Author Topic: PC352: The Creation and Destruction of the World  (Read 5667 times)

Talia

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on: February 25, 2015, 06:23:59 AM
PodCastle 352: The Creation and Destruction of the World

By Ann Leckie

Read by Diane Severson

Hosted by M.K. Hobson

A PodCastle Original! Artemis Rising: The Final Week!

At one time the waters were divided and contained, and dry land was raised up out of the sea, mountains and valleys, hills and plains, and the people lived there.  They lived this way for a long time, standing on the bones of the world, until it chanced that they angered the lord of wind and storm.  The lord of storms caused it to rain, and it rained for days, for weeks, for months, until there was no dry spot on the face of the world.  The low places were deep lakes, the high places awash.  In the highest place every step was ankle-deep in water.  The clothes the people wore, the beds they slept in, were soaked and dripping.  The very food they ate was soaked and dissolved by the rain.  And day by day it rained, and the water grew still deeper.

“We will drown!” the people cried.  “Alas for us, and for our children! It would be better if we had been fish!”  And many of these people, who cried so, were turned into fish, and swam away into the sea.  And after this no one gave birth to anything but fish.

There was a woman who gave birth, and the child was a fish.  The woman would not put the child into the sea, because it was hers and sickly, but instead kept it beside her.  “I will go to the lord of storms,” the woman said, “and beg for the god’s forgiveness, and the life of my child.”  And so she did, swaddling the child and keeping it wet with her tears.  She traveled far, where even the waters could not reach, until she was too weary and grieved to go further, and some way past that she came to the palace of the lord of the winds.


Rated R. Contains, well, Destruction (and Creation)

Listen to this week’s PodCastle!
« Last Edit: March 18, 2015, 01:35:01 PM by Talia »



Father Beast

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Reply #1 on: February 26, 2015, 11:14:24 AM
Umm, I don't get it.

I was just confused by all the retellings about the end of the world by various different methods, and I didn't understand how she supposedly tricked the Lord Of Winds at the end.

I was also pulled out every time I heard a biblical phrase used in a different context than I was used to.

Sorry, just don't get it.



Varda

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Reply #2 on: February 26, 2015, 04:31:29 PM
WHAAAAAAT. That was so rad. :D Maybe I'm just a sucker for clever subversions of folklore, but this story kept on surprising me at every turn. It set up the rules for the universe, and then kept transforming them and building the world from there. So you start with a world that puts humans at the center of the story, where turning into fish is a curse. Then you find everything in the whole world (even the rocks!) has an origin story about being human, until they were cursed and now there are no humans. And eventually, this becomes a metaphor for the interconnectedness of all creation. It gave me a sense that there's no one right way to "be human", if you will, and that nobody gets to claim the definition of that idea.

And I loved the playful and gradual realization that who you put at the center of the creation story matters, and how this relates to adaptability. Is becoming a fish the destruction of humanity, or is it the creation of the fish-people? For me, there were ties to the intergenerational grumbling I imagine has been around since the earliest humans, and how for some people, seeing the next generation change and adapt is difficult emotionally, like because values have changed, humanity itself is bottoming out and coming to an end because kids dress differently and listen to different music and have different attitudes toward gender or religion, etc. But the end of the world is what you make of it. Maybe your world is ending, but the other humans might be perplexed when you say humanity died out with you.

Also: I've mentally subtitled this "My Heart Is A Fish". It shall be written into the creation of things, and sung for generations to come. :)

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Dwango

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Reply #3 on: February 27, 2015, 09:04:54 PM
This was a very interesting treat.  The actual singing was so creative and inspired, like hearing the songs from the Lord of the Rings (not sung by fake dwarves).  And the story is basically a parable of the humans an the various ways they were turned into the creatures, and rocks, of the land.  The two lords were basically the same lords and the lady was greeted in the opposite manner by each.  The repetition of her conversations just as refrains from biblical verse.  It did not make total sense, but I doubt it is supposed to, as a parable will leave some room for interpretation.  And there is that feeling that people living on the sea is another temporary phase, as that lord of storms is sure to be upset again and will have them turning into some other thing soon enough.  Hmmm, maybe they will rather be cheetahs than people. so they can outrun the terrible landslides the lord of storms pulled out of the water.  You could come up will all sorts of the same metaphors, depending on the lord of storm's mood.



