Author Topic: PC080: Superhero Girl  (Read 15250 times)

Scattercat

  • Caution:
  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 4904
  • Amateur wordsmith
    • Mirrorshards
Reply #25 on: December 07, 2009, 10:59:53 PM
I liked this one, though I'd have preferred a teensy bit more room for me to believe in the magic of it.  There's very little room to interpret this story as being about a real superheroine; with all apologies to ElectricPaladin, nothing at all occurs that requires any other explanation than cancer and a light-hearted excuse for her physical ailments.  Honestly, the only thing that makes me at all willing to even try and believe in the magic is the fact that this story is on Podcastle and not Pseudopod, where it would pretty clearly be just a story of grief-induced hallucinations.

Still, an interesting story.  Reminds me a bit of "Everything Is Better with Zombies," from Psuedopod (except I think that story pulled off a more viable alternate interpretation option, and was generally a lot more subtle about inserting the dark glimpses of reality in the corners and shadowed places in the story.)



kibitzer

  • Purveyor of Unsolicited Opinions
  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 2228
  • Kibitzer: A meddler who offers unwanted advice
Reply #26 on: December 14, 2009, 12:41:19 AM
There's very little room to interpret this story as being about a real superheroine; with all apologies to ElectricPaladin, nothing at all occurs that requires any other explanation than cancer and a light-hearted excuse for her physical ailments.

Not the glowing eyebrows, for instance? What this discussion says to me is there's plenty of room for any interpretation you want :-)  I myself tend to the superhero explanation -- probably because I'd so like it to be true. It's fair to say the cancer is a more accessible and logical explanation, but it certainly doesn't preclude the other.

The great thing about this story is it's generated so much discussion! I don't care whether it's fantasy or not because fantasy covers such a vast array of situations.

I started out thinking, "I won't like this" mainly because of the superhero trope. However, I was proved very wrong! Most enjoyable.


ajames

  • Lochage
  • *****
  • Posts: 358
Reply #27 on: December 19, 2009, 01:23:56 AM
My baggage led me to think "not fantasy" - therefore I found the story more than a little depressing - actually so depressing it took away from my enjoyment of the story. In fact, it was a real kick in the gut. Wish I could see it as fantasy, but I can't. 



mbrennan

  • Matross
  • ****
  • Posts: 210
Reply #28 on: December 23, 2009, 05:35:31 AM
Count me in the "not fantasy" camp.  Without intending to get into an argument about what is and isn't fantasy (since I agree that's rarely productive) -- at no point in the story did I find myself believing that the secret messages etc. were real.  The whole thing came across, very clearly, as delusional behavior.  Which doesn't make it a bad story, but does make it not my cup of tea.



Loz

  • Lochage
  • *****
  • Posts: 370
    • Blah Flowers
Reply #29 on: December 23, 2009, 01:22:33 PM
I agree with the last two, indeed my baggage lead me so strongly to assume that the writer was intending this to be a story of a delusional girl that I came to this thread expecting more people to be arguing that Pseudopod should have broadcast this one. It reminded me of Death: The High Cost of Living, in that there is absolutely nothing happening in that that couldn't be explained as terminal illness and psychosis except that outside the story we know that Mimi is Death.

Other than that, there was no real depth to the characters, Ofelia was too much the Manic Pixie Dream Girl to approach three dimensions and the sensitive narrator was just there to tell her story. That comes off harsher than I mean, it wasn't a terrible story, there just wasn't much there for me.



Hobart Floyt

  • Extern
  • *
  • Posts: 14
Reply #30 on: December 25, 2009, 12:54:25 AM
..."ANSWER."

 Great ending. Ambiguous, enigmatic, left open to interpretation. I like that.

"Two out of three aint bad"

In the midst of the word he was trying to say,
  In the midst of his laughter and glee,
He had softly and suddenly vanished away—
  For the Snark was a Boojum, you see.


Listener

  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 3187
  • I place things in locations which later elude me.
    • Various and Sundry Items of Interest
Reply #31 on: December 30, 2009, 01:43:54 PM
The narration was excellent.

I saw the ending coming from a mile away -- not that she had cancer, but that she would somehow find a way to contact the narrator from wherever she'd gone. That's the only reason I can't give this story a full two thumbs up -- I'll put the left one up, and the right one about 45 degrees off the vertical, but in the upward direction.

The discussion about whether or not she really was a superhero is what makes this story good -- because you never really know. Maybe the narrator was delusional from caffeine pills and grief and just heard his phone ring in his head. Or maybe she really was a superhero and hadn't died of cancer. Sometimes, ambiguity can be really poorly done, and sometimes it can be perfect. Because this story was shorter than average, I think it worked.

"Farts are a hug you can smell." -Wil Wheaton

Blog || Quote Blog ||  Written and Audio Work || Twitter: @listener42


Hobart Floyt

  • Extern
  • *
  • Posts: 14
Reply #32 on: January 01, 2010, 04:35:24 AM
"...but then, all fiction is fantasy. It's not true. It's made up. We take that as a given and move on."

Excerpted from Neil Gaiman's Journal.

In the midst of the word he was trying to say,
  In the midst of his laughter and glee,
He had softly and suddenly vanished away—
  For the Snark was a Boojum, you see.


Umbrageofsnow

  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 754
  • Commenting by the seat of my pants.
Reply #33 on: February 23, 2010, 09:45:47 PM
Saw this today and it made me think of this story:
http://www.asofterworld.com/index.php?id=530

I liked the story by the way and thought it was appropriate to PodCastle.