Escape Artists

Escape Pod => Episode Comments => Topic started by: Swamp on September 02, 2010, 11:18:48 PM

Title: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: Swamp on September 02, 2010, 11:18:48 PM
EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each (http://escapepod.org/2010/09/02/ep256-the-mermaids-singing-each-to-each/)

By Cat Rambo (http://www.kittywumpus.net/)
Read by Christiana Ellis (http://christianaellis.com/) of Nina Kimberly the Merciless and Space Casey

First appeared in Clarkesworld (http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/rambo_11_09/)

“Laura,” a speaker said, as though I hadn’t been gone for six years, as though she’d seen me every day in between. “Laura, where is your uncle?”

I used to imagine her disintegrated, torn apart into silent atoms.

“It’s not Laura anymore,” I said. “It’s Lolo. I’m gender neutral.”

“I don’t understand,” she said.

“You’ve got a Net connection,” I said. “Search around on “gender neutral” and “biomod operation.”

I wasn’t sure if the pause that came after that was for dramatic effect or whether she really was having trouble understanding the search parameters. Then she said, “Ah, I see. When did you do that?”

“Six years ago.”

“Where is your uncle?”

“Dead,” I said flatly. I hoped that machine intelligences could hurt and so I twisted the knife as far as I could. “Stabbed in a bar fight.”


Rated R for violence, language, and memory of sexual violence.


Show Notes:

Feedback for Episode 246, Spar

(http://escapepod.org/wp-images/podcast-mini4.gif)
Listen to this week’s Escape Pod! (http://c3.libsyn.com/media/18601/EP256__The_Mermaids_Singing_Each_to_Each.mp3?nvb=20100902230654&nva=20100903231654&sid=e5105b66cf590c8a6423229ec08d337a&l_sid=18601&l_eid=&l_mid=2019112&t=09862457e9724efad4219)

(Heradel: minor fix enacted)
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: Nobilis on September 03, 2010, 01:35:53 AM
This story went straight to the top of my listening queue because of the reader--Christiana is one of my favorite voice talents ever, and she doesn't fail to come through on this one.  Kudos, lady.

I'm going to say it now: "The Old Man and the Sea."  There.  I handled that part for you, now we can move on.

It's gratifying to hear a story on Escape Pod where things actually happen, for a change, where there is beginning/middle/end and character growth and all the things a story should have. It's not celebrating a clever setting or portending a technology or engaging in viscerality for its own sake.  It's a story.  You've heard me bend that saw more than once so I won't go any further with that, either.

The boat is a character, a person, not so much because it is one but because the protagonist makes it one by the way she treats it.  She hates it, it loves her, she abuses it and it loves her, it saves her life and she forgives it.  The story isn't neat and clean, it has ragged edges, but those edges make it real because life has ragged edges when you rip it open like that.

One of the best stories this year.
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: Unblinking on September 03, 2010, 02:40:30 PM
I haven't listened to this yet, but is this supposed to be Episode 256, instead of "EP2**8"?  Is that a variable overflow or something, since we've now run to the limit of what 8 bits of unsigned storage can handle?  :)
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: stePH on September 03, 2010, 03:15:42 PM
Bitchy fishes again?  ;D
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: DKT on September 03, 2010, 04:30:29 PM
Bitchy fishes again?  ;D

I believe it's pronounced "Fishy Bitches."  ;D
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: stePH on September 03, 2010, 04:40:54 PM
Bitchy fishes again?  ;D

I believe it's pronounced "Fishy Bitches."  ;D

Them too. All of them. Bitchy and fishy. Anyway, haven't listened to story yet.
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: Wilson Fowlie on September 03, 2010, 04:41:22 PM
I haven't listened to this yet, but is this supposed to be Episode 256, instead of "EP2**8"?  Is that a variable overflow or something, since we've now run to the limit of what 8 bits of unsigned storage can handle?  :)

It's Python notation.  I like it for that reason.  (I imagine there are other languages that use the same notation for 'to the power of', but I'm not familiar with them.)

Bitchy fishes again?  ;D

I believe it's pronounced "Fishy Bitches."  ;D

I thought it was 'Busy Fitches'...
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: heyes on September 03, 2010, 06:01:35 PM
Thanks again Mur for the advisory warning.

I imagine that there are plenty of women out there that grow weary of stories where the only role for a woman is that of a vacuous trophy to be won, and men vie for her limited attention span by waving around potencies of one sort or another.  In the same way I have grown weary of stories where the only role for a man is that of a conniving sexual predator of limited intellect and women transcend these vile creatures and the victimhood that is the only meeting point between the two by removing themselves from the sexual equations.  So that's my big complaint with this story.

What I really liked was the whole development of the mermaids.  This is of course because I love the justice implied in wealthy folks becoming mermaids to live out an infantile fantasy, only to seethe in the corrupted environment they (and their ancestors) helped to create.  Even running away from this sickening environment, they spawned and their legacy continued in an equally faerie-tale fashion as boogie-people.  The hints of a post-something-or-other world didn't need too much development as, more and more, we real live people are having to face our own complicity in crapping where we eat and sleep, but I would have enjoyed learning more about that particular "something or other."

I think the pace of the story was excellent, and I definitely agree with previous comment about how this story had a real beginning, middle and an end, character development, and having that sort of epic "whale of a tale" feel.
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: Thunderscreech on September 04, 2010, 05:46:01 AM
I was a disappointed with the summary of the Spar discussion.  I feel a major aspect of the forum was overlooked: the criticism of the repeated implication that this was 'porn' or that the author was indulging in a 'kink'.  There was a lot of airtime for those viewpoints and nothing about the almost universal condemnation of those few posts.  If anything, it seemed like the assertions that this was prurient got exclusive airtime.
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: Scattercat on September 04, 2010, 06:04:56 AM
I enjoyed the story quite a lot, but I was left befuddled about the main character's reaction to the boat's use of their would-be love interest as a weapon of opportunity.  It strikes me that while one can eventually come to accept that Jorge Felipe would have killed them both if Mary Magdalena hadn't used Niko to take him out, that's not something that has an easy emotional reaction.  It's a logical action, but not one that makes sense on a gut level.  I was quite confused about Lolo's lack of response of any kind to this revelation, especially given that they'd outright said that Niko was the person for whom they'd choose their gender, eventually.  Unless Lolo's emotional landscape were a LOT more damaged than their monologues seemed to indicate, no reaction at all felt highly anomalous.  (Rather, even more than no reaction, it somehow is the first step toward healing Lolo's rift with their estranged boat.  I'm just all kinds of confused about this.)
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: mrund on September 04, 2010, 01:13:43 PM
Excuse my anatomical explicitness, but if you want to make yourself impossible to rape, you can't just get rid of your genitals. You basically have to become spheroid in shape with no points of ingress.
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: Sandikal on September 04, 2010, 02:39:53 PM
Excuse my anatomical explicitness, but if you want to make yourself impossible to rape, you can't just get rid of your genitals. You basically have to become spheroid in shape with no points of ingress.

