Escape Artists
Escape Pod => Episode Comments => Topic started by: eytanz on April 05, 2015, 07:46:11 PM
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EP488: In Another Life (http://escapepod.org/2015/04/04/ep488-in-another-life/)
By Kelly Sandoval (http://kellysandovalfiction.com/)
Read by Carla Doak
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Waking after a night spent slipping, I reach for Louisa automatically, rolling into the empty space where she belongs. I lick the memory of her from my lips, languid with sex. The alarm shrieks from my bedside table but I’ve gotten good at ignoring it.
We went skating. Louisa wore a purple sweater and, giggling and unsteady, clung to my arm. We kissed on the ice and she pressed herself against me, her frozen fingers sneaking under my coat to stroke my back. It’s her laughter I cling to. These days, I only hear her low, honeyed laugh when I’m slipping. I miss the warmth of it.
But it fades. Even the taste of her fades.
I tell myself it’s all right. That it’s necessary. I’ve got an appointment with my therapist at noon. If I’m still clinging to the night’s slip, he’ll know I haven’t been taking my medication.
No help for it. I drag myself out of bed and hit the alarm. My head pounds and the world blurs along the edges. I’ve slipped for three nights straight and ice skating with Louisa is nothing like sleeping. If I don’t take a day off soon, it’ll start to get dangerous.
My therapist would say it’s already dangerous. But he doesn’t understand what I’ve lost.
I’ve got four houses to show before my appointment, and a lot of coffee to drink to be ready for them. He’ll make a thing of it, if I’m late. He always does.
The hours dribble past, hazy and distant. It’s like I left a shard of myself in my alter and can’t quite get back in step with my timeline. When the charming young couple at house two asks me about financing I try to answer, only to be distracted by the ghost of a red-headed boy rushing past in pursuit of a large gray bunny. The woman selling the house wears her red curls pulled back in a tight bun. She’s childless, though abandoned rabbit hutches sit moldering in the back yard, lowering her property values.
Does she slip, stealing moments with this laughing, clumsy boy?
(http://escapepod.org/wp-images/podcast-mini4.gif) Listen to this week’s Escape Pod! (http://traffic.libsyn.com/escapepod/EP488_InAnotherLife.mp3)
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Chilling. First, I felt sorry for her ... But then the end changes the story rather drastically.
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I loved this. A well-written, somewhat creepy story. And I was really, really glad that the narrator didn't get rewarded for her stalking and other terrible behavior, as I kept worrying that this would happen by the end. But I was also glad that the portrayal was nuanced and empathetic on all sides, and not simplistically moralizing.
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An interesting story, which starts out with addiction, which is selfish in nature, lets us know about the grief which drives that addiction to living in an alternative timeline, and finally leaves us with the Got It All version of the protagonist still being unhappy and preferring yet a third timeline.
(And before I get hauled off to the pillories, I didn't say that addicts are selfish and need more self discipline and willpower, because the problem is not that simple at all. What I mean is that any addiction is about trying to get some form of gratification for yourself, even if you know you're doing it and want to stop.)
I think the last passage of the story did a great job of showing why her GF in the original timeline left her. She seems to think that her partner should automatically want what she wants, and the moment there is any disagreement, then her partner is clearly, to her mind, the only one who could possibly be at fault.
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A good story, and terrifying. Clara is a scary, scary stalker Ex. I was very uncomfortable inside her head.
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This is one where the narration really helped the story. I think that had I read this on the paper, I would not have gotten the full effect of Carla's creepy vibe. The way that the stalker tones slowly slipped into her voice was wonderful.
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This is one where the narration really helped the story. I think that had I read this on the paper, I would not have gotten the full effect of Carla's creepy vibe. The way that the stalker tones slowly slipped into her voice was wonderful.
Agreed. The narration was really well-done and definitely added to the story.
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Great story, although the ending was not unexpected. Greater reading, which is why I dropped by to comment.
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This is one where the narration really helped the story. I think that had I read this on the paper, I would not have gotten the full effect of Carla's creepy vibe. The way that the stalker tones slowly slipped into her voice was wonderful.
Spot on. This is one of the better readings I've heard on Escape Pod. One can just hear notes of bargaining and rationalization slip into the narrator's voice.
