Pseudopod 203: Flash on the Borderlands III

[Bdoomed]

I'm tempted to split off this discussion into another thread, and I might just do so (but not now, I'm lazy).  I think (emphasis on think, I do not know for sure) that if one were to take a look at all of the past Pseudopod episodes, one would find that many of the stories employ sex as an element in their horror, possibly in the same ratio as the stories of late.  What I'm trying to say is that this feeling that many are having most likely stems from these stories all being put out on the same day, rather than the actual prevalence of sexual themes.  I could be wrong, I have not actually done the research into previous episodes. (if someone has the time/inclination to do that and can prove me wrong about this I would be happy to retract my statement)

[Millenium_King]

This is what I got (going back 12 months):

Her Collection of Intimacy
Eye Spy (scene)
The Engine of Desire
Bed of Scorpions (scene)
The Radejastians (scene)
The Getalong Gang (scene)
I am your Need

Some of these are a bit of a stretch (Eye Spy, for example).  I think you're right: most of the complaints have come from the proximity of "The Engine of Desire," "Her Collection of Intimacy" and 2 of 3 of these Flash Fictions.

[DKT]

Thanks for pointing those out.

Fair enough, and also I suppose there's something to be said for the subjectiveness of whether or not something's explicit. There's a couple of stories in that list that do contain sex, but which I wouldn't have called explicit. But that doesn't mean someone else wouldn't call it explicit.

[SanguineV]

My Body Your Banquet

I quite liked the variation on reality where the agreement was explored in a more romantic light. I found the reflection/abstraction sections of it kept me from really engaging though, left wondering if without them it would have been move visceral and sharp. All in all quite nice, I shall be inflicting it on others.

Sight Unseen

What with all the sex going around Pseudopod and Escapepod lately I found the sex in this gratuitous. The same horror/haunting could be done without it having to be sexual. A nice little idea and interesting story... but right now I am satiated on sex stories and would like some horror that doesn't need sex to be told.

The Lot

This one goes with The Engine of Desire: felt like someone else's fetish porn story. The horror never really comes through because of all the blunt* sex.


* It feels like most of the sex scenes have been delivered with the subtlety of a sledge hammer lately. All the language has been blunt and seems to be thrown in for shock rather than delivering the message/idea with delicate panache.


A comment about delivery: What happened to having individual flash stories as bonuses mid-week? I really liked the pleasant surprise of an extra little story, rather than having them grouped together as a single longer episode.


Regarding the sex in general discussion. Sex (in all its forms and descriptions) is a major part of human nature, to avoid it or even isolate it from other things would be a mistake. I certainly don't want to see it gone, I don't even want to see the more extreme/unusual sex scenes and ideas gone. I would like to see variety in the sex that appears, both in what sex it is, how it is presented, and how significant to the story it is. Of late all the sex feels like it has been delivered for shock value, too much focus on shouting SEX! and not on delivering the horror (or other ideas).

[Ben Phillips]

A comment about delivery: What happened to having individual flash stories as bonuses mid-week? I really liked the pleasant surprise of an extra little story, rather than having them grouped together as a single longer episode.

Time constraints.  I do want to get back to that, don't worry.

[Unblinking]

My previous point exactly.  Eroticism has been given some pretty heavy attention lately, let's see some of the other rooms in the haunted house of horror.

I'd say it's a fair point.  Between these stories, Her Collection of Intimacy, and Spar(over on Escape Pod), I'd say there's definitely been a strong tendency towards sex heavy stories recently. 

How many full length sexually explicit stories has PP run in the last year? (Yes, that leaves out this lot (heh) of flash.) I count two: "Engines of Her Desire" and "Her Collection of Intimacy", but I could easily be missing some.

Also - I don't think it's quite fair to lump an EP episode into this discussion.

I totally get where Heyes is coming from, and I think it's a very thoughtful response - there are many rooms in the haunted house of horror. But I don't think there's been an overwhelming bend toward eroticism here at PP lately. (Although with this collection coming close to "Her Collection of Intimacy" I can see why some feel that way.)

