Author Topic: PC120: Some Zombie Contingency Plans  (Read 41674 times)

danooli

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Reply #25 on: September 03, 2010, 12:01:58 AM
wow.  That ending really threw me for a loop.  I was really enjoying this story and was feeling kind of bad for Soap.  I feel naive and somewhat violated now! I can only imagine how Carly feels!

Reading what most everyone else has written makes me feel a bit better too. 

The end result is this is a story I will be thinking about for a LONG time.  Every time I meet an appealing yet not-quite-right stranger, actually.   :o



alllie

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Reply #26 on: September 03, 2010, 03:22:40 AM
An interesting story. But I don't think the mentions of Zombies or Wolverine was enough to make it fantasy.



Wilson Fowlie

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Reply #27 on: September 03, 2010, 05:44:06 AM
An interesting story. But I don't think the mentions of Zombies or Wolverine was enough to make it fantasy.

The only fantasy element I was reasonably certain of was the Magical Painting That Can't Be Left Behind.  But even that could have been a fabrication of Art's fevered imagination.

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Anarquistador

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Reply #28 on: September 03, 2010, 03:11:24 PM
Bleagh.

I hate zombies. It always seems to me that zombie stories are magnets for pretentious authors, who have an ALL IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO GET ACROSS. Although this one was a little different, in that...I couldn't figure out what the message was supposed to be. Something about not letting art thieves seduce you, maybe?

I share the same criticism as many posters here: I had trouble finding any fantastic element to the story. It just seemed more stream-of-consciousness than magical. Although that's pretty consistent with other alleged zombie stories I've read: zombie stories are never ABOUT zombies. They're about people's reactions TO the zombies. Must be why I find them boring...

Good reading, though.

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Swamp

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Reply #29 on: September 03, 2010, 03:24:55 PM
I share the same criticism as many posters here: I had trouble finding any fantastic element to the story.

Remember, it was "borderlands" month. 

To be honest, I was confused by the ending too, especially taking Leo, but I guess for me the ramblings of a deranged mind and trying to figure out what was truth or not won me over.   Also, the nostalga of house parties in houses of people you didn't know where you could actually be having a really deep discussion with somebody and some obnoxious blitzed guy can come in and never leave.
« Last Edit: September 03, 2010, 03:49:45 PM by Swamp »

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DKT

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Reply #30 on: September 03, 2010, 05:35:47 PM
I've become hesistant to join the story discussions because I don't want to take away from them, and I enjoy reading all of your responses (LOVING the conversation about who are the zombies in this).

But regarding the fantastic element: It's not zombies and it's not Wolverine (although it is kind of cool Wolvie appeared in both the initial and final stories of our Borderlands month, but I digress). The speculative/fantastical element is the painting, which is a work of art. And which, just like Art, everyone seems to have a very distinct (and different) perception of what it actually is. That the actual painting couldn't be left behind, no matter how hard Art tried, is what makes the story speculative (IMO).

Some stories we run, the speculative element will be more subtle than others, although our theme this month was fantasy stories that pushed the envelope of what people consider fantasy - whether it be thematic elements, character studies, stories that could be classified in several different genres (not only "Bespoke," but especially "A Spot of Bother," which really could have gone on any of the EA podcasts IMO), etc.

For other stories the speculative element will be much more in your face. Next week's story, frex, has demons and warlocks. Which is not to say we won't throw you a curve ball in the future, but this month in particular was a special one.

We've always loved the diversity of each of the EA podcasts, and hope to continue that tradition. Thanks for all the discussions, and for hanging in there with us.


Wilson Fowlie

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Reply #31 on: September 03, 2010, 05:41:57 PM
The speculative/fantastical element is the painting, which is a work of art. And which, just like Art, everyone seems to have a very distinct (and different) perception of what it actually is. That the actual painting couldn't be left behind, no matter how hard Art tried, is what makes the story speculative (IMO).

I win. :D

"People commonly use the word 'procrastination' to describe what they do on the Internet. It seems to me too mild to describe what's happening as merely not-doing-work. We don't call it procrastination when someone gets drunk instead of working." - Paul Graham


DKT

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Reply #32 on: September 03, 2010, 05:44:17 PM
The speculative/fantastical element is the painting, which is a work of art. And which, just like Art, everyone seems to have a very distinct (and different) perception of what it actually is. That the actual painting couldn't be left behind, no matter how hard Art tried, is what makes the story speculative (IMO).

