Author Topic: Pseudopod 493: The Last Escapement  (Read 5589 times)

Bdoomed

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on: June 07, 2016, 04:50:34 PM
Pseudopod 493: The Last Escapement

by James Smythe.

“The Last Escapement” was first published in Irregularity in 2014, by Jurassic London – an anthology about the enlightenment, a 16th and 17th movement of invention that resulted in John Harrison discovering the concept of Maritime longitude – the true story of which being the inspiration for “The Last Escapement.” Clocks used to be a very different thing, and our notions of time were somewhat sloppier. For years, people tried to build a clock that didn’t lose time when traveling the oceans – this is my contribution to the many tales about those endeavors.

JAMES SMYTHE is the winner of the Wales Fiction Book of the Year 2013, and was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award 2014. He is the author of, amongst other things, The Machine, The Explorer, No Harm Can Come To A Good Man, and the Australia trilogy, a series for Young Adult readers. His most recent book released in the US is No Harm, and in October of this year, Way Down Dark will be published in the US by Quercus.

Your narrator – Paul Jenkins – has narrated for Escape Pod, Pseudopod and PodCastle a number of times (he was honoured to be asked to narrate the very first PodCastle episode!). His science fiction podcast novel THE PLITONE REVISIONIST is available for free at Podiobooks.com at the link. His skeptical blog “Notes from an Evil Burnee” and his skeptical podcast “Skepticule” (aka “The Three Pauls Podcast“) can also be found at their links.

This episode is sponsored by J.R. HAMANTASCHEN (who podcasts at The Horror Of Nachos And Hamantaschen) and his new story collection WITH A VOICE THAT IS OFTEN STILL CONFUSED BUT IS BECOMING EVER LOUDER AND CLEARER (which can be ordered here from AMAZON

The follow-up to his critically acclaimed collection, YOU SHALL NEVER KNOW SECURITY, J.R. Hamantaschen returns with another collection of his inimitable brand of weird, dark fiction. At turns despairing, resonant, macabre and insightful, these nine stories intend to stay with you.

9 out of 10 – “there are nine tales in this collection, each of satisfying length and immediately striking, from first page to last . . . stories that will grip you for their humanity and soul.” – Starburst Magazine

“eclectic, poignant, thought provoking .. . too awesome to pass up” – HorrorTalk

“Perturbing, anomalous stories that will bore into readers’ minds.” – Kirkus

Unequivocal Recommendation – ShockTotem

“True, great horror. I love this book.” – Chris Lackey, HP Lovecraft Literary Podcast

“Those who an artistic approach, psychological depth and small details are going to read through this collection and remember it for days to come.” — HorrorPalace

“Resonating, delectably weird and spooky collection, thoroughly enjoyable” – IndieReader (received Official IndieReader Stamp of Approval)

4 out of 5 – Scream Magazine

4 out of 5 – Hungry Monster Review



“I do not know how many times I am to try this: to create a time-keeping device that will hold its measure on a journey across the sea. Every day, the same thing: a task as simple as steadying a pendulum, the rock of left to right; of making it sturdy, able to take the yoke of a storm and hold it still. Time is regular, this is the crux of the problem, and when travelling the seas, time is lost. It evaporates, like salt-water from a deck — though time, of course, leaves no trace. It is such an intangible thing that we try to measure.”




Listen to this week's Pseudopod.

I'd like to hear my options, so I could weigh them, what do you say?
Five pounds?  Six pounds? Seven pounds?


Katzentatzen

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Reply #1 on: June 08, 2016, 07:52:38 PM
I really want to listen to this, but when the audio output is only into one ear I get queasy, anyone know where I can read it?

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Fenrix

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Reply #2 on: June 08, 2016, 08:13:55 PM
We're working on the audio and should have it fixed shortly. And/or you can read the story in the Irregularity anthology.

