Author Topic: Pseudopod 222: Terrible Lizard King  (Read 16115 times)

Bdoomed

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on: March 25, 2011, 02:38:07 PM
Pseudopod 222: Terrible Lizard King

By Nathaniel Lee

Read by Steve Anderson, an Escape Artists jack-of-all-trades

“That night, Patrick’s dreams were troubled, full of rumbling sounds like drums or distant guns. Patrick woke up several times in the darkness and lay frozen beneath his blanket, unwilling to peep out because he knew what would be at the window.

He could hear it breathing.”


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Listen to this week's Pseudopod.
« Last Edit: March 30, 2011, 05:12:33 PM by Bdoomed »

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stePH

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Reply #1 on: March 25, 2011, 03:29:57 PM
Is Jim Morrison a character in this?

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Bdoomed

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Reply #2 on: March 25, 2011, 03:32:25 PM
Wow I thought the exact same thing.

I'd like to hear my options, so I could weigh them, what do you say?
Five pounds?  Six pounds? Seven pounds?


stePH

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Reply #3 on: March 25, 2011, 07:02:59 PM
Wow I thought the exact same thing.

I see you're a tiger now.

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-- some guy interviewed in Nerdcore Rising


Fenrix

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Reply #4 on: March 25, 2011, 08:57:57 PM
I recognize this author! Won some flash contest with a cat story. Time to download...

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


Bdoomed

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Reply #5 on: March 25, 2011, 09:23:40 PM
Hmm... Nathaniel Lee... cat story...
Nathaniel Lee... cat...
Nathaniel Lee... cat...

...

nope, doesn't ring a bell.  I guess I'm just scatterbrained.

I'd like to hear my options, so I could weigh them, what do you say?
Five pounds?  Six pounds? Seven pounds?


Scattercat

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Reply #6 on: March 25, 2011, 09:35:39 PM
Hey, everybody!

So for anyone who doesn't know, I am Nathaniel Lee and Nathaniel Lee is me.  I figured that, given my relatively active status on the forums, it would be weird for me to play hooky from this thread without saying anything.  I'm jumping in here at the beginning to say that I'll be around, but I won't be reading this thread or responding for at least a couple of weeks to let the conversation develop naturally.  A few points first:

- If you have any specific questions or things you want me to address, just say so.  If the need arises, I will post an omnibus response when I come back after the thread has concluded.

- Any forum regulars will know that I do not shy away from criticism (and will likely have argued with me on at least one occasion), so feel free to speak openly if you think something wasn't good.  I can take it as well as I dish it out, I assure you.  And no, I will not be responding to criticisms; only to questions.

- Issue One: Octopuses are scary.  Addendum: So is any water I can't see the bottom of.  This is not up for debate, and you're all wrong. /JohnMcLaughlin

- Thanks in advance for listening!  Additionally: Wooo, Pseudopod!  (Kickass reading, I thought; how come he's not around more often?)



inthefamily

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Reply #7 on: March 27, 2011, 02:55:06 PM
I must admit I love the recent turn on the pod toward more stories with less cheap blood and gore and more psychological struggles is great. Lives and the Terrible Lizard King are the kinds of stories I want to hear and I am loving it.

I miss Ben's voice but Steve is becoming a favorite of mine. I loved how he mimicked the kids voices during the taunts.



ElectricPaladin

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Reply #8 on: March 27, 2011, 03:32:12 PM
I remember liking this story in the crit group. I liked it even better read to me. Good job, 'Cat!

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Reply #9 on: March 28, 2011, 10:32:28 AM
That was a solid and engaging story with a very good depiction of bullying. I really liked the "Toby surrounded him"-bit.

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Reply #10 on: March 28, 2011, 01:36:44 PM
Congratulations on your Pseudopod debut, Nathan!!  That's awesome.  Now if you can crack Escape Pod you will have the Unholy Trifecta.  :)

Most of the story I liked very much.  The child's point of view seemed very authentic, reminded me of being a kid myself (which many supposed child POVs do not evoke).  I liked the developing friendship between the boy with the T-Rex phobia and the girl with the octopus phobia.  I expected the T-Rex to eat the bully, so there's some extra points for subverting expectations.

What I didn't care for as much:
-Patrick's rant about dinosaurs being everywhere, but hiding as fossil fuels and recycled organic matter seemed to fall out of the kid's point of view.  It seemed to be there to foreshadow the ending, where Patrick becomes the T-Rex, but it seemed that the author's voice took over the kid's story to provide this foreshadowing.
-I'm not sure if I'm reading the ending right, but the way I read it, the dinosaur is entirely imaginary.  Because, in Patrick's mind, the T-Rex has bowed down to him, he feels that he is more worthy than the tyrant king himself and will now become the dominant one.  However, I didn't think he actually changed to a sharp-toothed monster, he just became another bully like his tormentor.  That tyrant bully will be replaced by Patrick, and this is a tale of a rise of a bully.  There's nothing wrong with that, but it's hard to compare with actual dinosaurs, and I have trouble having much compassion for Patrick when I think about what it seems he is choosing to become.



