EP179: Arties Aren’t Stupid

[Russell Nash]

EP179: Arties Aren’t Stupid

By Jeremiah Tolbert.
Read by Philippa Ballantine (of Chasing the Bard).

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Nobody went home to their Elderfolk while we waited for Niles to come back. That was a rule. If Niles never came back, then we wouldn’t have to. Nobody wanted to see the meanies anyway. They had us Made and then hated us afterwards, which wasn’t fair. All arties know you love the things you Make no matter what. But Elderfolk were just-plains all grown up and they didn’t make any sense at all. Some of the younger arties started to talk about going back, but we older arties who knew Niles better said no, that we’d wait.

Three days passed before Niles came back. It was dark and everyone was sleeping but me, because little Boo’s music itched in my brain. He came in carrying big boxes, and I cried big tears of happy at that. He’d brought some new supplies, and we’d be Making again in no time flat. I watched him for a while, carrying in box after box, and finally I fell asleep. It felt good knowing he was back.

Rated PG. Contains some harsh slang and violence against the system.


Referenced Sites:
The Dispatches of Dr. Roundbottom
Philippa Ballantine’s official site



Listen to this week’s Escape Pod!

[internalogic]

That was excellent.  Well done!  What a deft narrative touch.  It was neither heavy-handed with laborious over-explanation, nor superficial and half-baked.  The author got the balance right.  Somehow managed to communicate intriguing, nuanced world-building details through a well-characterized first-person perspective.   It's pretty common to emphasize one over the other.  Kind of interesting that the author was so well-balanced in light of the issue specialization that comes up in the story and in Steve's post-story comments.

-------
also, in light of common ideas about brain region specialization, this raised some pretty interesting perspectives.

[Thaurismunths]

That was excellent.  Well done!  What a deft narrative touch...

Way to cover everything in on breath Internalogic. You've pretty much relegated the rest of us to some form of 'me too' (welcome to the forums, BTW), but it'll do it long form anyway:

Terrific story! Very entertaining and though provoking. This is probably going to end up one of my all-time favorites, right next to Cinderella Suicide, and will get several repeat listens.

In his outro Steve pondered what prompted the creation of such specialized 'children'. Although it wasn't explicitly stated in the story I didn't envision a world on the brink (or past the edges) of destruction so much as a faulty 'utopia' created through genetic engineering. A world populated largely by "just planes", and where elective genetic engineering had resulted in several sub-cultures of modified super-children. Ma and Pa Justplane wanted a child who would be very, very artistic/smart/strong/graceful/etc and would stand out from the crowd, but got more than they bargained for. The hope was to grow the next Michelangelo, but they got Lee Quinones instead.
I equated the genetic engineering as being equivalent to specialized schooling; You can send a musically gifted child to Juilliard, but they may still join a rock band.

The point Steve and that Heinlein guy raised about specialization got me thinking. I've always been what Steve referred to as a 'generalist' and I've never been very happy about it. I know a little bit about a lot of things, but not a lot about any one thing. This is frustrating socially in that I can converse about many things, but when any particular topic start going in depth my well runs dry. My options are to change topics or give up on the exchange of information, acknowledge that I'm out of my depth, and start asking questions. This was hard on my ego as a youth because I though admitting ignorance was admitting weakness. I'm coming to understand that A)I'm not alone, and B) there's no crime in it.
Most people, when questioned directly, often run out of information quickly on a lot of topics, but are willing to share what they have. And if they do know more about a few specialized topics, they are often eager to talk about it.
I hope that through intensive schooling I can become specialized in a problem solving field, thus bridging the gap between my general nature and specialized interest.

To contrast with Hineline's quote:
"All things will be produced in superior quantity and quality, and with greater ease, when each man works at a single occupation, in accordance with his natural gifts, and at the right moment, without meddling with anything else." -Plato

[Darwinist]

I liked it.  Not one of my favorites but well done.   I agree with Thaurismunths - internalogic pretty much summed it up. 

[Zathras]

I was expecting an AI story from the title.  It was a good, strong story.  I am going to have to give this one another listen, as I missed some of it because of background noise in my rig.

Steve, your outro nailed me.  I am a generalist.  It drives a lot of people that know me insane, because they are never sure what I'm up to or will do next. 

To tie in Ben's outro this week, growing up everyone tried to convince me to be a lawyer.  Eh, too many regulations.  I am what I always wanted to be, a philosopher.  I just have to drive this truck to support my thinking habbit.

