Pseudopod 180: The Getalong Gang

[Bdoomed]

Pseudopod 180: The Getalong Gang


By Barrie Darke
Read by Ben Phillips

It occurred to me later that week that maybe, just perhaps, it was happening to the other family men in the office, that they were also noticing these things about their families –- Thomas Malone, only in his early 20s but with two young boys, looked harried a lot of the time, and I thought about taking him out for a drink after work one day. But how do you go about broaching that subject? How many drinks would you need in you to mention you thought your family had been…? And what would happen to you if you got back looks that moved from the merely quizzical to the horribly worried? The whole idea of it happening elsewhere to other people was still hazy at that point anyway, so I thought I’d better let him come to me. I was an approachable boss, after all.

At home, it was how I imagine living in a haunted house must be. You moved in dread of every little awry sign, trying to convince yourself that the gaps between them were widening rather than shortening, accelerating. And that if the signs were there, then they really weren’t growing any more significant, they really weren’t becoming bone-rattlingly critical.




Listen to this week's Pseudopod.

[Scattercat]

Capgras Syndrome: The Movie!

I kind of like these stories that really don't have any supernatural horror at all.  It'd get a little monotonous to have a never-ending stream of "mind of the madman" pieces, but this one was very well done.  In particular, I enjoyed the way the protagonist sort of... learned to deal with it, rather than the usual ending of "...and then he killed his whole family," plus lots of gory description. 

I think at least one of the people who called my old job every day had something very close to Capgras.  It's kind of astounding how many people there are who are trying to live with their delusions and not getting help.  Most of 'em don't end up with a stable family life, however inwardly miserable.  However, the criminalization of insanity is another rant altogether and not really appropriate here.

I liked this one.  I didn't particularly notice the writing, for good or ill, which is probably for the best, and the portrayal of the disorder was pretty accurate rather than sensationalist; someone did their homework, and I can't help but approve of that.

(He should get a cat, though, instead of a dog.  Then you don't have to worry about an evil copy trying to kill you in your sleep 'cause the real thing will do well enough.)

[Bdoomed]

YAY he didn't kill his family!  I was worried there.  Even if they are what he thinks they are (possibly?), they don't seem to have any evil plans for him (or do they!?) so I'm glad he learned to deal with it.  Yes, that's it, ensheepen yourself. muahaha.

[deflective]

our lives, this horror.
living day by day with love
not knowing his mind

[MacArthurBug]

SO many times I held my breath for just a moment. Waiting for the seeming inevitable killing of the family. It was almost scarier that he didn't. Very very well written.

[feste451]

Wow! Shades of Jack Finney all over this one. I love the build-up as the mystery develops and found myself trying to predict what was to come before being proved wrong. I plan to listen to it at least one more time before it gets buried under my other subs and it has my undivided attention.

[kibitzer]

Re: Capgras Delusion -- I had no idea the description in this story is an actual thing.

Can you imagine how terrifying and confusing it must be? Especially if you're aware of Capgras and capable of questioning your own sanity. I'm not sure I could deal with thinking my wife was replaced with a doppelganger. Nor my dogs, for that matter.

The story itself: very well-written but not one of my favourites. Although, like you others, I'm glad it didn't end in a bloodbath. The prosaic "hey, we're dealing with it" is a refreshing change.

[Unblinking]

Loved it!  This has got to be in my Top 3 favorite Pseudopod's.  Insanity as seen from the inside can be one of the most powerful plots, one of the reasons I love reading Poe, and it's done very well here.  I'd never heard of this syndrome before, but wow that sounds so disturbing!  If he'd flipped and killed his kids and wife in the end, I wouldn't have liked it--there are a million stories out there where that happens, and it would've blended in with the rest.  Instead, he makes the decision to just live with it--he believes his original family is dead, so he figures he may as well make do with life as it is.  Really, just well done. 

P.S.  I see I'm a Hipparch now.  Whoo!

