Author Topic: Pseudopod 111: Radiodemonology (Read 17493 times)

Heradel · **on:** October 10, 2008, 06:29:39 PM

Pseudopod 111: Radiodemonology

By John Medaille

Read by Alasdair Stuart

Okay.

I first discovered the existence of the human soul while examining the x-ray of a broken clavicle of an ugly boy named Peter Demetrios. Peter, who was the kind of kid I think of as a fly-torturing, spaghettio-bellied, dirty-fingernailed, nose-picking little crap of a little boy, had landed on a trampoline wrong and sustained a multiply displaced comminuted fracture of the collar bone.

This week’s episode sponsored by Audible.com, who has extended their generous offer of a free audiobook download of your choice from their selection of over 40,000 titles.

Listen to this week's Pseudopod.

DKT · **Reply #1 on:** October 10, 2008, 06:54:18 PM

I'm confused...what was the guy's profession again?

I liked the style of this for the most part, liked the writing, thought the asshole radiodemonologist was amusing. Alasdair's reading was good and Ben's outro cracked me up quite a bit ("If you still believe us when we say that)" I liked the story enough that when the radiologist started seeing the soul, I overlooked why he thought it was a soul instead of a parasite or something else.

But where I had a hard time was when he decided he might be a demon because he lacked a soul. I mean, I can understand a lot of reactions to not seeing your soul, but a demon? When I think of demons, I think of monsters (in human form or not in human form) who don't have careers, don't have families, and were never born, not in the way people were. Certainly, if it were me, I would think something was wrong with me. But I don't think my first reaction would be "Does this mean I'm a demon?" I know the narrator is supposed to be unreliable, but still. That twist just didn't click at all for me.

Listener · **Reply #2 on:** October 10, 2008, 07:14:11 PM

I really liked this one. Alasdair has a great way of pacing when he reads stories or outros.

The story was interesting. I wasn't expecting him to operate on himself, but it made logical sense for him to do so, in Horror-Story-Land.

I don't really have a lot of comments. I just lked the story.

Alasdair5000 · **Reply #3 on:** October 10, 2008, 08:11:41 PM

Quote from: DKT on October 10, 2008, 06:54:18 PM

I'm confused...what was the guy's profession again?

I liked the style of this for the most part, liked the writing, thought the asshole radiodemonologist was amusing. Alasdair's reading was good and Ben's outro cracked me up quite a bit ("If you still believe us when we say that)" I liked the story enough that when the radiologist started seeing the soul, I overlooked why he thought it was a soul instead of a parasite or something else.

But where I had a hard time was when he decided he might be a demon because he lacked a soul. I mean, I can understand a lot of reactions to not seeing your soul, but a demon? When I think of demons, I think of monsters (in human form or not in human form) who don't have careers, don't have families, and were never born, not in the way people were. Certainly, if it were me, I would think something was wrong with me. But I don't think my first reaction would be "Does this mean I'm a demon?" I know the narrator is supposed to be unreliable, but still. That twist just didn't click at all for me.

It's an interesting point. However, for me, the conclusion is in line with the character's thinking. He, very quietly, goes completely mad not at the point he sees the demon but the point he sees the soul. He spends the rest of the story trying and failing to reconcile what he's seen with what he's been taught and the end result is this broken, just about coherent line of reasoning. I also thought that his House-like disdain for the rest of humanity fed into it ('Because CLEARLY the worst possible outcome for me is this.' that kind of thing).

I really enjoyed this, reading it and reading it, if you catch my drift:) Glad people dug it.

DKT · **Reply #4 on:** October 10, 2008, 08:30:32 PM

The character did make me think of House a bit, which was fun.

Alasdair5000 · **Reply #5 on:** October 10, 2008, 09:14:25 PM

You're not the only one:) A couple of the offhand comments are very House-esque ('Driving from square, bloated states to larger, worse ones' and 'I am going to need a LOT of gauze' spring to mind:)

thomasowenm · **Reply #6 on:** October 11, 2008, 12:05:07 AM

At least it was short. I just could not find anything to like in the protagonist. He was a dick in the beginning, middle, and when he finally took things in his own hands still a dick. Even though the author thought he was portraying him as "snarky" I could only see him as bitter. Stuck with a job taking pictures of injuries, edvidently not being able to become a real doctor. (I'm not disparaging the radiology profession, just trying to see it through the protagonists eyes.) I wonder if the hospital charged people for the extra X-rays he took that were unnecessary.

On a seperate note: I know all PP are considered r or x rated but the outro was vulgar without adding anything to what we heard.

