Author Topic: PC333: Argent Blood  (Read 5705 times)

Ocicat

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on: October 16, 2014, 11:11:39 PM
PodCastle 333: Argent Blood

by Joe L. Hensley

Read by Joe Scalora

Originally published in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1967.

April 13: Today I made a discovery. I was allowed to look in the mirror in Doctor Mesh’s office. I’m about forty years old, judging from my face and hair. I failed to recognize me, and by this I mean there is apparently no correlation between what I saw of me in the mirror and this trick memory of mine. But it’s good to see one’s face, although my own appears ordinary enough.

I must admit to more interest in the pretty bottles on Doctor Mesh’s shelves than my face. Somewhere in dreams I remember bottles like those. I wanted the bottles so badly that a whirling came in my head.

But I didn’t try to take them, as I suspected that Doctor Mesh was watching closely.

Doctor Mesh said, “You’re improving. Soon we’ll give you the run of our little hospital and grounds, except, of course, the disturbed room.” He pinched me on the arm playfully. “Have to keep you healthy.”

 
Rated R. Contains…well, blood.

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« Last Edit: November 07, 2014, 02:43:10 PM by Talia »



Fenrix

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Reply #1 on: October 16, 2014, 11:42:43 PM
Pumpkin Ale is such and awesome thing. Particularly the ones where you can taste the pumpkin. If all you've had the misfortune to drink is just doctored mediocre beer with some cinnamon and clove in it, I can understand your reservations. But you need to BELIEVE.

Also, Joe Hensley is awesome.

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DKT

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Reply #2 on: October 16, 2014, 11:50:15 PM
Pumpkin Ale is such and awesome thing. Particularly the ones where you can taste the pumpkin. If all you've had the misfortune to drink is just doctored mediocre beer with some cinnamon and clove in it, I can understand your reservations. But you need to BELIEVE.

I'm open to suggestions :-)


Fenrix

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Reply #3 on: October 17, 2014, 12:05:19 AM
Pumpkin Ale is such and awesome thing. Particularly the ones where you can taste the pumpkin. If all you've had the misfortune to drink is just doctored mediocre beer with some cinnamon and clove in it, I can understand your reservations. But you need to BELIEVE.

I'm open to suggestions :-)

Southern Tier (from upstate New York) Pumpking and Warlock are two of my favorites. Pumpking is a lighter version that is almost like a slice of pumpkin pie. Warlock is a pumpkin stout.

Shipyard makes a great general pumpkin beer with Pumpkinhead. And they make an amazing one with Smashed Pumpkin. They also make a related Smashed Blueberry that is stouty berry goodness.

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


Varda

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Reply #4 on: October 17, 2014, 12:36:50 AM
I'm open to suggestions :-)

That's it, Fenrix--we have ourselves a genuine beermergency on our hands. Pack your trunk with all the best pumpkin ales, load up She-Fenrix, and meet at my house in two hours!

If we don't get to California before the stroke of midnight on Halloween, Dave'll be a werewolf forever.

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Fenrix

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Reply #5 on: October 17, 2014, 02:15:29 AM
I'm open to suggestions :-)

That's it, Fenrix--we have ourselves a genuine beermergency on our hands. Pack your trunk with all the best pumpkin ales, load up She-Fenrix, and meet at my house in two hours!

If we don't get to California before the stroke of midnight on Halloween, Dave'll be a werewolf forever.


...or at least until Easter.

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


ElectricPaladin

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Reply #6 on: October 17, 2014, 06:25:50 AM
I really loved this story. It was ridiculously awesome. I loved the growing creepiness of the POV character, and the way his anti-heroic nature was gradually explicated. I loved the clever way they went about finding a way to poison the vampires. Basically, I liked it that they killed vampires. Vampires are kind of a love-to-hate thing for me; it probably comes from having spent so many of my formative years pretending to be one (yes, I was a teenage LARPer... and I'm not ashamed to admit it).

There was literally nothing I did not love about this story. It was brilliant. And anything that could be wrong with it - for example, the grimness of the situation or the main character's essential unlikeability - were dealt with by the story's perfect pacing.

So, bring on the creepy! Wooo! Candy corn for everyone!