And it's a really good story, too. Everyone has played the great game of If I Only Would Have at some time in their life, and some play it constantly. And some people do let it destroy them.
This will be my last post on the forum, but don't worry, I've just merged my consciousness with the alternate me that decided to buy Tesla stock at $50 a share after all.
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Wow. This story showed me how classic, well-worn tropes can be given new life by brilliant execution. The writing did a wonderful job of evoking both the creepiness and the despair of the protagonist. I found myself both appreciating just how awful and intrusive her stalking was, while simultaneously appreciating the depth of her pain and wondering exactly how much of her behavior was "voluntary" and how much was the result of emotional forces she really couldn't control. While also realizing that Louisa was absolutely right in fleeing the relationship and cutting Carla out of her life.
While I saw the ending coming, it was sufficiently well-executed that it still packed a punch.
Also, kudos to the narrator for incorporating the nuances that made a good story even better.
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I don't really care for the "alternate universes coexisting" premise. It just doesn't feel real to me. Even if there are infinite universes and, therefore, theoretically one that's exactly like ours except in one small way (and so on and so on), how would you ever find it? Wouldn't you be more likely to come across one that's completely bonkers? The author also failed to explain how it worked (unless I missed it), so technically not sci-fi, more of a post-modern fantasy (just saying, not that it's important).
The story did remind me of one I read years ago (maybe it was Asimov or Bradbury, because that's all I was reading at the time) where time travel was possible, but the big secret was that you could only go back a few years, and nobody was supposed to do it because they would only live in their regrets.
I also wonder why so many stories lately have to have homosexual relationships in them. As often as they come up on the podcast, it's like somebody's trying way too hard to make a point. It would have worked fine if Louisa was Louis.
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I don't really care for the "alternate universes coexisting" premise. It just doesn't feel real to me. Even if there are infinite universes and, therefore, theoretically one that's exactly like ours except in one small way (and so on and so on), how would you ever find it? Wouldn't you be more likely to come across one that's completely bonkers? The author also failed to explain how it worked (unless I missed it), so technically not sci-fi, more of a post-modern fantasy (just saying, not that it's important).
Since SF is fiction which speculates on science, I'd have to disagree with you there. The idea of parallel universes created by differing decisions is derived from the science of Physics.
:)
I also wonder why so many stories lately have to have homosexual relationships in them. As often as they come up on the podcast, it's like somebody's trying way too hard to make a point. It would have worked fine if Louisa was Louis.
Well, I can't speak for the editorial staff, but I have always understood that while they are always keen to hear from minority authors, once a story is in the Slush pile, it is NEVER filtered on the basis of the gender, sexuality, ethnicity,religion, weight, height or hair colour of either the author or any of the characters.
Perhaps it is just that authors of late feel freer to explore same sex relationships? And having felt denied this freedom in the past, perhaps they are now exercising that freedom?
Sorry if that exploration makes you feel uncomfortable.
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The idea of parallel universes created by differing decisions is derived from the science of Physics.
Sorry, could have been clearer there. Parallel Universes are from physics, though I'd have to admit to not knowing the exact state of play regarding which, if any, versions of the Parallel Universe concept are currently considered possible. The idea of creating new universes by making different decisions is, of course, Philosophy, of which Physics (AKA Natural Philosophy) is a branch.
:D
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The best way parallel universes were explained to me was, I think, in a Radiolab episode. Might have been NDT talking. Basically the idea was, as he explained it, that infinite means infinite, so there is going to be a universe with every possibility, and also (presumably) an infinite number of identical universes to ours. The idea that a new one splits off every time a different possibility happens is, I think, not based on science (though I'm no expert in that), even though it was in a Star Trek: TNG episode.
Anyway, yeah, it is based on theoretical physics, but it still doesn't feel real. Even less real is the idea that one can influence another or contact another in any way. Actually there's a lot about theoretical physics that simply doesn't make intuitive sense. I suppose people who grow up with SF stories based on those ideas might have an easier time with it.
The homosexual relationships thing, well, it is what it is. It just seems they're way overrepresented in fiction these days, and particularly in the stories here. (Of the romantic relationships in the EP stories I've listened to in the last couple of months, my perception is the ratio is nearly 50:50, which is way out of line with my experience of reality.) Maybe people are simply making an effort to achieve some perceived goal of making up for past underrepresentation. Or maybe they're just trying to seem extra-cool and progressive. Or using it as a gimmick.