[gelee]

Good piece.  Like others, I really liked that this story didn't go where I thought it was going.  Even if it had, it still would have been a winner.  The MC describing his own slow slide into insanity was really chilling, especially when he said, (roughly) "I'm going to snap this one's neck," speaking to and of his child.
Huh.  A Pseduopod with a (sort of) happy ending. 
Has anyone spoken to Ben lately?  Is he feeling OK?

[kibitzer]

P.S.  I see I'm a Hipparch now.  Whoo!

I congratulate you on your new title, great Hipparch. Also: six stars. <bows low>

Do we treat you with more respect now?

[Unblinking]

Do we treat you with more respect now?

Only if you would like to postpone meeting my laser-sharks.

[rotheche]

I really enjoyed this: both the writing (as Scattercat said, it didn't intrude) and the narration, which was less like narration that it was someone inhabiting the main character.  Loved the suspense, glad it avoided going down that track of 'and then he killed them all, ooolotsablood'.

Prompted me to register to comment, finally

[wakela]

Great character and great reading.  This story avoided a lot of cliches.  I really didn't see hoe it was going to end without him either being crazy and killing his family or a "twist" with him not being crazy and his family really are impostors.  I also liked it that he was a decent guy with a nice family instead of the drinking, smoking, loner who hates his job and can't keep a relationship. 

Though I would have liked for him to have at least entertained the idea that he was insane.  Whitley Streiber who wrote the Communion books claims to wish he were insane, because that would be preferable to the world being full of the these creepy aliens.   It would have been interesting to hear the protags rationalization along these lines.

Still, great ep.

[MacBean]

I was going to say something but I got so excited that someone else mentioned Capgras first that now I've forgotten what I wanted to post. Facepalm!

Anyway, this is the first episode I've saved in 2010. I'm an absolute sucker for stories that involve concepts like this -- whether it's someone with an issue like Capgras or actual doppelgangers/body snatchers/pod people/etc. -- because I have a phobia so I always find the stories at least really unnerving, and they're just about the only sort that can really terrify me.

[eytanz]

This one was very good. Very chilling, and the ending managed to be both a relief yet chilling in another way - few of us have to fear growing paranoid and wanting to murder your family. But many relationships end up with two or more people feeling like the other has become a stranger to them, yet deciding to keep at it because it is better than the alternative. The narrator may have got there from a very different starting point, but the quiet despair he has at the end is shared by many.

[nevermore_66]

This one was very good. Very chilling, and the ending managed to be both a relief yet chilling in another way - few of us have to fear growing paranoid and wanting to murder your family. But many relationships end up with two or more people feeling like the other has become a stranger to them, yet deciding to keep at it because it is better than the alternative. The narrator may have got there from a very different starting point, but the quiet despair he has at the end is shared by many.

It's always nice when one of you say how I feel. Saves digital ink 

Yeah, the ending was almost scarier in a quiet, brooding way (and much more unique for it). The idea of other worlds next to our own...don't even need to be supernatural underworlds, wormholes, or parallel dimensions...they can be in someone's head.

The insanity is very well done and I like how long it takes the narrator to even talk directly about what's going on. There's a few times he almost says it straight out and then stops himself. The writer really got into his head and followed the character logic very well. I think this is one of those stories that's even better than you notice because many of the things done right are the types of things that if you do them right, no one will notice (if that makes sense).

[cdugger]

The insanity (or was it?) was written very well, but, personally, I was kinda let down when he didn't go off the deep end. Yes, it would have been cliche, but rewarding after all the build-up.

Good writing, good reading.

[Teodor]

Thoroughly chilling story. The description of his insanity and paranoia was really oppressive, but still had a great hook to it. The scene with the kid in the playground had me cringing in fear...

[Bdoomed]

Funny, Radiolab turned this out a little bit ago, http://blogs.wnyc.org/radiolab/2010/03/08/do-i-know-you/

seemed pertinent.

[ancawonka]

Definitely give that Radiolab episode a listen.  It's a great followup to this story.  I happened to listen to The Getalong Gang a couple of days before I heard the Radiolab show, and it made the story much, much scarier.