Author Topic: EP555: Monstrance of Sky  (Read 5289 times)

eytanz

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on: December 28, 2016, 03:07:16 PM
EP555: Monstrance of Sky

AUTHOR: Christopher Mark Rose
NARRATOR: Alethea Kontis
HOST: Norm Sherman

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Aerbello — the shape one sees in the movement of wheat, blown by wind. The shape of wind, written in sheaves.

I left me, without really leaving. Well, not I myself, but Eva. She told me she was leaving me, as we made love in our bedroom. It was clear she didn’t mean immediately.

Cova — any place a crow could be. A crow-sized void, unoccupied by an actual crow.

She said we weren’t good for each other, we weren’t helping each other to grow. She said my God obsession had gotten to be too much. She said her presence in my life was redundant.

“Please don’t go,” I said. “If you go, my heart will be a cova.”  I couldn’t understand, and it hurt me. It felt as though I had swallowed a razor blade, without realizing.

Monstrance — a vessel, in Catholic tradition, in which the consecrated Host is placed, to be exposed for the adoration of the faithful.

Without knowing why, I had started making a list of words that meant God, or related to worship, or words I thought could describe God. I found I was transcribing large portions of dictionaries, encyclopedias. I couldn’t explain it, I just felt compelled. I was probably obsessed. I wasn’t a believer but neither an unbeliever then.


Listen to this week’s Escape Pod!



Thunderscreech

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Reply #1 on: December 28, 2016, 04:23:06 PM
(Sorry Barry)

♫ Her name was Evelyn, she was a clo-one, ♪
With a list of godlike names in some habitrail-like caves.
She would do science, and then her copy,
And while she tried to get real close
♪ her clone thought their relationship was gross ♬
They shared a cabin, then cooked and researched
♪ They were cold and close no more,
a trumpet had mounted Eva's shore.  ♫

♫ At the Cova...  Cova Cabana. ♫
The saddest spot down below Havana. ♫
♫ At the Cova...  Cova Cabanaaaaana,
Rama and Science were just an appliance
At the Cova....  they fell from love. ♬



Unblinking

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Reply #2 on: December 29, 2016, 03:27:50 PM
I had a lot of trouble getting into this story.  I think much of it was that I found the central romantic relationship between the two clones to be creepy.  I have seen the trope before that "everyone wants to have sex with a copy of themselves", there was an SNL skit about it for instance, but I... just don't get the appeal.  Maybe I, uh, am just too self-critical to want to have another me hanging around?  Even if it was enjoyable in the moment, I can't imagine that it is psychologically healthy to have your mate be your genetic duplicate.

Realizing that clones are not going to be exact copies mentally, but, still, it feels like incest... but more so.

So the clear disintegration of the relationship did not fill me with distress the way that it filled the character.  I thought that it was probably a healthy move, even if the protagonist didn't want it.  I also didn't really grasp the distress over the protagonist's sense of religion.  I guess I'm probably not the target audience for that one--I find that learning about more religions doesn't make me believe in anything less, more I feel that it broadens my understanding of how people as a whole can approach faith, and I don't find that broadening destructive to my sense of the spiritual.

The ending seemed kind of abrupt, didn't really feel resolved.

I'm not sure I'm the target audience for this one!  I am very interested in other people's feedback, what they drew from the story that I seemed to have missed.




acpracht

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Reply #3 on: December 31, 2016, 03:12:11 AM
(Sorry Barry)

♫ Her name was Evelyn, she was a clo-one, ♪
With a list of godlike names in some habitrail-like caves.
She would do science, and then her copy,
And while she tried to get real close
♪ her clone thought their relationship was gross ♬
They shared a cabin, then cooked and researched
♪ They were cold and close no more,
a trumpet had mounted Eva's shore.  ♫

♫ At the Cova...  Cova Cabana. ♫
The saddest spot down below Havana. ♫
♫ At the Cova...  Cova Cabanaaaaana,
Rama and Science were just an appliance
At the Cova....  they fell from love. ♬
I don't think it's possible for me to love this post more.
Maybe if...
Nope. Just not possible.

Adam
EP producer



Scuba Man

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Reply #4 on: January 04, 2017, 09:42:27 PM
Meh... I didn't get hooked by this story (and left it unfinished).  The clone-loving-clone relationships looked like a manifestation of narcissistic behaviour (that I see in the high school classroom)... Self-loving... and self-loathing.

I'm a stand-up philosopher until 2024. Then, I move onto my next gig. I'm a gentleman forester and farmer. I also enjoy jumping into Lake Huron and panicking the fish.


Zelda

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Reply #5 on: January 06, 2017, 08:45:19 AM
To be brutal - I would have left Evelyn too. Her self-obsession/clone obsession felt creepy to me. I thought Eve was a much more intriguing character but we never got to see anything from her point of view.

Overall I thought this story incorporated too many big ideas to be able to give any one of them enough room to develop. Explaining either a clone/clone relationship or a human/alien relationship would have been a big task for a short story. To include both plus the topic of religion I think made the story feel as though it was bursting at its seams. Incredibly interesting ideas though.



TrishEM

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Reply #6 on: January 17, 2017, 09:46:43 AM
(Sorry Barry)

♫ Her name was Evelyn, she was a clo-one, ♪
With a list of godlike names in some habitrail-like caves.
She would do science, and then her copy,
And while she tried to get real close
♪ her clone thought their relationship was gross ♬
They shared a cabin, then cooked and researched
♪ They were cold and close no more,
a trumpet had mounted Eva's shore.  ♫

♫ At the Cova...  Cova Cabana. ♫
The saddest spot down below Havana. ♫
♫ At the Cova...  Cova Cabanaaaaana,
Rama and Science were just an appliance
At the Cova....  they fell from love. ♬
I don't think it's possible for me to love this post more.
Maybe if...
Nope. Just not possible.

Adam
EP producer

Ah hahahahahaha! Me too.



Devoted135

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Reply #7 on: January 27, 2017, 04:05:08 AM
I also wasn't a fan of the clone and religion angles. The alien angle though, that was actually interesting. I wish the story had skipped the first two and spent more time on the aliens and Eva's decision to go with them.



CryptoMe

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Reply #8 on: December 02, 2017, 03:11:21 PM
This story didn't really engage me either. Evelyn really was more in love with the idea of being with her clone than actually being in love with her clone. I do feel, though, that the story does resolve this in the last line, so the ending worked for me.



Scuba Man

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Reply #9 on: December 04, 2017, 11:47:30 PM
(Sorry Barry)

♫ Her name was Evelyn, she was a clo-one, ♪
With a list of godlike names in some habitrail-like caves.
She would do science, and then her copy,
And while she tried to get real close
♪ her clone thought their relationship was gross ♬
They shared a cabin, then cooked and researched
♪ They were cold and close no more,
a trumpet had mounted Eva's shore.  ♫

♫ At the Cova...  Cova Cabana. ♫
The saddest spot down below Havana. ♫
♫ At the Cova...  Cova Cabanaaaaana,
Rama and Science were just an appliance
At the Cova....  they fell from love. ♬
I don't think it's possible for me to love this post more.
Maybe if...
Nope. Just not possible.

Adam
EP producer

Ah hahahahahaha! Me too.

Dear Episode feedback generator... how much licensing trouble would you get into playing a few seconds of Copacabana while reading this poster’s jingle on a future feedback-for-episode-555? Glorious.  ;D

I'm a stand-up philosopher until 2024. Then, I move onto my next gig. I'm a gentleman forester and farmer. I also enjoy jumping into Lake Huron and panicking the fish.