Author Topic: EP179: Arties Aren’t Stupid  (Read 30584 times)

Bdoomed

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Reply #50 on: October 31, 2008, 12:01:22 AM
que cute!  I like the more innocent stories.

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


Planish

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Reply #51 on: November 01, 2008, 04:52:16 AM
I thought that Philippa's accent was the icing on the cake. Along with the accent I would expect to hear slightly different words and turns of phrases than I normally would from day to day. So, when the author threw one of his own in, I wasn't disengaged. It all blended in fairly smoothly.

I suppose it helps that I rather like Aussie and Kiwi accents in general. They must have been absorbed as a result of all those marathon sessions watching the LoTR boxed set Special Features DVDs and listening to every one of the commentary tracks.  ;)

I think I'll put this on my EP Top Twenty list.

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("planish" rhymes with "vanish")


Aaron

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Reply #52 on: November 03, 2008, 06:12:32 PM
Refreshing.

Wonderfully written and read. Just what I needed.

The language was wonderful and made me stop and really focus on the story.

This story pulled me into another world and once it had taken me outside the events and emotions of my life for a few moments it gave me another perspective to view and battle the problems and trials awaiting me upon my return to my native reality.

I'm pretty smart but my brain doesn't always work the way I want it to and this makes it is hard for me to maintain a healthy level of confidence in my own intelligence and ability to function as a competent part of society.

I loved the world built will have to revisit it again and again.



McToad

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Reply #53 on: November 13, 2008, 12:58:19 AM
I really liked this one.  The first one I've had a strong postive on in a while.

McToad

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  but few things are probable.


wherethewild

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Reply #54 on: November 14, 2008, 10:26:59 AM
I loved this story.

I don't have much to add to any other comments. Phillipa's reading was wonderful. I can imagine the difficulty most people had at the start was the language used in the story, not the accent of the reader. Personally I think non-US accents should be used more.

The story was beautiful and sweet and tragic and hopeful. It raised questions, gave some answers and left me feeling the beauty of both science and art, and how much our culture needs both.

The Great N-sh whispers in my ear, and he's talking about you.


MacArthurBug

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Reply #55 on: November 14, 2008, 03:41:21 PM
Personally I think non-US accents should be used more.

I second that- but I've previously noted that I heart accents.. so..

Oh, great and mighty Alasdair, Orator Maleficent, He of the Silvered Tongue, guide this humble fangirl past jumping up and down and squeeing upon hearing the greatness of Thy voice.
Oh mighty Mur the Magnificent. I am not worthy.


Clutron

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Reply #56 on: December 13, 2008, 12:01:57 AM
I didn't like this one.  Maybe it made me think too hard?  Plus, I didn't like the accent, it made it hard to listen to for me and kinda made me sleepy in the car.  Bad combo.



Poppydragon

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Reply #57 on: December 13, 2008, 12:52:53 AM
Probably my favourite so far, having listened through virtually the whole back catalogue in rapid succession this one stands out as clever and thoughtful with a lovely twist on the old theme of the child rebeling against the parent. Beautifully read, the Burgess like dialogue worked splendidly for me. Left me disappointed that it had finished, which is always a good sign

Man - despite his artistic pretensions, his sophistication, and his many accomplishments - owes his existence to a six inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains.


Thomas Daulton

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Reply #58 on: September 22, 2009, 03:17:48 PM
Mainly testing my brand-new membership with my first new post.

But... I listened to this story only a few months ago, while "catching-up" on older stories I had saved but not listened to...

Did anyone notice that the "moss graffiti" mentioned in the story actually exists?  Looks like it's easy to make, but haven't tried it myself yet.

Once again, science fiction is hard-pressed to keep up with the present!

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Moss-Graffiti

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/zubLxZ0bwpQ&amp;color1=0xb1b1b1&amp;color2=0xcfcfcf&amp;feature=player_embedded&amp;fs=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/zubLxZ0bwpQ&amp;color1=0xb1b1b1&amp;color2=0xcfcfcf&amp;feature=player_embedded&amp;fs=1</a>

"All that is gold does not glitter; not all those that wander are lost." --J.R.R. TOLKIEN


Unblinking

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Reply #59 on: April 09, 2010, 05:06:21 PM
When I started playing this one, after a couple minutes I realized I had no clue what was going on.  A case of bad timing--I was on my way back home from my first SF convention ever, where I'd given my first novel pitch to an editor, which I thought went well, and my mind was spending much of its think-cycles thinking about the pitch and figuring out what parts of the story needed to be changed.

So, I wisely decided that I should start from the beginning when I wasn't so distracted, and I really enjoyed it!  Once I was devoting sufficient attention to it, I picked up the slang very quickly.  I was already pretty familiar with Kiwi accents (thanks Flight of the Conchords), so I didn't have too much difficulty with that, and I think her voice went very well with the story.  The slang was all very intuitive.  I'd guessed "arties" meant "artists" before I listened to the story so it probably helped that I didn't have the word "artificial" stuck in there.  It introduced Tinmen quickly, which I pictured as Tin Woodsmen and probably police (tin badges in the wild west), then shortly thereafter referred to them as pigbots which reinforced the robo-police perception which turned out to be true.  It took me a few iterations to realize what Thicknecks meant but it followed from the other classes without much difficulty, no biggy.

I did wonder what put the world in this state but it made more sense NOT to tell us, because the narrator would not have known.  Apparently some kind of biological blight has occurred to make non-human life nonexistent or scarce, and whether in parallel or separately, people have made designer children.  Although each has an enhanced specialty I didn't see it as being that they had any actual reduced potential in other areas, it's just that in those other areas their potential is unrealized.  Their parents chose a specialty for them and they expect their kid to fulfill that specialty, even though it means taking time away from being more well-rounded.  The idea of having to be forced into just one specialty area is sad to me--I am neither right nor left-brained, but taking each in turn.  I need both in my life to feel satisfied.  So I work in engineering to satisfy my logical side and write fiction to satisfy my creative side.  I liked that the most important figure in the story is the one who is able to grow past his expected boundaries.

I thought it was interesting that the Brainiacs couldn't create, but seemed happy to just study what already exists.  This makes Brainiacs and Arties a perfect pairing because the Arties create but don't understand, and the Brainiacs understand but don't create. 

As far as the question of why the arties are suppressed and out on their own, I assumed that rebellion was a part of their artistic nature.  I figured that they were created to stay at home and serve a function to their parents making things beautiful.  But the arties rebelled, thinking that fulfilling a purpose instead of creating art for art was like selling out.  So they go out and find a way to express themselves that is NOT approved/sanctioned by graffiti and the like.