I didn't mean to say that it was Ben's fault that the sex has all come recently, but I don't think it's unfair to say that recently there has been a fairly high concentration of sex-heavy stories on Escape Artists.  It would be unfair to say that if I meant it as a criticism "What were the editors thinking?" sort of comment, but I think it's fair to say it as a general comment.  "Spar" in particular, had enough squicky sex that I may spend years scrubbing the images out of my brain with industrial grade steel wool.  I like the Hugo story tradition at EP, and I hope it continues, so that's not even one I can complain about as an editorial decision--it was a Hugo nominee and EP ran it and I think that's great, even if it was a little too much for me.  With that story very heavy on disturbing sex, any other sex stories just become more noticeable.  "Her Collection of Intimacy" shows up and is all about sex--I was relieved that none of it was squicky, at least--I was more than half-tempted to turn ahead because "Spar" came to mind, but that would've been unfair.  I did listen to it, and mostly liked it, but "sex" was about 95% of the subject material so I'd say that can definitely be included.

And this flash episode has tentacle rape in it, so I'd say that pretty much qualifies as squicky sex, and I'd include the cannibalism story with that too, because there was an extreme intimacy in that scenario of flesh eating that really got to me (until I shut it off).  The other one I wouldn't necessarily call sex-heavy, but it did have some hot and possibly imaginary sex on the bathroom counter, so given its grouping with the other two, it might at least deserve an honorary mention.

So I didn't mean it as a complaint of editor's choices, but as an agreement with heyes that "yeah there's been quite a bit of stories heavy on sex in recent weeks". 

[Ben Phillips]

vorarephilia

You got me.  What does this word mean?  I respect a man who can defeat a dictionary.

[Kaa]

A fetish, chiefly practiced by role-playing, involving the devouring of or being devoured by another person or creature—whether live and whole ("soft vore"), or with gore or killing ("hard vore"). It may involve preparation or cooking as food, which is rarer.

[Millenium_King]

vorarephilia

You got me.  What does this word mean?  I respect a man who can defeat a dictionary.

Haha - thanks Ben.  Kaa hitt he nail on the head.  It's usually shortened as "vore."

[Dave]

Full Disclosure: CSE Cooney is a friend of mine, and I regularly attend her live readings.

I was really psyched that she'd finally gotten a story on an EA cast. I've been listening to you guys about the same length of time that I've known her, and I've been anticipating hearing her here for about that long. Her stories and poems are fun to read, but they really shine when heard.

So, I'd had really high hopes for this one, which I have heard her read and was blown away by (in the most horrible way possible). Alas, I was disappointed by the reading. I don't think it's anyone's fault (I've enjoyed other stories read by the same narrator). I think Miss Cooney's work just straddles a line between poetry and prose that probably requires musical notations to read properly. And, naturally, those notations are only in her head. If there were anyone I'd wish the "no authors reading their own work" rule would be bent for, it's her.

I'm still really glad to have heard her on PP, and I really hope for more in the future, on any of the casts.

As for the story itself, it's pretty heavy on the metaphor, and yes, extremely squicky. I think Alasdair's comments about intimacy hit the nail right on the head. Who are we to define what closeness is? When a person stops seeing themselves, what does it take to make them feel something real? And who are we to deny them that experience?

The one with the hypnosis was also extremely creepy, the best read, and ultimately the most effective of the three.

The third one was just really bizarre lesbian tentacle porn that, while it had some interesting images, had no cohesion or sense and left me pretty flat. Er, no pun intended.

This was a pretty good collection of three horrific stories about intimacy, so, well done on that score. Alasdair's segues were quite good.


For anyone who wants to hear CSE Cooney reading her own work (which I highly recommend), she's done several poems for Goblin Fruit, so check there. I won't link, it's probably bad manners to link to the competition, eh?

