Author Topic: PseudoPod 746: Rattlesnake Song  (Read 1203 times)

Bdoomed

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on: February 27, 2021, 05:41:44 PM
PseudoPod 746: Rattlesnake Song

Author: Josh Rountree
Narrator: Jarius Durnett
Host: Scott Campbell
Audio Producer: Marty Perrett

“Rattlesnake Song” originally appeared in July 2019 in the the anthology Triangulation: Dark Skies.



The Last Picture Show came to the movie house on the square in the fall of nineteen seventy-one.  We snuck in with warm cans of Pearl and sat on the back row so we could take quick hits off our cigarettes and snub them out before anyone noticed the smoke.  I fell in love with Cybil Sheppard and figured she could wind me up just like she did all the guys in Anarene.  I recognized that small town that had been something once but was now engaged in a battle with time. Every sandstorm, every gust of West Texas wind stripped away another layer of paint and vitality.  That dying town was our inheritance.

When the movie ended we spilled out onto Front Street with our half-full beer cans stashed in our jackets.  Dean Champion’s dad had been a big hat over at the refinery in Big Spring before he hung himself, so Dean had sprung for the beer.  We piled into his Chevelle and I made sure I was in the back seat, squashed tight against Stacy Bell’s thigh.  Once upon a time that prospect would have excited me, but that time had passed.  




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Marlboro

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Reply #1 on: February 27, 2021, 06:15:46 PM
Just a heads up: Cybil Sheppard is spelled Cybill Shepherd.

The Last Picture Show is a very good movie. I hated the book though; it's just an endless series of people hooking up. I never actually finished it as a matter of fact. I stopped at the bestiality scene. It's funny, that a short story about Dark Gods and snake people isn't nearly as screwed up as a book about a bunch of teenagers who hang out and occasionally rape livestock.


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Scuba Man

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Reply #2 on: April 16, 2021, 07:59:21 PM
I found the story a bit lopsided. Was our protagonist trying to...
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My favourite line as a nod to Riverdale (the comics).  :)

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Scattercat

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Reply #3 on: June 21, 2021, 10:47:56 AM
I found the story a bit lopsided. Was our protagonist trying to...
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No, he's trying to delay the inevitable.  The townsfolk are being lied to by basically everyone, from the otherworldly beings to the snakes to the protagonist. 



Scuba Man

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Reply #4 on: July 25, 2021, 08:18:06 PM
Makes sense!

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.