Pseudopod 255: Flash on The Borderlands IX - It’s War!

[Bdoomed]

Pseudopod 255: Flash on The Borderlands IX - It’s War!

Three VETERAN’S DAY flash fictions about war - ancient, recent and omnipresent


KING

By C. Deskin Rink.

Mr. Rink has previously appeared on Pseudopod with episode #186 - “Ankor Sabat”. A sequel to it, “The High Priest”, appeared as episode #35 of the Cast Macabre podcast (link currently unavailable). He has an upcoming story, “Kingdom of Sorrow,” in the Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations anthology.

Narrated by V.O. Bloodfrost, who previously read the Podcastle Miniature #65 “Blood Willows”. He can be contacted at his Twitter @VBloodfrost.

“The first time I beheld my King was amidst the arcades and columns of Babylon beneath an aching, cerulean firmament. From the uppermost heights of the hanging gardens he descended, taking each megalithic tier in a single stride until his final step cracked wide the world itself. His bloodshot eyes stared out at me from beneath his golden crown: wide and perfectly round – bereft of lids, lashes or flesh. “Hail!” I cried out, “Hail! Our King is descended from on high to rule the Earth!”"


NUMBER 21 RUE LE SUEUR

By Edward McDermott

While the story is fiction, the events it describes are all real: Dresden, 84 avenue foch, 93 Rue Lauriston, and Number 21 Rue le Sueur .

Narrated by Ben Phillips.

“”We had received several reports about a doctor in Paris who was part of the resistance. Dr. Eugene of the resistance cell code named Fly-Tox. He was one of many, and we were told to concentrate on the Red Orchestra, that was the Communist spy system and resistance system in France. Your British and American agents were simply not that important.

“However, Robert Jodkum of IV-B4, the Jewish Affairs Department of the Gestapo, learned from an informer that a “Dr. Eugène” was helping Jews get out of France and flee to Argentina. Jodkum was a bit of martinet, and the thought of anyone escaping drove him into a rage. The informer led him to the barbershop of a lowlife called Raoul Fourrier, who was directing people to the ‘escape route’. Jodkum arrested Doctor Marcel André Henri Félix Petiot. We held him in Fresnes prison south of Paris for several months.”

Johnson looked bored.

“The problem was that Fourrier knew nothing, and Petiot wouldn’t talk. There was no proof of any escape line. We tracked several people who supposedly used this line to disappear, and disappear they did, but they never turned up anywhere else.”


WAR

By Aaron Ashley Garrison

Click his name for his website. Aaron also blogs at Synchroshock.

Narrated by Dominic Rabrun.

“‘These little rabbit’s feet, on my neck? They mean I’ve killed a man. Men. And I don’t regret nothin. It was war.”



Listen to this week's Pseudopod.

[Unblinking]

"King" didn't really do much for me.  I've generally dug Rink's other work that I've read, and although this one had plenty of interesting description, that's pretty much all there was.  The war god was more a force of nature than a character, and the narrator seemed to be not much but an unholy Metatron.  I wanted some characters.

"Number 21 Rue Le Seuer" at least had characters, and using WWII as a setting there is plenty of emotion there.  I can't say I really enjoyed it, and I probably wouldn't recommend it, but it was certainly well written and fitting for the subject material.

"War" was probably my favorite of the group.  Although it was mostly a description of the game, the narrator's character came out clearly in his descriptions of everything.  I didn't get the sense at all that this was an afterlife, only a more fatal version of Fight Club.  Oddly, this kind of fatal game has been a recurring theme in the things I've read in the last month, apparently through coincidence:
--The Long Walk by Stephen King, about 100 young men who volunteer to join this contest where they keep walking for days and days.  Anyone who stops too long is shot.  Not combat, more endurance, but there is only one left standing.
--The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, about 24 young men and women who are drafted into a contest from which there will be only one survivor. 
--This one felt very much along the same lines as those, though the details and characters were very different.  That's not a criticism of the story, just an odd coincidence that I heard these all back to back.

