Pseudopod 195: The Engine of Desire

[Listener]

she's willing to marry a man and raise a daughter deliberately to lure back the engine, her desire is so overwhelming and obssessive

And now I dislike it even more.  I hadn't gotten that aspect of the story at all, that the protagonist is raising a child as bait just to lure Kelly back.

This particular trope has already been used to excess in medical dramas where parents have children just to harvest their cord blood and use it to save other children of theirs who are sick with an otherwise-incurable disease.

[Portrait in Flesh]

Seems like guys didn't find this erotic... any women type people read it? Same opinion?

* Portrait in Flesh performs a quick weapons check.

Yep.  Got the female parts.  And, having read extensively in the Erotic Horror Genre (i.e., I own a couple of Hot Blood books) and being a wee bit bent I s'pose I'm qualified to give a shot at an answer here.

So... how would I characterize the eroticism of this piece?

Dude, I don't know.  It could be that I listened to the story during one of my recent insomnia phases so my head wasn't really in the right place to begin with, but, honestly, any eroticism to be had in the story was negated by the narrator's accent.  (Nothing at all against Kiwi accents, but my attention kept slipping into Monty Python's Philosophers Song sketch...and, yes, I know, those were meant to be Aussie accents, but like I said earlier my head's been in an off place lately.)

Had this been something I'd read rather than heard...yeah, it may have made a difference.  As it is, I wasn't as put off by the "clay breasts" thing as most here appear to be.  It's not like Yoda was clawing and pinching them and calling them "crude matter," after all.  Honestly, I was more put off by all the smoking references than anything else. 

[empathy44]

As a female-type female I can say it kind of circled the erotic drain, but the words and the images were more off-putting and discordant than successfully erotic. In fact, it was anti-erotic because of all the "wrong" in her behavior. It was vivid, but not pleasant or resonant for me.

[Nitequill]

"It was vivid, but not pleasant or resonant for me."

Vivid and unpleasent hits the mark for me. But it was resonant for me... brought back that petulant overheated lust of early adolescence.

I re-listened and the accent did not put me off in the least.

[empathy44]

Vivid and unpleasant hits the mark for me. But it was resonant for me... brought back that petulant overheated lust of early adolescence.

Yes, I agree about the evocation...but it seemed like every description of her lust or sexuality was completely devoid of love or positive emotional attachment. Mind you, I thought that it was supposed to be unpleasant. I thought it was all to show the predatory nature of her sexuality and emotional entanglements. So the "Engine" was a predator, she was a predator....etc.

[Unblinking]

she's willing to marry a man and raise a daughter deliberately to lure back the engine, her desire is so overwhelming and obssessive

And now I dislike it even more.  I hadn't gotten that aspect of the story at all, that the protagonist is raising a child as bait just to lure Kelly back.

This particular trope has already been used to excess in medical dramas where parents have children just to harvest their cord blood and use it to save other children of theirs who are sick with an otherwise-incurable disease.

I haven't seen a story with that premise, but that's probably because I never watch medical dramas.

[ancawonka]

I liked this one. The narration made it for me - the imagery she evoked through words was more fun than if I'd read this story. I thought the reverse chronology created a suitable sense of doom.  It was maybe one segment too long.

[eytanz]

I just couldn't get into this one. It took me over a week to finish it because I could only listen to it in 5-minute installments before I got bored. I don't know why I persisted - I think I was hoping for a more satisfying ending. But at the end, I was not satisfied, and was left with the vague feeling that there were plot holes here that undermined the whole story. But I don't know if that's true, as it could easily be my own misremembering of details. Oh well.

[KatThirteen]

I've actually registered to express my enjoyment of this one, after being a largely mute Escape Artists listener for a good three years or so now.

This could conceivably be knee-jerk favouritism to some extent; there's so little lesbian horror around that I tend to give it perhaps a little bit more leeway (I also find the sexual content of some some hetero erotic horror - usually the "normal sex" bits - a tad squicky, but that's definitely just me).

However, even taking my "Yay! Lesbians AND tentacled monstrosities!" bias into account, I'd rate this as a good story. The erotic elements worked for me, as did the evocation of the power of one's first sexual obsessions, and I'm perfectly happy to take the concept of the engine itself at face value - it vaguely touched on shades of Thomas Ligotti (the decaying neighbourhood) and early Clive Barker (manifestations of lush sexuality which turn out be a mask for something far less ordinary). The writing style didn't put me off - in fact, I liked the way Kelly seemed to be described using adjectives implying her to be a constructed thing. The reading, too, I liked very much - great reader, lovely accent, and I'm (a) not American and (b) didn't know this was taking place in Tacoma (or indeed the US) until I went and looked it up later, so wasn't put off by either the foreignness or regional unsuitability of the reader.

I didn't take away a "bad lesbian" vibe from this one, but more that it's erotic horror about obsession (and tentacles) with a lesbian protagonist (and a creature that feeds on women). A lot of the content of the recent queer horror anthology Fist of the Spider Woman falls into a similar category.

As for the bits that didn't quite work for me... I'd have liked just a little more flesh on the bones of Megan's intervening life. Touching on someone else's comment, my reading is that she aborted two previous foetuses because they weren't female, thus had no hope of attracting Kelly; there are a couple of implications that her very-ordinary very-irrelevant husband might have been a nice enough guy but there could have been a little more detail - it doesn't really detract from the story for for me, but it would have been nice.