[JoeFitz]

A fairly tight story, but as with many of these types of stories, I find that the lack of an objective narrator can leave me confused. I don't think it was clear why the Arties were not allowed to create anything despite being driven to create to the point of physical addiction/withdrawal.

On one level, the story seemed to operate well as a subversive narrative. The suppressed culture seeks to overthrow the dominant culture, but I was left with questions about why certain people with certain traits were suppressed while others were seemingly not. Maybe that was just the perception of the narrator - she felt constrained - but maybe the other groups were similarly unable to act on their skills/compulsions by force of the metal guards?

On another level, there are indications that something went horribly wrong and the suppression was the over-reaction and now the culture was stagnant.

I think it was overall a very solid offering - and I would like to think there are more stories in this universe.

My one nagging quibble is that I must say I was quite disappointed by the "exploding seeds" technology. The invention seemed improbable - even with super-genius help - and were astonishingly effective and effectively fail-safe. I don't what the alternative needed to be, but I didn't feel it fit with the rest of the story.

[RobertL]

First, the story ROCKED. One thing I think should be mentioned is the way that humans who have been genetically altered for artistic ability, presumably so that they could paint and draw, managed to translate that into skill into creating living things. Also, from the comments that the brainiac made late in the story, I got the impression that their creation of functional creatures and especially biospheres was no small feat. It raises questions in my mind about how much of what we normally consider to be science when people are "making things" is actually more about art.

[godzilla8nj]

I thought this story was fantastic. For some reason it reminded me of two Paolo Bacigalupi stories: "The Fluted Girl" and "The Calorie Man."  For those unfamiliar, "The Fluted Girl" is about twin girls surgically altered to be living musical instruments for the entertainment of their wealthy owner and "The Calorie Man" is the story of a calorie bandit in a time after monopolistic food companies have replaced the world's crops with genetically modified (and tightly licensed) ones.

I saw the kids of "Arties Aren't Stupid" as the result of productized genetically-engineered child packages ("Parents, choose between smart, artistic or musical!") in a future where all genes are licensed and regulated. They're conditioned to suffer if they don't express themselves as designed, and aberrations are sent away (to the "pokey pokey.") Niles is a true revolutionary, not only urging the Arties to expand beyond their design but to channel it to use the gen'geneering kits to bring new, unlicensed creations into the world.

Hope that made sense. I may have read too much into it, but it was my first reaction. Production-wise, the narration was perfect. And on a personal note: This is my first post, having discovered Escape Pod only recently (thanks to Cory Doctorow's blog) and I'm enjoying every minute of every podcast. Thank you, Steve, and I'll definitely be making a donation.

[Windup]

I loved the use of language in this. While there's a danger that the introduction of lots of made-up words and unusual syntax can seem merely gimmicky, the author's use really contributed to the "feel" of the story. 

And I like the idea of a "Brave New World"-like society having gone off the rails, even in its own terms.  Parents never really do understand their children -- do we really think genetic modification will make that better?

[Rain]

i got a minute into the story before i gave up, i simply couldnt understand half of was being said.

[oddpod]

nice!
interesting bit of synergy in this one for me.
i am just starting the second year of an art degree and have chosen to explore street art for main focus of my work. i also know all about "the acke" where ever i go, i am constantly making stuff whether its pissing my boss of at work by doodling on the notice board or leaveing a trial of little geometric oragarme bus tickets in my wake there is always an itch that only making stuff can scratch. i think are fabulous benefactor mr ealy has mentored his addiction to creativity in past introse also .
i am off to go doge the tin men and do some making now, will let you know if they catch me

[Thaurismunths]

i got a minute into the story before i gave up, i simply couldnt understand half of was being said.

I was right there with you.
But if you have the patience, give it 5 minutes. The language clears up and the story really comes in to it's own.

[alllie]

I enjoyed it but I enjoyed it more for what wasn’t there than for what was. There wasn’t much of a plot or much characterization but the world building was so intriguing that it held me. It was fun to try to figure out what was going on and how the world got there. Though I do think genesis would be a bit harder than playing Spore. Designing a plant or animal that could survive would be a much more difficult trick than Creature Creator would lead us to believe. These little gods caused a lot of suffering and death in their play and, like the big god, didn’t much seem to care.

I especially appreciated Steve’s mention of one of my favorites, Tanith Lee. While she has written a buttload of crap she has also written masterpieces, masterpieces that were totally ignored. It makes me bitter.

[stePH]

i got a minute into the story before i gave up, i simply couldnt understand half of was being said.