RKG · **Reply #7 on:** October 11, 2008, 06:11:21 PM

A good story. The ending was suitably creepy - it has me squirming.

A couple comments:

For me the author overplayed the "I know. I know you know. I know you know I already know you know I know" thing. Once was enough for me (and effective - I'm a sucker for subtle meta-information like that).

Additional observation/question: I think having people outside the operating room watching softened the tension at the end (on purpose maybe?). It let me out of the box and drew me to the outside perspective: "Hey, the radiologist went wacko and killed himself."

JoeFitz · **Reply #8 on:** October 12, 2008, 01:59:34 PM

Nice one. I think it might have ended with the self x-ray, but that would have been more of a TV thing. The surgery commentary was very well read!

Thaurismunths · **Reply #9 on:** October 12, 2008, 02:44:53 PM

Wow. Alasdair. You sounded like a right prick when you read that! I never would have considered you the kind of person who would ever be so offensive. Way to go!

I definitely enjoyed the story. A lot.
I was aghast and appalled (read: delighted) when the radiologist was being such an outright asshole to the patients. Every time he started saying something horrible I thought it was internal monologue; nope. And, as I mentioned above, having Alasdair read it made it even more outrageous.

Best line of the whole story was the last one. "Oh, there it is... and there it goes."

I had similar feelings about the 'I know, I know' lines at first, but I thought it quite fitting considering the narrator was on drugs at the moment and his suddenly swaying perspective accurately reflected his altered state of mind.

eytanz · **Reply #10 on:** October 12, 2008, 05:39:55 PM

So, essentially, this is about a man who goes crazy and commits suicide in a very interesting way. Or else, it's about a man who sees souls, and goes to great length to look for his own.

I wonder why he decided the thing he sees is a soul. If the mass-murderer has a big one, and the community-minded priest has a small one, maybe it's a bad thing to have? Maybe it's not the soul, but the repository of sins?

Oh well. It was an ok story, but the best thing about it was the reading by Alasdair.

Thaurismunths · **Reply #11 on:** October 12, 2008, 06:10:04 PM

Quote from: eytanz on October 12, 2008, 05:39:55 PM

I wonder why he decided the thing he sees is a soul.

That was a big pill to swallow, but once down the rest of the story went easily.
I would have liked half a sentence as to why he knew it was a soul.

JoeFitz · **Reply #12 on:** October 12, 2008, 10:36:17 PM

Quote from: RKG on October 11, 2008, 06:11:21 PM

For me the author overplayed the "I know. I know you know. I know you know I already know you know I know" thing. Once was enough for me (and effective - I'm a sucker for subtle meta-information like that).

Yes, I know.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round_the_Horne

Zathras · **Reply #13 on:** October 12, 2008, 10:57:24 PM

I really liked this whole episode. I think Ben's intro/outro hit just the right note. I could almost picture Ben as the main character.

I didn't have a problem with him immediately identifying what he found as a soul. Go read about some serial killers, they believe some pretty weird stuff.

I loved the end, "there it is and there it goes". That was fantastic!

gelee · **Reply #14 on:** October 14, 2008, 03:21:27 PM

Brilliant. Funny and creepy at the same time. That's damn hard to do. Great reading from Alistair, and it's nice to hear Ben playing "host" again. Bravo to all. Best PP episode I've heard in quite a while.

My only gripe would be, at the very beginning, I had a hard time getting a handle on the age of the squalling child. By it's behavior, it seemd 6 to 9, but the line about going out for football seemed to indicate 13-17.

MacArthurBug · **Reply #15 on:** October 15, 2008, 01:06:36 AM

weird, gorss, and quite interesting. I REALLY shouldn't have listned to it RIGHT before going in for my X-ray...

Thaurismunths · **Reply #16 on:** October 15, 2008, 02:00:45 AM

Quote from: MacArthurBug on October 15, 2008, 01:06:36 AM

weird, gorss, and quite interesting. I REALLY shouldn't have listned to it RIGHT before going in for my X-ray...

Did you see you soul... wait. never mind. Forgot who I was asking.

bolddeceiver · **Reply #17 on:** October 15, 2008, 02:13:13 AM

Best last line on PP so far.

petronivs · **Reply #18 on:** October 15, 2008, 02:08:23 PM

Beautiful, simply beautiful. I laughed, I cried, I fought the urge to vomit. The pacing was excellent, and the characterizations were quite elegant. I don't think the story would've been quite the same with a different reader; he did an excellent job.

The only thing I would have suggested for improvement would be to take more time for character development, with possibly some theorizing behind soul size, and also explanation of why the protagonist believed that, in some, the souls were entirely absent instead of just being too small to see.

