Author Topic: EP203: The Legend of St. Ignatz  (Read 12655 times)

Russell Nash

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on: June 12, 2009, 09:13:04 AM
EP203: The Legend of St. Ignatz

By Samantha Henderson.
Read by Ray Sizemore (of X-Ray Visions).
Intro by Norm Sherman (of The Drabblecast).
Closing song: Jesus Clones
First appeared in Ideomancer.

"You’re a disgrace to your calling and your species.” The Cardinal’s words were at odds with the verging-on-seductive voice of the translator embedded in the Anturean’s Chlor-tank. From beneath lowered lashes Ignatz O’Reilly, D.D. Inter-Species, watched his superior’s mouth-tendrils vibrate, a gesture he knew denoted extreme lust or mounting rage.

Lust was out of the question, he supposed.

“Falling-down drunk at Mass. Passing out in Confession. And don’t think your little black-market dealings go unnoticed.” The Cardinal’s posterior spines flushed blue. Ignatz averted his eyes even further, studying the faint brown lines crisscrossing each other on a slate floor the color of dried blood. The mutant squid bastard really was mad this time.

“If I might be permitted to explain, Your Eminence…” Ignatz’s tongue tasted like last night’s liquor. “I indulge for purely medicinal reasons…a slight asthmatic condition…any allegations that I would engage in illegal…”


Rated R for religious themes, carousing, and transubstantiaton of a different sort.



Listen to this week’s Escape Pod!
« Last Edit: September 10, 2009, 05:27:36 PM by Russell Nash »



Yargling

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Reply #1 on: June 12, 2009, 11:37:18 AM
Nice story, I enjoyed it - quite unusual and enjoyable.



mattdomville

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Reply #2 on: June 12, 2009, 06:03:33 PM
Pretty good, but the last bit sounded an awful lot like "The Gospel According to St. Mark" by Jorge Luis Borges.



MacBean

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Reply #3 on: June 13, 2009, 05:33:37 PM
I was also reminded of the Borges story, but it's one of my favorite short stories of all time, so I didn't mind at all. Some of the best ideas are cobbled together from ideas that other people had first.

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Darwinist

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Reply #4 on: June 14, 2009, 01:58:43 PM
Weird stuff.  Loved it. 

For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.    -  Carl Sagan


Nobilis

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Reply #5 on: June 16, 2009, 12:54:00 AM
Fun.



Phthalo

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Reply #6 on: June 16, 2009, 05:38:16 PM
Yeh really liked this one  :D. The main character was fun and interesting, and I thought his indifference gave the story a cosy feeling while the strange alien world kept it colourful.



WolfDeca

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Reply #7 on: June 17, 2009, 03:45:52 PM
I liked this one, but I initially thought Ignatz was actually PLANNING to sacrifice himself to the natives after he discovered that he was killing them. Of course, that would've been a bit too noble for the character, but for a supposedly clever and paranoid person like a smuggler, I thought he handed them the metaphor too neatly to be unplanned.

So I was surprised that he was surprised.



DKT

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Reply #8 on: June 17, 2009, 05:22:30 PM
Very cool to hear Norm Sherman hosting here! SOA FTW! (Although my personal LOL moment was Catholocism for Insects.)

And thrilled to hear more Samantha Henderson. Hope we get some more of her stuff soon. In the meantime, I think I'll give this one another listen.


stePH

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Reply #9 on: June 18, 2009, 05:16:34 AM
Liked the story.  Have no great opinion of the Cloned Jesus song.

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Listener

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Reply #10 on: June 19, 2009, 11:13:06 PM
I think I expected the ending, although I thought they would crucify Ignatz, not eat him.

For me the problem with the story was the concept that alien beings, sometime in the future, would believe in the human version of Christianity. Unless there was something I missed, or a point that the author cut out (about how all alien cultures had a Christ myth or somesuch), the believability was stretched a bit too far for me to really enjoy the story. Also, the scenes on the FTL ship were a very slow point IMO.

The reading was interestingly-done, though on the ship I occasionally lost track of Ignatz while he was talking to the first mate. I would've liked a tiny bit more processing on the alien voice, I think.

Overall decent. Neither good nor bad.

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Meatros

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Reply #11 on: June 19, 2009, 11:56:15 PM
I thought this was decent.  I'm not sure if the podcast mentioned it or not, but it seemed like a sci-fi version of Confederacy of Dunces. 