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Swamp

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Reply #7 on: October 17, 2014, 03:01:35 PM
This was a great story!  I like how the vampires were part of the story but in the background.  I really like vampire stories when they are done right!  This one was done right!  I guess however, that I am not savvy enough to know about silver as a vampire repellent.  I always thought that was for werewolves.  I thought vampires were averse to the standard faire of holy water, crucifixes, garlic, sunlight, etc.  I was wrong.  Silver can be quite effective against vampires, as evidenced by this story.  I also found this cool article.

EDIT:  I also loved that this was written in first person epistolary form.
« Last Edit: October 18, 2014, 12:15:00 AM by Swamp »

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InfiniteMonkey

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Reply #8 on: October 17, 2014, 08:07:57 PM
AKA "Vampire Asylum"

(seriously, I'll bet if Hensley's heirs renamed it that and shopped it to FX or CW, they'd make a packet)


I like that the clearly creepy tone was enough for say "Wow, that's creepy" but not creepy enough for me to be scrambling for the off button. Of course, I was listening in daylight… and in public.

I'm also not sure how reliable not only the narrator is, but ANY source of information in this story. (I'm thinking now of JFK in "Bubba Ho-tep"… don't ask why). For all we know, it's fiction on more than one level.




Fenrix

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Reply #9 on: October 17, 2014, 08:23:05 PM
They put a bag of sand in my pumpkin beer.

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


DKT

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Reply #10 on: October 17, 2014, 08:27:00 PM
Pumpkin Ale is such and awesome thing. Particularly the ones where you can taste the pumpkin. If all you've had the misfortune to drink is just doctored mediocre beer with some cinnamon and clove in it, I can understand your reservations. But you need to BELIEVE.

I'm open to suggestions :-)

Southern Tier (from upstate New York) Pumpking and Warlock are two of my favorites. Pumpking is a lighter version that is almost like a slice of pumpkin pie. Warlock is a pumpkin stout.

Shipyard makes a great general pumpkin beer with Pumpkinhead. And they make an amazing one with Smashed Pumpkin. They also make a related Smashed Blueberry that is stouty berry goodness.

Clearly I have some research to do :)


Matencera Wolf

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Reply #11 on: October 20, 2014, 04:45:05 PM
The intro made me crave pumpkin ale, as it is something I have never had the (fortune...misfortune?) to taste before...but after finishing this story, I'm wary to drink anything that I haven't prepared myself.

Find a dream and get to work.


SpareInch

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Reply #12 on: October 20, 2014, 04:50:19 PM
I don't want anyone to think I'm standing up for the vampires here, but if Doctor Vampire and Nurse Vampire are both dead...

Who's going to take care of lunch?

Oops!

I mean, the patients?

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Unblinking

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Reply #13 on: October 21, 2014, 02:19:07 PM
I thought it was generally pretty good.  I like an unreliable narrator and I wasn't really sure they were actual vampires as a result. 



albionmoonlight

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Reply #14 on: October 27, 2014, 03:15:07 PM
This was fun.  A great use of the first-person narration to really stretch the limits of what that can do.  And a vampire story from before vampire stories were cool.  Puts me in the Halloween mood  :)



Devoted135

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Reply #15 on: October 27, 2014, 10:53:38 PM
I thought this was a fun, creepy tale and the perfect length for the story. I did wonder about the blood toxicity ramifications of silvering your blood, but it was a clever way to take out the vampires, so I don't really mind. I did get nervous about him writing all of their plans down in his diary, and then also worrying about it being read... like, stop letting them in on your plans, dude! ::)

Also: epistolary. :P



Varda

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Reply #16 on: November 05, 2014, 12:51:51 PM
I don't think I ever commented on this one after Fenrix and I staged that emergency pumpkin beer road trip, soooo... I'll pile onto the consensus that this was such a fun, creepy little story. Giving the asylum vampires food poisoning by getting silver into your own blood was creative and demented. But what I really loved was the atmosphere of the whole thing. Great, moody Halloweeny piece. :)

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UnfulredJohnson

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Reply #17 on: November 25, 2014, 09:01:11 PM
This was pretty exceptional. What a great portrayal of  mentally ill person. I was instantly hooked and I thought the 1001 thing was going to feature and I was genuinely interested to see how it would be incorporated. Then it turns out to be vampires and I really didn't care. Awesomeness. Great writing. Great voice. Great narration. Loved it.