I win. :D

Yes. I will send you your prize painting in the mail...let me know when it gets there okay?


soapturtle

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Reply #33 on: September 03, 2010, 06:05:58 PM
Possibly I am overly partial to stories involve soaps.....but I liked it.

The end did throw me for a loop, but didn't stop me from enjoying the story overall. 

I think the painting is Art/Soap, and that's the real reason he cannot leave it behind.

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Reply #34 on: September 03, 2010, 08:07:42 PM
 :D


danooli

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Reply #35 on: September 03, 2010, 08:25:19 PM
BTW...there are only three things in this world that I have irrational fears of. Butterflies are the first and of course, they were featured in Bespoke.  Zombies would be the second.

I am not going to mention the third for fear they will show up in next weeks story.

I have to admit, I'm a bit nervous...  ;)



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Reply #36 on: September 03, 2010, 09:58:38 PM
This story had things I like in the written word but don't enjoy quite as much in audio -- especially tangents off to the middle of nowhere and lists of things that act as exposition but take away from the flow of the story. Also, Manic Pixie Dream Girl, who seems to show up exactly where she's needed and does exactly what she has to do to keep the story going. And zombies -- not a huge fan of those. And a ton of details that, while interesting, weren't really necessary -- for example, did we really need to know that Carly is on the debate team and the reason drunk white kid is in love with her is because she smoked his ass in a debate about marijuana?

I too was confused by the ending. To my mind, Soap thought the zombies had come for everyone and he wanted to save Leo, but not Carly because he didn't approve of her Zombie Contingency Plan. Leo, OTOH, was too young to have one, and I guess in Soap's mind he needed to be protected. I do think the kidnapping was way too easy, and Leo sleeping under the bed -- "he's a heavy sleeper" -- just did NOT work at all for me. Not even slightly. I mean, they could've walked past his room and Soap could've opened the door by accident... ANYTHING...

But the way the story was told overcame my problems with it. Here's this dude who just walks into parties, eats food, and talks to people. He has a magical painting that follows him around, a strange family, and a desire to know how people will react when the zombies come.

Enjoyed the reading as well.

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Loz

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Reply #37 on: September 05, 2010, 03:25:56 PM
I enjoyed this story though I couldn't exactly say why, I think an argument could be made that the regular life that Soap visits at the party is Zombiedom, the three lumps watching sports and films on the sofa, the drunk guy that just keeps following the girl, they are all fairly passive, but I wonder whether this is a bit like Neil Gaiman's 'Murder Mysteries', is there stuff that we are not told because our character forgets it and we can only work it out by the shape of it's absence? Where does Carly disappear to?



KillerWhalen

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Reply #38 on: September 06, 2010, 12:52:47 AM
I moderately enjoyed this one. I could appreciate the humour but I could sense the story was going for something more dramatic and important that I just couldn't pick up on. I tried thinking through the meanings of the paintings, zombies, and soap while listening but eventually I just shut my brain off and cruised through the rest of the story.

I was really lost by the time the ending came around, but I managed to laugh it off as nonsense hiding an important theme that I was supposed to have picked up on earlier on in the story. All in all I'd say this was a 6/10 with some really inspired spots of humour.

I just don't get it.


grokman

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Reply #39 on: September 07, 2010, 06:43:54 PM
This one was just too much past the border for me. I'm far from a LOTR-type of fantasy fan, but I need a LITTLE something to cling to in order to feel that I'm experiencing the fantastic. As much as I love zombies, I've never considered them fantasy on their own, and while the painting that couldn't be left behind APPEARED to be fantasy, Will/Soap/Art/Wolverine was just TOO unreliable of a narrator to even take him at that word - after all we had no proof other than his word that it couldn't be left behind. I was really hoping that this story would end up being really fabulous - it had such promise, but the left turn at the end only solidified in my head that W/S/A/M was a nut job and that nothing that he'd said to that point could be counted on. I felt the same way after LOST's finale.

That said, please add my name to the list of folks that thought that Norm Sherman's narration was absolutely SUPERB!



Unblinking

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Reply #40 on: September 08, 2010, 01:30:04 PM
The speculative/fantastical element is the painting, which is a work of art. And which, just like Art, everyone seems to have a very distinct (and different) perception of what it actually is. That the actual painting couldn't be left behind, no matter how hard Art tried, is what makes the story speculative (IMO).

I win. :D

It never occurred to me that the painting was actually fantastical, considering Wolverine's lack of rationality throughout the story.