Anyway, the reason I brought both of those up is they (the premise and the relationship) both felt like gimmicks in this story. But then again, isn't the typical SF story based on a gimmick? I don't know. Just thinking "out loud," as it were.
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I don't really care for the "alternate universes coexisting" premise. It just doesn't feel real to me. Even if there are infinite universes and, therefore, theoretically one that's exactly like ours except in one small way (and so on and so on), how would you ever find it? Wouldn't you be more likely to come across one that's completely bonkers? The author also failed to explain how it worked (unless I missed it), so technically not sci-fi, more of a post-modern fantasy (just saying, not that it's important).
Yeah, the "what is SF?" thing is such a hardy perennial debate around here that I think there's a standing thread someplace to which the mods direct all such discussions that appear in episode feedback. (This is the EA mod equivalent of, "Take it outside." :) )
The story did remind me of one I read years ago (maybe it was Asimov or Bradbury, because that's all I was reading at the time) where time travel was possible, but the big secret was that you could only go back a few years, and nobody was supposed to do it because they would only live in their regrets.
I think it's The Dead Past by Isaac Asimov. Description: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dead_Past (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dead_Past)
I also wonder why so many stories lately have to have homosexual relationships in them. As often as they come up on the podcast, it's like somebody's trying way too hard to make a point. It would have worked fine if Louisa was Louis.
I don't think a character "needs a reason to be gay" in a story any more than a person "needs a reason to be gay" in real life. One of the things that's struck me about same-sex relationships in EA podcasts recently is the degree to which the story isn't about the same-sex relationship -- the story is about something else, the story has a relationship in it, and the relationship happens to be between two people of the same gender. I'd include this one in that category. Those stories have been generally well-received in the comments, but I don't know to what extent, if any, that affects the editorial decision-making process.
Obviously, only the author can explain the choices made in an individual story, but I suspect in many cases we're seeing stories written by authors who have grown up in a world where same-sex couples are a normal part of the landscape, so same-sex couples are part of their story landscapes as well.
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Anyway, yeah, it is based on theoretical physics, but it still doesn't feel real. Even less real is the idea that one can influence another or contact another in any way. Actually there's a lot about theoretical physics that simply doesn't make intuitive sense. I suppose people who grow up with SF stories based on those ideas might have an easier time with it.
For me, the contact with parallel universes bit was the "OK, work with me, here" aspect of this story -- the part that requires willing suspension of disbelief. I found it convincing, in the sense I that it "felt real" while I was listening. Sounds like it didn't work as well for you. I agree that a great deal depends on your background. There was a story last year that was widely loved, but I found impossible to believe in because I thought the way it depicted the mental state of a person engaged in air combat utterly implausible. And there was another that worked fine for me, but many people with a deeper knowledge of statistics shook their heads at because the story's premise was apparently flawed.
Anyway, the reason I brought both of those up is they (the premise and the relationship) both felt like gimmicks in this story. But then again, isn't the typical SF story based on a gimmick? I don't know. Just thinking "out loud," as it were.
Well, there's definitely a large sub-category of SF for which that's true: the classic "lets change the world by adding this one thing (usually some sort of technology) then fast-forward a bit to see what happens." The example that sticks out in my mind is Larry Niven's "transfer booth" stories, especially "Flash Crowd" and "The Last Days of the Permanent Floating Riot Club", although that particular form was a staple of an awful lot of Golden Age SF.
I suppose I could see this story as fitting that form -- surveying the impact of being able to explore alternatives by "riding" minds who are living those alternatives. But I saw this one as being much more character/theme driven, with the technology serving mainly to underscore the effects of wallowing in unrealized possibilities rather than moving on with life.
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I don't think a character "needs a reason to be gay" in a story any more than a person "needs a reason to be gay" in real life. One of the things that's struck me about same-sex relationships in EA podcasts recently is the degree to which the story isn't about the same-sex relationship -- the story is about something else, the story has a relationship in it, and the relationship happens to be between two people of the same gender. I'd include this one in that category.