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Reply #11 on: March 28, 2011, 03:25:41 PM
I, too, was confused about the ending. I don't think there was a clear enough sense as to whether the dinosaur was supposed to be taken to be an actual entity, a delusion, or whether the story was supposed to be understood metaphorically rather than literally. And it was really not clear to me what the status of the change in the ending was - did anything change other than his attitude? Was that going to be enough? It's not just a question of whether he's now going to become a new bully - it's a question of whether it's too late. If there isn't any physical change involved, if the dinosaur is a delusion or a metaphor, Patrick may now have the will to overcome his tormentors but does he have the way? Will he still see himself as top predator if he attempts to fight back and is beaten easily?



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Reply #12 on: March 28, 2011, 04:05:48 PM
I, too, was confused about the ending. I don't think there was a clear enough sense as to whether the dinosaur was supposed to be taken to be an actual entity, a delusion, or whether the story was supposed to be understood metaphorically rather than literally. And it was really not clear to me what the status of the change in the ending was - did anything change other than his attitude? Was that going to be enough? It's not just a question of whether he's now going to become a new bully - it's a question of whether it's too late. If there isn't any physical change involved, if the dinosaur is a delusion or a metaphor, Patrick may now have the will to overcome his tormentors but does he have the way? Will he still see himself as top predator if he attempts to fight back and is beaten easily?

I had no doubt about Patrick's ability to win.  The other kid's a pain in the ass, but strikes me more as a scavenger than a predator.  I don't think that the new T-Rex Patrick will hold anything back.  Patrick may end up being tried as an adult for ripping out a kid's throat with his teeth, but I believe that he will win that fight.



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Reply #13 on: March 29, 2011, 11:48:01 AM
Interesting story. I liked the way in which childhood was related in an engaging and realistic way, although, as mentioned, the fossil fuels and plastic stuff seemed a little too sophisticated for Paddy. The bit about having the same particles as dinosaurs sounded more childlike in its rather simplistic understanding of a concept that is far more complex than he makes it seem (although he is, obviously, right in his assertions)

Quick question about the post story stuff. Al, is that how your outros usually sound pre-edit? Does the bashful umming and erring get tactfully edited out in post? Is the free-flowing verbosity and rhetoric all a sham? Or where you just not working from a script for the last bit?


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Reply #14 on: March 29, 2011, 01:27:31 PM
Slightl nervous, not working from a script for that bit.



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Reply #15 on: March 29, 2011, 02:06:45 PM
Speaking of the post-story, can we get links in the title section for the Japanese relief charity?

As far as the pre-post-story, I enjoyed this one. I always seem to dig the stories run here with young children at the protagonists, and we've been long overdue for more. This fits nicely on the shelf with Little Boy Leg Bone, Fever, and Big Boy. You lost me in the middle as well, but the sidetrack didn't last long.


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Reply #16 on: March 30, 2011, 03:40:00 AM
It's in.  Sorry, haven't had my computer since Friday evening....



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Reply #17 on: March 30, 2011, 03:18:51 PM



Loz

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Reply #18 on: March 30, 2011, 07:56:39 PM
It's weird, we have a story that's milder than the usual Pseudopod fare and a fairly grisly Podcastle tale. Funny how these things even out.



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Reply #19 on: March 30, 2011, 10:59:34 PM
April Fool's Day episode coming Friday.....



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Reply #20 on: April 01, 2011, 03:35:08 AM
I won't clog the thread by listing everything I dug about this episode, since so much of it has been mentioned already. One thing that really made me smile, though, when listening, was the echo that was added with each successive repetition of the "Kiss your girlfriend!" taunt. It was just a little production touch, but it was marvelously effective.



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Reply #21 on: April 02, 2011, 10:13:37 PM
I seem to be the only one not to like this.

Partly it was because of the medium. If I'd been reading this I could have skipped passed all the tedious angsty stuff and got to the meat of the story. As it was it seemed to drag on forever without getting anywhere much.

Partly it was because the title totally oversold it. If I download a story about a Terrible Lizard King then I want to hear a story about a Terrible Lizard King. And nobody mention metaphor. Metaphor is no excuse.

Partly it's because I just listened to 'The Colour of a Brontosaurus' in the EP back catalogue and that was really good. It set the expectation bar high for whatever I listened to next, which happened to be this.

Apart from that the only problem was the lack of lesbians.




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eytanz

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Reply #23 on: April 03, 2011, 11:41:42 AM
Never let it be said that I do not listen to requests.

That is a pretty terrible lizard king.

Though it's misspelt as "kin" in the fourth paragraph.



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Reply #24 on: April 03, 2011, 07:17:31 PM
I have mixed feelings about this story:  On the one hand I sincerely enjoyed the, at times frighteningly, accurate depiction of childhood and its various pitfalls.  The overactive imagination, the bully who just won't let you get away with anything, the distant and disinterested adults.  The dialog was pretty good too.

I also enjoyed the T. Rex as a monster - a creature which is both mundane and ultramundane all at once.  Patrick's fears certainly felt childlike and moved with the logic of children ie. he finds it totally reasonable that such a creature could (a) exist and (b) remain unseen.

But I found the ending both vague and unfulfilling.  The reality of the monster never really came into play and Patrick's abrupt change (presumably into confidence) felt unbelievable.  The story felt unresolved and the horror, never fully manifests.

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