Author Topic: EP440: Canterbury Hollow  (Read 11662 times)

Sgarre1

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Reply #25 on: April 15, 2014, 09:03:03 PM
Excellent points, Mat!



Windup

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Reply #26 on: April 16, 2014, 12:53:37 AM
Maybe. Or maybe society would just adapt to a new view of death. I've thought of that a lot lately with some people close to me having miscarriages and seeing how it devastates them. I'm not belittling their trials at all -- at all -- but to take a higher-level, clinical view, that kind of personal investment in a baby has really only been very recent. From the beginning of humans to less than 100 years ago, families had 10+ kids in the hopes that they would come out 20 years later with 3 survivors. That's not to say they didn't care or didn't suffer, just that their relationship with it was different -- more pragmatic.

It's an interesting topic to philosophize on. I suppose we'll get an intimate look at it in the next couple decades with the global population heading the way it is. Not that we'll have lotteries, but at a certain density, every weather event becomes its own lottery.

I think you're right about that.  While I don't mean to dismiss the suffering of people in earlier times, there is a difference between experiencing a tragedy that befalls all but a lucky few, and experiencing a tragedy that no one in your social circle has ever experienced or has any idea how to respond to.  Until the latter half of the 20th century in the developed world, "death of a child" fell into the first category rather than the second.

I think it's going to be a very large change with very large, but difficult-to-predict, consequences.

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evrgrn_monster

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Reply #27 on: April 17, 2014, 02:25:17 AM
I'm with the crowd on this story; very meh. I will add that I have no problem with the itty, bitty scale of the plot; in fact, that was probably it's only selling point to me. I actually find that one of the more boring tropes that both sci-fi and fantasy can fall into is the "world is in danger, and only one person, our grand and wonderful hero, can fix it with nothing but a little luck and a lot of gumption." It's refreshing to see a story-line where the characters just do what they can to get by and live their lives.

Now, as much as I love small scope stories, this one, in my opinion, was not a good example of that ideal. I felt like, since the story was so small, the author could have expanded on the world, or at the very least, the characters, but it failed in both regards. I'm still actually not sure what being balloted even entails, except the whole mandated dying thing, and since that was the major plot device of the story, I was let down.

The narration throughout the story was pretty heavy handed and unappealing as well. I hated the intro; I'd much rather have just been plopped into the story and had it grown naturally, instead of being forcefed to me.

Not a win.


Fenrix

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Reply #28 on: May 15, 2014, 02:39:45 PM
Maybe it's my recent jaunt through Hyperion and Chaucer, but the title set my expectations for something that was more pilgrimage than bucket list.

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


hardware

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Reply #29 on: July 29, 2014, 02:40:05 PM
I came out a little more positive than most on this story, I enjoy a melancholic slice-of-life meditation on dying and human contact once in a while. I see the problems with the last moment speech and common suicide, but by then I was already appreciating it too much to get turned off.



CryptoMe

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Reply #30 on: November 18, 2014, 03:28:43 AM
As usual, the discussion on the forums surpasses the story by leaps and bounds!!