I would say this one was very much about the relationship, but I get your meaning. There was the one with the two women and the squid-like alien life forms recently (the story didn't make much of an impact on me, so I don't remember much more than that) which would fit in the "not really about the relationship" thing. But on the other hand, the one with the punk musicians and their mechanical backup, where one of the girls was named Dog, that I thought was largely about the relationship as well. (But I have to admit, I really liked that one. Gritty, with nice use of language.) Sorry I can't seem to remember the titles, and some of them might actually be older since I was listening to a story a day for a couple of months.
Obviously, only the author can explain the choices made in an individual story, but I suspect in many cases we're seeing stories written by authors who have grown up in a world where same-sex couples are a normal part of the landscape, so same-sex couples are part of their story landscapes as well.
Could be. I also think that people notice such relationships a lot more, and the subject is constantly in the news, so they loom larger in the mind and thus become overrepresented in fiction. On a similar note, I was just considering there are only about twice as many Jews as Native Americans in the U.S., but how many Jews do you see on T.V., versus Native Americans? I don't think I need to answer that. Fiction doesn't reflect reality, it reflects a distorted perception of reality.
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There was a story last year that was widely loved, but I found impossible to believe in because I thought the way it depicted the mental state of a person engaged in air combat utterly implausible.
I remember that one. They were in powered suits, defending Chicago from the rest of Illinois. That didn't really bother me, but I get why it bothered you. I just thought of this time I was playing the Sega Genesis puzzle game Columns, years ago, having by leaps and bounds the best game I'd ever played, and I got to the point that it felt like my eyes were directly communicating with my thumbs and bypassing my brain entirely.
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I also wonder why so many stories lately have to have homosexual relationships in them. As often as they come up on the podcast, it's like somebody's trying way too hard to make a point. It would have worked fine if Louisa was Louis.
And it works fine with Louisa being Louisa. Your comment says more about you than it does about these stories.
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Parallel universe theory is not only real, from what I understand, there are other major scientific theories about black holes and dark matter and such that pretty much hinge on it. That begin said, that doesn't mean that all of/any of the multiverses would start in the same reality. If they were truly infinite, I guess it's not unreasonable to think that some of them would be.
But you're right, it's mind-blowing to think how infinitesimally small the chance would be that you could in any way bridge two of them, much less two in anything close to the same historic reality. But if I couldn't hear a fiction story that asks "what if you could?" that is otherwise well written without getting hung up on that detail, what would be the point of ever listening to fiction? That's the basis for all fiction.
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I also wonder why so many stories lately have to have homosexual relationships in them. As often as they come up on the podcast, it's like somebody's trying way too hard to make a point. It would have worked fine if Louisa was Louis.
And it works fine with Louisa being Louisa. Your comment says more about you than it does about these stories.
Does it? Isn't the implicit social commentary of the author's choices a worthy topic of discussion? The implication of your comment is that one shouldn't remark on the implicit social outlook of a story, even a racist or sexist attitude (such as a story written several decades ago when those attitudes were generally unquestioned). No, I don't suppose that choice was core to the author's story. But the author could have made either choice, and I'm simply commenting on a trend I'm seeing, the prevalence of the trend being out of line with the reality of the world, and wondering why that trend is occurring.
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Perhaps it is just that authors of late feel freer to explore same sex relationships? And having felt denied this freedom in the past, perhaps they are now exercising that freedom?
Sorry if that exploration makes you feel uncomfortable.
And it works fine with Louisa being Louisa. Your comment says more about you than it does about these stories.
I hate to go negative in the forums, but since you started, let's do it. "Sorry if that exploration makes you feel uncomfortable." Either you're genuinely sorry or you've made an incredibly condescending passive-aggressive false apology.
"And it works fine with Louisa being Louisa. Your comment says more about you than it does about these stories." And what exactly does that say about FullMetalAttorney? I don't quite understand what it is that you're implying. I think you should come out and say exactly what you mean so that we can fully appreciate your point.
Escape Pod does run a disproportionate number of stories with gay characters. And what I mean by disproportionate is that the percentage of stories featuring gay protagonists is far greater than the percentage of homosexuals or bisexuals in the general population. If a disproportionate amount of story characters were Portuguese, I would hope that forum members could comment on that without being labeled anti-Portugese. We have a forum member who commented on the prevalence of homosexual characters in Escape Pod stories and I think that's remarkable enough to be mentioned without this passive-aggressive baiting.
You need to adjust the tone of your posts. It's making you look bad, and someone should tell you that.
