Author Topic: Escape Pod Content  (Read 5598 times)

SethW

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on: March 20, 2011, 12:47:02 PM
   As a listener for years I want Escape Pod to be the best podcast it can be. I have observed that while the quality of stories is very good most of the time there has been a shift in the actual content. A change in science fiction as a genre? A change in aspiration for the podcast? Budget constraints? I personally enjoy being told a science fiction story.

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Reply #1 on: March 20, 2011, 02:52:58 PM
Science Fiction is what Escape Pod says it is.

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-- some guy interviewed in Nerdcore Rising


eytanz

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Reply #2 on: March 20, 2011, 03:36:49 PM
That's a complaint that has been made often - from pretty early on in the days of the podcast - but not usually in such vague terms. A shift from what to what? When do you perceive it happened?



Talia

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Reply #3 on: March 20, 2011, 04:03:27 PM
   As a listener for years I want Escape Pod to be the best podcast it can be. I have observed that while the quality of stories is very good most of the time there has been a shift in the actual content. A change in science fiction as a genre? A change in aspiration for the podcast? Budget constraints? I personally enjoy being told a science fiction story.

IMHO everyone's definition of what "science fiction is" varies. Clearly you're looking for something specific (but unstated!); some people have narrower definitions of the genre, and that's fine. Personally, Hugo nominees aside, I haven't yet heard a story on EP I couldn't call sci-fi (with perhaps one or two firmly on the borderline).



eytanz

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Reply #4 on: March 20, 2011, 08:47:16 PM
As a slush reader, I can comment that the types of stories read in EP are representative of the types of stories submitted to EP. If there's an editorial bias against certain types of content, it's too subtle for me to notice.

(Except for the bias towards good writing)



matweller

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Reply #5 on: March 20, 2011, 10:41:41 PM
If dominant themes and styles of sci-fi didn't shift and move in trends, it would be the only any medium that didn't.



ElectricPaladin

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Reply #6 on: March 20, 2011, 11:07:43 PM
In my mind, this is more of a meme (in the social theory sense, not the Courage Wolf sense) than anything else. Some genres are infected by this idea of "genre purity," while others aren't. There are lots of different kinds of romance stories - dewey lovey-dovey romance, hot sexy why-isn't-this-porn romance, supernatural romance with time travelers, supernatural romance with highlanders, supernatural romance with vampires, supernatural romance with time travelling vampire highlanders (I am not kidding you) - but you don't hear romance fans moaning about what is and isn't romance. They read the romance they like and don't read the romance they don't. Science fiction is infected with this meme; romance isn't. If this BS about the "feminization" of epic fantasy continues, fantasy might be the next genre to succumb, which would make me sad.

Yeah, that puts me squarely in the "all genres have variety - get over it" camp.

Anyway, for crying out loud SethW, don't do the thing where you assume that everyone already knows what you're talking about; it's a way of assuming that you are already right, and it's annoying. "I personally enjoy being told a science fiction story" is a totally meaningless statement. I also enjoy being told a science fiction story. So does the guy for whom it isn't really a science fiction story if it doesn't involve huge-breasted space chicks in tight silver uniforms (and, for that matter, the guy for whom it isn't really a science fiction story if it doesn't involve space dudes with enormous packages in tight silver uniforms), AND the rocket scientist for whom it isn't science fiction if the science isn't plausible enough, AND the fireman for whom it isn't really a science fiction story if it doesn't focus on the social consequences of new technology, AND the middle school teacher who really likes stories with space elves but thinks it's science fiction if it takes place in outer space, AND the nurse intern for whom it isn't science fiction if it isn't set in the future.

I really hate that thing. Don't do it.
« Last Edit: March 21, 2011, 01:30:04 AM by ElectricPaladin »

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ElectricPaladin

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Reply #7 on: March 20, 2011, 11:09:29 PM
In my mind, this is more of a meme (in the social theory sense, not the Courage Wolf sense) than anything else.

Though, now it occurs to me that someone should get a picture of a nerdy guy with a grumpy look on his face and put that ray-like pattern behind him. We could add captions complaining about how this or that isn't "real" science fiction or fantasy.

I'd enjoy it, anyway.

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Reply #8 on: March 21, 2011, 01:54:44 AM
   As a listener for years I want Escape Pod to be the best podcast it can be. I have observed that while the quality of stories is very good most of the time there has been a shift in the actual content. A change in science fiction as a genre? A change in aspiration for the podcast? Budget constraints? I personally enjoy being told a science fiction story.

