Author Topic: EP213: A Monkey Will Never Get Rid of Its Black Hands  (Read 30664 times)

Praxis

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Reply #75 on: September 05, 2009, 08:59:37 AM
I first started teaching English here in early 2002.  As the only American in the room, I fielded many questions about the States.  One of the most asked questions was if Americans really had unisex restrooms in offices.  Ally McBeal was still on German television then and they thought the bathrooms were real.

Wait. WAIT -- you DON'T have unisex bathrooms?? Shite!!

Not just that but, actually...........most female lawyers do not spend their time in near-psychotic-break levels of imaginary worlds and songs.
Or work with Lucy Liu.  Or with Portia De Rossi....

Or have ex 80's/90's rock singers as their plumber.

Or have previously unknown about 10-year-old daughters turn up on their doorstep.

Or spend their time after they have finished work and could go home in a company bar that a) exists in the same building and b) is always busy.



Russell Nash

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Reply #76 on: September 05, 2009, 10:09:51 AM
Terry,

You've made your points about the story.  When you start going after someone personally, we start to have a problem.  If you'd like to discuss Rachel's writing further, you are free to start a thread about it in the Gallimaufry or fantasy discussion sections.



MasterThief

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Reply #77 on: September 05, 2009, 11:50:11 PM
1.  Good alternate history is plausible alternate history.  I find it highly unlikely that Americans are going to adopt the tactics of the RUF from Sierra Leone in dealing with pacifists and conscientious objectors during wartime. 

We say that, but here's an example of how certain Americans think:

Recently, a 61-year-old man became frustrated when a woman wouldn't do something about her two-year-old daughter's crying while they shopped in Wal-Mart. The man said something to the effect of "shut that kid up or I will". When the child continued crying, the man gave the child a few slaps. He is now in jail on felony child cruelty charges. Full story: http://www.11alive.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=134682&catid=3

Yesterday morning I came across this article in support of what the man did: http://christwire.org/2009/09/older-gentleman-politely-slaps-strangers-crying-baby-at-walmart/

Obviously slapping a child and chopping off a person's hands are vastly different orders of magnitude, but it just goes to show that there are people everywhere -- even if they're just a minority -- who will do something "civilized society" thinks is wrong because the minority believes it's the right thing to do.


I'm pretty sure that site is a parody - there's no links to any other conservative/Levitican websites (I refuse to dignify them with the title of "Christian"), but there are links to Daily Kos, Crooks and Liars, and Huffington Post.  Their other articles seem similarly parody-ish, almost like a Levitican version of the Onion ("I am extremely terrified of Chinese people," "College Humor promotes gay office relationships" "Is it OK for my teenage daughter to masturbate?", etc.)

Plus, it's a lot more Web 2.0 than is typical for a site that crazy...
« Last Edit: September 05, 2009, 11:55:51 PM by MasterThief »

If I was a Master Thief, perhaps I'd rob them...


stePH

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Reply #78 on: September 06, 2009, 12:13:39 AM
Recently, a 61-year-old man became frustrated when a woman wouldn't do something about her two-year-old daughter's crying while they shopped in Wal-Mart. The man said something to the effect of "shut that kid up or I will". When the child continued crying, the man gave the child a few slaps. He is now in jail on felony child cruelty charges. Full story: http://www.11alive.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=134682&catid=3

Yesterday morning I came across this article in support of what the man did: http://christwire.org/2009/09/older-gentleman-politely-slaps-strangers-crying-baby-at-walmart/


I'm pretty sure that site is a parody - there's no links to any other conservative/Levitican websites (I refuse to dignify them with the title of "Christian"), but there are links to Daily Kos, Crooks and Liars, and Huffington Post.  Their other articles seem similarly parody-ish, almost like a Levitican version of the Onion ("I am extremely terrified of Chinese people," "College Humor promotes gay office relationships" "Is it OK for my teenage daughter to masturbate?", etc.)

Seems a bit like Landover Baptist.

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El Barto

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Reply #79 on: September 08, 2009, 05:30:45 PM
I didn't like this story because it failed to contain any of the things I love about short science fiction, such as such as exploring new technologies, looking at how alien cultures may develop, how we may interact with them, how science presents us with perilous opportunities, the process of discovery, new phenomena, space travel, and much more.   