Zathras · **Reply #19 on:** October 15, 2008, 07:24:53 PM

Quote from: petronivs on October 15, 2008, 02:08:23 PM

The only thing I would have suggested for improvement would be to take more time for character development, with possibly some theorizing behind soul size, and also explanation of why the protagonist believed that, in some, the souls were entirely absent instead of just being too small to see.

They weren't there because he knew they weren't there. This guy was off his fraggin' rocker.

fuzzygnome · **Reply #20 on:** October 17, 2008, 05:30:21 AM

I also liked the story but had a big problem with the fact that he says he doesn't believe in God, yet he immediately assumes these are souls he is seeing and also that people without them must be demons. Just didn't buy it- not from an athiest.
But the prose was entertaining, and Alasdair's reading saved the story.

CammoBlammo · **Reply #21 on:** October 18, 2008, 06:35:28 AM

I always love a suicide story told in past-tense first-person.

The radiologist didn't quite fit my experience---in the hospitals I've been to, radiologists also do ultrasounds. That job can require some incredible tact, since the patient's in the room when the tests are initially interpreted. Similarly, I wouldn't have thought radiologists would always be in a position to make diagnoses based on an x-ray. Sure, they might be able to do some incredibly difficult interpretation of the photos, but wouldn't diagnoses and prognoses be made by other specialists?

Then again, this guy clearly thought more of his abilities and less of his patients than we like to think doctors do. Dr House excluded, of course.

MacArthurBug · **Reply #22 on:** October 20, 2008, 02:40:23 PM

Quote from: Thaurismunths on October 15, 2008, 02:00:45 AM

Quote from: MacArthurBug on October 15, 2008, 01:06:36 AM
weird, gorss, and quite interesting. I REALLY shouldn't have listned to it RIGHT before going in for my X-ray...
Did you see you soul... wait. never mind. Forgot who I was asking.

Dunno havn't gotten the scan back yet- but yeah prolly not.

Listener · **Reply #23 on:** October 20, 2008, 08:49:23 PM

Quote from: RKG on October 11, 2008, 06:11:21 PM

For me the author overplayed the "I know. I know you know. I know you know I already know you know I know" thing. Once was enough for me (and effective - I'm a sucker for subtle meta-information like that).

I think that could've been annoying, but Alasdair's reading made it work.

taueret · **Reply #24 on:** October 23, 2008, 08:22:16 AM

this is my favourite Pseudopod so far, bar none. Great reading too.

MiraCheskis · **Reply #25 on:** October 24, 2008, 09:18:27 PM

I found the story enjoyable, at least for its premise. It definitely held my interest, and I'll be looking for souls during my radiology exposure in medical school.

BUT. I felt I had to object to the host's condemnation of premedical students. I am a premed. And I am interested in medicine for humanitarian reasons -- I want to save people's lives and health. So I was really offended by the comments after the story.

~Mira

Raving_Lunatic · **Reply #26 on:** October 25, 2008, 11:55:15 AM

Liked this unbelivably...

I thought that Alistair's reading really made the story, if I'm being honest I might not have liked it that much in print. I thought the ending was slightly weaker than it could have been, but other than that, the twist was superb...

Sgarre1 · **Reply #27 on:** October 26, 2008, 12:40:32 AM

Opposite end for me. Total negative on this. "Coils of the ...(yawn)" might have been hackneyed, "Spurling Virus" just not my cup of tea, but this was aggressively unlikeable.

Detestable main character that the author presumes we're going to identify with until, dun-dun-dun!, tables turned, he's really an asshole, not just snarky, oh, don't you feel all self questioning now? Maybe you should be nicer to people! Which leaves out a whole set of potential readers who don't automatically identify with "House"-level snarkiness.

Didn't like the author's voice (I've read too many jaded, over-verbal "attitude" writers, sorry) -- Connect two wildly varying things with some vicious use of overstatement and a "comedic" delivery and hey, presto, it's like...I don't know, having to watch a fat, no, dare I say (gotta get that archaic, mannered qualifier in for comedic seasoning), morbidly obese women, a veritable bucket of creosote (there, feeling superior?), trundle (ooh, yeah, nice one) her way across a viaduct as she crushes the screaming bodies of cherubim and seraphim 'neath her feet. And no one stops to offer her a lift. (memo to self - work a "fuck" or "cunt" into there, if you can). Don't forget the beautifully observed moment of quiet beauty to prove you're not such an ogre after all.

Maybe it's just because I'm old. But somebody get back to me and tell me if they're still as impressed with writing like this after they reach 40 (or even 35).