My uncritical mind liked the story but can't figure out why.  The statement above is one of the problems my critical mind has.  While I like ambiguity in the story and appreciate having some things left to my imagination, this story was excessively vague.  How do you make someone gender neutral in a gendered society?  It seems, and is implied, that even a gender neutral person could be sexually assaulted.  There would still need to be a mouth and openings for elimination of waste.  The idea of becoming gender neutral as a way to recover from sexual assault doesn't even make sense.

The mermaids were too vague for me too.  Did they still look half human/half fish?  If so, why didn't they retain any small bit of humanity?  And, what was the mass they were pulling salvage from?  Was it a fallen city? A trash dump? A spaceship that crashed?  Where did the ducks come from?  Were they really ducks?

This may have worked better as a novel where things could be better developed.  It just seemed too big for such a short story.

I still enjoyed listening to it.  I thought the world and the characters were interesting, if not developed enough.
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: Scattercat on September 04, 2010, 11:48:39 PM
I think becoming genderless is more for the psychological aspect than the physical; it's not meant to be a complete anti-rape preventative, but rather a way for someone who has had their sexual identity badly battered to be able to retreat into a safe place.  A lot of people who experience sexual trauma end up with a lot of psychological trouble related to sex and sexuality.  It made sense to me that someone who had been raped might want to just not have any gender for a while, possibly forever.  Not sure it's all that healthy, psychologically speaking, but I can understand the desire.
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: Lionman on September 05, 2010, 03:21:03 AM
First, I thought the narration was well done.

Second, ...is this a world without the Three Laws of Robotics?  What's up with that? We can recombine genes, manipulate DNA, but we can't build AI's that obey the Three Laws of Robotics?  How much suspention of disbelief do we have to exibit?  Oh, wait..nevermind, that's why we're here, isn't it? Y'know...Escape Pod. :-)

Actually, it took me a while to put my finger on what it was about the story that seemed odd, or off..and it was the Three Laws bit.  An AI boat that can, by action or in-action, allow someone to come to harm...  I mean, come on...it was trying to seek forgiveness.

That put aside, what a crappy situation to be in.  You have a boat you can't really trust.  The guy you liked takes his own life at the urging of the boat you can't trust, and now you're stuck pretty much back where you started, but down the person you wanted to go from neuter to a gender for, and you're out fuel and supplies.  It makes me wonder if the boat won't plot to keep you from being able to free yourself from this sort of life, just so it has someone to be with!
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: alllie on September 05, 2010, 01:20:51 PM
Haven't I heard this before? Was it on Clarke's World? Yep, that was it.

And the quote is from the end of T. S. Eliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

I grow old … I grow old …          
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.   
 
Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?   
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.   
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.   
 
I do not think that they will sing to me.          
 
I have seen them riding seaward on the waves   
Combing the white hair of the waves blown back   
When the wind blows the water white and black.   
 
We have lingered in the chambers of the sea   
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown          
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: KillerWhalen on September 06, 2010, 01:09:54 AM
I rather liked this one, all three of the main characters were reasonably interesting, the story moved along at a fair clip, fairly exciting at some points, an emotional side I was genuinely interested in, and some neat sci-fi ideas. All in all it's not one of my favorite stories, but it made scanning papers a bit more exciting.
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: Talia on September 06, 2010, 03:19:58 AM
I really liked this one. I thought the story did a great job of depicting Lolo's emotional trauma - that came across very clearly without getting maudlin or terribly "oh woe is me." That felt honest to me - the anger s/he had for the boat, the violent fantasies - that felt very real and true.

I was also intrigued by a world where the AI's aren't depicted on shapeships, but on regular old boats. The story offered an intriguing mix of future and present technology.

Also I should that today, the same day I listened to this, was also the same day I went on any kind of ocean cruise. (Whale watching. Saw no whales, saw no killer mermaids, did see porpoises & seals!). So that parallel was neat for me. :)
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: alllie on September 06, 2010, 10:26:57 AM
I have a little problem with the narration, but it's a personal problem. I loved Nina Kimberly the Merciless (http://www.ninakimberly.com/) and Space Casey (http://www.podiobooks.com/title/space-casey) and thought they were very funny. I've loved Christiana Ellis and her narrations since then. But since Nina Kimberly I think of Christiana as someone who brings the funny, like in her narration of podcastle's The Hag Queen’s Curse (http://podcastle.org/2010/04/13/podcastle-99-the-hag-queens-curse/). And this wasn't a funny story but I kept on kinda expecting it to be. I couldn't internalize the pain and tragedy because, hey, IT'S CHRISTIANA!

Just a personal problem.

Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: ElectricPaladin on September 06, 2010, 07:37:29 PM
I think I didn't like this piece for similar reasons to Scattercat. I found myself kind of liking Nico and being engaged in Nico and Lolo's potential future. When Nico was snuffed out - just like that - I was, well... bummed. And then when Lolo's own reaction was flat, vague depression, I got a little annoyed. There was too much potential for cool in Nico and Nico and Lolo's relationship to just redshirt him so casually.