Rain

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Reply #12 on: June 20, 2009, 02:15:29 PM
At the start of the story i was ready to get outraged at the whole converting others to your religion thing, but the story took an interesting twist and i thought it was pretty fun



BethPeters

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Reply #13 on: June 23, 2009, 12:44:37 AM
If only we had known
To never tamper
With the little bitty pieces of Jesus feces
petrified in amber...

Yes, Norm's song and Samantha's story both brought profound wisdom with them...

Who am I kidding, they were both just ridiculous and really fun.  I love when Norm guest-hosts and reads, but Ray did a great job with this story.  Escapepod has been on a great streak IMO.



Russell Nash

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Reply #14 on: June 24, 2009, 08:06:15 AM
For me the problem with the story was the concept that alien beings, sometime in the future, would believe in the human version of Christianity.


It's about as likely as any conversion of indigenous people to Christianity by missionaries.  Why should native people of South America believe in the god of white people?



Ocicat

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Reply #15 on: June 25, 2009, 12:16:46 AM
For me the problem with the story was the concept that alien beings, sometime in the future, would believe in the human version of Christianity.


It's about as likely as any conversion of indigenous people to Christianity by missionaries.  Why should native people of South America believe in the god of white people?

Because the white people had strong magic.

...or at least, you know, Boom Sticks.



wakela

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Reply #16 on: June 25, 2009, 03:26:52 AM
Really liked this story.  Despite the overtones of cultural imperialsim, environmentalism, and the corruption of the church, the author wasn't trying to shoehorn my feelings into his opinion of the world.  Very refreshing. 



Russell Nash

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Reply #17 on: June 25, 2009, 07:14:52 AM
For me the problem with the story was the concept that alien beings, sometime in the future, would believe in the human version of Christianity.


It's about as likely as any conversion of indigenous people to Christianity by missionaries.  Why should native people of South America believe in the god of white people?

Because the white people had strong magic.

...or at least, you know, Boom Sticks.

Right, and in this story the humans probably also had the better tech.



Paranatural

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Reply #18 on: July 01, 2009, 02:24:15 PM
I liked it. An uncomplicated and fairly amusing piece. I mean, you know, if you discount the imperialism and all that.



thomasowenm

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Reply #19 on: July 23, 2009, 08:10:23 PM
I found this one a rare gem.  Well done, a story you can enjoy on the surface and analyze it to no end if you want to. 
the author wasn't trying to shoehorn my feelings into his opinion of the world.  Very refreshing. 
Yes, too many stories give you a headache, bludgening you with the authors world view, and this one didn't feel like that at all.

I liked this one, but I initially thought Ignatz was actually PLANNING to sacrifice himself to the natives after he discovered that he was killing them.
... I thought he handed them the metaphor too neatly to be unplanned.

So I was surprised that he was surprised.
I thought he was being altruistic too until the end.

The very end was was a nice touch, a pissed off squid..



Doom xombie

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Reply #20 on: July 24, 2009, 12:46:38 AM
For me the problem with the story was the concept that alien beings, sometime in the future, would believe in the human version of Christianity.


It's about as likely as any conversion of indigenous people to Christianity by missionaries.  Why should native people of South America believe in the god of white people?

Because the white people had strong magic.

...or at least, you know, Boom Sticks.

Forced Schooling with vicious beatings whenever indigenous religion is mentioned also a... persuasive way to convert indigenous people. I'm sure in a church spanning a galaxy that this tactic was implemented somewhere.

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LaShawn

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Reply #21 on: September 09, 2009, 04:16:11 PM
I almost listened to this with half an ear while I was at work. It was only towards the end that I started really paying attention...and loved it! I'll have to listen to it again when I got more attention to spare.

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heyes

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Reply #22 on: September 13, 2009, 03:38:29 AM
This story was awesome!
Great narration, great characters, great future history, great everything.

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Gamercow

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Reply #23 on: October 12, 2009, 07:13:23 PM
Enjoyed this story, I thought Ignatz was a great character.  There were a few holes, such as the big bosses knowing if Ignatz did exactly what he did, but not doing anything about it, but the characters and the literal interpretation of the last supper speech made me amused.  7/10

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Unblinking

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Reply #24 on: April 30, 2010, 05:08:06 PM
Fun and fluffy, with a nice twist.

I'm a little surprised that no one's monitoring this guy and noticing that he's breaking protocol in ecosystem shattering ways, but I was willing to ignore that for the twist at the end.

So if this guy's giving up his body for others was just a mistake, but he was written in as a saint for it, what do you think actually happened to Jesus?  Just food for thought.  :)