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


Not-a-Robot

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Reply #3 on: June 08, 2016, 08:33:34 PM
I really want to listen to this, but when the audio output is only into one ear I get queasy, anyone know where I can read it?


Actually, catpaw, that was the story making you queasy. Being a biologist it takes a lot to make to make me queasy. This story did it. The writing was great. Now, please don't make me listen to it again. Ever. Please.



kibitzer

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Reply #4 on: June 08, 2016, 10:25:08 PM
Now fixed. Apologies for that one, folks.


Durruti

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Reply #5 on: June 09, 2016, 05:29:08 PM
Thank you!!



Katzentatzen

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Reply #6 on: June 09, 2016, 05:53:48 PM
Now that I read it, liked it a lot! This guy really puts the "passus" (Latin for "suffering") in "passion". I hope the watch didn't stop ticking at the end, it seemed ambiguous.

"To understand a cat you must realize that he has his own gifts, his own viewpoint, even his own morality."
--LILIAN JACKSON BRAUN


Kaa

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Reply #7 on: June 11, 2016, 06:08:19 PM
So. When Alasdair says, "Body Horror" in the future, I'll know to just skip that episode. Good to know.

Seriously, don't listen while eating. Or before eating. Or after eating. Or, basically, if you ever want to eat again.

I'm actually impressed I made it through the thigh thing, and right up to the "roundest bone in the body was the ankle" part. Which is where I finally said, "NOPE!" and moved on to a different podcast. Don't know how it ended. Although I suspect.

<deeeeep breaths>

Next week. Surely, next week. :)

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SemaphoreRaven

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Reply #8 on: June 12, 2016, 01:40:23 AM
I don't normally react outwardly to podcasts, but I physically winced several times while listening to this story. So...bravo for that?

Katzentatzen - my personal interpretation of the ending is that as the narrator rapidly approached death, he ran out of life to feed into clock. And without that vital spark, the clock faltered and stopped. Part of me does hope that the clock kept ticking just so the narrator's sacrifice wasn't in vain, but I find it hard to be optimistic when it comes to horror.

But what if that clock does keep ticking? What if that is the model that is adopted for universal use and is replicated, time and time again, so that every vessel on open water carries a ticking box of pain and blood and death? Our narrator was willing to use his own flesh for materials, but I doubt other watchmakers would follow his methodological so exactly. And I doubt those materials would come from willing volunteers.



Scuba Man

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Reply #9 on: June 12, 2016, 01:41:11 PM
Now that I read it, liked it a lot! This guy really puts the "passus" (Latin for "suffering") in "passion". I hope the watch didn't stop ticking at the end, it seemed ambiguous.

Suffering indeed!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Body horror?! Pshht.  Then at timestamp 29:10, when he straps on the thigh device.... Oh dang. My finger flew to the pause toggle.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
« Last Edit: June 12, 2016, 01:43:54 PM by Scuba Man »

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bounceswoosh

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Reply #10 on: June 13, 2016, 03:09:09 AM
Somehow I made it through this being mostly confused, and then briefly nauseated when the protagonist, I seem to recall, consumes his own ... everything from a bucket.

Having recently gone through a major injury and currently awaiting knee surgery, I find the concept that you can inflict harm on yourself to that degree repeatedly just pretty much impossible to believe. Although there are people in real life, I believe, who have some sort of dissonance where they think a particular body part doesn't belong, and they do try to make reality match their vision. But still. OMG do you know how much bone bruising hurts?



TrishEM

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Reply #11 on: June 20, 2016, 12:14:50 AM
Meh, another obsessive self-mutilation story. After he strapped the Drainer to his leg, I just started fast-forwarding for bits, listening for 10 seconds or so, then fast-forwarding again. Listened at the very end and was confident I didn't need to go back.

I did like the beginning, with references to a council and a distant rivalry via papers and correspondence, and the inventor's mindset. It reminded me slightly of the engineer in K.J. Parker's Engineer trilogy (starts with Devices and Desires). So, anyone who liked the beginning but stopped listening when it got to the body horror might want to give that a try.