I stuck with it all the way through, but I had this problem too ... the reader's NZ accent made it difficult to tell what was SFnal slang and what was a familiar word being pronounced in an unfamiliar way.

[oddpod]

i got a minute into the story before i gave up, i simply couldnt understand half of was being said.

maby my brain is set up to cope with such things. i dident have any problem at all understanding what was going on.

think its to do with how  minds proseses information , its kind of like my bad spelling, some fokes arnt bothered by it at all but  for others its like fingernails down a chalk board

[ajames]

i got a minute into the story before i gave up, i simply couldnt understand half of was being said.

I stuck with it all the way through, but I had this problem too ... the reader's NZ accent made it difficult to tell what was SFnal slang and what was a familiar word being pronounced in an unfamiliar way.

I have to admit, about a minute into it I thought 'lots of slang and an accent that I don't hear often - I don't know if I'll make it through this one.'

However, very soon afterwards I was totally immersed in the story, the reading was just outstanding, and I wouldn't have Steve pick any other reader for this story. Well done Jeremiah and Philippa!!

[Fredosphere]

i got a minute into the story before i gave up, i simply couldnt understand half of was being said.

I was right there with you.
But if you have the patience, give it 5 minutes. The language clears up and the story really comes in to it's own.

I agree, the accent was (for this middle-American) almost a deal-killer, but I got over it and enjoyed the story.

[deflective]

very cool story.

In his outro Steve pondered what prompted the creation of such specialized 'children'. Although it wasn't explicitly stated in the story I didn't envision a world on the brink (or past the edges) of destruction so much as a faulty 'utopia' created through genetic engineering. A world populated largely by "just planes", and where elective genetic engineering had resulted in several sub-cultures of modified super-children.

i got the impression that these characters weren't human in the strictest sense; they were manufactured like the animals and plants. it appears that the plains were trying to create humans, maybe super-humans, but only succeeded in boosting one attribute (intelligence, creativity, or physicality) at the the cost of the other two. this is why Niles, relatively intelligent, was of so much interest to them.

it's interesting that arties drive advancement instead of brainiacs. this is a relatively common sentiment to find in stories, probably not all that surprising that writers would feel this way. =)


if the accent is too tough for you then you could try reading along with the story. variant frequencies did that once with a extremely thick ukrainian accent and it was an interesting experience. i wouldn't want a reader to be overlooked for their accent especially when it's appropriate for the story.

[bedlamite9]

I think this one is my favorite so far. It appealed to me as an artist, a scientist, and a rebel. Amazing story and beautiful narration. I listened to it twice in a row. That good.

[bedlamite9]

i got a minute into the story before i gave up, i simply couldnt understand half of was being said.

I was right there with you.
But if you have the patience, give it 5 minutes. The language clears up and the story really comes in to it's own.

I agree, the accent was (for this middle-American) almost a deal-killer, but I got over it and enjoyed the story.

It's funny because for me the accent was part of the appeal. I felt it fit in perfectly with the story. I guess it comes down to what you are used to. I can definitely think of accents that wouldn't work for me but would appeal to others.

[eytanz]

I really, really liked this story. It really brought the whole world to life, and it had extremely sympathetic characters. I was a bit surprised that the genetically enhanced children had parents - you'd think that if they were birthed in vats, they would be grown communaly or something. I was also a bit unclear on why there were younger arties - if the just-plains generally didn't like them, why did they keep producing more? I wonder if these kids were just the ones brought up by parents who changed their minds - maybe there were also dozens of arties who were loved and cherished by their parents, but they didn't hang out with the castaways. I'd be happy to hear/read more stories in this world and find out.

i got a minute into the story before i gave up, i simply couldnt understand half of was being said.

It took me several minutes to understand, but that was ok, since the story's plot doesn't kick in for a few minutes either. It's well worth getting past the initial confusion.

[MacArthurBug]

New. Favorite. Story

[Thaurismunths]

I wonder if these kids were just the ones brought up by parents who changed their minds - maybe there were also dozens of arties who were loved and cherished by their parents, but they didn't hang out with the castaways.

That's how I took it. The arties talk about having to go back to their parents for food/money/art supplies once in a while.
I see the arties as the punks of their world. Restless kids with addictions whose parents don't understand them.

[Hatton]

I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned this - It reminded me of the "History" scene in Mad Max: Beyond the Thunderdrome.

I really enjoyed it - not too heavy but definitely attention-grabbing.  I also agree with Steve, there's a LOT more that could be done with this world.