Christiana Ellis's reading was brilliant, though. I thought she brought a lot of passion and humanity to a story that was kind of cold. I couldn't buy the story, but thanks to the reader, I could buy Lolo.
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: Heradel on September 06, 2010, 11:09:02 PM
I was a disappointed with the summary of the Spar discussion.  I feel a major aspect of the forum was overlooked: the criticism of the repeated implication that this was 'porn' or that the author was indulging in a 'kink'.  There was a lot of airtime for those viewpoints and nothing about the almost universal condemnation of those few posts.  If anything, it seemed like the assertions that this was prurient got exclusive airtime.

Yeah, it's a fair complaint. I'm not sure I'd go in for saying it was universal condemnation, but I certainly said in the feedback segment that I thought it wasn't, and then quoted Electric Paladin's fairly pithy repartee as to if it was. I may have let the Schreiber quote go on a bit long, but since I was saying I disagreed with him I felt that I should give as much of his view as I could out of fairness. And I did certainly quote Scattercat's view of the story, which isn't a prurient one.
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: Darwinist on September 07, 2010, 03:41:00 AM
I liked the story this week.  I felt Lolo's anguish over the hopelessness of the situation as it unfolded and the ending was a bummer.  Not a big fan of ducky n' bunny endings.   Great narration also.
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: knigget on September 07, 2010, 06:03:37 PM
Yes, OLD MAN AND THE SEA; Papa is doing a fist pump, somewhere, and giving Melville a high five.

I didn't think I'd like this story, and then I did.  It does not celebrate victimhood; it celebrates getting over it.  And it is neither maudlin, preachy, nor polemic.  Two thumbs up.

Nico was marked for death the moment his dad was brought up, so I never got attached to him the way some of the others did, but I can see their point.  And Jorge Felipe -- I think I've met him.  Perfect job of character building.

I understand the criticism ("who said a neuter can't get raped?") -- but it is reasonable to assume, for the purpose of the story, that a group of well-meaning busybodies can make that silly assumption and get funding to run with it (worse things happen every day) in the story's universe.  I think the story does, in fact, address the silliness of this assumption in the JF vs Lolo interactions.

"I'll be the gender you want me to be" is a wonderfully poignant entrance into a relationship destined to fail.  That, too, nails down Nico's destiny: you'd need a novel to explore all the toxic ways that relationship would have gone bad if he lived.

Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: jenfullmoon on September 07, 2010, 09:42:50 PM
I think becoming genderless is more for the psychological aspect than the physical; it's not meant to be a complete anti-rape preventative, but rather a way for someone who has had their sexual identity badly battered to be able to retreat into a safe place.  A lot of people who experience sexual trauma end up with a lot of psychological trouble related to sex and sexuality.  It made sense to me that someone who had been raped might want to just not have any gender for a while, possibly forever.  Not sure it's all that healthy, psychologically speaking, but I can understand the desire.

Right. I also thought, "if the guy was sexually attracted to teenage girls, making herself NOT be a teenage girl any more might dissuade him from trying to rape her again." Or at least, that's what I figured Lolo's thinking was about this.

I kept thinking that yes, Jorge could very well still rape Lolo again in that scene. It gave me the chills. Just because you're neuter doesn't mean you're safe....

Pretty chilling story overall. I loved Christiana's reading of it, you definitely got the feeling in her voice over the bad parts.
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: KenK on September 07, 2010, 09:48:46 PM
allie: Nice pick up on the Eliot poem. You beat me in making a reference to it.  ;)

Nasty little story here. Amazing how all the sexually charged stories on EP are always so creepy. Fancy that?
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: ElectricPaladin on September 07, 2010, 10:07:06 PM
Re: Gender.

I think the idea was less to prevent the person from being attacked again and more to help the healing process. I'm not a mental health care professional myself, so I'm not sure how well-founded my instinct to say "that's pretty dubious help" really is. In any case, the thought is that people who have been raped have a kind of problematic relationship to their own sex. It's possible for their sex to become the vector by which pain entered their life, and I can imagine people who have dealt with that wanting to abandon it, at least for a little while.

I guess.

It seems pretty unlikely to me, but I can accept the theory for the purposes of the story.
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: knigget on September 08, 2010, 02:06:25 AM
Just hit me:

2**8 is (in the old FORTRAN notation) 2 to the 8th power, or 256.  Someone is showing off their geekredentials.

Becoming neuter is a dysfunctional response to psychosexual trauma on more levels than I care to enumerate -- which is PRECISELY why, once the option becomes available, someone with too much time and/or money on their hands will dedicate their lives to seeing it used on everybody. 
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: malaclypse on September 08, 2010, 02:09:34 AM
This story was beautiful, and like all of the Cat Rambo stories I've read, it made me sad. I think Jenfullmoon was right -- the protagonist decided to stop being a little girl because that's what zir uncle was attracted to. That, and living on the street, took zir out of his hands. As it said in the story.

But zie couldn't actually escape, because there are always more predators.

I love EscapePod, and I'm going to keep listening. But. Maybe I listen to too many podcasts, but I would like to hear more things on EscapePod that I haven't heard elsewhere. I know it's hard, since Clarkesworld podcasts all of their stories, and their stories are the best. And because we're just coming off of the Hugo series... Anyway, I'll probably be skipping the next episode -- not that it's a bad story, but it pinned the needle on my skeeve-o-meter, and once is enough.

Though for the life of me I can't remember where I heard it...
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: Swamp on September 08, 2010, 02:13:27 AM
Just hit me:

2**8 is (in the old FORTRAN notation) 2 to the 8th power, or 256.  Someone is showing off their geekredentials.

Becoming neuter is a dysfunctional response to psychosexual trauma on more levels than I care to enumerate -- which is PRECISELY why, once the option becomes available, someone with too much time and/or money on their hands will dedicate their lives to seeing it used on everybody. 

I can't take the credit.  It was Heradel.
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: kibitzer on September 08, 2010, 02:54:23 AM
2**8 is (in the old FORTRAN notation) 2 to the 8th power, or 256.  Someone is showing off their geekredentials.

In the interest of being excruciatingly pedantic, that's standard for most programming languages, not just FORTRAN or Python. Even COBOL! Strangely, not C, C++ or Java.

EP2**8. Hehe -- I like.
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: Wilson Fowlie on September 08, 2010, 04:51:14 PM
2**8 is (in the old FORTRAN notation) 2 to the 8th power, or 256.  Someone is showing off their geekredentials.

