Author Topic: Pseudopod 400: The Screwfly Solution  (Read 30310 times)

Fenrix

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Reply #50 on: January 28, 2015, 11:28:29 AM
Also, io9 is generally about as pro-science as it gets. Popular science, for sure, but I'm struggling to see what really made you angry about the article. Could you elaborate?
It's just a stupid, bad thing that there are significant groups of people whose brains shut down to some degree at the words "genetically modified".

I get that iO9 is using it in a funny click bait way, but it's still the opposite of productive dialog to frame it as "mutant mosquitoes could be unleashed" (first off, no one makes leashes for mosquitoes). They aren't bad and stupid, but the bad, stupid things are kept in motion by people who should know better engaging in "debates" that foster a false sense of equivalency.


That helps me. So to rephrase it, it's a good idea but you think they used poor rhetoric to convey that idea.


I came to the forums partly because of how nice Alasdair keeps saying they are, so I'm trying to hold back from a full blown rant, but I could if that would be entertaining to people.


You're welcome to rant, but keep it to ideas and not people, and make sure to observe The One Rule.

Welcome aboard, and have fun!

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


Unblinking

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Reply #51 on: January 28, 2015, 04:11:15 PM
You're welcome to rant, but keep it to ideas and not people, and make sure to observe The One Rule.

I do love me a good rant, even if I don't agree with it.  But yes, the One Rule is the reason WHY these forums are such a great place, so choose the rant topic accordingly please.  :)



Quib

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Reply #52 on: February 01, 2015, 07:20:53 AM
Okay. I can be contrary, and opinionated, but I do my best to be civil, and I don't swear much because I'm not very good at it.

I'm not mad at a specific person, or even a specific group of people, it's this cycle of behavior from a lot of sources, that keep feeding into the worst parts of the attention economy. 

That helps me. So to rephrase it, it's a good idea but you think they used poor rhetoric to convey that idea.
It's more than just the rhetoric, when you write and article, you're setting parameters on the discussion. The information you include or leave out, like "some people are worried touching a mosquito could infect an organism with mosquito DNA",  is a statement about what's relevant and worth discussing. There's a lot that gets taken for granted. If you don't take for granted that "GMO" is an exciting buzzword to get you page views, we could talk about concerns that don't presuppose we are in the Axe Cop universe.

There's a desperate need for intelligent people to be mindful of how engaging with things, even to trash talk them, gives them attention. Ideas are powered by attention.


Anyway, I want to go back to talking about the episode.
I really like literature that takes a hard-sci-fi take on the soft sciences.
I'm curious about the Masters of Horror episode, but I'm concerned it'll just be exploitative and high shock value, with out the in depth psychology of the story.



Ariadnes-thread

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Reply #53 on: April 14, 2015, 11:32:33 PM
I'm not usually a Pseudopod listener (I get easily frightened, which makes some horror stories/movies etc. a rather unpleasant experience), but I've been meaning to read more Tiptree so I downloaded this one and oh. my. god. this was an amazing story, and the narration was fantastic too. All of it was so well done (and to weigh in on the sexualization of violence debate, I read it as the violence being inherently sexualized and connected to male sexuality, but the various religious cults popping up explained it in a non-sexual (or really, anti-sex) way because the sinfulness of women/sex was the best explanation that the doctrines of Christianity offered for what was happening. And those guys seemed to be the type of religious hypocrites who talked a big game about the sinfulness of sex while all the while getting off on the terrible things they do to women.

Also, I found Alasdair's talk of the Hugos at the end particularly bittersweet given all the furor over this year's Hugo nominations. Between the themes of the story and all my feelings about the Hugo stuff, there's a lot to think about in relation to the place of women and sexism both in genre fiction and in the broader world.



ironysteeth

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Reply #54 on: January 03, 2020, 01:29:23 AM
One of my faves. Ann is such a sweet heart in her letters.  Is it just me, or does Barney's Voice sound like the hotel 6 guy that says, "we'll leave the light on for you?"



Marlboro

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Reply #55 on: January 03, 2020, 04:39:10 PM
One of my faves. Ann is such a sweet heart in her letters.  Is it just me, or does Barney's Voice sound like the hotel 6 guy that says, "we'll leave the light on for you?"

Yeah, I can hear a bit of the Motel 6 guy (aka Tom Bodett) in his voice.


I think this story is ok. I had recently read a flash fiction story by Fredric Brown that has a similar payoff so that may have lead me to feeling underwhelmed by the final revelation.

Pros: excellent production

Cons: The story feels a bit too long to me. You know almost immediately what is going on in the story and so the only mystery is what/who is responsible for it. The thing is, almost any answer to that question would have worked as well or better than the one we got wouldn't it?

Would the story have been more horrifying if we never learned why this was happening? I think it might have been.



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Reply #56 on: January 04, 2020, 05:29:02 AM
Interesting that conversation about this story has popped up again.  I was thinking about the story just yesterday, after hearing the premise of a movie that came out last year called “Light of My Life.”  It’s about a world in which a plague has killed virtually all the women and girls.  One of the characters in the movie is one of the few surviving girls on earth, and the plot is about how her father (played by Casey Affleck) tries to protect her from marauding men.  A different take from Tiptree’s, for sure.

I haven’t watched the movie yet, and am curious re:  whether anyone else has seen it.  Here’s a link:  https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6063090/



Marlboro

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Reply #57 on: January 04, 2020, 01:29:56 PM
Interesting that conversation about this story has popped up again.  I was thinking about the story just yesterday, after hearing the premise of a movie that came out last year called “Light of My Life.”  It’s about a world in which a plague has killed virtually all the women and girls.  One of the characters in the movie is one of the few surviving girls on earth, and the plot is about how her father (played by Casey Affleck) tries to protect her from marauding men.  A different take from Tiptree’s, for sure.

I haven’t watched the movie yet, and am curious re:  whether anyone else has seen it.  Here’s a link:  https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6063090/

Interesting. I'm always up for an "end of civilization as we know it" type story.


 
Casey Affleck's kid strolling into a post-Apocalyptic wasteland like




^ If you don't get this - Congrats! You're not old.



Languorous Lass

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Reply #58 on: January 04, 2020, 02:28:56 PM
Oh, I’m old, but I still don’t get it.



Marlboro

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Reply #59 on: January 04, 2020, 02:43:47 PM
80s teen comedy Just One of the Guys about a girl who goes undercover as a dude in high school for some reason that I can't remember and probably doesn't make any sense anyway.

It features a very young Sherilyn Fenn  and the blond punk from Karate Kid playing -you guessed it - a bully.