Escape Artists
PseudoPod => Episode Comments => Topic started by: Bdoomed on May 08, 2009, 07:58:32 AM
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Pseudopod 141: Flash on the Borderlands I (http://pseudopod.org/2009/05/08/pseudopod-141-flash-on-the-borderlands-i/)
Three flash fiction stories in one gut churning episode.
“Jordan, when are you going to settle down, get married and have us some children?”
By J.R
Read by Ben Phillips (http://painfulreminder.net/)
Beth, my most recent girlfriend, said I look like a hanged man when I walk because I always stare down at my feet.
Thinking About Polar Bears
By Mike Battista
Read by Matt Arnold
I wake up exhausted. I hadn’t slept well. My heart still beats quickly; the aftermath of vaguely remembered dreams.
Exit Exam, Section III: Survival Skills, Question #7
By David Erik Nelson
Read by Alasdair Stuart
7a) You are a werewolf. You kill and eat people. You are a vicious animal.
Theme music as usual: “Bloodletting on the Kiss” by Anders Manga (http://andersmanga.com/)
Additional music in this episode: rare rendition of “LabRatB” by Harmaline (http://www.myspace.com/harmaline)
This week’s episode sponsored by Audible.com, who offers Pseudopod listeners a free audiobook download of their choice (http://www.audiblepodcast.com/pseudopod) from Audible’s selection of over 60,000 titles.
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Listen to this week's Pseudopod. (http://media.rawvoice.com/pseudopod/media.libsyn.com/media/pseudopod/Pseudo141_FlashOnTheBorderlandsI.mp3)
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goddamn Alasdair5000, this makes five shows in two weeks? all of them with extended, inciteful commentary. you're rapidly becoming the hardest working man in podcasting.
about the last story, you're never morally obligated to kill yourself because of what you might do. so long as you can build a secure cell for that time of the month or make a living on an oil rig, isolating yourself, you have options. killing yourself because you have unnatural feelings that you don't want to face isn't a moral obligation, it's cowardice.
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Wow. Helluva flash collection. Pretty intense. I heard the warning, but I don't think I was realy ready for numbers 1 and 3.
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Oh the poddy goodness delivered here. Bravo. All the little stories were exquisid. The wolf one? a mite unsetteling, but man great. I like this new "tower" thing..
and seriously Al- you've been putting out a LOT of content as of late! Not that I'm complaining
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First off, wonderful to hear a shout out to Valentine Dyall. And as for The Man In Black, FEAR ON 4 itself rocked and was some of the best audio horror out there in the 80's ("By the River, Fontainbleau" was a particular favorite, and that universal clock episode).
Now as to the 3 flash pieces. Well, the first wasn't for me - I may be a lifelong Cronenberg fan but if this is body horror, well....
#2 - okay. Nice mood.
#3 - excellent piece, well done. Nice to see people approaching old ideas in new ways. I may be with "Deflective" on the general concept (child molesters and serial killers - well really, the media's versions of them, not the real thing, which is an important distinction - have replaced Nazis as our "moral absolute of evil types" that allow people to posture about "I'm a good person and killing is wrong...except" but then, if we didn't have them, we'd have something else I suppose. The concept and moral complexities involving mental illness seem almost passe in our "Apocalyptic/End Times/Gotta find me someone to Kill" world) but it was still an excellent idea, well deployed. Kudos!
Thanks for listening
“And this spirit is called Diabolus sylvarum, The Spirit of the Forest and of the Wolf, whose home is by the swamp and in the wilds; brave and fearless, a spirit of strength and freedom, and yet also of rage and violence; mystified beyond all comprehension, winged like the storm clouds and ablaze like the heart of the earth, yet forever caught in the shackles of Darkness.”
Aino Kallas, WOLF BRIDE (1928)
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Wow! Pseudopod rockets ahead of everything else as usual. Three stories. Lovely jubbly!
#1) seemed a lot like a gross-out story, and it did have the intended effect- I felt pretty physically sick listening to it. Not the sort of thing I enjoy though... to be honest until PP I didn't like horror at all, but I've got into the whole pyschological side of things of late which is helping to break down the stereotypes of horror as.. well, screaming people and axe murderers.
2) I liked. The mood was maintained right through, the singing awful, the imagery interesting to say the least. I thought.. this is how the world ends, not with a big fight but with everyone individually giving up. Cheery stuff.