In the interest of being excruciatingly pedantic, that's standard for most programming languages, not just FORTRAN or Python. Even COBOL! Strangely, not C, C++ or Java.

EP2**8. Hehe -- I like.

** is the most exponentiation operator, but several less-used languages (BASIC, J, MATLAB, R, Microsoft Excel, TeX, and a few more) use ^.  Haskell uses both ^ and ^^ (the former for nonnegative integer exponents, the latter for the rest).

Algol, the granddaddy of the C family of languages, used ↑ 1 (as did Commodore BASIC ... ah, good old Commodore BASIC... <sigh>).  I have to wonder if the absence of the up-arrow in later character schemes contributed to the fact that C doesn't implement an exponentiation operator at all.



I have to admit I had a little trouble with this story.  For a lot of it, the reading felt flat and unemotional to me.  There were a few passages where Ms. Ellis admirably brought out the emotion of her character, which made me wonder if the more monotone-ic parts were a deliberate attempt to portray Lolo as having tight emotional control or something, but it didn't really work for me; my mind kept wandering off and I kept having to rewind to catch what I'd missed.

I was a little taken aback that Lolo arrived back in the harbour with so little for all of her efforts.  Was this really the first time she'd done this operation?  I hadn't gotten that impression, but if not, why didn't she know what the mermaids would do to her mini-lump and take steps to prevent it?  At the very least, in such a small, tight-knit community, she (or one of her partners) should at least have heard that she would need to do something to protect their haul.



1 In case your browser doesn't support that character, it's an up-arrow.
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: Talia on September 08, 2010, 05:35:07 PM
I don't think s/he was expecting to get ship-jacked by a violent criminal mid-voyage. That's enough to throw anyone off their game plan, I'd think.
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: Heradel on September 08, 2010, 05:51:10 PM
2**8 is (in the old FORTRAN notation) 2 to the 8th power, or 256.  Someone is showing off their geekredentials.

In the interest of being excruciatingly pedantic, that's standard for most programming languages, not just FORTRAN or Python. Even COBOL! Strangely, not C, C++ or Java.

EP2**8. Hehe -- I like.

** is the most exponentiation operator, but several less-used languages (BASIC, J, MATLAB, R, Microsoft Excel, TeX, and a few more) use ^.  Haskell uses both ^ and ^^ (the former for nonnegative integer exponents, the latter for the rest).

Algol, the granddaddy of the C family of languages, used ↑ 1 (as did Commodore BASIC ... ah, good old Commodore BASIC... <sigh>).  I have to wonder if the absence of the up-arrow in later character schemes contributed to the fact that C doesn't implement an exponentiation operator at all.

These days ** is also used by the inline calculators of both Google and OS X's Spotlight. I initially wanted to have it be EP11111111, but as was pointed out to me under modern binary notation that's just 255 because they start counting at zero (somewhere my High School CS teacher is feeling the urge to scold me for blanking on that). I'll have to remember to do it for EP511.
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: Wilson Fowlie on September 08, 2010, 06:00:59 PM
I don't think s/he was expecting to get ship-jacked by a violent criminal mid-voyage. That's enough to throw anyone off their game plan, I'd think.

Sure, except that (as far as I recall) the depredations started before the ship-jacking occurred, and in fact, seemed to be the trigger that set Jorge Felipe off.

If they'd been prepared when they set out - as they would/should have been if, as I would expect, they'd known in advance that the mermaids would vulch* the travelLump to that degree - Lolo would have been left with something at the end, if not the whole thing.  (And in fact, would have taken it into account as a standard loss when calculating the net take for the caper.)



*Vulch: to scavenge. (deliberately incorrect back-formation from the fact that 'vulture' sounds like 'vulcher')
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: alllie on September 08, 2010, 06:08:23 PM
I was a little taken aback that Lolo arrived back in the harbour with so little for all of her efforts.  Was this really the first time she'd done this operation?  I hadn't gotten that impression, but if not, why didn't she know what the mermaids would do to her mini-lump and take steps to prevent it?  At the very least, in such a small, tight-knit community, she (or one of her partners) should at least have heard that she would need to do something to protect their haul.

Maybe I just don't remember it but did the story explain why meat-eating mermaids living independently in the sea would want plastic trash. In The Old Man and the Sea when the sharks were eating the fish, well, it was food to them. But why did the mermaids want this trash. It wasn't like they could sell it or eat it.
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: Wilson Fowlie on September 08, 2010, 06:10:04 PM
I initially wanted to have it be EP11111111, but as was pointed out to me under modern binary notation that's just 255 because they start counting at zero...

That's not quite the case, for the same reason that the decimal number 99 doesn't count one hundred items because we start counting at zero.  '1' is one, no matter your counting system.

If you do notate episode 511 in binary, please put a 'b' at the beginning of the number, or some of us may think we've missed 11,110,600 episodes! :D

Sorry to be such a didact, but, hey, programmer.  (Presumably a member of the 'they' in your sentence above. ;) )
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: Wilson Fowlie on September 08, 2010, 06:10:49 PM
Maybe I just don't remember it but did the story explain why meat-eating mermaids living independently in the sea would want plastic trash? In The Old Man and the Sea when the sharks were eating the fish, well, it was food to them. But why did the mermaids want this trash. It wasn't like they could sell it or eat it.

It was a presented as an unknown fact.  Lolo herself wondered the same thing.
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: knigget on September 08, 2010, 06:42:57 PM
Maybe I just don't remember it but did the story explain why meat-eating mermaids living independently in the sea would want plastic trash? In The Old Man and the Sea when the sharks were eating the fish, well, it was food to them. But why did the mermaids want this trash. It wasn't like they could sell it or eat it.

It was a presented as an unknown fact.  Lolo herself wondered the same thing.

