Escape Artists
PodCastle => Episode Comments => Topic started by: Heradel on August 09, 2008, 02:19:24 AM
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PodCastle Miniature 008: Believe (http://podcastle.org/2008/08/08/podcastle-miniature-008-believe/)
By Katherine Sparrow (http://www.katherinesparrow.net/)
Read by Ann Leckie (http://www.annleckie.com/)
First appeared in Son and Foe (http://sonandfoe.com/believe/) (full text at link)
“I’ve been practicing.”
Kenya nods her head. “It takes a lot of practice.”
“How long did it take you?”
“Forever!” Kenya claps her hands and makes two more quarters appear. At lunch she buys two chocolate milks with her quarters and gives one to Maria. It is sweet and thick and better than the wheat bread and yellow rubber-cheese sandwich her Mom packed for her.
They have a test in long division after lunch and Maria feels mad that Kenya can just get an ‘A’ with magic but she has to work hard. She knows how to do it but keeps forgetting to carry the ones and the twos and the only thing that matters to the teacher is getting the answer right. I believe I’ll get an A, Maria thinks as hard as she can. D into A, D into A!
“Can you do more magic?” Maria asks Kenya at recess.
“Yes.”
“Will you show me?”
“Maybe tomorrow. I have to believe more first.”
Rated G. Contains quarters in unexpected places.
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Awesome idea VERY well spelled out via story. Magic as belief, true honest belief. I personally aspire to learn the trick myself.
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"Did Mad Sweeney teach you that trick?" >:(
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Quite possibly my favorite miniature to date. I kept waiting for the quarters to turn up missing from someone else, but there's no room for that sort of exposition in a story this short. One of the many limitations of the form...
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Oh, great little story. And I really like the subtle play with ambiguity, especially at the very last line.
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Alert the media ... I actually liked this one beyond the "faint praise" level. The story wasn't contorting itself up its own arse in a desperate attempt to be clever (I'm looking at you, "Hippocampus") but proceeded straightforwardly to what I considered a satisfying end.
And at six minutes, is this the shortest Miniature yet?
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And at six minutes, is this the shortest Miniature yet?
Tooth Fairy was under 3, if memory serves correctly.
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I liked it. I really thought Kenya was doing magic, not trickery.
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I liked it. I really thought Kenya was doing magic, not trickery.
Apparently, so did the narrator. :)
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I liked it. I really thought Kenya was doing magic, not trickery.
Apparently, so did the narrator. :)
PRETTY sure that was the point. ::)
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Definitely my favorite miniature. Loved the last line as it was stuck in my head the rest of the day. I even clapped my hands once or twice to see if I could get some quarters. Loved the theme of being too innocent to not believe in magic, and if you believe hard enough - anything is possible, even magic.
Subtle points for her not sharing it with her mother - after all adults don't believe in magic, do they?
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I liked it. I really thought Kenya was doing magic, not trickery.
Apparently, so did the narrator. :)
PRETTY sure that was the point. ::)
Yeah, you could be right -- but unless the author wants to chime in here, we may never know ... ;D
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Magic as belief, true honest belief.
What a fascinating definition, compared to epistemology (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistemology)'s frequent recourse to defining knowledge as "justified true belief" -- in Fantasy, is true belief without justification not "a lucky guess" but "magic"?
Thumbs up for a very nicely elaborated, if predictable, story, although PaRappa the Rapper (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PaRappa_the_Rapper) has made it difficult for me to take anything too seriously if it's based entirely on "I gotta believe!"
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I liked it. I really thought Kenya was doing magic, not trickery.
Apparently, so did the narrator. :)
PRETTY sure that was the point. ::)
Yeah, you could be right -- but unless the author wants to chime in here, we may never know ... ;D
Thanks everyone for all the feedback on "Believe." I love it that Escape Artists have such active forums. As far as the author weighing in on the subject...
The question is whether Maria believed Kenya was actually doing magic? Am I getting that right? This one is pretty straightforward: yes she did.
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I liked it. I really thought Kenya was doing magic, not trickery.
Apparently, so did the narrator. :)
PRETTY sure that was the point. ::)
Yeah, you could be right -- but unless the author wants to chime in here, we may never know ... ;D
Thanks everyone for all the feedback on "Believe." I love it that Escape Artists have such active forums. As far as the author weighing in on the subject...
The question is whether Maria believed Kenya was actually doing magic? Am I getting that right? This one is pretty straightforward: yes she did.
Apparently the inclusion of :) and ;D smilies isn't adequately telegraphing the facetious intent of my posts.
... so ... :-\
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Loved it!!! Another great PodCastle miniature..
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I like stories with beginnings, middles, and ends. This had all three. Rare, in fiction this short. Brava!
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That was a wonderful little story, and just long enough to get me back from the shop to my flat.
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Lovely story, naivette is its own power! Well written, good characters.
Not much else to say really. Excellent flash!