Author Topic: PC087: Narrative Of A Beast’s Life  (Read 15441 times)

Scattercat

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Reply #25 on: January 30, 2010, 07:25:36 PM
*Points at what eytanz said

@Talia

Part of it is just how I read.  I like to examine the thematic and structural underpinnings of a story, and my favorite stories are the ones that use thematic and symbolic elements elegantly, where they are both part of the story AND working on a deeper level.  Here, the fantasy didn't go below the surface, hence my distraction as I dug deeper and deeper, looking for connections or layers and just not finding them.



stePH

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Reply #26 on: January 30, 2010, 11:17:24 PM
As to the story itself, I just wanted to go hang myself by the time it was over. Not enjoyable. Well written, well delivered, but not something I will revisit.

Perfectly sums up my feelings about the anime feature Grave of the Fireflies.  I don't think I care to have my heart stomped on in that way, a second time.

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Reply #27 on: February 01, 2010, 02:27:38 PM
For me, it becomes a question of "Why bother?"  I'd quite honestly rather have heard a straight-up recounting of a slave's narrative than have the constant distraction of the fantasy elements that were never utilized for much of anything.

That's pretty much how I felt.  Even though I tend to not be very interested in historical fiction, a story of a historically set slave's narrative would've followed pretty much the same path but would've been more powerful for having been set in a real time and place.  By simply changing species of the slaves, it made the story less compelling to me, which could've been remedied if the fantasy elements had had more impact (like in "I'll Gnaw Your Bones, the Manticore Said").  Also, since I heard that one first, it was written by the same author, and it tackled many of the same themes, this one suffered from the comparison.



yicheng

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Reply #28 on: February 02, 2010, 10:24:47 PM
I appreciate the story's intentions, but I really think the author didn't go far enough for this not to be a gimmick.  A slave story with fantasy elements, so obviously a parable about European/American slavery in the 1800's, just felt really really preachy, and (to be honest) is teetering on the edge of being an insulting parody.  The felt like the author just played it safe and went with the "slavery is bad, really really bad, did I tell you how bad it was?", which pretty much no one would disagree with.  For most of human history, people have been in the business of enslaving, or forcing by military, economic, or social means others to undesirable work for them.  In fact, a lot of human slavery (human trafficking, sweatshops, etc) is happening right now.  Why not talk about one of those stories instead of ripping off Roots?  I mean, really?

The story itself was structurally sound.  The character was engaging, and the reading was entertaining enough.  I just wish it actually took some chances instead of being an After-school Special.



Gamercow

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Reply #29 on: February 04, 2010, 02:42:59 AM
The part headers should not have existed, they simply did not fit, and were at best, clunky, as was said earlier.  All in all, this story was the equivalent of a peanut butter sandwich.  Okay, filling, but it really didn't matter that it was on wheat bread instead of white bread.  Not very memorable.  As others have said, its Roots with a veneer of fantasy. 

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Reply #30 on: February 04, 2010, 11:18:19 PM
This story was a pastiche of the works of Harriet Beecher-Stowe, Frederick Douglas and Harriet Jacobs and other slave narratives and abolitionist works, just with a thin layer of fantasy on the outside. I honestly forget that the narrator was supposed to be a centaur. This puts it on the same level as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: a cute variation on classic material that adds nothing and detracts from the source.

(snip)

This story is putting Roots in a pantomime centaur suit.

Well, I was going to make some sort of similar comparison, but much less educated-ly. Now I don't have to.

Look, I totally get that this is a fantasy story. It has mythical beings in it, see? Except that it didn't bring anything new to the genre, or anything new to the "slavery really sucked, and Europeans and Americans were great big douchebags for engaging in it" argument, either. The only thing I really got out of this story was a way to pass an hour of my 90-minute wait at the doctor's office today. (I think that last sentence belongs in the Pseudopod forums. I was on the hospital property for literally 2.5 hours, if you include the time in the parking garage.)

The reading was extremely dry. I realize that this is supposed to be some sort of newspaper account of the slave's... I mean, the beast's life. But I didn't really care about the beast at all. I did in the beginning, before I realized this was, as Peter Tupper said above, "Roots in a centaur suit". Once I figured it out, though, I stopped caring. I think a good telling of the story could have made this one better. Every actor brings something different to a role -- what if Sydney Pointier or Dennis Haysbert or Tracy Morgan or Kel Mitchell had played Kunta Kinte, instead of LeVar Burton? Similarly, I think with a different narrator, this story could have at least held my interest a little better and kept me from thinking "Oh, I get it now, it's one great big allusion to slavery in the American South" over and over again.

I got Dave's sarcasm right off, though as the story progressed, it was surprisingly spot-on.