Nice juxtaposition with JF wanting all the money, without a clear idea why.  You know, paper or plastic?
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: kibitzer on September 08, 2010, 11:03:02 PM
Sorry to be such a didact, but, hey, programmer.  (Presumably a member of the 'they' in your sentence above. ;) )

Purely for my amusement, then, which particular language(s) do you use at the moment?
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: Wilson Fowlie on September 08, 2010, 11:06:23 PM
Sorry to be such a didact, but, hey, programmer.  (Presumably a member of the 'they' in your sentence above. ;) )

Purely for my amusement, then, which particular language(s) do you use at the moment?

Mostly C (we do a lot of embedded firmware and network protocol stuff that requires the speed) with a sprinkling of Python.

I'd like to find an excuse to do something moderately significant with Erlang, but that hasn't come to pass yet.
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: kibitzer on September 09, 2010, 02:44:08 AM
Mostly C (we do a lot of embedded firmware and network protocol stuff that requires the speed) with a sprinkling of Python.

I'd like to find an excuse to do something moderately significant with Erlang, but that hasn't come to pass yet.

Yipes. A REAL programmer! Me: mostly Java-based stuff in the integration space: BPEL, BPMN and that kinda thing.
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: Unblinking on September 09, 2010, 01:53:11 PM
Excuse my anatomical explicitness, but if you want to make yourself impossible to rape, you can't just get rid of your genitals. You basically have to become spheroid in shape with no points of ingress.

Thank you!  That bugged me in the story she'd stated something along the lines of making herself "unfuckable".  Well, removing your genitals ain't gonna do that.  If, like scattercat suggested, she'd been doing it for entirely psychological reasons, then fine.  But the word "unfuckable" suggests that's not the case.
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: Talia on September 09, 2010, 01:54:14 PM
I'd argue the word unfuckable is subjective. :p
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: Unblinking on September 09, 2010, 02:02:05 PM
I initially wanted to have it be EP11111111, but as was pointed out to me under modern binary notation that's just 255 because they start counting at zero...

That's not quite the case, for the same reason that the decimal number 99 doesn't count one hundred items because we start counting at zero.  '1' is one, no matter your counting system.

If you do notate episode 511 in binary, please put a 'b' at the beginning of the number, or some of us may think we've missed 11,110,600 episodes! :D

Sorry to be such a didact, but, hey, programmer.  (Presumably a member of the 'they' in your sentence above. ;) )

11111111 would also mean -127 if we're dealing with signed integers.  :P

Yipes. A REAL programmer! Me: mostly Java-based stuff in the integration space: BPEL, BPMN and that kinda thing.

Jumping in where I wasn't asked, but I write C++ at my day job, writing video processing algorithms for embedded chips on traffic cameras (not enforcement cameras, but ones that help improve traffic flow).
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: Unblinking on September 09, 2010, 02:13:43 PM
Well, I'm glad that I didn't flash on "The Old Man and the Sea" because I hates that book.  This one, I mostly liked.  I liked the juxtaposition of advanced tech with less-advanced tech, the AI on the ship in particular, and the presence of mermaids due to the previous generations rich body-mods gone wrong.  I appreciated there being a plot where things happened, and where I could understand the entire arc.  Her character growth was done well, though like scattercat I thought her reaction to Niko's death needed something more.

The main thing I thought was lacking was simply some much needed description, especially of two things:
1.  What do the gender-neutral people look/sound/act like differently from other people.  We know they don't have the genitals, but are they missing all sex characteristics?  Do they look something like eunuchs?  Would they have to do major surgery to restructure bones to remove these characteristics?  Do their voices sound androgynous?  Did she have a histerectomy as well as a... uh... vaginectomy?  Does she behave or think any differently with the different mix of hormones?  Much of our adult selves, both physical and mental, are formed by drastic hormone changes during the teen years--if you remove the hormones, then what happens? 

In the story it seemed that her only changed trait was her name change and lack of vagina, but to me, removing gender has too many implications to have them all just ignored like that.

2.  What do the mermaids look like?  Are they Little Mermaid style with fish bottoms and human female top halves?  Are they like those mermaid hoaxes that spread around in past centuries by sewing together a monkey and a fish?  Do their top halves or faces look at all human?  Do all of them have female sex characteristics even if the original person was male (I sort of guessed this because his father became a MERMAID not a MERMAN).  Do they have sharp teeth the better to tear fishmeat with?  When they said the mermaid on the net was big, is that big as in person-big or big as in orca-big or what?

I understand that mermaids in this world are just another element of the world and so they may not dwell on them, but it's a major obstacle to me picturing the scene if I have no idea what they look like or how big they are.
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: Wilson Fowlie on September 09, 2010, 04:04:37 PM
2.  What do the mermaids look like?  ...  Do they have sharp teeth the better to tear fishmeat with? 

This was the only visual aspect that had any description at all - Lolo mentioned something about 'parrot beaks', which, frankly, didn't help much.
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: stePH on September 09, 2010, 04:52:59 PM
I was a disappointed with the summary of the Spar discussion.  I feel a major aspect of the forum was overlooked: the criticism of the repeated implication that this was 'porn' or that the author was indulging in a 'kink'.  There was a lot of airtime for those viewpoints and nothing about the almost universal condemnation of those few posts.  If anything, it seemed like the assertions that this was prurient got exclusive airtime.

I always enjoy hearing my name on the podcast (rare as that is), though whenever I do, I invariably shake my head and wonder "whoinhell thought that was worthy of repeating in audio?  ???
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: Farseeker on September 09, 2010, 05:24:14 PM
One patch of this story held one of the most chillingly excellent bits of narration I have ever heard in a podcast: the recounting of the narrator's childhood rape.

Years ago a friend of mine spoke to me of having been sexually abused by her father, at just about the same age as the story's narrator.  The deliberate, understated, icy dead cadence of Christiana Ellis' delivery, betrayal and abasement and revulsion kept in check only by bands of cold steel, brought that conversation back to me in full detail.  The reading was perfect.  It left me hoping that the realism was just superb scripting and voice acting, and not the voice of experience from either Cat or Christiana.  But it felt so real that I had to wonder.
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: Jinmoonlight on September 10, 2010, 03:23:06 PM
It is established early on that the boat has a connection to the internet, would it not logically follow that the boat has the ability to contact the authorities.  I can accept that the boat wouldn't speak up about the rape years ago, because doing so would be against the will of its owner.  But why wouldn't an internet ready boat make contact when its crew was in trouble? 