[countblackula]

David, War was also my favorite. Here's hoping Shawn and Alasdair will let me read again. It mostly reminded me of Battle Royale.

Has anyone seen the Hunger Games trailer that just came out?

[slag]

"War" sounded almost like a person who had already been caught by the police giving a confession to the police. Or at least it started out that way.  Maybe it was just me who thought this at the start, but because I thought that, the invite given by the narrator was a great surprise.  I loved the description of the house, how upstairs was like a normal place where someone might've lived but downstairs seemed to be a place where any battle or hunt could happen. I thought about what Alistair said about these guys already possibly being dead, and maybe this place was someplace they brought with them wherever they battled in life. Maybe the house is owned by a person that collects battle hardened spirits? I don't know, but I like the speculation that the clues can conjure up.
I agree about the other two.  "King" was okay, all setting and history, but I did like the voice. One of my favorites since "Another End To The Empire" on Podcastle.

[dragonsbreath]

I do have a comment about "NUMBER 21 RUE LE SUEUR." Having read Winston Churchill's War memoirs, and other such materials about WWII, I think I can make a comment about this story taking into account historical perspective. I enjoyed the story, especially when the accused war criminal responded to his interrogator with similar accusations. I believe it is true to say that it is the victorious that defines the term war crimes. I also believe that a true study of history must avoid modern sensitivities, as they may work to filter out the realities of the time, and thereby make the study incomplete. My college history professor, would often say that to really understand history, you should read from the actual writings, speeches and other direct documentation compiled at the time, and by those making the history. In this story we are horrified at the references to all the suffering and death, and wonder how humanity can descend to this level. But we must try to understand the world in which they lived. We must remember that in the 1940's, the world lacked instant, mass communication, and that atrocities on both sides of the conflict were often nothing more than words on a newspaper, or the sanitized radio and movie reel announcements.
Today, bloodshed is broadcast instantly, and without filters. Ironically this has reduced war into glorified video-game like images.

That being said, the one thing we must do, is to honor those that have fought and died serving in the name of human freedom and liberty. War is horrible, but sometimes it is necessary, and in those cases may our intentions be true for the sake of our veterans.

[Kaa]

King: The overly dramatic reading detracted from what might have been a good story, but I was too busy paying attention to the reading--and thinking the story was done three times only to hear it start again--to know what went on in the story.

Number 21 Rue de Sueur: I thought this one was a stronger story than either of the other two...but I have to raise the spectre of "What is horror?" and to me, this wasn't it. It was historical, yes. It was about war, yes. And it was about a horrific episode in our history, yes. But was it "horror"? Ehhhhh... If it was, it was two people talking about horror in an almost academic sense, and not the actual experience of horror.

War: Creepy, but it didn't do anything for me. I kept wanting to know why they called this war. What the house was all about. Why they were called rabbits. Etc. And I got no answers, so I was left frustrated.

I guess the whole "flash" experience was just lost on me, this time.

[Listener]

My favorite story was "War".

I think "King" was way too long, but was otherwise enjoyable. And it had the best narrator of the three.

[ElectricPaladin]

KING

Didn't like Ankor Sabat, didn't like this one. The story took itself far too seriously and failed to provide content that was sufficiently personal to be horrible. I understand that the world was blasted by this "King" showing up, and the dawning realization that this was set in the future, not the past, was interesting enough. However, the fact that there were no discernable characters except for the one-dimensional and gravelly-voiced narrator (great job with the reading, though) left me failing to care. Bad things happen to fictional characters all the time - you're going to have to work much harder than that to impress me. Give me a character to care about. Let him have a "You, bastards! You finally did it!"¹ moment to horrify me, if you must. This was just... an awesome gravelly voice droning on for far too long.

Sorry - I really didn't like this one, to the point of actively disliking it, as opposed to finding it merely passable.

NUMBER 21 RUE LE SUEUR

This was my favorite of the three. It took real events and spun them out to make life seem horrible. A well done, subtle horror story. Not a lot happened, but the dialogue hit like a wrecking ball made of the bones of children.