Moritz

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Reply #4 on: February 28, 2015, 09:06:10 PM
  The actual singing was so creative and inspired, like hearing the songs from the Lord of the Rings

With the difference that this story had good poetry  ;)



ElectricPaladin

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Reply #5 on: March 01, 2015, 06:22:37 PM
I've always enjoyed mythic stories, even more so when they are entirely made up fantasy-mythological systems. I also loved the Silmarillion. Then again, I was a Religion major in college, and several friends say that they snuck up on me in the library unconsciously humming a happy little song to myself as I dug through ancient journals of exegesis, so perhaps I'm a weirdo. No, scratch that. Definitely, I'm a weirdo.

That said, it seems like more of the posters thus far liked this one than disliked it, so maybe we're all weirdos together.

I've also got a soft spot for mortal-outwits-god stories. I guess that's what happens when you are simultaneously a theist and a humanist - I believe in God, but I get all smiley when humans get the better of it! This probably makes more sense to the Jews who are reading this - most Christians find this aspect of my faith commitment pretty baffling.

That aspect of the story made perfect sense to me. Gods speak the world into being, so they can't really lie. Whatever they say exists, it exists. However, gods are also dependent upon their believers for existence - that's why the gods kept on recreating humans after wiping them out each time. So, when she said that the god had saved her people... it became true. Because she was the source of his existence, and she had recharacterized his statement.

Overall, this was a delightful story. I really enjoyed the lyric tone, as the myth was layered on step by step. Five out of five zeppelins, all of them on fire.

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MacArthurBug

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Reply #6 on: March 01, 2015, 09:02:29 PM
meeh.   I'll be the cheese that stands alone. Over there. >
I dug the story itself, but I was pulled out of comfortable "Story" space by the singing. The narrators voice was nice enough, but I'm not a song as story type of lady. Something closer to chanting then singing would have pleased my picky ear a bit better. Again, her voice was lovely, I was just pulled out of the story by it.

Oh, great and mighty Alasdair, Orator Maleficent, He of the Silvered Tongue, guide this humble fangirl past jumping up and down and squeeing upon hearing the greatness of Thy voice.
Oh mighty Mur the Magnificent. I am not worthy.


bounceswoosh

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Reply #7 on: March 02, 2015, 02:56:36 PM
I wanted to like this story, but unfortunately, it just left me kind of baffled. I'm glad she finally allowed the fish kid to go be a fish.



Unblinking

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Reply #8 on: March 02, 2015, 03:14:51 PM
I don't get it. 

How did she trick him?  I don't see how it's so contradictory to save one person of a people without saving a people--to me "saving a people" implies that the group of people and their descendants will last on for some period of time, but if you kill every person but one there can be no descendants.  Since that was the turning moment of the story, not understanding it makes it hard to appreciate the story as a whole.

I know that repetition is common in mythical stories, but to me it felt like too much, a lot of the body of the story was just a repeat of the same.

The singing parts were my favorite parts--Diane has a lovely voice, and I like how she interpreted the music as sounding very hymnish.

Not for me, I guess.



Ariadnes-thread

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Reply #9 on: March 03, 2015, 08:01:17 PM
I was a bit confused by this story-- I actually had to listen to it twice, which I almost never do-- but I thought it was really lyrical and beautiful and ultimately didn't mind that it was confusing, because after all, creation stories and such are often confusing; just look at the Book of Genesis, where God just goes and creates the world twice in a row in two different ways. I thought this was a great myth-- and count me in as another who loves made up mythical stories.

I also loved that she ended up letting her kid just be a fish-- I thought that was a powerful illustration of parents who have children who are very different from themselves-- their instinct is to make their kids more like them, but ultimately that ends up hurting more than helping, and it's better to accept your child for who they are (even if they're a fish).

And like Varda, I had the refrain "my heart is a fish" running through my head the whole story.



Varda

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Reply #10 on: March 03, 2015, 09:03:27 PM
And like Varda, I had the refrain "my heart is a fish" running through my head the whole story.

YESSS! Weird coincidence: while I was writing my episode feedback above, my husband was lounging on the other couch, enjoying his day off with Ancillary Justice. :) It was a very Ann Leckie day in the Varda household.

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albionmoonlight

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Reply #11 on: March 27, 2015, 01:28:55 AM
Definitely made me feel like I was in church listening to Psalms.  She nailed the "singing to God" voice.



Devoted135

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Reply #12 on: March 28, 2015, 03:23:28 AM
I have to say that I didn't connect with this one at all. The singing parts, however, were wonderful. :)