I feel like the rules surrounding the AI needed to be better established in order for me to buy this story.  The AI is given a sort of magical carte blanche to do whatever it wants to suit the story at the time, especially at the end when it goads Neco with some sonic something or other, I was left with the feeling of "where did that come from?". 

Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: Calculating... on September 10, 2010, 04:53:48 PM
can we please get a different feedback reader besides bill peters? nothing against him personally, its my opinion that he is just not good at reading the feedback. at all. it takes talent to read aloud a do it well, and unfortunately bill peters just does not have this talent. i'm sure he's a wonderful person, but it is difficult to listen to feedback when he reads it. sorry.
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: Listener on September 10, 2010, 05:08:58 PM
Of the storm of Cat Rambo that has been podcast lately, this is probably the best of the bunch because it had a distinct plot -- that is, stuff happens. And I totally get the parallels to "The Old Man And The Sea". I guess the narrator did too because she read the story at a very slow pace, so slow that I started to get annoyed. I needed faster pacing.

Of course, TOMATS wasn't very fast-paced either.

I like boats, and boating. My grandfather had boats. As an ex-SCUBA-diver (my license lapsed, but I had both Open Water and Advanced), I know how to handle myself on boats and around heavy equipment on rolling seas (mostly: avoid it). So I appreciated the boat parts. Also, the non-battle with the corporate scavengers at the Lump was pretty cool. But the journey there and back was long, and Jorge Felipe had absolutely no redeeming qualities (the best villains have at least one, I think), so I didn't really feel anything when he died. Nico's return annoyed me -- where was he hiding all that time? an air bubble in the mini-lump? -- and I almost wonder if the author wrote herself into a corner and had to grab a rope and swing back to the doorway.

But what annoyed me about the story was the mermaids. The story title says mermaids. Even the Eliot poem has mermaids. Mermaids attack Lolo's mini-lump until it's gone. Mermaids are evil. That's about it. I suppose there's a commentary there on how the rich (who became mermaids, spawned, then turned back) are still screwing the poor (Lolo et al, by taking away this chunk of treasure), but I don't want to think about that. Not when I have to think about the rape thing, and the action thing, and the boat thing... it's too much.

Speaking of the rape and gender-removal thing... *sigh*... I don't see how the story was improved by adding it. Lolo could've remained Laura, learned some form of martial art, and still have been a girl (I'm guessing she was late-teens by this point). Adding the gender-removal was just another SFnal thing, and these days it seems like nongender has taken over the "shock" role of male homosexuality. Think about it -- in "Tio Gilberto and the 27 Ghosts", the MC was gay. Good for him. But the story wasn't about his sexuality, and I doubt any readers were shocked by it. In this one, Laura made a choice to become the nongendered Lolo because of a fairly obvious reason, which has been covered by other commenters. And that's fine... if that's what the story was about. But it wasn't about her choice to become nongendered. So what was the point, exactly? Showing how far people will go to try and escape the memory of / prevent the recurrence of a violent event against them? Showing Lolo's regret at her choice, at the bait-and-switch comparison between choosing nongender and parenting hundreds of mermaid spawn?

So, in the end, I didn't love this story, although I liked it a lot more than other Rambo stories (although I do think "Sugar"'s descriptions blew this one's away -- which, given the TOMATS comparison, I suppose is all right). Actually, I read "Seeking Nothing" in Daily Science Fiction today, and I actually kind of liked it -- which tells me that I guess Rambo's writing, at least in my eyes, is better suited for the printed page.

Feedback went on a tad too long this episode as well.
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: Talia on September 10, 2010, 05:12:15 PM
I liked the pacing of the reading. I wouldn't have wanted it to be faster.

It's one of those "well, can't please everyone" things, I guess.
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: Unblinking on September 13, 2010, 01:52:57 PM
2.  What do the mermaids look like?  ...  Do they have sharp teeth the better to tear fishmeat with? 

This was the only visual aspect that had any description at all - Lolo mentioned something about 'parrot beaks', which, frankly, didn't help much.

Oh yeah.  Unfortunately, the mention of parrot beaks came very late, and just served to muddy my mental image of them even more.  Up until then I was picturing something pretty much human on the top half, but muddy green like a catfish and built on a larger scale, with a fish bottom half.  Adding the beak in makes it VERY clear that my description is incorrect, but not HOW it's incorrect.  So is it a human top half except the beak?  Does it look more like a fish with arms?  Or what?
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: The Far Stairs on September 14, 2010, 05:02:04 AM
I second the comment about Christiana's reading of the rape scene. I thought it was brilliant. In fact, she did a fantastic job all the way through. It was one of the best readings I've heard in a while.

I was so excited about the story, listening to the first half. The setting was great, and so were the characters. Great atmosphere, too. Unfortunately, I thought the second half felt contrived and nonsensical. Niko fell overboard and then came back? And then fell overboard again? Really? When it happened the first time, I felt real empathy with Lolo's loss. Then, when Niko suddenly came back, I felt used and manipulated by the author. Only in the rarest of cases should you give a character a tragic death and then bring them back. Only when it's essential to the story. Then he went back in the water, apparently dead FOR REAL this time, and what was Lolo's reaction to the (second) loss of her true love? Nothing. Just nothing. That's when I gave up. The boat that had betrayed her so badly all those years ago killed her best friend, and she thanked it for doing so. She started to forgive the boat as a result of it murdering her best friend. She started to have warm feelings for the boat after it murdered her best friend. Granted, it saved her life, but is there any chance she would have seen it that way? Now I'm just angry.

Also, the bleakness of the ending wasn't handled well. Rather than feeling realistic or fatalistic or existential, it just fell flat. I was left thinking, "So, nothing really happened. Lolo didn't become empowered, because she was just a pawn of others throughout the story. Two men died, but she didn't care about that, so I didn't care about that. She didn't make any money or change the circumstances of her life in any appreciable way... so..."... so... ... ...... .. ....
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: elleasea on September 14, 2010, 08:49:32 AM
This was one of my favorite stories I've heard on the three sister podcasts here in awhile.  Thanks.