WAR

Eh... ok. A pretty good metaphor for war, but it kind of dragged on. I think that, like King, I would have preferred a more immediate narrative about someone subjected to this place, watched him give in and finally come to love it, rather than simple heard it described by someone who has already sold himself to it fully. Great concept (unlike King, which really seemed to have absolutely nothing at the heart of it), but the execution just didn't appeal to me².

---

1) Planet of the Apes reference FTW.

2) See what I did there?

[Scattercat]

King

Awesome narrator.  It really brought the story to life.  The story itself, eh, not so much.  I agree with much of the previously written criticisms as far as being a little too long to hold my interest without a plot or any characters.

Number 21 Rue la Sueur

I generally approve of stories that try to explore the gray areas of morality, but this story didn't quite click for me.  Part of it was that it didn't seem to so much investigate the shades of gray as invert the scale; the Nazi was a decent, honest man who was the victim of forces beyond his control, and everyone else were evil scumbags.  It felt like the story was a little bit too much on his side; he was allowed to point out when the American was being disingenuous or glossing over things, but the American didn't get to do likewise (or was quickly dismissed when he tried.)  The wink about Gitmo and Abu Ghraib was a bit too fourth-wall-breaking for my taste, as well.  For a moment, I wondered if the story was going to be some kind of weird time-travel thing, where the captured Nazi was actually a modern German who traveled back in time specifically to be able to openly attack the evil Americans or something.

War

I quite liked this one overall, although I thought it took a little too long to make its point.  When we looped back around and he started to describe the actual house after already making it clear what kind of place it was, I started to drift.  Other than that, it was decent.  I don't get the appeal, personally, and I mildly resent the story's assumption that I would or the sideways thematic claim that secretly everyone wants this, but eh, it's a popular moral for these sorts of tales.  Can't really fault an author for keeping in line with the classics.  (I was reminded of an essay I recently read that claimed "Inglorious Basterds" was Tarantino rendering judgment on the fans who love his movies by explicitly comparing them to Hitler in laughing at the cruelty of his characters, to which my reaction was, "Well, except I already hated all the rest of his movies for just the sort of mindless violence he's supposedly implicating me for enjoying, so where does that leave me?")

[yaksox]

Similar to what other folks have said, I found all three interesting, but none really nailed it. The middle one stood out, but then, as kaa says, is it really horror? Getting up and going down to the corner shop _during war_ is horror.
I listen to Pseudopod on the 1.5 hr bus ride home on a saturday night. But in the morning on the way I sometimes listen to the BBC history extra podcast (http://www.historyextra.com/podcast-page) (hope it's okay to mention here) -- particularly poignant was the 17th Nov. episode because three old men told their stories of the long march in WW2.
Listening to real people tell real stories of the horrors they've lived through (but also the amazing little twists, like getting a sponge bath from your German infantry captor) kind of makes writing stories like 21 Rue la Sueur redundant. At this point in time at least.

- Had a bit of trouble getting over the narration of the first one.
- Enjoyed the narration of the last one. The chuckle in there sounded very natural. The story reminded me a lot of Fight Club.

[The Far Stairs]

King: The overly dramatic reading detracted from what might have been a good story, but I was too busy paying attention to the reading--and thinking the story was done three times only to hear it start again--to know what went on in the story.

I dug this story, but I think Rink's style is somewhat of an acquired taste. It seems like he goes for grand Lovecraftian set pieces at the expense of relatable characters. I don't think this is a weakness in his writing, since it's clearly a conscious choice. It just may be a choice that alienates some readers. I think his style may work better in longer stories like "Ankor Sabat," because he has more time to flesh out the world he's building. Since the world itself is the protagonist, the more details he can squeeze in the better. This story felt like a sketch, but a really evocative sketch like Lovecraft would scribble in his journal after having a particularly weird dream.

