Author Topic: Pseudopod 033: The Sounds That Come After Screaming  (Read 9761 times)

Bdoomed

  • Pseudopod Tiger
  • Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 5891
  • Mmm. Tiger.
on: April 13, 2007, 08:38:27 PM
Pseudopod 033: The Sounds That Come After Screaming


By Ian Creasey
Read by Nick Popio

The alchemists just did their job; they had no personal spite, and they understood the limits of their human material. She — whoever she was — had no such dispassion. At first she barely understood the apparatus, and turned dials at random to see how I reacted. When she experimentally tweaked one control, creating a mild throb that I estimated at 0.25 pangs, I yelled as if agonised, to make her think she was delivering more pain than she really was. It was a mistake. Now that she knew the dial did something, she turned it up, and up, and up. For a while I screamed in earnest, until she turned me down to take a call on her crystal.

“Hello?… I can’t tell you…. It’s the secret lab, silly!… Well, what else is there to do?… Oh, all kinds of stuff. Listen!” With one firm twist she turned the dial to maximum.

My shriek must have registered on all the seismic monitors in Wyke. The pain was beyond agony, so much so that a new word was needed — or an old one, like hell. It lasted a few moments, a few years, a few centuries.

“Just a prisoner,” she said in the stretching silence. “No, I’m fine…. Yes, of course I’ll be at the party. I’ll see you later.”



Listen to this week's Pseudopod.

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


lowky

  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 2717
  • from http://lovecraftismissing.com/?page_id=3142
Reply #1 on: April 16, 2007, 01:05:15 AM
At first I wasn't sure about this story, but by the end, I really enjoyed it.  Liked the message of don't dwell on past slights etc.  If you do, you will never be able to get over/heal from it.



Bdoomed

  • Pseudopod Tiger
  • Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 5891
  • Mmm. Tiger.
Reply #2 on: April 16, 2007, 03:22:56 AM
i think the end of this story got a bit too preachy for my liking.  its one thing to have a message, its another to shove it in the reader's/listener's faces. if your gonna shove it in their faces, just make the message painfully obvious rather than just preaching it.

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


clichekiller

  • Palmer
  • **
  • Posts: 58
Reply #3 on: April 17, 2007, 03:09:13 AM
I liked this story, it was interesting, but I don't see the connection with horror really.  This really smacked me as a perfect Escape Pod story.   I do understand, though, that the lines between the genres blur a lot. 



Thaurismunths

  • High Priest of TCoRN
  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 1421
  • Praise N-sh, for it is right and good!
Reply #4 on: April 17, 2007, 11:41:40 AM
I think I get why this wasn't an EP story (the science wasn't important and it was terribly violent), but I think it could be leaning on the fence if not sitting on it all together.

This was a cool idea for a story, but I was hoping to get something a little deeper out of it. It presented an idea for a contest, but centered so tightly around this competition and his dealing with the past, that it didn't show the rest of the world so I could get a context for everything that was going on or how the guy might be feeling.
I think this story could have been ‘shown’ more and ‘told’ less.

How do you fight a bully that can un-make history?


Jim

  • HP Lovecraft's 275,892nd biggest fan.
  • Matross
  • ****
  • Posts: 191
Reply #5 on: April 19, 2007, 01:09:25 PM
This story reminds me of an episode of the Alien Nation TV series, one that was actually based on The Deerhunter.

Anyone remember the episode?

My imaginary omnipotent friend is more real that your imaginary omnipotent friend.


ElectronicSupersonic

  • Extern
  • *
  • Posts: 3
Reply #6 on: April 19, 2007, 05:29:04 PM
I liked this story!

The first half was really awesome.  It had a very "Pit and the Pendulum" feel, with confused soldiers in a painful situation they don't quite understand.  Definitely a horrifying situation.

The second half (after he was released) does veer more into "Escape Pod" territory, but that's not such a bad thing.  The focus on pain and the disjointed and uncertain nature of the narrator works a lot better as "horror" than "sci fi" in my opinion.



goatkeeper

  • Guest
Reply #7 on: April 20, 2007, 04:51:43 PM
Great story, although I agree with bdoomed that the message could have beenmore subtle at the ending.

I mean this as constructively as possible, but I am not a fan of Nick Popio's narration.  Maybe it was just this story.



Drakoniis

  • Extern
  • *
  • Posts: 7
Reply #8 on: November 13, 2007, 07:29:20 AM
I'm still catching up on these. I felt like this story was part of a bigger universe, and I kindof wish Ian Creasy would write some more from it, maybe to give more insight as to what started the war in the first place, etc.