[Peter Tupper]

I liked this story quite a bit. Like others, I had difficulty with the language and the accent at the beginning, but I persisted and was rewarded.

I like how what mattered about Niles was that he refused to buy into the stereotype assigned to his genotype, and that was his real gift to the Artie kids. Being told your entire life that you're flawed and don't measure up to your parent's very expensive expectations can't be good for the self-esteem.

I've been thinking about what works and what doesn't in audio fiction, compared to print fiction. Stories that have lots of new terminology or wordplay, like this one and the "Cinderella Suicide" story from a ways back, are harder to follow in audio format than print. With text, you can backtrack and reread the sentence that introduces a new term, but this isn't as easy to do in recorded spoken form. Something like Burgess' "A Clockwork Orange" or Jack Womack's "Dryco" books, both of which feature altered forms of English, would be much harder to follow in podcast form.

Another thing I noticed when listening to Mur Lafferty's "Playing for Keeps": keeping track of more than two or three characters in the same scene is also more difficult in audio form than in print. Scott Sigler deals with this in his podcasts by doing different voices for each character and sometimes digitally altering his own voice. This works most of the time, but the falsetto he uses for some female voices is annoying.

Any thoughts on the format of podcasting itself and how it affects stories? How does the medium affect the message?

[wintermute]

hatton: Yeah, the speech patterns did put me in mind of Joanna Goanna.

[Praxis]

Oooooohhhhhhh.

Arties as in Arties, rather than arties as in artificial.

[Arkadi]

i got a minute into the story before i gave up, i simply couldnt understand half of was being said.

Accent of the reader has killed story for me as well. I really tried to listen, but it was just too frustrating to post analising every expression that was read. Please if possible try to avoid heavy accented readers.

[Corydon]

Hmm, I listened to the first fifteen minutes or so, then was interrupted, but had no desire to pick it up and listen to the end of the story; it just didn't do anything for me.  I will say that I thought that the reader's accent was a good match for the story, its foreignness (to an American ear) emphasizing the foreignness of the story's vocabulary.  But that wasn't enough to make me care about the story.

Anyway, now that I've seen the volume of positive responses, I'll give the second half a shot...

[Father Beast]

I had the same problem as a lot of people in not understanding. the odd slang added to the accent made it difficult to follow at first. Then I got into it and I didn't have as big a problem. However, there must have been important stuff I missed out on understanding in the beginning, because I never did understand more than a basic idea of what was going on. Were these street kids, left to roam by their parents? Were they semi-homeless adults? I followed the events fairly okay, and enjoyed the jailbreak and bio-revolution in the streets, but when SFEley made comments in the outro about specialized children, I had no idea what he was talking about.

[DKT]

I loved this story. I loved the street revolution with little animals and plants.  And Boo's melodic voice. 

For me, the narration felt very complimentary. I wasn't overwhelmed listening to this the way I was say "Cinderella Suicide" (one of my faves) or "Other People's Money."

Great pick. Thanks for bringing this one to us.

ETA: Clarifying typos

[Praxis]

To all the people who have commented that the reader's accent made the podcasts unlistenable because it was too different........this is a worldwide podcast and in the world there are many english speaking accents.

A podcast where the stories are kept uniform and from one particular country is a parochial one.
(yes I know that the USA is a mighty big place but the whole world is bigger.) 

learn to cope with differences a bit more, the accent even of this reader is listenable even if it sounds strange at first blush, I guarantee it.

[Thaurismunths]

I had the same problem as a lot of people in not understanding. the odd slang added to the accent made it difficult to follow at first. Then I got into it and I didn't have as big a problem. However, there must have been important stuff I missed out on understanding in the beginning, because I never did understand more than a basic idea of what was going on. Were these street kids, left to roam by their parents? Were they semi-homeless adults? I followed the events fairly okay, and enjoyed the jailbreak and bio-revolution in the streets, but when SFEley made comments in the outro about specialized children, I had no idea what he was talking about.

It seems that the kids were engineered either by either their parents or a higher organization. They were genetically engineered for specific traits: intelligence, strength, creativity. The Arties (created to be artistic) were all 'broken' in some way and were more-or-less ignored by their parents. The Arties were also addicted to the act of creation and had to find different ways to satisfy that need with what little resources were present in the highly structured society. The ringleader found, somehow, genengineering kits and the fun began.

[ryos]

I found a couple of things in this story disturbing.

1. Even in the far future, we're still using "MP3 players". I for one hope to see MP3's go the way of the cassette tape in my lifetime.