And where were the editors? The main character hated the co-worker who always ITCHED his Karl Marx beard? Really? Not ONE editor in the chain said anything?

And sorry, but the usually reliable Alasdair turned in an over-dramatic and far-too-mannered reading. Wait, let me try that again. He turned in... an....over-dramatic ...and...far...too..mannered...reading. (Repeat that trick a few more times).

Wow, I haven't actively disliked a Pseudopod story so much since "White Street Society" (and that was more for the potentially good idea handled so ham-fistedly by the writer). Guess they really can't please everyone!

Thanks for listening.

“The public wants work which flatters its illusions.”
Gustave Flaubert

Unblinking · **Reply #28 on:** November 02, 2009, 06:00:02 PM

This one was okay. Mostly I just found it hard to believe that an atheist would jump to the conclusion that this ghostly image was a soul, and the absence of one made you a demon. As others pointed out, since it seemed to be inversely proportional to charibility, maybe it doesn't mean what he thinks it means.

The last line was pretty good, but not the best I've heard.

I was really impressed by Alasdair's reading. He sounds like such a nice guy in his hosting duties that I wouldn't've known he could pull off a Grade A tool like this one. Good work!

Fenrix · **Reply #29 on:** March 20, 2010, 04:40:51 AM

I enjoyed this one, even if I could have done without the self-surgery body horror. I will be stealing this character for use in some game or another. Loved the concept.

The comparison to the White Street Society stories is entirely fair, as all of them have repugnant main characters. To really appreciate them you have to be willing to accept there's a certain amount of tongue in that cheek.

Quote from: MiraCheskis on October 24, 2008, 09:18:27 PM

BUT. I felt I had to object to the host's condemnation of premedical students. I am a premed. And I am interested in medicine for humanitarian reasons -- I want to save people's lives and health. So I was really offended by the comments after the story.

Anecdotal statement (with statistical disclaimer) followed a story about a repugnant medical practitioner who was arguably getting what he deserved. I think it was an appropriate bookend.

Quote from: thomasowenm on October 11, 2008, 12:05:07 AM

On a seperate note: I know all PP are considered r or x rated but the outro was vulgar without adding anything to what we heard.

Commentary about insanity after a story where the protag goes off the deep end is also appropriate bookending. I thought it was funny. Then again, my sense of humor is a bit off.

Quote

David Mills: [to John Doe] I've been trying to figure something in my head, and maybe you can help me out, yeah? When a person is insane, as you clearly are, do you know that you're insane? Maybe you're just sitting around, reading Guns and Ammo, masturbating in your own feces. Do you just stop and go, "Wow! It is amazing how fucking crazy I really am!"? Yeah, do you guys do that?
John Doe: It's more comfortable for you to label me as insane.
David Mills: It's very comfortable.
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Se7en

Millenium_King · **Reply #30 on:** June 30, 2010, 07:28:47 PM

I certainly enjoyed this story. Solidly told, written and read. Excellent job.

It makes more sense that he was crazy, rather than actually seeing the soul. There were a few leaps of logic that I just could not seem to make with him. For example: the murderer had a huge soul while the "harmless potato" man had none. Had I been the one observing their relative x-rays, I might have assumed the metaphysical mass to be some manifestation of their sins, rather than their soul.

dmanuel · **Reply #31 on:** August 04, 2010, 07:46:18 PM

I wasn't sure exactly how long it's been since this episode... I see it's been quite some time. Nevertheless, as I'm only now starting to use the forums here, I had to comment.

I love, love, love this story and Al's reading of it. When I recommend Pseudopod to people, this is one of the episodes I recommend. When I only recommend one episode, this is the one.

dmanuel · **Reply #32 on:** August 05, 2010, 11:23:28 PM

@MiraCheksis

Al was a bit overbroad, but I think he would approve of your studies and your motives.

I can say, as a lawyer, that it's sometimes nice to hear people ripping on other professions.

Fenrix · **Reply #33 on:** August 06, 2010, 06:37:53 PM

Quote from: dmanuel on August 05, 2010, 11:23:28 PM

@MiraCheksis

Al was a bit overbroad, but I think he would approve of your studies and your motives.

I can say, as a lawyer, that it's sometimes nice to hear people ripping on other professions.

From the Department of Nitpickers, I think the commentary was from Ben, while the reading was Alasdair. I still stand by what I said earlier about the bookending commentary.

Author Topic: Pseudopod 111: Radiodemonology (Read 17493 times)

Zathras

Zathras

dmanuel

dmanuel