Author Topic: PodCastle Miniature 30: Rotations and Consequences  (Read 7233 times)

Heradel

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on: April 16, 2009, 10:58:11 PM
PodCastle Miniature 30: Rotations and Consequences

by Katherine Sparrow.

Read by Rachel Swirsky.

Dear people of the world,

Here is something that happened that you should really know about. That you need to know about. I know because I saw it. There was a woman who walked into her backyard. The grass beneath her bare feet was wet and cold, but she knelt and lay down upon it with her palms pressed into the ground and her legs spread wide. She touched as much of it as her finite body was able to. In her fenced- in yard, in the subdivision of her suburb, underneath the faint stars, she closed her eyes. I saw her.

Rated PG. Contains flight.

I Twitter. I also occasionally blog on the Escape Pod blog, which if you're here you shouldn't have much trouble finding.


Zathras

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Reply #1 on: April 17, 2009, 12:56:16 AM
Another episode that I didn't finish.  I've tried not to just reply in the episode threads with "meh" or "didn't finish".  I appreciate the work that goes into these, so if I don't have more specific criticisms, I'll just keep quiet.



eytanz

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Reply #2 on: April 18, 2009, 10:01:25 AM
You know how usually, almost every PC miniature has a bunch of people saying "I didn't get the point of this", and then I often chime in with "Oh, it may not have been a story in the conventional sense, but it was really great".

Well, then - I didn't get the point of this.



ian_mackereth

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Reply #3 on: April 18, 2009, 11:26:32 AM
I couldn't get into this, because I kept waiting to hear how the author was going to interpret the next part of the lyrics of Talking Heads' "And She Was"!

http://www.talking-heads.nl/index.php/talking-heads-lyrics/19-little-creatures

Surely David Byrne should be credited as co-author...

Lying in the grass, taking off the dress, moving into the universe, showing up as a missing person...  it's all there and unlikely to be coincidence.



Katie

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Reply #4 on: April 18, 2009, 02:43:33 PM
Yipes! This is the author here and that Talking Heads song was definitely the inspiration for this story, though hopefully it doesn't fall into the world of plagiarism or traipsing too heavily on someone's creative lawn. Everything I write comes from somewhere, and there's nothing particularly original that writers ever do. However, if it felt that obvious, I may have erred on the getting too inspired side of things. Sorry.



stePH

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Reply #5 on: April 19, 2009, 02:22:14 PM
Another episode that I didn't finish.  I've tried not to just reply in the episode threads with "meh" or "didn't finish".  I appreciate the work that goes into these, so if I don't have more specific criticisms, I'll just keep quiet.

Good idea.  It's so rare that I have any favorable opinion of a PC mini, that I think I will only post to those episodes. 

(Unless I really hate one of the bad ones, maybe.)

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-- some guy interviewed in Nerdcore Rising


Listener

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Reply #6 on: April 22, 2009, 07:48:42 PM
Yipes! This is the author here and that Talking Heads song was definitely the inspiration for this story, though hopefully it doesn't fall into the world of plagiarism or traipsing too heavily on someone's creative lawn. Everything I write comes from somewhere, and there's nothing particularly original that writers ever do. However, if it felt that obvious, I may have erred on the getting too inspired side of things. Sorry.

There was a whole SF anthology of stories inspired by a certain musician... EP aired "Ej-Es" which was related to her... Joni Mitchell? Janis Joplin? I forget who. So there's precedent.

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Talia

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Reply #7 on: April 23, 2009, 04:57:13 AM
Enjoyed this. Definitely a bit surreal - nonetheless a fun exploration of "what ifs." Challenged some thoughts we have as, well, planetary residents, I suppose.. which was interesting.




Djibril

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Reply #8 on: April 23, 2009, 06:56:06 PM
I really enjoyed this story, found the use of language and imagery beautiful, the content sensitive and exciting. Very nicely done piece on this theme... The "tell not show" style was more than tolerable in a piece this short. I'm recommending this to several people today.

(I'm intrigued now to know more about the stories that the author is "looking for a home for"... ;-) )

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*Now reading for Feminist Science Fiction themed issue*


Loz

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Reply #9 on: May 02, 2009, 06:50:49 AM
Maybe it was too fantastical for me and, being a miniature, didn't have the space for a grounding in the real that would have given me some footing to perhaps appreciate it from, the difference between flying a kite and the kite escaping and going it's own way. I didn't understand this story at all.



GreatAuntMaude

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Reply #10 on: December 14, 2009, 09:41:12 PM
Nope. Didn't get it at all.



Unblinking

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Reply #11 on: December 15, 2009, 06:06:38 PM
I did think this too closely paralleled the Talking Heads song.  It's great to draw writing inspiration from a song, but this followed the song so closely it's hard to separate the two.  It probably doesn't help that I don't particularly like that song...

I tend to not like it when people quote writing "rules" as if there are really any rules that you will be penalized for.  Some of the greatest stories are those that dared to break the so-called rules.  But one "rule" that I have yet to find an example of a good exception for is "Show, don't tell".

And the whole basis was a little shaky--how does understanding planetary motion enable her to escape the boundaries of her mortal form?  No idea.  I realize this is fantasy, but even in fantasy there has to be some internal logic or I just won't get it.



DKT

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Reply #12 on: December 15, 2009, 06:29:48 PM
Quote
But one "rule" that I have yet to find an example of a good exception for is "Show, don't tell".

Greg van Eekhout respectfully disagrees:) (Hopefully he won't mind me linking his story here.)


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Reply #13 on: December 15, 2009, 06:46:16 PM
Quote
But one "rule" that I have yet to find an example of a good exception for is "Show, don't tell".

Greg van Eekhout respectfully disagrees:) (Hopefully he won't mind me linking his story here.)

I doubt he'd mind you advertising his work for him for free.   ;D

But, I didn't really get into that one either.  Partially because it's rather dull in it's telling, and partially because the first few sections at least sound exactly like Superman but with a single name change.