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Moderator note
This ends, now.
Everyone, please take a deep internet breath and calm down. If you are unhappy with what someone is posting, please use the report button or PM me, don't engage in personal attacks, explicit or implied.
FullMetalAttorney, Chairman Goodchild - EA's editorial policies are not a valid discussion topic in specific episode threads. If you want to talk about the percentage of homosexual characters in EP's stories, open a thread about it in the "about EP" forum. But you better explain why you think this is noteworthy, and do so in a way that follows the forum rules. If you want to comment about a character's sexuality in the context of a particular story, and can do so without being disrespectful to people of that sexuality, do so in the story thread. But don't mix the two.
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Moderator note
This ends, now.
Everyone, please take a deep internet breath and calm down. If you are unhappy with what someone is posting, please use the report button or PM me, don't engage in personal attacks, explicit or implied.
FullMetalAttorney, Chairman Goodchild - EA's editorial policies are not a valid discussion topic in specific episode threads. If you want to talk about the percentage of homosexual characters in EP's stories, open a thread about it in the "about EP" forum. But you better explain why you think this is noteworthy, and do so in a way that follows the forum rules. If you want to comment about a character's sexuality in the context of a particular story, and can do so without being disrespectful to people of that sexuality, do so in the story thread. But don't mix the two.
OK. Sorry, I cross posted with you, but I took the rant straight down.
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Moderator note
This ends, now.
Everyone, please take a deep internet breath and calm down. If you are unhappy with what someone is posting, please use the report button or PM me, don't engage in personal attacks, explicit or implied.
FullMetalAttorney, Chairman Goodchild - EA's editorial policies are not a valid discussion topic in specific episode threads. If you want to talk about the percentage of homosexual characters in EP's stories, open a thread about it in the "about EP" forum. But you better explain why you think this is noteworthy, and do so in a way that follows the forum rules. If you want to comment about a character's sexuality in the context of a particular story, and can do so without being disrespectful to people of that sexuality, do so in the story thread. But don't mix the two.
Don't suppose this was necessarily a line of inquiry that was necessarily about this particular story, per se, anyway. I'll give that some thought, and, if I feel like I have enough to say on the topic, I'll go there for that discussion.
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I really liked the way this story unfolded. At the start I wondering if Louisa had died and Clara was grieving. Then slowly the whole restraining order situation comes into view but we see it tempered through the eyes of Clara so of course it is "Hybrid's idea" and Louisa is just going along with it. The ending was really good. It was heavily signposted Clara would slip for good but the fact that "she" then ends up in therapy for slipping somewhere else was handled really well. The best part of this for me is what Alasdair mentioned in the Outtro about only re-living the good parts of your life. The faults that "Clara II" find in "Louisa II" were probably there in the original timeline but Clara ignored them because of whatever bigger issue it was that caused them to split and that she wants to fix.
I want to echo the comments above about the quality of narration. It really was first class and added so much to the story. It was true story telling.
Circling back to my first point about grieving, I can imagine that in a world where "slipping" is possible grief would be the major reason people slip away for good with relationship break ups being second.
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Full Metal Attorney, #13: "not based on science (though I'm no expert in that), even though it was in a Star Trek: TNG episode."
That was tongue-in-cheek, right? 'Cause ST is well known for its technobabble and for taking place in a universe filled with makeupanameon particles. (At least most of the time, TOS and TNG sounded like the technobabble might actually mean something. I could never get fully into later series; their "technobabble" got more and more into "technogibberish" territory.)
As it happens... I actually wrote a ST:TNG episode, "Clues". (I may be "The Most Famous Star Trek Writer You've Never Heard of"; though I've sold about a dozen short stories over the years, that script sale was not only an outlier, but a way-y-y-y-out-there outlier. A bit of talent, some serendipitous timing, and a lot of luck; never managed to sell a second script, though I went in for pitch sessions several times.)
The story for "Clues" involved a mysterious planet hidden in a bubble of clear space inside a dust cloud. No astronomer me, I blue-skied that idea out of thin air. But I knew an astronomer, Pete Manly, and I ran that scene by him to try to keep myself from looking too stupid.
As it turned out, such clear spaces can actually exist inside dust clouds. They're called t-Tauri systems, and I edited that information into my first draft before sending it off.