2. The arties couldn't read, and had probably had never been to any type of school. Haven't these people heard of edumacation? Why were they treated as a menace, needing to steal supplies to survive? They had "parents" who would feed and shelter them when they came home, but they couldn't give them art supplies? WTF?

Actually, all the gengineered kids were neglected. The brainiacs were bored! Were the justplains running things really so stupid that they couldn't figure out how to keep super intellects busy?

So, yeah, good story. Great reading. At first, the combination of New Zealand accent and high slang density rendered the whole thing incomprehensible, but I just kept listening and let my brain's language processor sort it out. Soon enough all was clear.

[Windup]

On some reflection, I wonder if these kids were "damaged" rather than being the "normal" result of specialized genetic engineering.  I think maybe the ones in the story are all "bad makes" that aren't quite bad enough to go back in the vat -- or whose parents have ethical compunctions or who violated warranties. 

Perhaps they are very extreme manifestions of their engineered prototypes -- "Arties" were supposed to be regular kids with a flair for color and form, but because of an error in creation or development, they turned out to be so extreme that their "just plain" parents can't understand them or care for them properly.  Ditto "Brainiacs." They were supposed to be unusually intelligent, but instead became distorted and required special care the parents may not always be able to provide.  They seem to be a little better off than the Arties -- who seem almost feral -- perhaps because they have more recognizable value.

So, what we are seeing is not mainstream society, but a sub-group of extremes.  Just a thought...

[ryos]

On some reflection, I wonder if these kids were "damaged" rather than being the "normal" result of specialized genetic engineering.  I think maybe the ones in the story are all "bad makes" that aren't quite bad enough to go back in the vat -- or whose parents have ethical compunctions or who violated warranties. 

It occurs to me that the comment by the justplains when the arties broke in to take Niles - "But we need him!" - is revealing. The perception given us by the arties is that his abduction was punitive, but it looks like they wanted to study him. I get the feeling they were trying to see what went right with Niles as he had exceeded their expectations. It kind of recasts things for me - maybe the arties' isolation was part of the experiment: to see what they would do when driven to extremes.

[wintermute]

1. Even in the far future, we're still using "MP3 players". I for one hope to see MP3's go the way of the cassette tape in my lifetime.

MP3s may well disappear, but the term "MP3 player" is engrained into the zeitgeist and will probably survive any change in actual format. Almost all of my music is in OGG format, but I still refer to my player as an MP3 player, just because I don't want to have to explain what "DAP" means.

[Corydon]

1. Even in the far future, we're still using "MP3 players". I for one hope to see MP3's go the way of the cassette tape in my lifetime.

If I remember correctly, the MP3 player was mentioned specifically as something archaic; most people in this future weren't using them.

[MacArthurBug]

Ok, apparently my listening to Chasing the Bard (written by the reader, and read by her as well) made her accent a non-issue for me. Pip has such a smooth voice that it's never bothered me. I'm also pretty used to accents- even enjoy most of them. The flow and symmetry of this story blew me away. I loved the 'feeling' invoked- and the slang. More stories like this one would be awesome, if I knew where to find written fiction like this I'd be on it in a hot minute. This defiantly invoked a world full of places for the imagination to wander off and play in well after the story was through.

[Listener]

Everyone's said everything I want to say. I think the made-up language was done with a deft-enough touch that it wasn't overpowering.

So was this NYC? Was the library with the statues referring to the lion outside the NY Public Library (the iconic one in The Wiz and Ghostbusters)?

No problems with the narration.

Another thing I noticed when listening to Mur Lafferty's "Playing for Keeps": keeping track of more than two or three characters in the same scene is also more difficult in audio form than in print. Scott Sigler deals with this in his podcasts by doing different voices for each character and sometimes digitally altering his own voice. This works most of the time, but the falsetto he uses for some female voices is annoying.

Any thoughts on the format of podcasting itself and how it affects stories? How does the medium affect the message?

I think that certain stories that are great to read but don't necessarily lend themselves to audio are severely hurt by podcasting/being read. By the same token, stories that are only passable can be made better by the reading. For example, EP169 (the one where Steve played the dog) was probably only a "good" story, but with the reading Steve did, he acted it so well that it was just stellar. OTOH, PCGiant#1 (Moon Viewing) was a good story to me, but the reading hurt it, I felt, because I don't like the way the reader reads.

