Swirsky correct? ("That rare creature... peculiar and scarce seen thing...") You did say in the intro for this story that you tried watching Buffy didn't you? I listened again and that's what you said. I quote, "I even rented the first season from Blockbuster..." and  "Three episodes in and my mind was numb"

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

You're wrong.  You're welcome.

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-- some guy interviewed in Nerdcore Rising


Hobart Floyt

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Reply #77 on: November 01, 2008, 03:03:34 AM
You are Rachel Swirsky correct? ("That rare creature... peculiar and scarce seen thing...") You did say in the intro for this story that you tried watching Buffy didn't you? I listened again and that's what you said. I quote, "I even rented the first season from Blockbuster..." and  "Three episodes in and my mind was numb"

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

You're wrong.  You're welcome.

Thank you! (Like having a conversation with Mrs Cake from Terry Pratchett's Discworld)

Obviously, I'm new here. I've been listening since Podcastle's inception but I've never visited the forums. I just had to add my two cents after listening to Dead Languages though because I liked it so much.

I'm curious, you're a man and your name is Rachel? That's a very unusual name for a man at least in my experience.
« Last Edit: November 01, 2008, 04:51:19 AM by Hobart Floyt »

In the midst of the word he was trying to say,
  In the midst of his laughter and glee,
He had softly and suddenly vanished away—
  For the Snark was a Boojum, you see.


Rachel Swirsky

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Reply #78 on: November 01, 2008, 03:30:43 AM
Er, I'm not sure why  you think Steph's name is Rachel, but I'm fairly sure his name isn't Rachel. I think you may have read something incorrectly. My guess is that you saw him quoting me, and assumed that meant he was me.

In any case, welcome to the forums.



Hobart Floyt

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Reply #79 on: November 01, 2008, 03:44:44 AM
Er, I'm not sure why  you think Steph's name is Rachel, but I'm fairly sure his name isn't Rachel. I think you may have read something incorrectly. My guess is that you saw him quoting me, and assumed that meant he was me.

In any case, welcome to the forums.

Thank you!

I, perhaps mistakenly, assumed that he replied to a comment about Buffy that I directed toward you. If I was not mistaken he replied to a comment directed specifically at Rachel thus by inference, he is Rachel. I was trying to be witty. Apparently I failed.  If I had read through this thread I would not have mistaken him for Rachel Swirsky. Sorry! A bit of laziness on my part. No offense intended. 
« Last Edit: November 01, 2008, 04:59:16 AM by Hobart Floyt »

In the midst of the word he was trying to say,
  In the midst of his laughter and glee,
He had softly and suddenly vanished away—
  For the Snark was a Boojum, you see.


stePH

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Reply #80 on: November 11, 2008, 02:18:10 PM
I'm curious, you're a man and your name is Rachel? That's a very unusual name for a man at least in my experience.

 :D it is to larf ....

No, my name is Stephen, pronunciation unlike that of Mr. Eley's.  What ever gave you the idea that my name was Rachel?

BTW my father used to tell me he had a friend in school named Beverly ... who was a real hardcase despite being a very short kid -- first day of every school year he would pick a fight with the biggest kid he saw, and according to my father, always kicked his ass.  Must be an example of the "Boy Named Sue" effect in action.

"Nerdcore is like playing Halo while getting a blow-job from Hello Kitty."
-- some guy interviewed in Nerdcore Rising


Hobart Floyt

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Reply #81 on: November 14, 2008, 03:06:44 AM
I'm curious, you're a man and your name is Rachel? That's a very unusual name for a man at least in my experience.

 :D it is to larf ....

No, my name is Stephen, pronunciation unlike that of Mr. Eley's.  What ever gave you the idea that my name was Rachel?

BTW my father used to tell me he had a friend in school named Beverly ... who was a real hardcase despite being a very short kid -- first day of every school year he would pick a fight with the biggest kid he saw, and according to my father, always kicked his ass.  Must be an example of the "Boy Named Sue" effect in action.


It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance Stephen! My name is Gary or Hobart if you like.