Genre fiction has the power to make us look at bad things in new ways, and draw new conclusions we hadn't before about why or how they're bad. This story, however, made us look at a bad thing, squint at it a bit, and realize we already knew it was bad because we learned about it all through grade school.

(Note: non-American readers might have a different take on the allusion-to-slavery because they grew up without the experiences Americans had in the Civil Rights Movement and the subsequent reparatory and educational efforts. But I think even they would have figured it out.)

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Talia

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Reply #31 on: February 05, 2010, 12:19:32 AM
I rather liked the reading myself...



Anarquistador

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Reply #32 on: February 11, 2010, 04:19:40 AM
Man. I shouldn't have listened to this story in the same weekend I decided to go to see Avatar to see what all the fuss was about.

Okay! I get it! Humans suck! Geez....

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SirJolt

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Reply #33 on: February 11, 2010, 07:12:20 PM
I just didn't get into it at all... I'm gradually coming to the conclusion that I simply don't enjoy Cat Rambo's work; it's sad, but it happens, I suppose, that there will be writers that are repeatedly recommended to me whose output I just don't enjoy.



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Reply #34 on: February 25, 2010, 06:11:36 PM
Chalk me up as another listener who felt Rambo did a much better job of this topic with "I'll gnaw your bones, the manticore said".

With this story, all it really did was make me mad. I couldn't even finish it. Which, being a black person, isn't all that good, because while it's part of my own history, it all took place in the past. So what am I to do? Blame all white people now for what took place then? Shake my fist and demand restitution?

The problem with these "let's base a story on historical slavery" is that while it gets up one's dander, that's all it really does. I can promise myself to live a life that's better what my ancestors had, but that's pretty much it.

Now, if this story had been an allegory for the slavery that takes places today, I think it would have more of an impact. There would be discussion on how to advocate, what to do, how to channel all that anger into doing something. And maybe that was Rambo's point--to start thinking how slavery is done in today's times. But it wasn't done as effectively as it could.

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Hobart Floyt

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Reply #35 on: March 08, 2010, 12:52:17 AM
Out comes the sword of analysis again. Ugh... now there's story blood and guts all over the ground. Gross! Thanks people!

Similar chapter introductions were used by Jerome K Jerome in Three Men In A Boat and also by Connie Willis in To Say Nothing Of The Dog paying homage to Jerome. Is there some profound meaning to be gleaned from this?

I liked this one well enough and I thought Paul's narration was excellent as usual.

I have a deep fondness for sarcasm.

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.


mbrennan

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Reply #36 on: March 18, 2010, 02:20:12 PM
Hobart -- I think the headers are just a nineteenth-century literary convention, so their use here was a way of stylistically flagging the period.  I agree that they didn't work as well in audio format, though.

Compelling enough story, but I do think the compulsion of it arose from the historical basis: it's a slave narrative, slavery is bad, you'd need a heart of stone not to care.  As others have said, the fantastical elements didn't really affect the shape of the story.  There was a chance here to do something much riskier, I think -- to treat the various creatures as genuinely not human, a la the rhetoric used in historical 19c slavery, but not exactly beasts either, and then use that difference to explore some really uncomfortable ethical questions.  (I don't remember "Manticore" well enough to know if that story did what I'm talking about.)  Or if not that, something else that would make me think.  This story didn't tell me anything I didn't already know; it just used fantasy to tell me what I already did know.



Hobart Floyt

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Reply #37 on: March 18, 2010, 08:13:38 PM
mbrennan --  ;D That's intersting. Thanks! Not especially profound though.  ;)

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.


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Reply #38 on: March 19, 2010, 01:17:03 PM
(I don't remember "Manticore" well enough to know if that story did what I'm talking about.) 

It did cover that ground a little more clearly.  The manticore was smart enough to be able to converse with people, but its handler still considered it a beast.  The discussion of frontal lobotomies to tame the fiercer beasts was downright chilling.



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Reply #39 on: March 19, 2010, 04:24:32 PM
I think the strength of "Manticore" compared to this also rests in part on the fact that in "Manticore," we were given a likeable, relatable protagonist who still holds the prevailing beliefs of her time and place(i.e. 'beasts' are not 'human,' and thus can be treated like animals.)  It's all the more horrifying when we see a kind person striving to be kind to the 'beasts' in her care and yet still taking these (to us) horrific actions in enslaving them and lobotomizing "troublesome" ones.  That and the complicated relationship between the old man and the elf woman made the problems seem very complex, with no easy answers.  The kindness/cruelty dynamic was much more mixed up and harder to sift into clear "right" and "wrong," whereas in "Narrative," the closest we get to a moral gray area is the protagonist's propensity for knocking up hot horse chicks and being kind of a deadbeat dad.  Otherwise, it's all stark black and white, with a sadistic master, downtrodden slaves, a loathsome "Uncle Tom" figure, etc.