#3) Woah. JUST having listened to this might bias me a bit, but I cannot say how much I loved this story. The format was fresh, the ideas disturbing yet fascinating, and the "characters" described in a deeply human and personal way really struck a chord with me. (more cliches coming up) I agree with what deflective said. If you have these issues, you can't view it as your fault, some failing in you that makes you evil or bad or wrong, some choice you make. It's something you're not in control of. You can't externalise it- it is and always will be part of who you are- but you shouldn't kill yourself just because of that. You need to learn to deal with it.
The horror part of this story really hit me, as it's supposed to, with the last of the three segments, about padeophilia. Like others have mentioned, we do dehumanise these people- but they are people rather than just beings. What makes this true horror, however, is the way that it's inescapable. You're held at gunpoint, your house burgled, you're attacked by zombies... all of these things will end, there will be some relief or release from them. When the issue isn't external, when it's a part of you, inside you, and there's no way out- when it smothers everything, that is true horror and desperation and despair.
...
So, enough of that rambling. On the whole, fantastic stuff and I'd like to see it again. Thanks Al, and thanks of course to the authors.
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i loveeeee psudopod :-)
is thare a shrine i can make sacrefises at?
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Just send the bloodied corpses to Al.
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No, no, no! Al gets the blood, Ben gets the corpses.
I won't go into the reasons, but one of these 3 I could empathize with.
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these stories rocked my sox.
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Loved this, the three in a row format worked really well and a stunning trio to start off with.
I liked all three but thought the third was particularly strong, not because the subject matter was anything new but the format and the delivery was splendidly different to most approaches.
Can I add my praise for Alisdair too, Pseudopod gets better and better and it is, in my opinion, primarily down to Al that it is so good.
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Very nice! Three stories for the same old Pseudopod price. An excellent value in these hard times. I enjoyed them all!
The format was remnant of the Drabblecast's Trifecta -which is always a good thing!
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Yah, much like a Drabblecast Trifecta and equally as awesome. The first one was disturbingly wonderful.
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The first story was some good shit!
The third story was completely disturbing and unsettling. I'd say the PP Towers covered their bases pretty well :)
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The first story was some good shit!
::Groan::
The legacy of Pseudopun lives on...
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1. I was really afraid he was going to be coprophagic and self-hating about it. Really graphic story; amazing details.
2. Eh.
3. I appreciated the humor but it went on WAY too long and the thing about the kids at his church was more distressing than horrific.
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1. Body horror? Load of old shit more like. 'Air Out my Shorts' has presented better stories than this.
2. Not bad, but it seemed to end suddenly as though the author lost interest "blah blah blah, coming up to word limit so... I get eaten by a dog."
3. Brilliant. Best thing I've heard in ages and all because it's Alasdair reading it. The bait and switch of talking about the wolf on the outside and how that might be nothing compared to the darkness in the human heart, wonderful, and all the more so because it was read in that voice.
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No, no, no! Al gets the blood, Ben gets the corpses.
Look, I don't have an incinerator, and my digging arms are tired. Just send the bodies to whoever's on your side of the ocean, because even drained they're a lot heavier than the blood -- and let me tell you, overseas shipping rates are a bitch.
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meh... too much work, i think i'll just offer a burnt sacrifice and leave it at that.
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The first one I was pretty much silently screaming, and didn't really pay much attention to the second. The third was creepy as hell--taking the concept of a werewolf and slowly chopping away the supernatural elements until you find yourself in the perspective of the human equivilant of a werewolf.
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I won't go into the reasons, but one of these 3 I could empathize with.
You shit out little brown babies on a regular basis? I thought I was the only one. ;D
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The first story was cool once I realized it wasn't just some guy over-obsessing about IBS. And, because it involves an activity I do on a (fairly) regular basis regardless of what else is going on in my life, this one has returned to my mind many a time. Sort of like after I read Stephen King's Dreamcatcher and it made me a little nervous whenever I had to use the toilet.
The second story was interesting, though I wasn't really swept up by it. The most interesting bit, as someone else pointed out, was that the end of the world came with everyone giving up in their own way, not with panic in the streets.
The third story was very good, and particularly well-read--Alasdair, you rock! This one really used the speculative element to an amazing degree to tie together werewolves and pedophiles in a way I would never have considered. Well done!