So that episode of ST:TNG actually has real science in it.
But it was an accident. I didn't mean to.
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I liked this well enough. Are parallel worlds implausible? I don't know. I find them intriguing at the very least for a variety of hypothetical discussions. Is it too implausible for these two timelines to mesh together like this? For me, I'll generally give any short story one big plausibility pass, especially if established as part of the speculative element early in the story. If I didn't do this, I'd have very few stories to enjoy. I don't want that kind of plausibility issue to suddenly arise in the resolution of the story, but if its laid right into the foundation I am 100% cool with it. I didn't have an issue with it because the story laid the cards on the table right at the beginning--very early on it said that there are parallel worlds and that some people are able to shift their perceptions into another for a time. It would've been more difficult to swallow if, say, the story seemed to have nothing to do with parallel worlds and then at the end BAM TWIST.
I enjoyed it. Could I have predicted the ending? Probably, but I thought I was so wrapped up in the character that I wasn't trying to predict. The voice acting on this story was amazing. Incredibly amazing. Even when she was being a creepy stalker, and I was afraid she was going to hurt someone, I still felt bad for her because that edge in her voice felt so raw, so real (I'm not saying that excuses creepy stalker behavior, mind you). It was a solid story, based around a very interesting speculative element, with very real-seeming while flawed and interesting characters, but the voice acting just multiplied the effect of everything. wow.
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Full Metal Attorney, #13: "not based on science (though I'm no expert in that), even though it was in a Star Trek: TNG episode."
I haven't watched it since the original run, so I would have been 12 or younger when I saw that. So honestly I didn't remember much about it, and certainly wasn't old enough to watch it critically.
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Agreed on the praise of this narration, it brought the story to life.
Wow. Clara is a super creepy stalker ex who evidently has some pretty deep-rooted issues. I would think that the psychiatrist she sees would try to more effectively counsel her in addition to making sure she's on her meds... Granted we only saw a snippet of her treatment, but it didn't appear to be helpful. Anyway, I thought the ending really wrapped it up perfectly showing how the issue was always within Clara, regardless of who else is in her life.
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So that episode of ST:TNG actually has real science in it.
But it was an accident. I didn't mean to.
You should be ashamed of yourself :P But hey, seriously I really enjoyed that episode, even if as someone who's all about learning and sharing information it's always been frustrating.
As for this story....
It was scary, how normal and tragic the main character seemed at the beginning, how I felt of her and sympathized with her, and then how creepy she became. It's like, in what situation could any of us become creepy.
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This was really fantastic. I saw the turnaround coming, but not the way it happened, so it still hit hard.
One wonders if the stalky nature of the protagonist would have been quite as severe if "slipping" didn't make it so easy to put off dealing with loss. Granted there's plenty of ways to delude oneself without whatever technology/divine intervention/magic koala-derived suppository provides slipping, but it just seems like such an easy thing to succumb to in the wake of dealing with something like this. Of course, that way lies gun control and drug legalization debates, so I'll digress and add that the narration was dead-on perfect for this.
-=ShoEboX=-
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One wonders if the stalky nature of the protagonist would have been quite as severe if "slipping" didn't make it so easy to put off dealing with loss.
Oh, absolutely. And I think that was intended from the start. If slipping were impossible I think she'd deal with the loss as most people would, get angry, maybe go through some tough sad times, eventually get over it and move on. But the constant temptation of having exactly what you think you want just around that mental corner and slipping into it whenever you want. I think anyone would have trouble really grieving and healing from any loss if they could roll it back with a thought. Grieving sucks and it's hard, but it's important if you want to regain your life again.
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Something I found with the gender roles is that it allowed me to review the people and relationships and take them as they are. For example, if it was a hetero relationship, and all we did was gender swap characters that gives us two possible options. If our protagonist was a male, would her stalker creepiness and her pounding on the door take a much darker and more predatory tinge? If Louisa became Louis, what damage would be done by the societal disposition towards dismissing the psycho ex-gf? The author's choices allowed me to consider the mental illness and addiction without any external baggage.
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Something I found with the gender roles is that it allowed me to review the people and relationships and take them as they are. For example, if it was a hetero relationship, and all we did was gender swap characters that gives us two possible options. If our protagonist was a male, would her stalker creepiness and her pounding on the door take a much darker and more predatory tinge? If Louisa became Louis, what damage would be done by the societal disposition towards dismissing the psycho ex-gf? The author's choices allowed me to consider the mental illness and addiction without any external baggage.