Number 21 Rue de Sueur: I thought this one was a stronger story than either of the other two...but I have to raise the spectre of "What is horror?" and to me, this wasn't it. It was historical, yes. It was about war, yes. And it was about a horrific episode in our history, yes. But was it "horror"? Ehhhhh... If it was, it was two people talking about horror in an almost academic sense, and not the actual experience of horror.

You're right, it didn't seem that horrific. It seemed like kind of an academic exercise, the point of which was to present a situation in which the world was already so suffused with horror that one more horror didn't make a great deal of difference. If that was indeed the point, then I think the story succeeded. If the point was to really horrify the reader, then maybe not.

War: Creepy, but it didn't do anything for me. I kept wanting to know why they called this war. What the house was all about. Why they were called rabbits. Etc. And I got no answers, so I was left frustrated.

I loved this one. The unanswered questions were my favorite part, because they left room for analysis. I started out thinking, "Oh, great, another Saw/Hostel clone." Then the author started describing the house, and the whole thing changed. It became so surreal, which is my favorite kind of horror. Alasdair's theory about Valhalla is a good one, but I prefer it to remain unanswered. For me, the best horror stories are the one's that seem like dreams, because dreams are the places where our subconscious takes over and we have the most intimate connection with fear. A gigantic house with a labyrinth of catacombs beneath it, filled with weird junk that shouldn't be there? Sign me up. The part where he said he once saw "an honest-to-god satellite" made my day. What's creepier than that? A satellite--something that should be up in space facilitating human communication--languishing in some kind of slaughterhouse cave where humans kill each other without speaking. For my money, that's genius. It represents the fear of ourselves, our hatreds, our need for war to define who we are by proclaiming what we're not: "I'm not this, so I kill this." In my opinion, that's why the story was called "War," because that's the fear it addressed. The quarries were called rabbits because the pursuers needed some kind of distance between themselves and their victim. All the talk about how the men loved each other was all well and good, but the situation they created with each other was a hell of endless violence. If that's the only time you can really feel alive, you're fucked. Essentially, the story addressed a major fear of mine--losing identity by losing empathy--and it did it in a really cool way.

[Sgarre1]

Then the author started describing the house, and the whole thing changed. It became so surreal, which is my favorite kind of horror. Alasdair's theory about Valhalla is a good one, but I prefer it to remain unanswered. For me, the best horror stories are the one's that seem like dreams, because dreams are the places where our subconscious takes over and we have the most intimate connection with fear.

This is the aspect that really sold me as well - the story operates in neither a completely symbolic zone, nor in a completely realistic one.  My feelings were intimations of the house as human history presented like surreal detritus, amongst which move eternal figures of violence and conflict.  Or something like that.

I don't think the point of the second story was to *directly* horrify.

[The Far Stairs]

...the story operates in neither a completely symbolic zone, nor in a completely realistic one.  My feelings were intimations of the house as human history presented like surreal detritus, amongst which move eternal figures of violence and conflict.  Or something like that.

Exactly. Brilliantly said.

[The Far Stairs]

Also, I really liked the last line, "Don't wear nothin' you'll want back." Seems like a nod to the inherent dehumanization of war.

[Millenium_King]

I wanted to stop by and say hello!

Firstly, thanks again to Pseudopod for purchasing and producing another of my stories.  Thanks to V. O. Bloodfrost for his excellent narration - he did a great job capturing the tone of the piece.

This story was inspired, amongst other things, by "Nyrlathotep" by the venerable H. P., "The Red City Rises" by Matthew Bey, but the kernal of it was inspired by - as most of my stories are - a song: in this case "K.I.N.G." by Satyricon (I am curious - did anyone guess?).

For those of you who are curious, "Ankor Sabat" was inspired by "From the Cradle to Enslave" by Cradle of Filth and "The High Priest" was inspired by "Ov Fire and the Void" by Behemoth.

I have by necessity followed the doctrine of H.P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith with this story: the cosmic weirdness is so vast that, intentionally, the human element is diminished in its awesome presence.  I am happy that this story struck a chord with some people.