I really enjoyed the metaphor of her hatred for the ship.  Much literature around the phenomenon of child rape, especially in Central America, by an uncle or father discusses the same emotional response: a rage more directed toward an older female who did not (could not) prevent it from happening.  It really illustrates the true power difference in our society between the genders.

Lolo's emotional reaction to Jorge's attack on the boat was the same as if it had been a sexual assault; a feeling of powerlessness and the desire to blame someone older and wiser that should have been protecting her.

The mod-bod's was an interesting world building bit for me.  While I agree with some of the other comments that gender-neutrality cannot be achieved by an androgynous body alone, I again thought it was a very creative metaphor for another post sexual-trauma reaction: intentional modification of the body/behavior to make oneself less desirable.  It is very common for women who have been assaulted to either: dress less feminine, gain a lot of weight, cut off their hair etc., as a way to make themselves a less likely target <-- note: please do not read that correlation too far and start assuming that all women who don't look/act feminine or who are zaphtig to have been targets of abuse in their life.

The reading was really well done, and although I agree that the ending felt abrupt to me, and a little anti-climactic that the bodies just kind of disappeared over the side and then nothing.. not even a blood stain in the water, I just really loved it.  I really have a feeling that this story will stay with me.

I am pretty sure that this story made my short list.

Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: Unblinking on September 14, 2010, 01:40:06 PM
Only in the rarest of cases should you give a character a tragic death and then bring them back. Only when it's essential to the story.

Just a sidenote:  You really DO NOT want to play Final Fantasy II then (FFIV in Japan and more recent releases).  I swear they pulled that with every single character.  Once was okay, twice was borderline, but half a dozen times and you just groan every time you see another one come back.
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: Liminal on September 14, 2010, 02:03:43 PM
Only in the rarest of cases should you give a character a tragic death and then bring them back. Only when it's essential to the story.

Or read past God Emperor of Dune. I swear, as much as I enjoy the ideas and philosophies and world building in the last few books of Frank Herbert's Dune series, the amount of people coming back from the dead got a bit ridiculous. 
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: The Far Stairs on September 14, 2010, 07:45:18 PM
Haha :) Thanks for the warnings. I hadn't planned on playing Final Fantasy II, and now I definitely won't. I read the first three (maybe four?) books of Dune, and I agree that the ideas/worldbuilding were great, but the characters (which were a little flat to begin with) slowly slipped into the brave frontier of the second dimension, and I found it hard to care what happened to people when it seemed like their metaphysical circumstances could change at a moment's notice. I'm all for genetically-engineered messiahs and people turning into sandworms (I think that's what happened?), but it's a little hard to identify with them once they've ascended to a higher plane of consciousness and/or returned from the dead as a clone/zombie/pure energy/reconstructed robot intelligence. Though I'm sure those people are very nice.
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: kibitzer on September 14, 2010, 10:17:42 PM
Or read past God Emperor of Dune.

Never did. That one kind nailed the whole thing shut for me :-)
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: Unblinking on September 15, 2010, 02:16:55 PM
I hadn't planned on playing Final Fantasy II, and now I definitely won't.

Final Fantasy II had another really really annoying plot point.  There was one character in the party called Kain (red flag anyone?), who betrays you to your enemy very early in the game.  That by itself is no big deal, presumably Cain and Abel are not known in this alternate reality, so the name is a red flag only to the play not to the characters.  Then later the character comes back, explains that he was being mind-controlled by something-something, and you let him back in the party only to have him betray you AGAIN.  Which is bad enough, but I'm pretty sure it happens a third time.  I tell you what, the second time I would be highly skeptical.  The third time I would say "hell no".

For what it's worth, there are plenty of good games in the Final Fantasy series, my favorites in order are:  FFX, FFIII(which is FFVI in recent releases), FFVII, FFXII (playing through it now).  FF Tactics is great too, though not really part of the main series--that ones great because you have a 3-D battle grid to maneuver around, which involves actual strategy, higher terrain gives advantage with ranged weapons and magic, that sort of thing.

OK, rant over, back to your regularly scheduled comments.  :)
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: Scattercat on September 15, 2010, 04:17:50 PM
The only thing more common in Final Fantasy games than inexplicably over-trusting characters is main characters with amnesia.
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: The Far Stairs on September 15, 2010, 07:51:29 PM
As David Cross says: "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times? Well, that's me again, I guess. Cause I just got fooled twice, so I should be on the lookout. Fool me four times? That's definitely me, cause I just said 'Fool me three times...' Fool me five times? Fool me five times?? Well, I'm sorry, but that's you. What are you doing fooling me five times?" And so on.
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: rowshack on September 16, 2010, 01:42:01 AM
It left me feeling like I was looking at the contents of some ones junk drawer: alot of stuff there that does not connect. :-\
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: Unblinking on September 16, 2010, 01:35:02 PM
The only thing more common in Final Fantasy games than inexplicably over-trusting characters is main characters with amnesia.

A bit soap opera-esque in that respect, isn't it?  :)  Now we just more evil twins.
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: stePH on September 18, 2010, 02:39:47 AM
The only thing more common in Final Fantasy games than inexplicably over-trusting characters is main characters with amnesia.

Amnesia is a convenient device to put on the player character; then the player isn't familiar with the situation because the character isn't familiar with it.
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: Scattercat on September 18, 2010, 03:56:16 PM
The only thing more common in Final Fantasy games than inexplicably over-trusting characters is main characters with amnesia.

Amnesia is a convenient device to put on the player character; then the player isn't familiar with the situation because the character isn't familiar with it.

And dumping your garbage into the river is a convenient way to dispose of it, but that doesn't mean you and everyone else wouldn't be better off if you properly recycled and composted it instead.
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: chornbe on September 19, 2010, 12:42:33 PM
I found the story "meh..." on most levels. Overall I just thought it was depressing.
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: wakela on September 23, 2010, 07:07:13 AM
As was mentioned elsewhere, the vaguenesses didn't help retain my interest.  In particular, she lived a number of years "on the streets."  This seemed to be a pretty vanilla way to put it.  It's believable that the character would have said this, but it's not effective at keeping my interest.  I found myself wanting to hear that story.  What does a non-gendered person do "on the streets?"