I'd be interested to know if that perception holds for other "sci-fi" 'casts or zines... Clarke's World? Starship Sofa?


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Reply #9 on: March 21, 2011, 03:54:21 PM
   As a listener for years I want Escape Pod to be the best podcast it can be. I have observed that while the quality of stories is very good most of the time there has been a shift in the actual content. A change in science fiction as a genre? A change in aspiration for the podcast? Budget constraints? I personally enjoy being told a science fiction story.

I'd be interested to know if that perception holds for other "sci-fi" 'casts or zines... Clarke's World? Starship Sofa?

I don't think Clarkesworld would define itself as strictly a SF market. They run a healthy dose of Fantasy :) Even StarShipSofa has played a few Fantasy stories recently.

Maybe Lightspeed?


Reginod

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Reply #10 on: March 22, 2011, 02:23:08 AM
   As a listener for years I want Escape Pod to be the best podcast it can be. I have observed that while the quality of stories is very good most of the time there has been a shift in the actual content.

One of the things I have always enjoyed about EscapePod is that it seems like the editors try to pick out great science-fiction stories from all the different sub-genres that make up the larger genre of science-fiction (or that could plausibly be described as science-fiction).  I’m not (for example and generally speaking) a huge fan of hard science fiction, but knowing that EscapePod picks from all the sub-genres I know that if they run a hard scifi story it is probably a good one and that even if it isn’t next week they are likely to run something from a sub-genre more up my alley. 

I’m just guessing here, doing a little armchair editing if you will, but I suspect that the fact that EscapePod does run stories that push the boundaries of what I would have called science-fiction before listening to them is part of why they are able to run such good stories week in and week out.  I think that the more you narrow your definition of the genre the more you narrow your story pool and the more likely you are to end up with lower quality stories.  And while I’d listen to a podcast that ran only science-fiction with strong dystopian themes and lots of social commentary, I wouldn’t bother with one that only hard science-fiction because, even with the occasional gem mixed in, I’d likely be bored most weeks. 

Of course, I also love the other Escape Artists podcasts so if a bit of fantasy or horror slips into the EscapePod feed or some science-fiction winds up on one of the others I’m not going to complain.



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Reply #11 on: March 22, 2011, 10:54:37 PM
I'm currently having a great time working my way through the EP back catalogue. The reason the show never gets old is that it does range so widely across the genre.

I wonder what you mean by there being a shift in the content? C'mon you big tease! Tell us what you meant.



SethW

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Reply #12 on: March 26, 2011, 12:29:43 PM

    I love a great conversation and apologize for being so vague in my initial post. I listen consistently to StarshipSofa, Clarkesworld and Lightspeed and am talking about a general shift in scope on Escape Pod. I have followed every episode from the beginning of the podcast and think that the stories are of the highest quality though there has broadening of the genre. I generally define science fiction by the title of the genre itself, as lover of science do very much like to have it in my fiction. This is a personal statement, not criticism and I happily accept the label of purest.  Keep up the great work and I am sure that I will enjoy being told many more stories. SethW
« Last Edit: March 26, 2011, 01:06:28 PM by SethW »

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Reply #13 on: March 26, 2011, 10:29:26 PM
I love a great conversation and apologize for being so vague in my initial post. I listen consistently to StarshipSofa, Clarkesworld and Lightspeed and am talking about a general shift in scope on Escape Pod. I have followed every episode from the beginning of the podcast and think that the stories are of the highest quality though there has broadening of the genre. I generally define science fiction by the title of the genre itself, as lover of science do very much like to have it in my fiction. This is a personal statement, not criticism and I happily accept the label of purest.  Keep up the great work and I am sure that I will enjoy being told many more stories. SethW

So I guess you're saying that your preference would be for more hard science fiction?

(Hard science fiction being stories that are more grounded in science as we understand it now, and make a big effort to explain the science and the technological advances from present day.)

Someone can dig up the other thread on this and link it below, but I would say probably the primary reason why Escape Pod doesn't run more hard science fiction is that finding good stories like that is hard, and it's difficult to find one where the science is good and the characters are equally good.

And for whatever reason we just don't get subbed as much hard science fiction as the various flavors of soft science fiction. I mean, if we got submitted to us as many hard science fiction stories as we got time travel stories, we'd be running a lot more hard science fiction.

I Twitter. I also occasionally blog on the Escape Pod blog, which if you're here you shouldn't have much trouble finding.