Umm... Yeah...
:-[
That's what I would have said if I hadn't let myself get dragged into a stupid argument about whether or not it counts as a political statement if the editors don't vet every episode against The Big Book Of Population Statistics.
But yes. If either, or indeed both, characters had been male, then the differences in psychology between the two genders would have meant that this story couldn't be told. Making it a lesbian relationship let the author turn the Testosterone index down to Minimum and develop a more emotional, less violent interaction.
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Something I found with the gender roles is that it allowed me to review the people and relationships and take them as they are. For example, if it was a hetero relationship, and all we did was gender swap characters that gives us two possible options. If our protagonist was a male, would her stalker creepiness and her pounding on the door take a much darker and more predatory tinge? If Louisa became Louis, what damage would be done by the societal disposition towards dismissing the psycho ex-gf? The author's choices allowed me to consider the mental illness and addiction without any external baggage.
Yes, I think that's true. Good point!
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I think everything that needs to be said, has been said.
Chiming in to add more nonsense onto the heap. ;D
On science- I think that there was a "scientifically plausible" argument in that in this world there is a drug that prevents slipping. If there is a drug to prevent it, then it is a known phenomenon with a well-understood (if not explicitly stated- I figured some form of quantum entanglement but I was just reaching for a random label) mechanism and that's all I need to claim "science!". Sometimes it's fun to get the info dump, but that IMHO would have greatly detracted from the very personal nature of this narrative.
I personally would probably slip to a world where I was an intelligent, predatory dinosaur and my enemies were all very small and squishable, but that's just me. ;)
On narration- PHENOMENAL. Just phenomenal. Wow.
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Just listened to this. I'm a bit behind, as I have been Pod-Binging on Lightspeed, Pseudo pod, PodCastle and Beneath Ceaseless Skies. Seems almost impossible to keep current with all podcasts at all times. Surely, there must be a mathematical formula that proves this...
Back to the topic at hand.
I agree that the reading was awesome.
Also agree that the stalking thing was very creepy. I started thinking about what is it that makes someone's frame of reference shift to the point that they lose self-realization and self awareness of their inappropriate behavior? Is the loss of the ability to self regulate (meaning both self-realization as well as self-actualization) behavior a key element for mental illness? Whatever the behavior is, if one does not have self awareness of the inappropriateness and harm of the behavior then the behavior is likely unregulated and potentially destructive. The scary part is once the self-regulation comes off, then truly anything is possible.
This is somewhat analogous to cancer, in a way. Cancer cells start out as normal cells but lose the ability to self regulate, and just start doing their own thing, living their own little reality, even if in the end it is destructive to their own body. You definitely get the impression that Clara's behavior, in a way, is almost cancerous.
At any rate, I'm late to the party, but there's my two cents.
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This is somewhat analogous to cancer, in a way. Cancer cells start out as normal cells but lose the ability to self regulate, and just start doing their own thing, living their own little reality, even if in the end it is destructive to their own body. You definitely get the impression that Clara's behavior, in a way, is almost cancerous.
That is a brilliant analogy, and I can see it applying at a lot of different levels. When any component of a system -- political, social, biological, whatever -- loses the ability to self-regulate in a given area, the results are potentially disastrous for both the individual component and the entire system.
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Good story , great reading - although like some I also start to move towards being a bit suspicious against parallel universe stories. Not because of science - as I understood it's not yet a testable theory, and so SF should feel free to speculate. No, my problem is that (much like time-travel) it is a little bit too convenient tool for storytelling, letting the author having the cake and eat it, which makes it easy to make your point, but takes a lot of dicipline to keep your narrative credible and tight. This one went to close to that border of using it as a device for lazy storytelling, but got away with it in the end because of the compelling voice of the obsessive stalker.
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Very much enjoyed the story.
Excellent point by Fenrix regarding how the gender selection allowed for a very specific aspect of the downward slide to be highlighted.
And I agree completely with Raetsel that grief would be the major driver for slipping. Imagine slipping to a reality where your loved one did not die and seeing how your life would have continued with them instead of without them. That is one very powerful (and thus scary!!) motivator.