The Dunesteef tries to use a set of actors, and maybe some of the EA podcasts would benefit from something like that if not overused. Certain readers can really capture certain types of characters -- Mur Lafferty really nails teenage/young adult women, and as I just said, Steve is killer when it comes to dogs (and also he has a good delivery for AI/holier-than-thou characters).

I did like the way the reader of EP179 did the voices, which is to say, she didn't change them much at all. Just slightly. I think a really good reader can only make slight changes and still communicate multiple characters.

[Roney]

I can't decide whether the most interesting thing about this story was its gengineered dystopian future or the story of the Arties trying to survive within it.  I get so used to stories being either a neat idea propped up by some stock characters, or a polished drama sprinkled with some fairy dust (or moon dust) to get the genre sale, that I sometimes forget what it's like when all the SF pieces fall into place and a story transports you to somewhere other.

The prison break was a bit too handwavey and broke the verisimilitude briefly, but everything else was beautifully crafted, and engagingly read.

[JoeFitz]

It kind of recasts things for me - maybe the arties' isolation was part of the experiment: to see what they would do when driven to extremes.

That's a really interesting point. With that in mind, my criticism above about forcing the Arties to go cold turkey and deny them their artistic expression was perhaps an attempt to refocus them - while the smart kids in the libraries were allowed to study because they might find a solution. My issue remains that if this was the narrative, this wasn't very clear to me from the story.

[DDog]

I'm so behind on comments. But this story was so awesome I had to say something at a time approximating currency.

I don't have an "official" top EP stories list as some posters seem to, but I agree with MacArthurBug. This story is on definitely on it*. Both for the story itself and the masterful reading by Pip Ballantine. I enjoyed it much better than "Instead of a Loving Heart" which was complete meh for me; given that I also loved "The Yeti Behind You" on PodCastle and "This, My Body" here, I'm going to declare myself a Jeremiah Tolbert fan and consider "Loving Heart" a fluke.

I'm really interested in what the rest of the world might look like, or what it looks like now after the Arties' rescue. Although improbable, I liked the idea that the gengineering kits were able to be used by people who didn't know what they were doing and couldn't even read the machines; it's nice to think that science can be artful, or that one can intuit life from design principles instead of only the other way around.

There might be some Arties who didn't have such an extreme ache to create, who found more support from their elderfolk. Most of these kids can clearly stay out for extended periods of time without their elderfolk noticing/punishing/looking for them (they waited three days for Niles to return with the kits); the group the story is focused on could be made up of the more neglected among the population. Art supplies are clearly available somewhere for Niles to steal; perhaps this is a band of underprivileged Arties. They don't seem to go to school (unless I missed something). Brainiacs and Thicknecks seem to also rove in gangs though ("rove" in the Brainiacs' case meaning "hang out at the library").

Or, since we are getting the story from the underdog's perspective, the elderfolk's problems might stem from simply not understanding their charges' needs, rather than from malice outright. These kids don't fit into the "system," and what are their parents going to do about it? They can't "fix" them short of recycling them or telling them to suck it up and deal, it seems, and giving them an appropriate outlet for their talents seems beyond the adults for some reason. Or perhaps the elderfolk simply have no idea the Arties have this craving to create, and think their drive is just youthful indiscretion which needs to be trained out of them. So the elderfolk try to keep a leash on their Arties and have the Tinmen clean up when they color outside the lines. From the Braniac's description of boredom, they might be in a similar position of not having enough to occupy their considerable talents. Adults often just don't know what to do with a superbly gifted child. There is unfortunately a very real struggle between making sure a gifted child gets the socialization they need to survive in the world, and giving them the opportunities to exercise their talents to the fullest. So Arties are stupid and can't fight; Braniacs can't think outside the box and don't get out much; and Thicknecks, I'm guessing, are big dumb lugs with no vision. Who knows what Skinnybois are/do.

From Zinger's opening plot contribution, it seemed like some of the Arties might have had more stable homes. Zinger mumbles something about his elderfolk not wanting him around, and from the context it seemed more like he was a young aspirant trying to get in with the "punk" crowd but didn't have enough street cred to really cut it at first. But they seem to all band together when it's time to rescue Niles.

I kind of agree that the exploding seeds were a little random, but we're seeing this through an Arty's eyes. They apparently remember their birthplace, something which for us ordinary humans is extraordinary, but to the Arty's it's a) normal and b) they care more about getting Niles back than anything else in the scene. They don't even stay long enough to hear the adults' explanation for why they need Niles, so we don't get to hear it either and have to just guess. It made sense to me within the context of the narrator's POV.