This story could have been published in the 99% of places that don't focus on sci-fi, I very much agree with Praxis' comment: "If you have to spend that long explaining why you think a story is "science fiction", it probably isn't.  As in this case."   

And, I'm not sure I agree that the discussion about "sci-fi" or "not sci-fi" is worthless in the forums because the forums aren't just a place for fans to discuss.  Rather, they are a valuable way for the editors to get feedback on their selections.  If many people comment and say "not sci-fi," I hope the editors would think twice about running similar stories in Escape Pod.   To just say "I didn't like it" and not explain why feels unfair to the authors of such stories, as I might have liked this story in a different context with different expectations.







Russell Nash

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Reply #80 on: September 09, 2009, 07:45:23 AM
And, I'm not sure I agree that the discussion about "sci-fi" or "not sci-fi" is worthless in the forums because the forums aren't just a place for fans to discuss.  Rather, they are a valuable way for the editors to get feedback on their selections.  If many people comment and say "not sci-fi," I hope the editors would think twice about running similar stories in Escape Pod.   To just say "I didn't like it" and not explain why feels unfair to the authors of such stories, as I might have liked this story in a different context with different expectations.

The problem is that the argument blocks out all other comments and then degenerates down to the same back and forth.  The argument is allowed just not in the story threads.  Before this subject was banned, every single story ended up with this argument.  This included a story on a space station with several different races of aliens.  No two people have the same definition for scifi.

What's worse is that no matter how many times you explain that SF is Speculative Fiction, some Jackass still says it's not SciFi.  This story was SpecFic.  The discussion should be over how well it did that, not over if it's scifi or not. 



El Barto

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Reply #81 on: September 09, 2009, 11:29:23 AM
Fair enough!    I guess I can see how someone would read a space station story and say, "that wasn't a real SciFi story because the author just plopped the people onto a space station."   

Perhaps someone out there can invent a scale or system for describing stories that includes some non-spoiler way of indicating where on the SpecFic spectrum a story falls.



heyes

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Reply #82 on: September 13, 2009, 03:36:51 AM
I'm just back in from the car trying to listen to this story.  The premise is great, the execution is horrible. The author constantly contradicts him/herself.  Narrator says "Character X would never do action A".  Then, Character X immediately does A.  I got the feeling that Alasdair had to force his way through reading it.  This is especially true considering his  constantly having to stop reading, take a breath, and start over from two or three sentences back. 

I have to say there were a number of hilarious misspoken bits that had me laughing, especially the bit about the main character puffing out his ribs to look like one of those starving "Americans".  I really thought that was great until Alasdair went and corrected it to "Africans".

There were so many little elements that were just off, enough to jolt me out of what was otherwise an engaging setting.

In the final analysis, this story needs to go back to the author for revision.

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gfplux

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Reply #83 on: September 13, 2009, 07:22:30 AM
This was not science fiction, I am very dissapointed



eytanz

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Reply #84 on: September 14, 2009, 09:04:22 AM
I should start with the positive - this was a very well written story. It was very well-paced, and made its points clearly without holding the reader's hands (pun not intended).

However, it was really hard for me to keep my interest, because I really, really, really couldn't stand any of the characters. The uncle - the unrepenting evil madman - stood out because he was the only one whose main character trait wasn't "obnoxious". Gah.



MacArthurBug

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Reply #85 on: September 14, 2009, 11:08:20 AM
Jeremiah-
I truly appriciate the fedback. Thanks for letting me in on the process. :) I love hearing from the "people in charge"

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.


Unblinking

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Reply #86 on: May 06, 2010, 05:48:45 PM
This one had its moments.  The characters felt very authentic, and the events sounded like they could really happen.

But though the characters were authentic, I just didn't give a darn about any of them, especially the protagonist.  Extra points for making his reason for pacifism not altruism, but not wanting to do the killing himself.  But then the rest of the story he takes a girlfriend that acts as his nurse, doing even things that he can damned well do himself.  I had trouble drumming up any empathy for him.  It's true that he can't do everything, but he certainly can do SOMETHING and he doesn't bother to make the effort.  Finally he changed at the end, but the story was so long getting there that my reaction was pretty much that his change was a day late and a dollar short.



luka datas

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Reply #87 on: December 16, 2012, 12:52:16 PM
another amazing case of brlliant writer meets awesome narrator