In answer to your question. I never actually thought your name was Rachel. I directed my comments about Buffy toward Rachel Swirsky and you replied. So, by inference, you are Rachel. Just trying desperately to be funny.  ;D

In the midst of the word he was trying to say,
  In the midst of his laughter and glee,
He had softly and suddenly vanished away—
  For the Snark was a Boojum, you see.


izzardfan

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Reply #82 on: January 08, 2009, 10:45:42 AM
Late to the game, here, as I am working enjoying my way through Podcastle stories. I downloaded all of them as they were first available, through iTunes, so I still had the uncorrected version.  I enjoyed the story, mostly, loved MK's reading, and easily got past the editing glitches, but replaced my copy with the new version now.  (I keep ALL of the files, no matter how I feel about the stories.)  I would have said I'm a science fiction fan, rather than a fantasy fan--the main reason I didn't start listening to PC until I was completely caught up with EP (I don't listen to PP as horror now creeps me out, unlike when I read lots of Stephen King say, 20 years ago). But I'm (mostly) enjoying the fantasy stories on PC.

I haven't seen any Buffy (the movie or the TV show), as I'm not interested, despite loving vampire stories (Dracula, Anne Rice's entire series, etc.), so I only have the comments here to go by, but since Lillian specifically mentions Buffy, obviously the author is aware of the show, and might have even seen some episodes... like maybe the one that her story apparently so closely resembles?  Would that be considered plagiarism?






eytanz

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Reply #83 on: January 08, 2009, 01:26:56 PM

I haven't seen any Buffy (the movie or the TV show), as I'm not interested, despite loving vampire stories (Dracula, Anne Rice's entire series, etc.), so I only have the comments here to go by, but since Lillian specifically mentions Buffy, obviously the author is aware of the show, and might have even seen some episodes... like maybe the one that her story apparently so closely resembles?  Would that be considered plagiarism?

Nah, it's very clearly (if you're familiar with Buffy) an inspiration, but there's no particular episode that is very close to the contents of this story, just more a general tone and character archtypes (plucky young female vampire slayer being the main one).

But in general, plagarism in fiction requires direct borrowing - copying someone's actual words, or having the exact same sequence of events, with no changes at all. There's plenty of ways to take inspiration from an earlier story - including ways which are quite close to the original, such as retellings and some parodies - and none of them are considered plagarism.



Unblinking

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Reply #84 on: January 04, 2010, 08:27:40 PM
I've only seen bits and pieces of Buffy, and what I saw didn't really impress me.  Maybe I saw bad episodes, or maybe it's just not my thing.  I don't know.  I do know that I've been very surprised by how far-reaching Buffy fandom is, reaching far beyond the groups of people that I would usually predict it in. 

But I loved Firefly.  Entirely in hindsight I'm afraid, I never watched an episode until a couple years after it was cancelled, but then watched the episodes almost all back to back on DVD.  Love it!

Anyway, this was not a bad story.  I would've preferred it to get to the fantasy part a little earlier.  As it is, the beginning is mostly the woman bemoaning her dating problems and her arm flab.  Note that I'm not complaining about the protagonist's problems, nor her bemoaning, as character traits, but they are not a particularly driving central conflict for me.  Once the fantasy elements happened, it was much easier to get into it.

The idea was an intriguing one and I thought it was reasonably well executed.  The reader did an excellent job portraying the character which enhanced the story significantly.  The central idea was original (at least to me, since I haven't seen the related Buffy episodes) and well-written.  It's a fun premise that makes me wonder what else could've been transformed, which to me is added value to the story. 

For what it's worth, I didn't sense a coercion of love in this story, but perhaps I've just forgotten, I listened to this one quite a while back.  In any case, I don't see a problem with it as presented, since her intent was not to coerce his love.  And to address whether or not SHE should've been more attracted to him AFTER, I got the impression that she kind of liked him before, but as a defense mechanism she put up her full smartass-shield to blow him off because she assumed he wasn't interested in her.  Once he became interested in her, she didn't need the shield and could let herself feel what she felt.  Just a thought.

I also did like the non-traditional elements, like the fact that the spell was irreversible, and the non-entity boyfriend who was neither inherently good nor bad but just kind of a barely seen character that is of little interest even to our protagonist.