Unblinking

  • Sir Postsalot
  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 8729
    • Diabolical Plots
Reply #9 on: September 18, 2009, 01:26:30 AM
I liked the message, and the story supported it well.  I especially like the idea of distilling sports down simply to the ability to withstand pain competitively, by removing the requirement for skill.



Scattercat

  • Caution:
  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 4904
  • Amateur wordsmith
    • Mirrorshards
Reply #10 on: September 18, 2009, 04:08:44 AM
I liked the message, and the story supported it well.  I especially like the idea of distilling sports down simply to the ability to withstand pain competitively, by removing the requirement for skill.

Yet there was skill, in the timing of the maneuvers and "faking out" the opponent, even in measuring their responses and modulating your approach.  Just not quite the same sort of skill, more of a bluff and tactics game than physical dexterity.



Millenium_King

  • Lochage
  • *****
  • Posts: 385
    • Ankor Sabat
Reply #11 on: August 12, 2010, 09:37:19 PM
I liked this one.  It had its flaws, but it was mostly successful.

1. I thought the entirety of the POW camp was superfluous and could have been told through backfilling rather than multiple flashbacks.  Keeping it made the story disjointed, confusing and too long.

2. Why set this in some sort of quasi-magical place?  Wouldn't it have landed with more impact if it had just been set "5 minutes into the future?"

3. They butchered the children and made their parents eat them?  Really?  Are you serious?  I very much doubt it.  That was heavy handed and melodramatic.  It's also not the sort of thing soldiers immediately set about during the orgy of destruction that follows victory.  Rape and pillage, yes, but pausing to force cannibalism?  I don't think so.  That really stuck out at me.

Visit my blog atop the black ziggurat of Ankor Sabat, including my list of Top 10 Pseudopod episodes.


Emeraldkat

  • Extern
  • *
  • Posts: 5
Reply #12 on: June 28, 2016, 07:18:58 AM
Great story, although I agree with bdoomed that the message could have beenmore subtle at the ending.

I mean this as constructively as possible, but I am not a fan of Nick Popio's narration.  Maybe it was just this story.

I decided to go back and listen to every episode and just got to this one. I agree with you about the narration. He seems to get a lot of dry throat and/or swollen sinus ike symptoms while reading, and it causes him to swallow a lot which becomes distracting as it goes on. Also, there is audible talking in the background right around the time the lieutenant comes along. If you're paying for professional writing and narrations, can't someone go through and ensure these sounds are taken out? Those noises, far more than the swallowing, takes the listener out of that state of belief. It becomes harder and harder to suspend reality when things like that happen.

These are obviously minor flaws, but enough to bring me back to reality again.



Fenrix

  • Curmudgeonly Co-Editor of PseudoPod
  • Editor
  • *****
  • Posts: 3996
  • I always lock the door when I creep by daylight.
Reply #13 on: June 28, 2016, 10:32:55 AM
Great story, although I agree with bdoomed that the message could have beenmore subtle at the ending.

I mean this as constructively as possible, but I am not a fan of Nick Popio's narration.  Maybe it was just this story.

I decided to go back and listen to every episode and just got to this one. I agree with you about the narration. He seems to get a lot of dry throat and/or swollen sinus ike symptoms while reading, and it causes him to swallow a lot which becomes distracting as it goes on. Also, there is audible talking in the background right around the time the lieutenant comes along. If you're paying for professional writing and narrations, can't someone go through and ensure these sounds are taken out? Those noises, far more than the swallowing, takes the listener out of that state of belief. It becomes harder and harder to suspend reality when things like that happen.

These are obviously minor flaws, but enough to bring me back to reality again.

In 2007 (almost a decade ago at this point), these weren't professional narrations. Currently, Podcastle pays narrators, and Escape Pod just started. We're hoping to get narrator pay out for Pseudopod for 2017.

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


Emeraldkat

  • Extern
  • *
  • Posts: 5
Reply #14 on: June 28, 2016, 06:29:53 PM
That explains a lot. I didn't realize the narrators weren't paid at this time since I believe I heard that the authors were even back when this was released. Thank you. I am lucky enough to be in a position where I can pretty much listen to this all day, and decided I would just start at the beginning since your show came recommended by two others I have listened to for a long time. I will say that I have found a few favorites already (like Little Boy Leg Bone and What Dead People are Supposed to do). I will continue on from here on, ignoring any narration issues from here.



Fenrix

  • Curmudgeonly Co-Editor of PseudoPod
  • Editor
  • *****
  • Posts: 3996
  • I always lock the door when I creep by daylight.
Reply #15 on: June 29, 2016, 02:43:47 AM
Yeah, Escape Artists has always paid their authors from episode 1 of Escape Pod. Working on the narrators. We've got Big Plans to make this happen.

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