*For context, "How I Mounted...Saved...Sniffed" is already on the unofficial list, and I'm retroactively adding "Friction," "Mayfly," "God Juice," and "Conversations With and About My Electric Toothbrush" off the top of my head.

[FisherQueen]

Well, clearly I didn't understand this story at all.  Until I read this thread, I thought the arties were artificial life of some kind, androids or at least cyborgs.  Genetically engineered children abandoned by their parents... didn't even occur to me while I was listening.  Possibly I'm to blame for missing some important clue, and possibly the author needed to be just a smidge clearer regarding what the hell was going on.  Oddly, my complete misreading of the plot didn't interfere with my enjoyment of the story; I liked it, though I didn't love it, and was amused by the highly specialized characters with nothing really to do with their talents.

[Boggled Coriander]

I don't have anything new or insightful to add.  But count me as another listener who misunderstood the word "Arties" - I also thought they were artificial, probably androids.

[deflective]

you guys aren't alone. like i mentioned earlier, i read this story as just-plains trying to construct humans/super-humans and winding up with stilted abilities (boosted in one area at the cost of another).

a city with a complete lack of plants suggests some sort of biological disaster, maybe resulting in sterility?

[Wonko]

I enjoyed this story. Especially the idea of a real-life SPORE Creature Creator and of life (both plant and animal) as art.

Also: I didn't get the "Arties" name either, until about three-quarters of the way through. Still, good story.

[Father Beast]

I had the same problem as a lot of people in not understanding. the odd slang added to the accent made it difficult to follow at first. Then I got into it and I didn't have as big a problem. However, there must have been important stuff I missed out on understanding in the beginning, because I never did understand more than a basic idea of what was going on. Were these street kids, left to roam by their parents? Were they semi-homeless adults? I followed the events fairly okay, and enjoyed the jailbreak and bio-revolution in the streets, but when SFEley made comments in the outro about specialized children, I had no idea what he was talking about.

It seems that the kids were engineered either by either their parents or a higher organization. They were genetically engineered for specific traits: intelligence, strength, creativity. The Arties (created to be artistic) were all 'broken' in some way and were more-or-less ignored by their parents. The Arties were also addicted to the act of creation and had to find different ways to satisfy that need with what little resources were present in the highly structured society. The ringleader found, somehow, genengineering kits and the fun began.

Well OK then.

I guess it goes to show I can enjoy a story somewhat even if I don't know what's going on.

and the fun began.

is a pretty good description of what happened.

[Rain]

I decided to give the story another try and it was actually quite good, but still that has to be the worst way to start a story that i have ever heard

[sjg1978]

Arties Aren't Stupid --

Of course they are.  And so are the Braniacs, and all the rest. But they're "programmed" that way. You specialize so much that you can't understand anything outside of your narrow little field. But maybe you can express something you understand with the materials you have on hand. Melody starts playing around with the gengineering kit, and creates colorful shapes on the screen. Then we hear of her singing those shapes.  She's managed to express music visually. Probably in a way no one else in this world has ever done. Maybe she's broken not just in that her throat won't let her sing as well as she'd like, but that she can see the music as well as hear it.

Since the justplains don't give their children a good way to express themselves, they go find one. What's petty theft if you're going to create art?

And I would say that the Arties do succeed, because their creations have figured out a way to multiply themselves. So how much longer will it be before this world has dogs, and cats, and horses, and gerbils, and mice again? All that from just one gengineering kit operated by a small band of Arties?

I think, if we were to see the rest of the story, we would see either the evolution or destruction of this world. But I think I'm glad it stopped where it did, and leaves just a little bit of wondering.

[Bdoomed]

que cute!  I like the more innocent stories.

[Planish]

I thought that Philippa's accent was the icing on the cake. Along with the accent I would expect to hear slightly different words and turns of phrases than I normally would from day to day. So, when the author threw one of his own in, I wasn't disengaged. It all blended in fairly smoothly.

I suppose it helps that I rather like Aussie and Kiwi accents in general. They must have been absorbed as a result of all those marathon sessions watching the LoTR boxed set Special Features DVDs and listening to every one of the commentary tracks. 

I think I'll put this on my EP Top Twenty list.

[Aaron]

Refreshing.

Wonderfully written and read. Just what I needed.

The language was wonderful and made me stop and really focus on the story.

This story pulled me into another world and once it had taken me outside the events and emotions of my life for a few moments it gave me another perspective to view and battle the problems and trials awaiting me upon my return to my native reality.

