Author Topic: EP015: Hell Notes  (Read 4919 times)

Swamp

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on: October 04, 2009, 07:38:12 PM
EP015: Hell Notes

By M.K. Hobson.
Read by Stephen Eley.

They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, so I suppose it’s no wonder that the twice-cooked pork the beautiful chef placed in that depressing buffet line kicked me in the mouth like a South American soccer superstar with bad aim. There was never twice-cooked pork like the twice-cooked pork I tasted that snowy day at the Cheerful Panda.

Rated PG. Contains graphic food-based sensuality and soulless marketing.


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monkeystuff

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Reply #1 on: October 07, 2009, 03:24:30 AM
I tried commenting on this story earlier but accidentally posted on a different story...  Either way, this story was pretty cool.  I liked the idea that no one could actually talk to the ghosts to see what they liked to eat.  And really, just cuz something is a creepy ghoul that you don't understand doesn't mean that it has developed a taste for eyeballs and intestines.  I mean couldn't the cooks offered these ghostly beings a big mac and fries or maybe some cookies.  And the hell note currency was pretty cool,  wouldn't mind scoring a few of those bucks.   I give this story 2 thumbs up :)

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Unblinking

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Reply #2 on: January 22, 2010, 02:52:24 PM
This story wasn't bad, but I didn't relate all that much to the protagonist.  On the other hand, the descriptions of her cooking made me very hungry!  the idea that the tradition of feeding ghosts disgusting things when they really prefer normal foods is a strange one.  Why don't they just go to McDonalds and steal people's hamburgers?

The beginning was a fun hook with him describing the colors of the owner's face, but in retrospect it didn't fit the story well.  At the beginning it was set up as though that would be the climax of the story, the final confrontation, and then it steps back in time to explain how that point was reached.  But in the story, that moment was a very minor, barely mentioned, moment, so it didn't tie together very well.



Fenrix

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Reply #3 on: March 25, 2013, 05:43:39 PM
This story wasn't bad, but I didn't relate all that much to the protagonist.  On the other hand, the descriptions of her cooking made me very hungry!  the idea that the tradition of feeding ghosts disgusting things when they really prefer normal foods is a strange one.  Why don't they just go to McDonalds and steal people's hamburgers?

I don't think that going to McDonald's was an option available to them. The food still had to be ritually prepared and properly blessed.

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yicheng

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Reply #4 on: September 23, 2013, 04:59:19 PM
This story wasn't bad, but I didn't relate all that much to the protagonist.  On the other hand, the descriptions of her cooking made me very hungry!  the idea that the tradition of feeding ghosts disgusting things when they really prefer normal foods is a strange one.  Why don't they just go to McDonalds and steal people's hamburgers?

I don't think that going to McDonald's was an option available to them. The food still had to be ritually prepared and properly blessed.

Also, from a Chinese point of view, ghosts don't actually eat the physical food, but eat the steam/smoke/vapors emanating from the food.  Typically this is only done during Chinese New Year, with offerings usually of dumplings, rice, cigarettes, liquor, tea, and chocolates, along with a burning of paper money (hell notes) so the ancestors have some spending money in the afterlife.  Also, at least in the part of (northern) China where I was from, the food offering was completely normal, and it wasn't out of the ordinary to actually eat the food after the offering was done.

The story itself, was one of my all-time favorites, though.