Escape Artists
PodCastle => Episode Comments => Topic started by: Heradel on April 16, 2009, 10:58:11 PM
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PodCastle Miniature 30: Rotations and Consequences (http://podcastle.org/2009/04/16/podcastle-miniature-30-rotations-and-consequences/)
by Katherine Sparrow (http://katherinesparrow.net/).
Read by Rachel Swirsky.
Dear people of the world,
Here is something that happened that you should really know about. That you need to know about. I know because I saw it. There was a woman who walked into her backyard. The grass beneath her bare feet was wet and cold, but she knelt and lay down upon it with her palms pressed into the ground and her legs spread wide. She touched as much of it as her finite body was able to. In her fenced- in yard, in the subdivision of her suburb, underneath the faint stars, she closed her eyes. I saw her.
Rated PG. Contains flight.
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Another episode that I didn't finish. I've tried not to just reply in the episode threads with "meh" or "didn't finish". I appreciate the work that goes into these, so if I don't have more specific criticisms, I'll just keep quiet.
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You know how usually, almost every PC miniature has a bunch of people saying "I didn't get the point of this", and then I often chime in with "Oh, it may not have been a story in the conventional sense, but it was really great".
Well, then - I didn't get the point of this.
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I couldn't get into this, because I kept waiting to hear how the author was going to interpret the next part of the lyrics of Talking Heads' "And She Was"!
http://www.talking-heads.nl/index.php/talking-heads-lyrics/19-little-creatures (http://www.talking-heads.nl/index.php/talking-heads-lyrics/19-little-creatures)
Surely David Byrne should be credited as co-author...
Lying in the grass, taking off the dress, moving into the universe, showing up as a missing person... it's all there and unlikely to be coincidence.
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Yipes! This is the author here and that Talking Heads song was definitely the inspiration for this story, though hopefully it doesn't fall into the world of plagiarism or traipsing too heavily on someone's creative lawn. Everything I write comes from somewhere, and there's nothing particularly original that writers ever do. However, if it felt that obvious, I may have erred on the getting too inspired side of things. Sorry.
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Another episode that I didn't finish. I've tried not to just reply in the episode threads with "meh" or "didn't finish". I appreciate the work that goes into these, so if I don't have more specific criticisms, I'll just keep quiet.
Good idea. It's so rare that I have any favorable opinion of a PC mini, that I think I will only post to those episodes.
(Unless I really hate one of the bad ones, maybe.)
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Yipes! This is the author here and that Talking Heads song was definitely the inspiration for this story, though hopefully it doesn't fall into the world of plagiarism or traipsing too heavily on someone's creative lawn. Everything I write comes from somewhere, and there's nothing particularly original that writers ever do. However, if it felt that obvious, I may have erred on the getting too inspired side of things. Sorry.
There was a whole SF anthology of stories inspired by a certain musician... EP aired "Ej-Es" which was related to her... Joni Mitchell? Janis Joplin? I forget who. So there's precedent.
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Enjoyed this. Definitely a bit surreal - nonetheless a fun exploration of "what ifs." Challenged some thoughts we have as, well, planetary residents, I suppose.. which was interesting.
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I really enjoyed this story, found the use of language and imagery beautiful, the content sensitive and exciting. Very nicely done piece on this theme... The "tell not show" style was more than tolerable in a piece this short. I'm recommending this to several people today.
(I'm intrigued now to know more about the stories that the author is "looking for a home for"... ;-) )
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Maybe it was too fantastical for me and, being a miniature, didn't have the space for a grounding in the real that would have given me some footing to perhaps appreciate it from, the difference between flying a kite and the kite escaping and going it's own way. I didn't understand this story at all.
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Nope. Didn't get it at all.
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I did think this too closely paralleled the Talking Heads song. It's great to draw writing inspiration from a song, but this followed the song so closely it's hard to separate the two. It probably doesn't help that I don't particularly like that song...
I tend to not like it when people quote writing "rules" as if there are really any rules that you will be penalized for. Some of the greatest stories are those that dared to break the so-called rules. But one "rule" that I have yet to find an example of a good exception for is "Show, don't tell".
And the whole basis was a little shaky--how does understanding planetary motion enable her to escape the boundaries of her mortal form? No idea. I realize this is fantasy, but even in fantasy there has to be some internal logic or I just won't get it.
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But one "rule" that I have yet to find an example of a good exception for is "Show, don't tell".
Greg van Eekhout respectfully disagrees (http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=story&id=25923). :) (Hopefully he won't mind me linking his story here.)
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But one "rule" that I have yet to find an example of a good exception for is "Show, don't tell".
Greg van Eekhout respectfully disagrees (http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=story&id=25923). :) (Hopefully he won't mind me linking his story here.)
I doubt he'd mind you advertising his work for him for free. ;D
But, I didn't really get into that one either. Partially because it's rather dull in it's telling, and partially because the first few sections at least sound exactly like Superman but with a single name change.