Unblinking

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Reply #41 on: September 08, 2010, 01:31:04 PM
Soap reminds me of that woman in Britain who was caught on camera putting a cat in the garbage bin.  She couldn't explain why she did it afterward.  She petted the cat for a few seconds, glanced around, then picked it up and put it in the garbage and walked away. 

And that makes me think of American Psycho, where he tries to feed a cat into an ATM machine.  Why?  Because the ATM machine told him to, of course.



Unblinking

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Reply #42 on: September 08, 2010, 01:35:25 PM
Also, Manic Pixie Dream Girl, who seems to show up exactly where she's needed and does exactly what she has to do to keep the story going.

This didn't fit the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope in my mind.  To me, those are always about the irrational life-loving weird female who suddenly invades the life of a boring overly-rational man, wacky hijinx ensue and he falls madly in love, rediscovers a zest for life before they inevitably discover that she's got her own emotional baggage hidden behind the carefree facade.

In this story, he was by far the weirder and more irrational of the two, and she probably only behaved the way she did because she was drunk.  Instead of falling in love he kidnaps her brother and runs away.  I see your point about her showing up where she's needed and filling the necessary role to keep the story going, but I'm just not sure she fits the Manic Pixie Dream Girl role.



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Reply #43 on: September 08, 2010, 01:42:06 PM
Despite it's loooong and meandering body, I was actually liking most of it because the meandering was rendered interesting by the neurotic and paranoid, irrational, nameless, protagonist.  It got me thinking about zombie contingency plans, which is a fun side effect of the story.

But the ending was the biggest WTF I've seen here before.  After an hour of meandering he kidnaps a kid for no reason known to us, and then the story ends.  Was that ending actually supposed to follow from that story?  Up until that point, I was thinking of keeping the story on my iPod, but after that, it's definitely going.

And I can't help speculating what happens next.  My guess is the kid'll be found dead in a ditch somewhere, with chunks of flesh missing, with marks that match human teeth.  And more zombie-MO murders will follow.  It's not Wolverine's fault, you see.  He was just testing out their zombie contingency plans, and they just weren't good enough.



stePH

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Reply #44 on: September 08, 2010, 03:30:12 PM
Like Void Munashii, Unblinking, and others, I enjoyed this story for the most part. I found the main character (whatever his name was) intriguing, but the ending was completely lost on me. And I was wondering just where the magic/fantasy was all through it; the painting that can't be lost seems like a token-fantasy-object more than anything else.

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l33tminion

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Reply #45 on: September 08, 2010, 04:00:22 PM
I thought the painting worked well as a symbol of Soap's status as an unreliable narrator.  Soap should have enough evidence to realize that his perception of reality is unreliable, but he doesn't.  (Especially his experience stealing the painting, which is why other things that make him doubt his perceptions (e.g. drugs) make him feel "like he's in a museum".)  Despite his denial, there's a feeling of doubt he just can't shake.  (Which he interprets as impending-zombie-attack doom.)



stePH

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Reply #46 on: September 08, 2010, 04:21:51 PM
This didn't fit the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope in my mind.  To me, those are always about the irrational life-loving weird female who suddenly invades the life of a boring overly-rational man, wacky hijinx ensue and he falls madly in love, rediscovers a zest for life before they inevitably discover that she's got her own emotional baggage hidden behind the carefree facade.

The only example of this that I've seen (that I can think of anyway) is the movie Something Wild, and you've just summarized it flawlessly.

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Listener

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Reply #47 on: September 08, 2010, 04:50:18 PM
This didn't fit the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope in my mind.  To me, those are always about the irrational life-loving weird female who suddenly invades the life of a boring overly-rational man, wacky hijinx ensue and he falls madly in love, rediscovers a zest for life before they inevitably discover that she's got her own emotional baggage hidden behind the carefree facade.

The only example of this that I've seen (that I can think of anyway) is the movie Something Wild, and you've just summarized it flawlessly.

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mbrennan

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Reply #48 on: September 09, 2010, 12:01:16 AM
To be honest, I was confused by the ending too, especially taking Leo, but I guess for me the ramblings of a deranged mind and trying to figure out what was truth or not won me over.

Whereas I detest that kind of thing.  This was an excellently-written story -- it's Kelly Link; of course it's excellently written -- but if I can interpret every bit of a story's speculative content as symbolism or madness or simply a point of view character who lies through his teeth, then I end up not caring.  I like my fantasy more fantastical than that.



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Reply #49 on: September 09, 2010, 05:59:18 AM
Weird. Wasn't going to chime in just to say that, but: weird.