Author Topic: Pseudopod 191: Acceptable Losses  (Read 15610 times)

eytanz

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Reply #25 on: May 09, 2010, 07:17:08 PM
I'm fairly certain there are rules of engagement allowing for retrieval of your own dead that might balk if you tried to gather *everyone's* dead...

And more importantly, if the British made a habit of collecting Japanese corpses, the Japaneses may start wondering *why* they're doing so. I agree it would have been better if this were brought up by the story - maybe not explicitly, but at least addressed on some level - but this fits in with the theme of oracle being more important to the war effort than any of the soldiers. Giving the enemy any reason to suspect something is up would be unacceptable to a level that allowing allied soldiers to die is not.

I thought this was an excellent story. I agree, in retrospect, with a lot of the criticisms - the story did shift gears quite abruptly mid-way - but that didn't bother me while I was listening. I felt this was an excellent examination of the horror of war and its effect on people. There may not have been man-eating volcano-inhabiting psychic blobs in the real world war 2 (as far as we know), but decisions of a similar nature have been made many times over in the real world. This story, by using a supernatural agent, really brought home the fact that war creates situations where there is no acceptable moral alternative.



stePH

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Reply #26 on: May 12, 2010, 02:23:10 PM
I thought this was an excellent story. I agree, in retrospect, with a lot of the criticisms - the story did shift gears quite abruptly mid-way - but that didn't bother me while I was listening. I felt this was an excellent examination of the horror of war and its effect on people. There may not have been man-eating volcano-inhabiting psychic blobs in the real world war 2 (as far as we know), but decisions of a similar nature have been made many times over in the real world. This story, by using a supernatural agent, really brought home the fact that war creates situations where there is no acceptable moral alternative.

I'm reminded of the story of Coventry, when Churchill allowed the city to be bombed in order to conceal that the Allies had broken the Nazi cipher.

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deflective

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Reply #27 on: May 16, 2010, 11:55:21 PM
what do you guys imagine happens to an invading army's dead if they've been defeated and massacred?



Scattercat

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Reply #28 on: May 17, 2010, 01:39:51 AM
what do you guys imagine happens to an invading army's dead if they've been defeated and massacred?

They get hugs?



deflective

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Reply #29 on: May 17, 2010, 02:29:28 AM
i like your world better than the one i see on the news.



HugoGrim

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Reply #30 on: May 18, 2010, 02:01:23 PM
I really liked this story



snap-hiss

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Reply #31 on: May 25, 2010, 01:03:30 AM
what do you guys imagine happens to an invading army's dead if they've been defeated and massacred?

Hmm, good point.

Swing by the Prehistory Ranch.


stePH

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Reply #32 on: May 27, 2010, 02:26:41 PM
what do you guys imagine happens to an invading army's dead if they've been defeated and massacred?

The victors get to fuck the bodies?

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yellowblade77

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Reply #33 on: May 27, 2010, 10:19:24 PM
Got to say I really liked this story.  Great concept, and the begining made me think it was going in a totally different direction.



Fenrix

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Reply #34 on: October 27, 2010, 03:35:15 AM
Firstly, Ian Stewart is fantastic.

This was an old-fashioned weird story that was just brilliant in concept and execution.

This sums up my reaction to it. It felt like one of those wonderful mid-century horror war comic books. I'd love to see a comic treatment of this similar to Tales of the Black Freighter.

All cat stories start with this statement: “My mother, who was the first cat, told me this...”


Dave

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Reply #35 on: November 07, 2010, 07:19:05 PM
Not sure how I missed this one the first time, or why it popped up in my feed recently, but I'm glad it did. Dark, brooding, and squicky. Good stuff!

-Dave (aka Nev the Deranged)


Marlboro

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Reply #36 on: November 21, 2019, 05:06:57 PM
Cool idea but the question "Why not kill two birds with one stone and feed Oracle Japanese corpses?" did occur to me just as it did to several of you folks.


 I think it would have worked better if they were using both British and Japanese bodies. Also it might have helped if instead of having to choose one of five battles to lose, the leadership had chosen to use tactics that would maximize casualties on both sides in order to feed the beast. Ground invasions of lesser targets instead of island hopping or relying on air power for instance.


Criticism aside, I love the idea of a bloated psychic monster with a ravenous appetite for human flesh living in the heart of a dead volcano. I would love to read a prequel story about the discovery of Oracle. I can't help but think it would involve some tribal sacrifice to the Volcano God.