A PodCastle episode about drinks? Well, this calls for a drinking game!
I shall take a drink every time someone awesome happens. Here goes...
"Cryptobrewologist" - AHAHAHA! *Varda takes a drink* Nice opening gag, completely unexpected to have a "sponsor" on this episode.
Dave just tooootally referenced "The Sandman" there, didn't he? DIDN'T HE? *Varda takes a drink*
Wait... wait... the Behemoth Brewing ads are going to be a running gag?! AWESOME! *Varda takes a drink*
"The Wine": Hey, I remember this one from the flash contest--it was one of my favorites! Voted for it all the way through the last round. *Varda takes a drink*. I loved this piece as classic dark fantasy, with some really particularly messed up imagery. It's got the classic frame of a fae enchantment overlaid on complete squalor, but what I really love is the mystery revolving around the wine, and the big reveal of dead women in the casks at the very end. Also, it shone even more in audio! This was probably my most favorite reading of the whole episode (which is saying a lot, with the narrator lineup this time around).
("Loquil does the suffering for you!" *Varda takes a hearty drink*)
"I Wrung It In A Weary Land": two things! First, I liked how this story covered the full spectrum of alcohol's place in society, from something that's used socially, to become closer to people (one of the drinks mentioned early on allows the narrator to repair his relationship with his dad) to causing separation (the final drink, which changes him in profound ways). Secondly, the arc of this story brought to mind LeGuin's "Those Who Walk Away from Omelas" (hey, you just reminded me on "Omelas"! *Varda takes a drink*). Especially the questionable morality of using another person's suffering as an object-lesson just to make another people group's lives better. Even when framed in context of a giant plague in our world, this raised a lot of questions for me, and struck me as profoundly unsettling.
(Great leaping krakens, the PodCastle Barbarian is advertizing whale-gut-beer to me?! This is so awesome *Varda takes a drink*)
"The Forgetting Shiraz": I couldn't help but think about neuro-anatomy during this story, especially about how crude our understanding of memory and the brain still is. Brain function was originally mapped by literally cutting off the top of a living person's skull, poking at all the gray bits, and asking the sedated but conscious person to tell the doctor what they felt or experienced. (*Varda shudders and takes a drink*) Also, we've learned a lot about the brain from observing people with strokes--matching up what physical piece died with what function a person lost.
This story was framed in a similar way, revolving around the winemaker who doesn't even know what he's lost and a man who must weigh the risks of forgetting. There was something especially warm and gentle about this happening over a shared glass of wine. When I compare it to dementia and related things, there was something nice about the forgetting happening
with another person who understood, and it happening voluntarily.
(HOBSON!?!?! Okay, maybe THIS was my favorite narration of the episode! *Varda drains her glass enthusiastically*)
"The Rag Man": I'm a fan of pretty much everything Amal's ever written (her story "The Lonely Sea in the Sky") in WDSF is currently one of my favorite things I've read this year, period). This piece was nice and moody, full of all those sensory details that make me really sink into a scene.
Also, this is going to sound funny, but it made me think of the song "The Candy Man Can" from the Gene Wilder version of "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" - probably because Amal's author notes mentioned sunset, plus the Rag Man: "Who can take a sunset / and boil it down to wine / The Rag-Man Can!" *Varda toasts Amal and takes a drink*
So, yeah. I guess you could say I liked this episode. Just a little.
(Also, Holy Flying Production Values, Batman!! Sheesh, Peter outdid himself putting this thing together, and the original music and all!)