There seemed to be a lot of telling and not showing.  We're told that Lolo is a neuter, that she hates the boat, and that she likes Niko, but none of her actions reflect this. 

I thought the mermaids were a neat idea, and I really liked that the boat thought it's best move at earning forgiveness involved killing Lolo's friend.  This seems like an idea that an AI and not a human would come up with. 

The societal commentary: environmentalism, corporate douchebaggery, sneering at the wealthy, are all pretty tired for me.  Once I hear one in a story, hearing the other ones come as no surprise and carry no bite. 
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: hardware on October 01, 2010, 07:48:15 AM
I finally got around to this one, and must say it never really gripped me. One little problem with the 'ratings', once they become very specific, they also drift into the realm of spoilers. Anyway, I think this story left me frustrated for several reasons. First, it introduced a lot of sci-fi concepts, but didn't take any of them very far. The exception being the AI boat, who was probably the most developed character. But the mermaids, the whole idea of degendering, the idea that a pile of trash would be worth so much, all these things are introduced but never really got their moment to shine. Instead we got this triangle of broken people, which was OK, but has been done so many times, so much better before. Their stories are very tragic, but the emotional punch was never really delivered. So, well, I'll sort this under minor disappointments, but I can see that many people enjoyed it, so I will just hope that next time it's my turn.
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: yicheng on October 06, 2010, 09:43:14 PM
I have to echo Listener's sentiments for this story.  Nothing really clicked for me in this story, and there seemed to be a lot of inexplicable elements that just ended up being really confusing.  What was the point of having mermaids in the story?  Were they a symbolism for something that I didn't understand?  Why did they take away the junk from the net?  Why or how did Nico climb back on the boat, and why didn't he come back a 2nd time?  How has this situation not come up before were a woman (well okay neuter) stuck on a boat, might have to deal with one of her employees being unruly?  Wouldn't you pack a gun or a knife?

For that matter, it felt like the entire story was about the childhood rape, with main character narrating present events, all the while making a voyeuristic confessional about her uncle raping her.  To me, it felt out of place and disjointed.  Ultimately all of the sci-fi elements (mermaids, talking boat, gender removal) felt "glued-on" to the story and don't contribute one way or another to making the story work. 

PS, I also take issue with the idea that gender neutering would be used as therapy for rape victims.  The first thing you learn about rape is that it's about control first and sex second.  Not to be crude, but there are plenty of other orifices and body parts to use beside the genitalia.
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: Unblinking on October 07, 2010, 01:47:02 PM
How has this situation not come up before were a woman (well okay neuter) stuck on a boat, might have to deal with one of her employees being unruly?  Wouldn't you pack a gun or a knife?

Good point.  Especially considering her history, she'd likely have some kind of self defense for times of need.
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: Gamercow on October 20, 2010, 06:57:26 PM
Other than the narration, I don't think there was a single thing I liked about this story.  Which is interesting, because I said the same thing(minus the narration) when I read "Old Man and the Sea". 
I thought the AI was incongruous and a blatant plot device.  I mean, why put AI on a boat?  What did that AI do, other than talk to the occupants?  It seemed like Lolo had to put in the course, had to watch the radar, had to steer, etc.  It was a tack-on at best, that was used to get the story to the endpoint that the writer was trying to reach.
I didn't like the use of gender-neutrality to escape rape.  Rape has little to do with gender or sex, and much more to do with power.  I think that Cat wanted a punch of shock in the story, and used the rape to this point. 
I didn't like the characters.  Lolo was one-dimensionally bitter, Nico was one-dimensionally high(I mean, what did he do in this story other than provide a connection to the mermaids?), and Jorge was so one-dimensionally evil, he should have been wearing a top hat and twirling his mustache.  I don't consider the boat to be a character, because it was such a blatant tack-on plot device. 
I didn't like the conflict.  The big bads would really give up on them that easily?  Why even have them in the story, that "conflict" could have been omitted completely, and absolutely nothing in the story would have changed.  Zero.  The mermaids were taking away their precious haul, and before Jorge went nuts, nobody really thought too much about it.  And wouldn't they have lost some while dragging it under the water anyway?  Why didn't Lolo have a weapon on board?  I know NO boat captains that don't have some sort of weapon on board, be it a gun, knife, baseball bat, gaffing hook, etc.  Surely, they would have a knife to cut tangled lines in a supposed fishing boat.  Lolo could have also had the Magdalena report in the crime, as others have pointed out.
I didn't like the science.  Again, the AI was useless, and really seemed to be the only tech in the story.  Why/how would a dirt-poor fisherman who lived hand to mouth put a presumably expensive AI retrofit on his boat?  Why was there no other tech in the story?(other than the buzzer boats) Why/how would a group set up a system that would allow for gender neutralization for 13 year olds?  Surely there would be many hoops to jump through for this kind of charity. 

I think Cat Rambo had a thought of connecting a story with Old Man and the Sea in one hand, and a rape/gender neutralization story/shock point in the other hand, and mashed them together and just formed something ugly. 
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: The Far Stairs on December 01, 2010, 09:59:03 PM
Good point about the useless AI! I didn't think of that.
Title: Re: EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
Post by: Rachel Udin on December 10, 2010, 07:29:00 PM
I have a little problem with the narration, but it's a personal problem. I loved Nina Kimberly the Merciless (http://www.ninakimberly.com/) and Space Casey (http://www.podiobooks.com/title/space-casey) and thought they were very funny. I've loved Christiana Ellis and her narrations since then. But since Nina Kimberly I think of Christiana as someone who brings the funny, like in her narration of podcastle's The Hag Queen’s Curse (http://podcastle.org/2010/04/13/podcastle-99-the-hag-queens-curse/). And this wasn't a funny story but I kept on kinda expecting it to be. I couldn't internalize the pain and tragedy because, hey, IT'S CHRISTIANA!

Just a personal problem.



Unfair, you should listen to Metamor. Christiana does a heart-wrenching performance as Fiona and really delivers an unfunny role there... she writes a lot of humor on her own, but when she needs to deliver other emotions she can!