Metalsludge

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Reply #12 on: June 20, 2016, 03:02:15 AM
I wasn't particularly disturbed by the body horror. But it did feel a bit ho-hum, after we just had a creative person engaging in self mutilation story not so long ago here, which also felt pretty predictable at the time in pretty much the same way. That said, the setting is indeed cool, and I liked the notes about watches and keeping time, as I'm a bit of a watch guy.

I feel like something more could have been done with the inventor's muse, and the rivalry with the other inventor, and the overall themes of the era being described. As others here have noted, those were the interesting points here, so it may have been nice to get more of that, and slightly less description of biomechnical gore. I mean, I love me some creepy biomechanical inventions, but they feel almost tacked on here. When it comes to rewards for technical accomplishment, something always seems to go wrong, so I felt for the guy, knowing that no matter what he accomplished, he would never collect on the money in full. In real life, John Harrison never did claim the full prize and credit for the sea watch from Parliament.         



Unblinking

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Reply #13 on: June 23, 2016, 03:41:37 PM
I'm afraid this one didn't do much for me.

Certain kinds of body horror really heavily squick me out.  Oddly, this wasn't actually one of them.  I guess because part of body horror squick comes from the unexpected and this all felt... overly familiar I guess. 

I was generally pretty interested in the beginning with the contemplation of a clockmaker about how to make a sea clock, but when he started feeding it bits of himself I became gradually less interested over that because that kind of felt like a stock horror story instead of something more interesting.




Metrophor

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Reply #14 on: July 20, 2016, 04:47:50 AM
Correct me if I am wrong, and I may be a bit pedantic here, but isn't yellow bile actually plasma, not stomach acid?



SemaphoreRaven

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Reply #15 on: July 23, 2016, 01:36:11 AM
Correct me if I am wrong, and I may be a bit pedantic here, but isn't yellow bile actually plasma, not stomach acid?

From what I've read, there's a theory that the four humors came from the four layers blood separates into if allowed to clot in a clear container: a black mass at the bottom (black bile), red blood cells (blood), white blood cells (phlegm), and plasma (yellow bile.) So yes, TECHNICALLY it's plasma. But they certainly didn't know that back then and the bile that comes out on an empty stomach is pretty damn yellow, so it's pretty easy to see where the idea came from.

I guess we could get even more pedantic and argue that the phlegm and black bile were wrong too and that even the blood had a mixture of two other humors in it, but then we're just getting silly.
« Last Edit: July 23, 2016, 01:42:25 AM by SemaphoreRaven »



Unblinking

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Reply #16 on: August 12, 2016, 04:29:32 PM
From what I've read, there's a theory that the four humors came from the four layers blood separates into if allowed to clot in a clear container: a black mass at the bottom (black bile), red blood cells (blood), white blood cells (phlegm), and plasma (yellow bile.) So yes, TECHNICALLY it's plasma. But they certainly didn't know that back then and the bile that comes out on an empty stomach is pretty damn yellow, so it's pretty easy to see where the idea came from.

I guess we could get even more pedantic and argue that the phlegm and black bile were wrong too and that even the blood had a mixture of two other humors in it, but then we're just getting silly.

Ah!  I never knew where that came from. The black bile in particular has always been an odd one for me, because I had no idea what that was even trying to describe, while (as you say) the bile in the stomach is pretty yellow so that one seemed more straightforward--I never suspected that was actually referencing plasma.



Brenticus302

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Reply #17 on: September 13, 2016, 02:08:48 PM
Body horror doesn't do it for me much, and I didn't feel much horror here.

That said, I still enjoyed the story a lot.  Mostly because I feel like the story did a really good job of getting into the protagonist's headspace- and I didn't really want to be there.  It wasn't enough to disturb me much (though it got me a couple moments), but it was a story well-told and I enjoyed it.