I'm pretty smart but my brain doesn't always work the way I want it to and this makes it is hard for me to maintain a healthy level of confidence in my own intelligence and ability to function as a competent part of society.

I loved the world built will have to revisit it again and again.

[McToad]

I really liked this one.  The first one I've had a strong postive on in a while.

McToad

[wherethewild]

I loved this story.

I don't have much to add to any other comments. Phillipa's reading was wonderful. I can imagine the difficulty most people had at the start was the language used in the story, not the accent of the reader. Personally I think non-US accents should be used more.

The story was beautiful and sweet and tragic and hopeful. It raised questions, gave some answers and left me feeling the beauty of both science and art, and how much our culture needs both.

[MacArthurBug]

Personally I think non-US accents should be used more.

I second that- but I've previously noted that I heart accents.. so..

[Clutron]

I didn't like this one.  Maybe it made me think too hard?  Plus, I didn't like the accent, it made it hard to listen to for me and kinda made me sleepy in the car.  Bad combo.

[Poppydragon]

Probably my favourite so far, having listened through virtually the whole back catalogue in rapid succession this one stands out as clever and thoughtful with a lovely twist on the old theme of the child rebeling against the parent. Beautifully read, the Burgess like dialogue worked splendidly for me. Left me disappointed that it had finished, which is always a good sign

[Thomas Daulton]

Mainly testing my brand-new membership with my first new post.

But... I listened to this story only a few months ago, while "catching-up" on older stories I had saved but not listened to...

Did anyone notice that the "moss graffiti" mentioned in the story actually exists?  Looks like it's easy to make, but haven't tried it myself yet.

Once again, science fiction is hard-pressed to keep up with the present!

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Moss-Graffiti

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/zubLxZ0bwpQ&amp;color1=0xb1b1b1&amp;color2=0xcfcfcf&amp;feature=player_embedded&amp;fs=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/zubLxZ0bwpQ&amp;color1=0xb1b1b1&amp;color2=0xcfcfcf&amp;feature=player_embedded&amp;fs=1</a>

[Unblinking]

When I started playing this one, after a couple minutes I realized I had no clue what was going on.  A case of bad timing--I was on my way back home from my first SF convention ever, where I'd given my first novel pitch to an editor, which I thought went well, and my mind was spending much of its think-cycles thinking about the pitch and figuring out what parts of the story needed to be changed.

So, I wisely decided that I should start from the beginning when I wasn't so distracted, and I really enjoyed it!  Once I was devoting sufficient attention to it, I picked up the slang very quickly.  I was already pretty familiar with Kiwi accents (thanks Flight of the Conchords), so I didn't have too much difficulty with that, and I think her voice went very well with the story.  The slang was all very intuitive.  I'd guessed "arties" meant "artists" before I listened to the story so it probably helped that I didn't have the word "artificial" stuck in there.  It introduced Tinmen quickly, which I pictured as Tin Woodsmen and probably police (tin badges in the wild west), then shortly thereafter referred to them as pigbots which reinforced the robo-police perception which turned out to be true.  It took me a few iterations to realize what Thicknecks meant but it followed from the other classes without much difficulty, no biggy.

I did wonder what put the world in this state but it made more sense NOT to tell us, because the narrator would not have known.  Apparently some kind of biological blight has occurred to make non-human life nonexistent or scarce, and whether in parallel or separately, people have made designer children.  Although each has an enhanced specialty I didn't see it as being that they had any actual reduced potential in other areas, it's just that in those other areas their potential is unrealized.  Their parents chose a specialty for them and they expect their kid to fulfill that specialty, even though it means taking time away from being more well-rounded.  The idea of having to be forced into just one specialty area is sad to me--I am neither right nor left-brained, but taking each in turn.  I need both in my life to feel satisfied.  So I work in engineering to satisfy my logical side and write fiction to satisfy my creative side.  I liked that the most important figure in the story is the one who is able to grow past his expected boundaries.

I thought it was interesting that the Brainiacs couldn't create, but seemed happy to just study what already exists.  This makes Brainiacs and Arties a perfect pairing because the Arties create but don't understand, and the Brainiacs understand but don't create. 

As far as the question of why the arties are suppressed and out on their own, I assumed that rebellion was a part of their artistic nature.  I figured that they were created to stay at home and serve a function to their parents making things beautiful.  But the arties rebelled, thinking that fulfilling a purpose instead of creating art for art was like selling out.  So they go out and find a way to express themselves that is NOT approved/sanctioned by graffiti and the like.