[Unblinking]

For anyone who wants to hear CSE Cooney reading her own work (which I highly recommend), she's done several poems for Goblin Fruit, so check there. I won't link, it's probably bad manners to link to the competition, eh?

I think it'd be fine, especially since it would be a link to work by one of the feature authors.  Pseudopod regularly reprints stories that first appeared elsewhere, and when that's the case, they link to the original in their show notes.

[Ben Phillips]

For anyone who wants to hear CSE Cooney reading her own work (which I highly recommend), she's done several poems for Goblin Fruit, so check there. I won't link, it's probably bad manners to link to the competition, eh?

Nah, not at all.  It's not really competition if you ask me.

[Dave]

Heh. Ben, I'll assume you meant that in the kindest possible sense.

Here's the audio for "Sedna", one of my favorite Cooney poems, read by the author.
http://www.goblinfruit.net/soundbytes/sedna.mp3

And here's "The Sea-King's Second Bride", which I heard her read in person recently and positively swooned over:
http://www.goblinfruit.net/soundbytes/seakingbride.mp3

Even if you didn't care for My Body, Your Banquet; give these a listen. They are short, and of a completely different style; and read as if they were music.

[Ben Phillips]

Heh. Ben, I'll assume you meant that in the kindest possible sense.

Oh, heh, I see what you mean.  Yes, I did.  Plus, to me art is just objectively non-objective -- and free products don't compete in any meaningful way.  That's what I meant to say.

[Reginod]

I save the flash stories for short drives and I mistimed this one.  I got to the coffee shop before “My Body, Your Banquet” was over, normally I’d stop the story, go in order my drink and then listen to the rest.  I couldn’t.  I had to hear the whole story right then, and then I had to stop the podcast and just sit a moment.  This story creeped me out in exactly the right way; I loved it and it will be a long time before I can listen to it again.

[Marguerite]

I save the flash stories for short drives and I mistimed this one.  I got to the coffee shop before “My Body, Your Banquet” was over, normally I’d stop the story, go in order my drink and then listen to the rest.  I couldn’t.

I had a similar experience with Flash on the Borderlands 4.  I listen to them on my Friday commute home where I treat myself to coffee during the drive (my personal TGIF).  I reached the cafe just after Alasdair's second "bump" between the middle and last story and I could tell by the sound of his voice that if I wanted to stop, I'd better stop NOW.  And I'm glad I did.

[Fenrix]

What a delightful collection of love stories. I'm totally recommending this to friends for Valentine's Day next year. I felt the third was the weakest of the bunch, but this was a great grouping.

With regards to sex in the podcast, one cannot ignore one of the primal instincts that get to the base of human interaction. Fear/flight, fuck, fight. If we ignore the human need for intimacy, then we're lying to ourselves. Although it might be enjoyable to listen to nothing but Victorian horror, it doesn't lead to a rounded experience.

Also, I feel obligated to quote the front page in discussions like this:

WARNING: This is a podcast of horror fiction. The stories presented here are intended to disturb you. They are likely to contain death, graphic violence, explicit sex (including sexual violence), hate crimes, blasphemy, or other themes and images that hook deep into your psyche. We do not provide ratings or content warnings for specific stories. We assume by your listening that you wish to be disturbed for your entertainment. If there are any themes that you cannot deal with in fiction, that are too strongly personal to you, please do not listen.

Pseudopod is for mature audiences only. Hardly any story on Pseudopod is suitable for children. We mean this very seriously.

Emphasis is mine. Warning is yours.

And wost case, if you hate one story, wait a week. There will be another, and odds are good that it will be more to your taste.

Unrelatedly,  is it just me, or are the Pods being overrun by prudes? So there was some naughty tentacles and some erotisized eating of human flesh? So she had a demon lover named Nathan - my brain, by the way, has for some reason decided that he must be Nathan Fillion, bad brain, no cookie - so what? I see worse on my drive to work every day.

The Hammer is not my fists.