Finally, the ending, even though it makes perfect sense, because we already know that Megan went back to join Kelly and the engine... the last couple of sentences still felt like they just stopped, and I had to put some thought into resolving the story (although I'd admit that I split this one when I listened as it was my bedtime/breakfast story).

Overall, though, I liked it a lot and will be telling my friends. 

[Enigma K]

So, in digging through my mp3 player I found a story that was somehow skipped over. 

This is the end of my listening to Pseudopod and the entire Escape Artist trio.

I want to begin with what I liked.  I liked that people disagreed with the protagonist, who believed that same-gender relationships were "something wrong."  Love is a wonderful thing.

I also did not mind the reverse chronology, as it worked very well for me in other media.  Sometimes understanding the cause can make the effect more horrific. 

Now I am going to say goodbye.

The climax of the story can be summarized as a combination of the following, from most offensive to least:
child sexual abuse
incest
necrophilia

I want to throw group sex in here, but that's a matter of consensual adult activity.

The horror genre has a long tradition of fighting with taboos.  Clive Barker spent the height of his career neck deep in taboo, from his obvious erotic work on a secret look at a gathering of stage magicians.  Night of the Living Dead was a re-examination of views against communism, and even Dracula was, at times, a very thin metaphor for carnal activities.

And what better place to fight them?  If the protagonist is going to die, they can at least go out smiling, right?  "Smoke 'em if you got 'em."  Or worse -- what if that underground sect of freaks really is just as human as the rest of us?  (Again, Clive Barker: Cabal / Nightbreed.)  The chance to use our willful walks into the dark and uncomfortable to expose us to the human condition is, at times, admirable.

On the other hand, few people are willing to give NAMBLA much respect.  The reasons for this are sound.  The sexual habits persons under the age of 18 are typically beyond taboo to ensure that children remain respected and protected.

This material in this story is closer to what teenage boys write about on dares in their ninth grade English class. 

I am abandoning the entire trio because of material like this.  It frequently seems as if sex is a crutch in the stories the editors choose, whether it is appropriate to the story or not.  At times, it almost seems like the less appropriate the sexual content is, the better the story's overall reception.  I know that I will be missing out on a lot of wonderful stories that I would otherwise thoroughly enjoy.

I would much rather take that risk than hear about the sexual habits of children ever again.

Goodbye.

[Bdoomed]

Um... sorry?

I don't know what to say.  If you really feel that giving up the podcasts is the right thing to do for you, then by all means do it.  I guess.  I can't say I agree with your assessment of the situation, nor with your response, but that is your decision to make, not mine.  So I bid you adieu.

[Scattercat]

Everything is acceptable except what I find unacceptable, and anyone who can't see that those are the only proper limits is a pervert.

*nods sagely*

[Unblinking]

Well, too bad to see you go.  I don't really understand why you'd give up on all three podcasts because of one Pseudopod story you didn't like, but that's your choice.

At times, it almost seems like the less appropriate the sexual content is, the better the story's overall reception. 

I haven't seen that at all.  A story that crosses sex taboos is likely going to get talked about more, but much of that talk is generally going to be people who thought it did well to do what it did and those who didn't (see the extensive discussion in EP's "Spar" if you don't believe me).  I've never seen any kind of overwhelming "Yay for inappropriate sex" response.  A sex-heavy story is a gutsier editorial choice because it's pretty much guaranteed to have some readers who hate it.  Note that I strongly disliked this story, as I strongly disliked EP's "Spar".  I'm not particularly opposed to sex in stories I just didn't happen to like those two.

[Fenrix]

Well, too bad to see you go.  I don't really understand why you'd give up on all three podcasts because of one Pseudopod story you didn't like, but that's your choice.

At times, it almost seems like the less appropriate the sexual content is, the better the story's overall reception. 

I haven't seen that at all.  A story that crosses sex taboos is likely going to get talked about more, but much of that talk is generally going to be people who thought it did well to do what it did and those who didn't (see the extensive discussion in EP's "Spar" if you don't believe me).  I've never seen any kind of overwhelming "Yay for inappropriate sex" response.  A sex-heavy story is a gutsier editorial choice because it's pretty much guaranteed to have some readers who hate it.  Note that I strongly disliked this story, as I strongly disliked EP's "Spar".  I'm not particularly opposed to sex in stories I just didn't happen to like those two.

Add PC's Mermaid's Tea Party to that list.

Also:

WARNING: This is a podcast of horror fiction. The stories presented here are intended to disturb you. They are likely to contain death, graphic violence, explicit sex (including sexual violence), hate crimes, blasphemy, or other themes and images that hook deep into your psyche. We do not provide ratings or content warnings for specific stories. We assume by your listening that you wish to be disturbed for your entertainment. If there are any themes that you cannot deal with in fiction, that are too strongly personal to you, please do not listen.

Pseudopod is for mature audiences only. Hardly any story on Pseudopod is suitable for children. We mean this very seriously.

[eytanz]

Add PC's Mermaid's Tea Party to that list.

The themes were there, but not nearly as explicit. I mean, judging by the thread, several readers didn't realize what was happening there. That's not exactly possible with this story or Spar.